Rochester Greekfest

We'd spotted the cross atop the Greek Orthodox church on one of our alternate routes back to the motel from the Mayo Clinic, thought it would be fun to see inside. Little did we know that the church puts on a Greekfest every year with proceeds going to local charities. Of course we had to check it out!

We went over Friday evening to see what it had to offer and get some dinner. This is really a big deal with streets blocked off and tons of people attending the 3 day event.

This is the 49th annual Greekfest put on by this church with the very long name. They were giving tours of the inside of the church that included a question and answer session with the priest - everything you wanted or didn't want to know about both Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox religions. Actually, very interesting.

Food, of course, was the biggest part of the festivities. Judi keyed right in on this booth and bought some of the loukoumades.

The longest line was at the "holy gyros" booth. Not evident in the picture but this group of gals (3 more not in the picture) were really whooping it up and frequently yelling "OPA" to the delight of the crowd. Lamb was roasting on spits nearby and we shared a lamb dinner.

As people ate at the many tables set up in the street or wandered looking at the crafts and baked goods for sale, this band played Greek music. We had gone late enough in the day to miss the dancers, but we were assured that if we came back on Saturday, we would catch them again.

And so we returned on Saturday and indeed arrived just in time to see this troupe from the cities do their thing. I've posted a short video of them here.

Judi wanted more loukoumades - I'm starting to get her trained to take pictures of her food.

It happened to be my birthday and I chose to skip my usual German chocolate birthday cake for some baklava which I also love and hadn't had for years. This came from the bake sale, and although it doesn't look that appetizing in the picture, it may be the best I've ever had - mmm. I also bought some custard thing in filo pastry that I had the next morning for breakfast...also mmmm.

I had my eye on a Made in Greece necklace the day before so hit the vendors after our treats to see if it still appealed. Yes, it did, as did another. Which should I get? Heck, at $12 a piece, proceeds going to charity, that's a no brainer...get both (as well as some olive oil soap)! The one on the right went particularly well with what I was wearing so I put it right on and wore it the rest of the evening. Opa!