Last Week, a new festival started in my hometown. The festival is called the Park Festival because it is based in the city's park, and it consists of three main side festivals:
- A Street Food festival.
- The 12 Labours of Heracles.
- Everyday concerts.
The festival is being held from May 12 until May 21. Since it is somewhat big for the city and I really love it, I visited on Sunday. As you can imagine, it was really crowded, but it was also really nice because it marks the beginning of the summer season for my city. There were a lot of people attending, and different foods and cocktails were being cooked there.
The street food festival its an awesome initiative that the city is taking the past two years and this year we had double participation from different food stands.
Suveniers
Piroski traditional food from Pontus
Chimney cakes, I liked these ones in Budapest
Loukoumades yummy yummy
Loved those carts
Well the hats where a bit cringe
I couldn't take photos of the food stands because it was packed with people but i captured what we ate.
Shrimp Bao Bun
Chicken Bao Bun
And Of course the Park train that is emptying the pockets of the parents.
Heracles.
1)Slay the Nemean Lion
Heracles defeated a lion that was attacking the city of Nemea with his bare hands. After he succeeded he wore the skin as a cloak to demonstrate his power over the opponent he had defeated.
2)Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra
Heracles slaying the Lernaean Hydra
A fire-breathing monster with multiple serpent heads. When one head was cut off, two would grow in its place. It lived in a swamp near Lerna. Hera had sent it in hope it would destroy Heracles' home city because she thought it was invincible.
3)Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis
Heracles and Ceryneian Hind by Lysippos
Not to kill, but to catch, this hind that was sacred to Artemis. A different, but still difficult, task for a hero.
4)Capture the Erymanthian Boar
A fearsome marauding boar on the loose. Eurystheus set Heracles the Labour of catching it, and bringing it to Mycenae. Patience is the heroic quality in the third and fourth Labours.
5)Clean the Augean stables in a single day
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The Augean stables were the home of 3,000 cattle with poisoned faeces which Augeas had been given by his father Helios. Heracles was given the near impossible task of cleaning the stables of the diseased faeces. He accomplished it by digging ditches on both sides of the stables, moving them into the ditches, and then diverting the rivers Alpheios and Pineios to wash the ditches clean.
6)Slay the Stymphalian Birds
These aggressive man-eating birds were terrorizing a forest near Lake Stymphalia in northern Arcadia. Heracles scared them with a rattle.
7)Capture the Cretan Bull
The harmful bull, father of the Minotaur, was laying waste to the lands round Knossos on Crete. It embodied the rage of Poseidon at having his gift (the Bull) to Minos diverted from the intention to sacrifice it to himself.
8)Steal the Mares of Diomedes
Stealing the horses from Diomedes' stables that had been trained by their owner to feed on human flesh was his next challenge.
9)Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons
Hippolyta was an Amazon queen and she had a girdle given to her by her father Ares. Heracles had to retrieve the girdle and return it to Eurystheus.
10)Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon
The next challenge was to capture the herd guarded by a two-headed dog called Orthrus, which belonged to Geryon; a giant with three heads and six arms who lived in Erytheia.
11)Steal the golden apples of the Hesperides
Hercules stealing the golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides
These sacred fruits were protected by Hera who had set Ladon, a fearsome hundred-headed dragon as the guardian. Heracles had to first find where the garden was; he asked Nereus for help. He came across Prometheus on his journey. Heracles shot the eagle eating at his liver, and in return he helped Heracles with knowledge that his brother would know where the garden was. His brother Atlas offered him help with the apples if he would hold up the heavens while he was gone. Atlas tricked him and did not return. Heracles returned the trickery and managed to get Atlas taking the burden of the heavens once again, and returned the apples to Mycenae
12)Capture and bring back Cerberus
His last labour and undoubtedly the riskiest. Eurystheus was so frustrated that Heracles was completing all the tasks that he had given him that he imposed one he believed to be impossible: Heracles had to go down into the underworld of Hades and capture the ferocious three-headed dog Cerberus who guarded the gates.
Read more about Heracles
I really like when the city has that kinds of events that make people leave their house and go out especially when we combine some teaching like learning about Greek mythology.