Apokrea

We were lucky enough to be in Athens during the Greek "Mardi Gras" known as Apokrea. When I say "lucky" you may pick up on a little bit of sarcasm. This link describes the atmosphere, particularly on the last two weekends (we were there on the last weekend). The main thing to note is that the streets are packed with people dressed up in costumes and partying*. The bonus is that they are all carrying plastic clubs. They look like cave man clubs but they are brightly colored plastic.

The article states it is tradition to hit each other on the head with the clubs. I did not find this to be the case...well, not exactly. It was more often that guys of all ages were hitting girls on the [to put it nicely] bottoms. I got hit by 3 year old boys with their moms and by men of all ages. On the other hand, the guy friend I was with could count on one hand the number of times he was hit. The article also states that "They don't hurt but if you aren't in the mood you may find it irritating after awhile." Well, sometimes it does hurt...and yes, I found it extremely irritating. I wanted to whip out my purse and take them down in the middle of the street, all of the sudden it wouldn't look so socially acceptable to be hitting random strangers. My girlfriends and I also joked about getting tazers to defend ourselves. I can just see it on the news now. I did start hitting them back and yelling at them, it made me feel slightly better.

All in all it was a great weekend. You can see the rest of my pictures here.

*I much prefer eating lots of pancakes!