Last Day of the Trip

Today was our final full day of the trip and we spent it checking out the facilities used for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. After a quick breakfast at the hotel we met our translator friend and walked to met the bus that would take us across town to the site. On the way she gave us tons of information regarding both the city of Athens and the Games that took place here seven years ago. You got a sense from her that the Games were something that the Athenians were very proud of hosting even though they were not the most successful Games of late. Our first stop on the site was the Olympic stadium which was built in 1993 with hopes of the Games one day returning to Athens but it wasn’t til nearly a decade later when they added on to it to make it suitable for hosting such a massive event. The stadium is used today primarily for soccer games and concerts and was in pretty good condition. Next we walked around the street to the basketball arena which is now home of the Greek national basketball team and the Greek professional team Panathinaikos. The arena was pretty cool but not in the best shape because of missing seats due to rowdy fans breaking them. After we walked around the Olympic park a little more but did not go in any more buildings. The rest of the park was in bad shape, with graffiti and uncut grass everywhere, but Professor Ryan said it looked better than last year so maybe they are making progress towards restoring the park. The bus then took us back to the hotel. Some people hung out on the roof for the afternoon playing cards while others went shopping. We all met up at four to have a ‘reflection hour’ about the trip and to talk about what we learned. At seven we walked over towards the base of the Acropolis for our last group dinner which was very enjoyable because of the great food and Robert’s entertainment. The trip is coming to an end but we all had an incredible time and will be back in the US tomorrow!