Dinner on Boundary Street

Charcoal Yiros

Greek-style marinated, barbequed lamb and chicken at Char Char Yiros in West End. They serve it with pita bread, Greek salad, chips and a couple of slices of grilled haloumi. Delicious but seriously filling. I had to walk 2kms after eating just to be able to breathe properly!

Panyiri 2010

Here's a shot from last week's Panyiri, which is Brisbane's annual celebration of all things Greek. The kids in the front are from the local state school, getting ready to take the stage. Like the other capital cities in Australia, Brisbane has a large and vibrant Greek community and the traditions of music, food and dance have been passed on to the emerging, Australian-born generations...    

By the way... if you haven't tried honey puffs before this is DEFINITELY the place to go!

Cheers to Mouse for getting this shot.

Traffic Stopping Art (number 42)

This signal box, by Tracey Cranitch depicts Lady Bowen, wife of Queensland's first governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen. She was very well respected for her work in charities and healthcare in the mid 19th century and was the very first Greek person in the colony of Queensland (of which there are now thousands). This box was part of the Q150 allocation, a group of signal boxes earmarked to celebrate of Queensland's 150th anniversary as an independent state from New South Wales.

See this box in it's old clothes here.

Pandemonium at Paniyiri

The kids' Zorba dance soon became a free-for-all and once the pace of the music picked up... well there were people going in every direction, it was hilarious.
What's that big shiny thing behind the laughing lady? Xena, the big shiny Greek dancing warrior princess...or at least the back of her head. There was also a big shiny dancing Hercules.
It was like being in the middle of a Greek-themed "It's A Knockout".

Everybody Zorba!

Yesterday and today see Musgrave Park in South Brisbane transform into the home of the long- awaited Paniyiri, Brisbane's Greek festival. More honey-puffs, moussaka, souvlaki and Mythos that you can throw a plate at. And to work off all that food and drink? Mass Zorba dancing! Hurray!
They eventually made an inner circle for the poor kids!

I'm taking part in Shadow Shot Sunday today, an initiative by fellow Brisbane blogger, Hey Harriet. Check out other shadows posted on her blog today here.

Greek Tragedy!

Today's title is from the main headline of the local paper. This year's Greek Festival, Panyiri, was due to take place today but has been cancelled at the last minute due to the dodgy weather we've been having such as a third of our annual rainfall on Tuesday. They're going to hold it in July instead.

Way back when I first started this blog I made a rash promise of getting a picture of the record-breaking Zorba dance that they do at festival every year. Other fun stuff includes So You Think You Can Dance Greek and an olive and honeypuff eating competition (hopefully not together). As I leave Brisbane today, I had thought I was going to miss out on this year but the not so tragic news is I will be back from my travels in time to get the pictures for you! Lovely.

So in lieu of today's festival, as a tribute to Brisbane's large and established Greek community, I have gone for something with a Greek flavour... a subtle little place, this. Any resemblance to the Acropolis is purely co-incidental! Its a restaurant and a social club with an excellent elevated people-watching aspect. The food is supposed to be great here too. It's on my to-do list...

Posting magically continues despite me being on me hols. Back in late June.

After All This Time

This is taken from the monumental arch on the southern side of Victoria Bridge. The arch is from the previous Victoria Bridge which was demolished in 1969. Around Anzac day time, wreaths of poppies are placed next to it to remember those who fought and died for Australia in the wars. Also there are wreaths of flowers in remembrance of an 11 year old Greek boy, Hector Vasyli, who was killed nearby in 1918 "as a result of a lamentable accident" so the plaque there says. According to Wikipedia it was a traffic accident that happened while he was waving to soldiers returning from the First World War. Anyway... when I stopped by last week, there were flowers and cards aplenty especially from members of Brisbane's strong and vibrant Greek community.

Musgrave Park

This is one of two big boomerangs that mark the southern entrance to Musgrave Park in South Brisbane. The park is an important Aboriginal site and is said to be sacred, having a buried bora ring beneath it. Brisbane celebrates Pride here in June, NAIDOC day in July, and it is also home to the city's annual Greek Festival, Paniyiri in May. Each year they hold a "Zorbathon" where they try and get as many people as possible to dance to Zorba the Greek. Apparently the record is 3300 people for 8 minutes! That photo is definately on my to-do list.

Go Nuts!

This was taken in Mick's Nuts - an iconic shop in West End. It's tiny - you can only fit about 4 customers in there at any one time and because it's such a great place, there are often people waiting outside to come in.