Friday, October 2, 2009

Scots vs. Greeks

Two weeks ago we went to the Scottish Games (SGs) and last weekend we went to the Greek Festival. I'm just going to declare right now that Greeks totally win this battle.

The SGs got a little pricy as we had to pay for parking and an entry fee. Not so with the Greeks! (But Susan told me that if you ride your bike in the back way to River Park they let you come in to the SGs without paying).

The park where the SGs were held was waaaaay too big for the little amount they had going on, which made it look sparse and unexciting. They did have a Master-Scotch-Drinker there (really, he's one of five in the world) giving lessons about scotch and tastes for $15 which was easily the best part of the festival. The games were remarkably unexciting. I could only watch people pitch bags of oats and throw telephone poles for so long before I lost interest. There was a herding contest that was pretty cool, though.

There were dancers at both festivals, and they were pretty similar in that there's a lot of fancy foot-work, but not a lot of torso movement. The Greeks totally win this round because the Scottish dancers looked bored while their feet were a-tapping, but the Greek dancers were hooping and hollering and having a great time.

There wasn't much at the Greek Festival aside from food. But let's be honest and say that's why you go to the festival anyway. We didn't try any Scottish food at the SGs because it was all so expensive. That and it was sold state-fair-style along with indian tacos, so it didn't seem very authentic. At the GF you could watch the Greek ladies making your food right there. They had Spinach Pies for $1, Greek Coffee for $1, and Honey Puffs (awesome) 8 for $2 (the lady gave us 10!). The gyros, shish kabobs, and lamb were all more expensive, but totally worth it if you want to spend the money.

Lastly, the Scots may have turned the tables if they didn't discriminate and say only Scottish breed dogs were allowed. We saw that and didn't bring Ada, even though the Scots and Japanese are best friends. Seriously, Japan is the only other country Scotland will allow to call their whisky "Scotch." We didn't bring her, but we should have because I saw Rottweilers in there. Are those Scottish? (No.)

2 comments:

Laurie Tomlinson said...

One of my best friends growing up was an extremely shy, studious girl. She moved to Tulsa from Minnesota and went to my small private school. Her first day of school was our field trip to the Greek Festival, where it was private school day. I peer pressured her to dance in front of everyone with us and then somehow she got lost and couldn't find us because she couldn't remember which plaid skirts were our school's and only remembered me because I was loud. She said it was one of the most traumatizing moments in her life, yet I maintain that I helped her come out of her shell :) I will always love the Greek Festival for that (and the food) (and now, the non dog discrimination)!

Laura R said...

Well, I guess they don't discriminate because they don't allow any dogs in. At least they're fair about it though!