Greek Food Meet-Up Anniversary

Hello my lovelies! I hope you are well and back from summer holidays. For those of you that are still at a beach somewhere and enjoy the sun, I will say only this: I hate you! No, I’m kidding. Enjoy your time there and have a lot of fun, because winter is coming (No pun intended)!

This week was a complete rollercoaster for me; between work, gym, my extracurricular volunteer activities and going out and catching up with friends, I didn’t really do much, which is a shame, because I feel I missed out on a lot of things. I just hope that next week is better (what I really mean is quieter). But with close friends standing beside you and supporting you, you just don’t feel any tiredness. What I would do without my friends?

Living in such a huge – and often impersonal – city, the need for people who understand you is important. For me, even more so as I was shy when I was little and continued to be even when I started my Master’s some 8 years ago. But this is the nicest thing about growing up – to exercise being sociable and get the most out of it. I know I have probably waxed poetic about the Greek Food Meet Up group that was born two years ago, but I’ve found that it includes some of the best people I’ve known in my life. People that I get to hang out with, people that I’ve shared my dreams and thoughts, people that, despite knowing them for such a short time, I feel them close to me.

In this case, we recently celebrated two years of Greek Food Meet Ups, two years with excellent company, meeting new people and enjoying the Greek cuisine in London. For this birthday celebration though our lovely organisers decided to have a proper celebration with drinks (and no Greek food!) at the heart of London, at CitizenM Tower of London Hotel. To be honest, I was looking forward to drinks there, not because it was Saturday and I needed an excuse to go out, but because I really missed the guys and gals!

It was lovely catching up with my friends that I hadn’t seen in weeks (I blame summer holidays) and drinking (you guessed it!) prosecco. The lobby is one of the best I’ve been to, with funky decorations on the shelves, while the bar staff were always with a smile and very, very polite. The sofas at the front and back looked so inviting that I envied all the people sitting there, while I had to navigate with my high heels. A shame really! Next time though I’m not going to wear any high heels, especially if we are going to eat! There’s nothing more embarrassing than trying to walk in high heels after eating like there’s no tomorrow (which is particularly fitting when talking about Greek food, as you may well know)!

I have to say though that the place was not overly crowded, maybe because of the time of the day. The event started around 5 on Saturday, kind of early in London standards. I can’t say it was dead though, as inside there were around 60 loud Greeks with plenty to talk and joke about! As an event, I would say that it was one of the best I’ve ever attended, not minding the lack of food! As I’ve probably mentioned before, Giannis, Neri and Evelina are some of the best people I have the pleasure to know and they try to make everyone feel comfortable (newcomers and old-timers like me). I can easily call them close friends, despite not knowing them that long.

I may have said that before, but if you are interested in socialising and meeting with other Greeks, Greek Food Meet Up is the event to go! The atmosphere is fantastic, the food is even more so and the individuals you meet are wonderful. You can even find people with common interests that you can hang out with. All in all, a great thing to do on a Saturday afternoon, especially if you don’t have anything else to do (and Supernatural hasn’t started yet!).

Till next time,
Sofia-Maria