Greek "Poseur" in the ουσ.

Do you know something? I love Greeks. I love all things, pretty much, that pertain to Greeks. This, of course is mainly fueled by The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Mama Mia!, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but I am CONVINCED that, were I to be born Greek... my life would be much more fun. I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact that it is an ACTUAL culture. I don't know where my heritage lies. I don't know my Paternal Grandfather... for all I know he could have been Greek.

Greeks. I love Maoussaka. I think it was invented for me. I HATE anise, but I will drink Ouzzo, just for the fact that it is a traditition. I am a middle-class American mutt who is longing for cultural tradition. So, I like Greeks. I probably would like many other cultures, if I delved deeper, but for the sake of THIS blog--- Greek is the name of the game.
Tarpon Springs, FL is a Greek town. I mean, GREEK! There is a store that sells educational toys in the Greek language (think Fischer Price-- My daughter has some of the exact same toys!!) and books, magazines, cd's... everything. The tchotchsky shops sell shirts that say funny things like "Blah Blah Blah, good to be Greek, yadda yadda" I am paraphrasing, naturally. I wish I could wear one. That would, however, be "poseur."

Tarpon Springs has about 20 Greek Restaurants on the main "Sponge Docks" drag. I would say, maybe, every other shop, is a Greek restaurant. I wanted pita, moussaka, doulmades, you name it... alas, I had already had lunch. The nickname for the main drag may tell you more about the other main pull for Tarpon Springs(which, by the way, my father-in-law, the one who knows everything about everything [bullshit] would insert here "Did you know Tarpon is a fish... it is not really edible... blah blah blah") ...SPONGES!! That is right. Now, I don't mean to bring to mind any lewdness associated with a particular Seinfeld episode (read- Is he Sponge-worthy??), I mean the natural stuff... Sponge diving is, supposedly a very dangerous, or it was, occupation. I learned this from the "museum" housed in the back of a sponge shop housed in a corrugated metal hangar. The museum was the fun kind where they have machiee models of people that are so old that noses and fingers are optional... why mess with perfection, I suppose... one such display was my favorite and I promise you if I ever make it back there, you will get photographic proof of its awesomeness... the display was about something (who reads the narration, anyway) and the guy in it was laying on his back and his innards were strewn about as if he had been gutted. Sponges. Who knew?

There is also an aquarium. First off, it is smaller than my house, so don't pee-pee yourself over missing it. However, they did have two little shows that Bonnie adored. One was the 14-foot Burmese Python. They has a talk about the snakes, then took out "Chloe" for a petting time. Bonnie adored this. Immensely. Bonnie wanted to keep Chloe. I kept thinking of when Harry Potter asked the poor Burmese in the zoo if he missed his family and the snake nodded to the sign "Bred In Captivity"... boohoo... I am a dork, but I kept saying Burma in my mind in a British accent. Perhaps, I am part-anglophile as well... hmm... Bonnie also was able to watch an alligator feeding and pet a "baby" (5 year old) alligator. She would like to keep him too...

In Tarpon Springs, you can buy anything Greek you could ever desire. You can purchase natural Olive Oil soaps, natural sea sponges in many different sizes and shapes, real lamb skin chammois, and anything blue and white and cross-ed you desire. Most of the people on the street are also Greek so you can pretend you are, too, which would make me so happy. It is a mecca for poseurs like myself.

<3 Millie