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Well, after the 23 hour journey over from the states, it was very exciting to explore this culturally-rich city and its uniqueness. Luckily for me, as this is my first trip overseas, Jason's sister, Heather, who lives in Germany, met me at the airport Metro station. She had also been here for two days and already "knew the ropes."
Our first hotel had a rooftop pool and a view of the city. When I looked out from the balcony, my first thought was, "it's all white." Many of the residential buildings in Athens are white. The architecture is simple lines, geometric. At first I was a bit disappointed. Two days later, we were given the exciting news that Jason was going to be 'let out of the athlete prison' (how the athletes refer to their Paralympic athlete village, guarded by security, closed to the public)for a night and day, to spend time with his visiting family. (Thank you to pilot, Glenn, who told coach that we had not seen one another for a month!)
By now we were at our present hotel, with a view that so impressed us I quickly forgot my disappointment with the white buildings. To explain it simply, Heather and I nearly lost our breath when we looked out the balcony of our hotel. In front of our eyes were ruins from nearly 3,000 years ago! It was the Temple of Zeus. Truly amazing. Every day we look out our balcony and windows and continue to be inspired. Certainly it makes our present-day construction methods seem even more unreliable than we now think!
We were most excited to share this new hotel's view with Jason. He was equally impressed and said, "Wow! Even I can see that (that's how large the ruins are)." So, we took Jason to the nearby Plaka, the local village with shops, tavernas and true culture. We had a great time. We bartered to select gifts for the kids, ate some Greek food, walked, talked and laughed.
The next day we visited the Acropolis. There are no words to describe this "complex" (for lack of a better word) of structures that were constructed as early as 600 B.C. It was an incredible day. We hope that the photos we took will portray the images justly. We were so happy to spend the day and share this experience with J.
The remainder of the trip we have had a blast watching the track cycling events at the velodrome. The facility itself is incredible. We watched several different events and saw our women's tandem team win a gold medal! Yea! Our favorite event was the men's match sprints in which two teams start simultaneously and race to the finish. It was a battle of speed and strategy and VERY exciting. We witnessed a couple of crashes in this event which was scary. Luckily everyone was okay in the end.
We watched men and women's wheelchair basketball, and saw the US women's team win a qualifying round game. We also watched some swimming events. So impressive to see athletes swim so fast with only one arm (or another disability). It was also great to see the blind swimmers, who were tapped by the coaches with a long pole with buoy attached as they approached the wall, indicating when to turn. Wow.
Overall, we are truly soaking in the Olympic experience while here. You can certainly feel the spirit, the motivation, the hard work that has led up to this ultimate goal for these amazing athletes. I, for one, can say, I am so proud of Jason and our entire US Paralympic Team. They are the best. Go for the Gold!
-Donna
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