Music, Tzatziki, and Sand Castles

A relatively slow week - but still with good stories and a recipe.

The arched walkway in front of the Olympic Stadium

We spent the last day/night in Crete in the resort city of Hania.  After visiting an archaeological site and a museum, and building a couple of sand castles on the beach, it was finally time to come back to Athens.  And the funny thing is, going back to Athens felt like going “home” to me.  Guess that means I’ve settled in in Athens.

This week so far has been relatively uneventful.  On Saturday night, a large group of us went to hear music at a traditional Greek music club/bar.  Supposedly it’s pretty cool, but we never found out – the place was locked up tight.  We figured that it had shut down, since no self-respecting music club in Greece would have been closed on a Saturday night.  A few people in the group decided to wander down to the Plaka area (about a 30 minute walk) to find another place that was supposed to have live music.  After a bit of wandering, we found a quaint, outdoor restaurant with some live music.  The musicians were two guys with a guitar and an instrument that looked like a ukulele (I should know the name, but I don’t.)  They sang traditional songs all night long while we ate some appetizers and sipped our beer.  We only wished that we could sing along with everyone else in the restaurant, or dance like them in the Greek style.

And speaking of food, last night we made a large dinner of spaghetti, tzatziki, and wine.  We cooked for about ten people, so it was a large pot of spaghetti.  I’ve included a link to a tzatziki recipe below if you’re feeling adventurous.  Just don’t put in the recommended amount of garlic right away – it’ll be pretty strong.  Dip any sort of bread into it, or buy a baguette if you want to do it like the Greeks.

Classes haven’t been too intense yet, but I need to stay on top of the homework, as always.  At the moment, I’m translating Oedipus Rex into contemporary American English for my Philosophy of Dramatic Writing class, and I have a bit of Greek language left to finish.  So I will sign off for now, and try to find new and exciting places to tell you about next week.

I also did some wandering this weekend – check out the album for more on that.

TZATZIKI

http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/europe/greek/tzatziki-sauce02.html