Attended on Saturday, May 18, 2024
This event was a little over two miles from my house, so I decided I was going to walk there, but catch a bus back. My walk brought me through a fairly populated part of town, where I found a lot of familiar locations, like Panera and Starbucks, and a large medical complex. Once I got past all that, the first cool thing I came across were these paintings done on the brick columns of a building. The cat is my favorite, but I enjoyed all three.
Next to the painted columns were these sculptures, which seemed to be made out of car parts. I didn’t figure out what the building is, but it looked like a library, or maybe part of a college, so I wonder if the art displays change periodically, or if these are static fixtures.
As my walk continued, I felt like I walked past two or three different medical facilities, and four or five different colleges, but I eventually came upon this art studio, which seems to offer classes, which is cool. Although, I mostly thought the house was cute. I love bold colors for exterior design, as long as it’s done tastefully.
This is when the area changed from various businesses and institutions to suburbia. I continued my walk as far down the main road that I could, but eventually had to turn onto a side street. I made my way through a small neighborhood made up of cute one-story houses, and came out on the other side, right in front of the church.
I really enjoyed the shape of this building, and I thought it was weird once I was inside, that the interior didn’t look like it was the same shape. I was not allowed to bring my water into the building with me, so I ended up drinking most of it, and throwing the rest away. I was not super happy about this, but whatever. The ticket price was $5.
The event was broken up into different areas of focus…food, entertainment, and shopping, with food being the most abundant. The entertainment consisted of live music, and groups of dancers, divided up by age groups. The one aspect of the festival I was disappointed in was the shopping, but only because most of the vendors had nothing to do with Greece. Some did…I saw artisan olive oils at some point. But most of the vendors were just Albany businesses. I can appreciate supporting local business, and it’s an event for them to promote themselves, but finding locally distilled vodka at the Greek Festival wasn’t what I was expecting, or looking for, but it is what it is.
The food was definitely the highlight of the event. There was an indoor dining room, but I’m not exactly sure what was on the menu. There was a very long line waiting to get food in that area, so I opted to venture onward and see what else I could find. In a tent in the back of the building were several vendors, selling various different things, all set up around the entertainment stage. The very first thing I went for was of course coffee. While I watched, they poured water into a copper pot over an open flame, stirred in some brown powder, stirred in some sugar, brought it to a boil, and then served it to me in an espresso sized cup. It was delicious. There was a stand for salad, and ice cream, and something called loukomades, which were like doughnuts with honey. Another stand in the back had grills going, where I got myself chicken souvlaki, and a veggie pita with extra tzatziki, all of which was soooo good. I finished my food excursion by getting this pastry sampler which included baklava, kourabiedes, and melomakarona. I didn’t actually eat these until I got home later, but it was amazing, and made me wish I had gotten more of the baklava. There were also a couple bar stands serving beer and wine, but the food stands were all taking cash only, and I only had so much on me.
After I had been to all areas of the festival, I made my way to the bus stop for an uneventful ride home. It was an awesome and delicious way to spend a few hours on a Saturday, and I would definitely do it again.
Averybody Walks 
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