Clean Monday

Clean Monday is national Greek holiday. It marks the start of the Lent for the Greek Orthodox church. This holiday is celebrated by kite flying on Philopappos Hill, one of the many hills that surround Athens. This is picture of my friends attempting a kite. It was really difficult. We tried for about a hour but we never managed to get it far off the ground. Oh well.

There was a live Greek band there playing on the hill too. They were really good. They used traditional Greek instruments. We could hear the music from a really far distance away.

This the Pynx Hill where we tried to fly our kite. It's a smaller hill next to Philopappos Hill, which was really crowded. The Acropolis is on the right (obviously) and Lykabettus Hill is in the background. Lykabettus Hill the highest hill surrounding Athens.

These are deep fried dough balls covered in melted Nutella or chocolate (I'm not sure what it was, but it was amazing). This is would be the Greek equivalent of the funnel cake in an American fair. In fact, the whole atmosphere of Clean Monday is like a fair or a festival. There are street venders of popcorn, roasted corn, roasted nuts, drinks, souvlaki, and these fried dough balls. Venders also sell kites and balloons. There are also street entertains playing music. It was a wonderful day.