Today was a rather chill day since we pretty much had finished all of our program assignments. I slept in till about 11:30 am and then just hung around the guesthouse for a few hours before walking around Plaka with Maggie and her mom. It'd been raining a ton since last night, so it was nice to not have rain when we walked out. We got gyros! Yum.
I bought myself a pair of sunglasses that Maggie helped haggle down for. She's brilliant at that, thank goodness. Otherwise, I'd totally get ripped off wherever I went. She already helped me get a deal on my Olympiakos soccer jersey.
After that, I met up with Taso for my end-of-the-program evaluation, and we had a great conversation. I really appreciate and value his input because I feel there is so much I can learn from him, particularly for my own academic and professional goals. So it was nice to catch up and also a bit bittersweet that our program we worked so hard for was finally coming to a close.
When we all finished our individual meetings with Taso, we headed to dinner for our last group meal together. It was quite delicious and had a great view of Lycabettus Hill and the Acropolis. It's quite a different feel when there are actually clouds and an overcast sky. It was quite gorgeous.
After dinner, we all headed to the Olympiakos game against Kavala FC, a team from northern Greece. Kavala wasn't supposed to be all that great and Olympiakos is also supposed to be the premier team in Athens, so we were hoping for a strong win.
As we have become accustomed to, the Metro line towards the stadium was shut down for repairs, so we had to take a bus. Man, people here push and shove to save their own backsides, so it's quite an adventure.
We finally made it and the weather, thankfully, was still nice out, so the atmosphere for this game was perfect. I ended up getting a beer there, and it was definitely cheaper here than at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. Still quite expensive compared to what I could get it for outside though, plus it was just Heineken.
The game itself was a tight game. Both teams played solid defense, and in the first half, really only Olympiakos had an aggressive offense. At the 42 minute mark, Olympiakos scored a goal, and we were all so happy...until they called offsides on the play, so the goal didn't count. Boooo!
Actually, as I have learned from going to soccer games in Berlin and having watched the EuroCup in 2008, people don't boo when they want to show their displeasure. They whistle. My whistling is too feeble to make any loud or intimidating noises, so I just boo like an American sports fan. haha.
The second half was about the same as the first half in terms of defense. Both teams played hard (I sound like Rasheed Wallace when he used to answer questions from the media after Blazers games...). Surprisingly, Kavala came out stronger on offense in the second half, but still neither team scored.
At least, the player whose jersey I was wearing got in the game and had a few nice passes. I was beginning to worry that he might not even exist when I didn't see him play in the first half. The player whose jersey Maggie was wearing got into a bit of scuffle with one of the other players. I got a picture of it.
Sadly, the game ended in a 0-0 draw. The blue Kavala team though was quite excited to pull even with a powerhouse such as Olympiakos, so they celebrated on the field while all the Olympiakos fans whistled at their team in disappointment.
Oh well, it was a fun game anyway, and I guess the last minute magic that I've experienced in my two games watching Hertha BSC in Berlin wasn't meant to be in Athens.
We ended up going back to the Chocolate Cafe to have desserts as we did during our opening night dinner. It was quite delicious, but I'm actually craving a cheeseburger right now. Some of the group headed to Lycabettus Hill tonight to go see the nighttime view of Athens. It's supposed to be beautiful, and I was planning to go...but I got lazy and a bit too tired to walk an hour there and an hour back. So I'm at home and just followed the Huskies and Vandals game instead. We won!!! Boy, it's been a long time...the last time we won was the last time I went to an actual Husky Football game (we beat Cal, and I called my sister at Berkeley immediately after to gloat).
Ok, I need to start packing for Crete and also packing for Seattle as well. Thankfully, I have a place to store my suitcase and stuff so I don't need to haul it all with me to Crete. But I do need to get it all organized before I leave. I'm hoping to blog in Crete as well since there's so much to see, but who knows if we'll have internet, so if not tomorrow night, I'll blog when I return on Wednesday.
See ya,
Sam
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