We’ve been here in Athens long enough to share some general observations. Sam sez Athens is already her fav European city and she wants to move here lol. And I get that, the city has a really strong vibe!
I still maintain that the Venn diagram of Europeans and motor vehicles should have no intersection, but on the other hand it can be very funny to watch that oil & vinegar combo self-destruct on the streets reliably on a daily basis 😀
The fedoras are out in full force here, as are the awful tattoos. And the waiters who refuse to catch your eye. And the aggressive nutso bikers who angrily ring their bells at you while you are walking down a pedestrian street!
I’m going to give away my delicate American sensibilities by expressing surprise at how much smoking is going on here! At cafes, on the streets, in restaurants waiters are always off catching a quick puff, it’s really a blast from the past. Most of the restaurants have ashtrays on every single table.
Food-wise, Sam and I are in bizarro-world: she is eating (and loving!) fish, while I am enjoying things like mushrooms and crumbly feta cheese as well as (certain) olives—we’re deliberately straying out of our comfort zones and so far it’s been totally working!
And finally it was time for the amazing speciality of the house: lamb chops!! Greek cuisine is famous for its lamb, and I am a huge lamb fan myself. As in rack of lamb, delicious juicy blood-red lamb chops, these are one of my most favorite special red-meat go-to dishes.
So here in Greece, I have been chomping at the bit to finally dig into some amazing juicy tender gigantic red chops! After all, it’s their freaking speciality, right?
So there they were: dead scrawny dry lamb bones. Seriously, that is my lunch of “lamb chops.” We decided that something must have been lost in translation: “lamb chop” meant “chop all the meat off.” Hah Sam said the look on my face as the bones arrived was one of the best ones ever 😀
Meanwhile Sam did the smart thing and ordered the grouper, deliciously baked in parchment paper. While I futilely attempted to gnaw at my barren lamb boneyard, she was digging into the soft moist beautiful grouper fillet… talk about bizarro-world, Sam luxuriating in amazing fish while I starve to death picking at my lamb remnants.
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