15th of August

August the 15th is one of the most significant public holidays in Greece, celebrated as the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, marked by religious devotion for those who believe, cultural festivities and communal gatherings across the country.

Many regions hold panigiria, featuring food, music and dancing. It is moreover, a public  holiday and many people take the opportunity to travel quite often to their hometowns or the islands to see relatives and participate in the festivities. 

For approximately three weeks Athens is empty - so many people have left, many businesses are closed, and there is very little traffic. We love Athens in August and would not dream of going elsewhere as it's just to lovely, quiet and peaceful.

In one of the suburbs near us there is a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and every year they have a panigiri of sorts, not music and dancing but lots of stalls where about everything is sold. The church is quite magnificent

First thing you notice is the queue of people waiting patiently to go inside and kiss the Virgin Mary's icon

But, we are here for the market, so we move off

roast sweetcorn

and hundreds of icons for sale

and books ... this is one of the largest stalls

and lots of stalls selling loukoumades

they are a bit like doughnuts, but deep fried and sold hot

everything you can imagine, is sold here - socks and underwear

clothes

jewellery

toys

it's endless

handbags

more loukoumades - this time covered in different sauces, moving away from tradition

ceramics - gross

every other stall seems to be loukoumades

soft furnishing and bedding

toys

A chaos of shoes - all for 5 euros

I love the way they arrange these trainers

Is everything 5 euros? This time it's T-shirts

A wonderful stall selling nuts and dried fruit

herbs and teas

and spices.

Sunglasses

and yes, guess...

cakes

perfume

luggage

electronic accessories

A kebab and sausage stall - they don't make you fat but they do make you beautiful

African ornaments

kareoke microphones

smoking paraphernalia. There really is everything for sale here.

We were ready to start heading for home and then we heard the music - went to investigate: a band

choir boys

priests - a procession parading the icon around the area.

Loughborough Fair

Last Friday we went to Loughborough to see some friends and then to the fair which takes over the whole of the centre of the town. Loughborough fair is the second biggest in the country.

So many memories of both Loughborough and the fair... We hadn't been to Loughborough for 15 years? and the fair much longer.

We got there around 3:00 and it was very quiet.





Lots of rides, some of which I had not seen before

and lots of junk food and sweet things

The whole atmosphere completely changed once it got dark - lots of people around, and it got busier and busier

This one looked gentle enough

until it got going

Not only did this one go up and down and around, but also the seats spun around at the same time

Not very nice

The house of horror

The wings on this one go all the way up to the top

Again, this one spun around in all sorts of directions, and it was very fast

All strapped up and going up and down

they're all the way up now

I'm sure you've gathered from my descriptions that I don't know much about these rides. Fairs have not really interested me much, but we did used to go a lot in the past when we used to go to Loughborough on a regular basis. But, I did enjoy it this time very much, it was such a lovely atmosphere, everyone having a good time, really enjoying themselves.

Loud music everywhere. Saw a baby in his dad's arms screaming while covering her ears, and I could really sympathise.

There was duplication of most of the rides

and the fair was getting busier all the time.

We left early, at 6:00. All the way to our friends' house we could see people walking down towards the fair. We had a quick cup of tea with our friends at their house, and then we drove back as we had to be home that evening. It was all great fun.