Sunday at the Olympics, Part 2

I left the basketball at 5pm and started the long journey back to Athens in order to get to somewhere near the end of the Marathon route by the expected finishing time of 8:30. Leaving in the middle of the match worked out well as there was hardly anyone at the tram stop so I easily got a seat. The machine even gave me my change! So it appeared it would be a better trip back in, but unfortunately when we reached the tram stops for the beach people just poured in and the tram became really, really full. So it was a long and unpleasant journey, although it was quite funny that a couple who had been near me on the tram in were near me again on the tram on the way out, quite amazing given the size and number of trams and my odd time of departure.

Anyway I arrived back in to Athens at about 6:30, so I still had heaps of time before I needed to go to the marathon route. I walked around the tourist area some more, still searching for the waffle parlour from Soph’s and my previous trip, but I couldn’t find it (I’m pretty sure it’s been replaced by a more generic café). I ended up getting some Souvlaki at Quick Pitta, mainly because they had a TV where I could watch the middle stages of the marathon.

With the help of an information booth volunteer I had chosen a spot to watch the marathon and I headed there at 7:30. I walked through a nice park, with a pond in the middle with a LOT of ducks! I was in a bit of a rush but I had to stop and get a photo:





There were hundreds of people heading in the same direction and I started to realise that maybe I should have left a little earlier. I got to a street running parallel to the marathon route which I had planned to use to get to my chosen spot, but they had blocked it off even to pedestrians. So I had to go down to the marathon route itself, and unfortunately the footpath was completely packed with spectators. There was a way through at first but halfway along it pretty much closed up, so I had to really force my way through which wasn’t much fun at all. Eventually I came to spot where I could cross the road, it was a dual-carriage road and the other side was quite empty as it didn’t have a good view of the route itself. So I headed up the road until I got to another spot where I could cross back over. I found a great vantage point, there was an inlet where the tape was at an angle to the road so I could look up the marathon route and not have to lean out to see past people.





At first I was next to a couple of Brits, they were getting constant updates on their mobiles as to how Paula Radcliffe was going. They disappeared though, not sure if they went somewhere else or if they gave up after she pulled out. There was a great atmosphere with people of all countries around, there were lots of Japanese fans, there was a Cypriot flag nearby and a conga line of Kenyans went by after their runner had passed. I had my flag tied to the tape and I was directly in front of a big parking lot sign so I’m hoping to be able to spot myself on the replay! I stayed and watched for about half an hour after the winner went past, looking at the results list I think I would have seen all but 2 or 3 runners.

I also noticed that the same couple who I had seen on both my tram trips today were about 20m along the tape to my left! Such an astounding coincidence! I was just about to go talk to them when they both lit up cigarettes… so I decided I’d wait until they finished but they left before then. Oh well.

It was now 9pm and I was a bit of a wreck, so I decided I’d just head to the airport. At the metro station I went to the ticket counter to get a ticket (it’s €8 to the airport, normal fare is €0.60 or 0.70), but I was told it was free if I had an Olympics ticket! I’m not sure if that meant it had been free for the whole day, and I’d wasted all the fares I’d bought from machines, but they only added up to a few euros anyway. The trip was quite long, but was enlivened by an argument between two men who hadn’t bought a ticket and some ticket collectors. It was all in Greek so I’m not sure what the outcome was, but the fare-dodgers seemed upset so presumably they were fined. I also talked to a couple who turned out to be from Cyprus, although their flight was that night and thus they wouldn’t be joining me in sleeping at the airport.

I wandered around the airport for a while. I arrived in time to see the men’s 100m final so I was pleased to be able to see that. At 12am I’d hit the wall so I tried sleeping in various locations and positions. I was moved away from one by a security guard for “security reasons”, I have no idea what difference it made me moving to another area, but I managed to get reasonably comfortable on a couple of side-tables, using a bag as a pillow. I slept right through until 4:30am so it couldn’t have been too bad!