moshing for pastries

I am drinking a cup of tea with Julie's honey, reminiscing on yesterday's chaotic evening.

Last night a group of 7 of us girls attempted to go to a film screening at the French Institute (in Athens) called "King of the Pastries". We were told that afterwards there would be a cocktail party where we could sample pastries from expert chefs of some sort.
Now Google Maps here is not as smart as it is in America. Do not ask it for directions here. Look at a map and create your own path to the location (assuming you can correctly identify your desired place's location).
Anyways, we did not fully check and re-check and triple-check our directions and ended up in undesirable locations. I don't think I'll further describe this place but let me just say that we were advised in our first week here in Athens to avoid this area due to questionable and potentionally dangerous activities that go down there. Now it wasn't sooo bad because it was still reasonably early in the evening so there were still a lot of people around but all of us girls (dressed up to go on the town) were beginning to wonder what we would do once this film screening ended late at night and we would have to walk back through it.
Fast forward through girls walking in achey heels, finally getting correct directions from a hotel we walked into, and a slight bout of panic. We had apparently gone waaaay the wrong way and it took us forever to finally find the area. Of course....this French Institute ended up not being in a shady area of town.

We arrived 15 minutes late for the start of the movie even though we had left 30 minutes early to arrive with time to spare. The auditorium was extremely full and none of us could sit together. The movie had a bit of a home video feel to it and only half of it was in english. We watched men compete for some French chef award of some sort. It was very intense and when the cakes shattered and grown men cried it truly was heart wrenching. Afterwards, at the cocktail party, a mad dash was made for the small foyer where wine was being served. People watched as the culinary chefs finished up small sampler pastries. Cream puffs, pastries that were very similar to kit-kat bars, chocolate hexagon-cubes (?) filled with a chocolate mouse, and other things that I wouldn't be able to name.

Suddenly the chef made a slight motion giving the people permission to come forward and sample the treats. Apparently this same motion cast a spell over the crowd filling everyone with violent, animalistic hunger to acquire these most-coveted pastries. I was elbowing old men and fat ladies to get to the front of the moshpit and get something to try. I didn't even have time until later to wonder at how this somewhat classy film viewing and cocktail party turned into a moshpit to get pastries. Was this lack of organization on the part of the small foyer area? Are Greek people insane for pastries? Did we need more instruction on the proper etiquette of acquiring the food?

By the end of the night, when all the samplers were gone, I looked at the chefs on the safe side of the pastry table. Crowds still looked longing at them, pleading with their eyes "please, we need some more pastries!!!". These chefs were fighting back both looks of shock and outbursts of laughter. Animals.