Yesterday was a day which will go into the books as one of those days which starts with a smile but unfortunately ended with a teardrop. I arrived for my last day in the Olympic Village, transport was preparing the "project" to get all the Athletes to the closing ceremony and all the Athletes themselves were very relaxed as most competitions are done by now. When picking up my present (all volunteers got a beautiful, hmmm, swatch and a pin, I even got two pins), there was a queue just in front of the place were they said I should go to pick up the present, when asking what the queuing was for they told me they were giving away tickets for the Stadium that night. I nicely waited and received also my ticket. This was my chance to see OAKA, the Olympic Venue.
Track and field is not really my kind of sport, too many things are happening on the court, one is throwing something, another one tries to jump and all of a sudden some guys start running, all at the same time.
But I got the ticket and went to the stadium. I think Roberto tried to explain the feeling when entering the complex in one of his first blogs, but believe me it is better. The true olympic spirit can be found were the flame is burning. Standing underneath it is an unforgettable experience. When entering the stadium it was amazing to see such a crowd cheering. My first moment of total euphoria was when I recognised Serge Bubka, he did the medal ceremony for men's pole vault and when I was young I was a huge fan of him.
Then the circus started, 4x100 meters was a finish which could not be described, I couldn't see who had won and according to the screens in the stadium nobody at home also.
Then a nice Russian Lady tried to jump 2.10, which is almost the size of our tall Volleyball friend Kay van Dijk. Unfortunately she didn't make it, but it is great to see the interaction between player and coach in this sport, and you realise how important that guy is.
Then the 5.000 meters, the Moroccan El Guerrouj writes history by winning the 1.500 AND the 5.000 in one Olympics.
The women had to run 4x400, and Hellas had qualified. All the crowd went crazy, but unfortunately something went wrong and they ended up FAR, and I mean FAR behind the entire field (I think the others were already drinking coffee).
Then the 4x400 men, the Americans almost went for a world record, man they were FAST. If you are so near it seems they fly instead of run. Pfew, my experience was complete.
Afterwards a couple of volunteers decided to go for a drink in Psiri, I joined. One night without HHH couldn't do any harm (I thought). When leaving Tango, a nice little bar in Psiri, we already smelt something, it was not quite the normal Curry or Gyros smell. Teargas was thrown everywhere. Some guys were running and throwing bottles at something (didn't went out to check it, if you don't mind) and more teargas was thrown. RIOT time in Greece. Hell in Hellas! Reason for this is the nice Mr. Colin Powell who had decided to come to Athens. Already the day before the entire centre was closed because of this announcement (never saw so many soldiers in a city centre at once) and now there are demonstrations against his arrival everywhere, with a sort of apocalypse yesterday. Man, I can't get used to teargas, my eyes were burning like hell and one moment I even thought I couldn't get any fresh air anymore. In the metro home we heard that Powell had decided not to come to
Athens. Really smart Mr. Powell, first cause a lot of troubles and then decide to hide, hey, he learned something from his boss.
So the day ended with a tear (unfortunately). Well, not really. When going out for a drink, we have the ritual to end in OKI (yes, I read that magazine also), a sandwich bar which is opened 24 hours a day. The stuffing is great, you can put everything in it, and he makes it to some kind of toasted sandwich, two nights ago I was a little bit to enthusiastic (maybe shouldn't have taken the last 20 beers) and ordered a big bomb. I decided to have fries, an egg, sausage, some kind of meat which is gyros but doesn't look like it, tomatoes, cheese, ham and some kind of vegetable of which I thought would be healthy as stuffing (I'm not sure I added some more fries to it or
not). The guy Already warned me that I would explode when I would eat it, but who cares, me only lives once. I survived, and believe it or not, the sandwich was one of the best I ever had !!
Also yesterday (I'm down to three ingredients now) the sandwich brought back
a smile on my face. Sitting on the side of the fountain of Platia Kipseli, eating my toasted sandwich made me already a little emotional, the games are going to end
today, today is the last day for me to enjoy an event which I only can describe as a once of a lifetime experience, it can't get any better, I'm sure it can't.
Rene
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