A Modern Beauty

Shortly after the newest eatery opened on campus, Steve and I went and got some tasty frozen yogurt.  To my despair, this was one of those moments where I regretted getting caught without my camera.  It actually happens a lot here, because there are just so many interesting things going on.  Like watching the maintenance staff clean windows on campus, with a cherry picker.  That's the kind of awesome stuff  I miss out on when I don't have my camera.

Thankfully, the beautiful decor at the froyo shop was still there the next time we needed our desert dessert fix.

I love the bright, bold colors contrasting against the stark white walls, and the light fixtures are gorgeous and artsy.

While the chairs and tables are all plastic, the colors are still strikingly beautiful.

How much do I love these lights!

This interesting snaking ribbon was used mostly to divide the space into the sit down area and the ordering area, but wouldn't it make a unique bookshelf/display area if the bends and turns were adjusted a bit?

Compared to our apartment decked out in browns and tans, I'm ready to move in with the froyo.

Freshberry Froyo vs. Baskin Robbins

Over the winter break, a new frozen yogurt shop opened on campus.  Steven and I checked out Frozen berry tonight on our way back from Maria Zuber's lecture about Mars.  The lecture was excellent, but the frozen yogurt was underwhelming.

They've got a huge number of toppings; 15 or so different dry toppings, which surprisingly includes Fruity Pebbles (my favorite cereal that I haven never seen for sale here in SA) and about 12 different wet toppings (mostly fresh fruits).

The prices though, are somewhat underwhelming.  The smallest froyo is 16 SAR ($4.25) with 2 toppings or 10 SAR ($2.66) with no toppings.  This seems to be similar to the Baskin Robbins (the ice cream shop on campus) regular size, which is 14 SAR ($3.75).  The largest size is 24 SAR a whopping $6.40 and is hugely over sized.  It's hard to believe the claim that froyo is part of a healthy lifestyle, when the servings are so large.  Sure, it might be fewer calories than ice cream, but it's a big stretch to call it healthy.

Sadly, the flavor was pretty bland.  I got vanilla froyo with Oreo and Reese Pieces toppings.  Steve got strawberry froyo with white chocolate and raspberry toppings.  The one redeeming quality was the decor.  It was super cute, colorful, and modern.  I'll probably go back just to take pictures, and the light fixtures were so fun!

One of the main reasons I wanted to try it is because I was hoping it would surpass Baskin Robbins as our go to treat location.  The ice cream is tasty and delicious, but they refuse to post an English menu, and have recently increased prices.  The primary excuse for the menu was a basic, duh it's Saudi Arabia from the guy working, but somehow, despite this fact every other dining or shopping establishment on campus has managed to put up English signs.

Sadly, froyo won't overtake Baskin Robbins as our go to treat location, but I'm not convinced that Baskin Robbins is worth returning to either.

Playing the Ethics Card

We ate at Bo, a cafe near our apartment, and we had a crappy experience, despite the fact that their pizza was the best yet here in Greece.

I'll say that this isn't typical of the cafes and restaurants we've patroned here in Athens, it was definitely an outlier.  It first took forever to get our food, and considering that it was New Year's Day it was by no means busy.  We even had the bill on our table long before the food!  We were generally able to let that slide, since the Miami Swimwear Spring Fashion Week was on the TV so we watched some tushies in swimsuits while waiting.

Then while joking about the bill arriving before the food, we realized that they'd overcharged both of our meals.  While the total amount overcharged was less than a euro, I still wanted to know what was up.  I figured we'd get some line about having changed their prices while still using old menus.  Turns out I wasn't far off.  The waiter stumbled around checking the prices in the menu when we pointed it out and then said that it was because of Christmas, that they raised their prices for two weeks around Christmas and everybody in Greece does it.  He also pointed out that it wasn't illegal.  While I don't claim to know what is or isn't legal in Greece, I do know what is and isn't ethical and we clearly pointed out that while it might be legal, it was in fact still lying and unethical.  It wasn't the amount or even the fact that they increased prices for the holidays that bugged me, really they could have said they raised their prices because it was a Saturday if they had been upfront about it.  By trying to hide it and sneak it on the bill hoping no one would make a fuss, just points to a poorly run business.

Thankfully, the prices were restored to the advertised amount, and in the end, the waiter got a slightly bigger tip than he might have otherwise.

*Catch up on our entire Athens adventure by checking Our Travel Page, or our Greece tag.*