Brrr Marathon cont.

Little Gaza	My Storm Troopers	Coliseum	Home Of the Marathon

Surviving Greece

It was announced on the plane to Greece that the temperature was 18 degrees!!  The sun was shining and we had to peel off a few of our Viennese layers. There had been riots in Greece for the past two weeks, and David had been following the progress on the internet, we didn’t know where our hotel in Athens was, but it wouldn’t be where the riots are...surely!! We took the underground to the Victoria station, in the museum sector of Athens, and as soon as we hit the street, there was a sense that something was not quite right, we could hear people on megaphones and could see plenty of protesting like activity, I was dragging two suitcases behind me and following David so I had the head down and bum up so to speak, but I could hear chanting, yelling and loud music and I just thought, wow this is a busy noisy city, it wasn’t until I looked up to cross streets, that I  noticed the Riot police with their shields and batons, at the ready, the further we walked to our hotel, the more police and destruction we could see along the way, when we arrived it didn’t take long to figure out that our hotel was smack  in the middle of the Athen’s riots!!

After we checked in we thought lets go for a walk and look for some Greek food (the real reason I wanted to come to Greece), the concierge, directed us to walk in the opposite direction of the Riot Police, which we were happy to do, however, it was a shock to see that the building next door to our hotel, had been burnt out, and it must of been recent as the smell of smoke was very strong, the building was 5 stories high!! We quickly found a lovely Greek restaurant and had the most amazing dinner, and then raced back home to our sixth floor bedroom, put down the security shutters, locked the door, jumped into bed and put the blankets over our heads and we were not moving!!

I was determined to go for my first run in Athens, I had my map and I was heading to the monolith, that is the Acropolis...I really didn't need a map as it looms large over the city, it is an amazing sight, especially at night. I upset the night porter, by asking him if it was safe to run, to which he yelled at me "of course it is, we are Greek, we will not harm you", I was refering to the riots, but I wasn't game to say another word, I left the hotel and I felt I had just stepped into Beirut..during the night there had obviously been fighting, there were burnt out cars, smashed shops and destruction everywhere in the streets, I ended up running past the perpetrators, as they have taken over the University(across the road from out hotel), with camp fires, banners and lots of noise..I was trying to not look obvious, but of course my red shorts and white Lazy Runner top and hat, stood out in the city where 99% of the population wear black, I just ran and ran my heart was pounding, I felt that everyone in the streets was staring or glaring at me, it was the scariest three blocks I have ever run in mylife...I fixed my eyes on the Acropolis and prayed for Appollo to give me strength to make it up there..I did of course and what I saw was incredible...it was worth the run through the Gaza to get to it! However, I must admit I was not looking forward to the return trip, it was a matter of head down and run fast, I cannot believe that this city is the birthplace of the marathon and they were looking at me like I was an alien for running in their city!

The last day in Greece was unforgettable. We had a wonderful day viewing some of the world’s most ancient landmarks, the Acropolis, Hadrian’s Arch and the Columns of Zeus…that evening we ate at the Greek restaurant we had been at the night before as it was so good, and close to our hotel. We didn’t want to venture far as we had heard that it was the two week anniversary of the student's death which had started all the riots, and you could get a sense of the drama building in the afternoon as the riot police starting taking their positions on the street corners around our hotel. We went to bed early; I had a final check of my balcony to see if my storm troopers were insitu down below ,they were!
David was awoken two hours later to gunshots and loud bombing noises, we both were trying to sneak peeks out of our sixth floor window, and we noted that the storm troopers had their gas masks on and shields up, we both crept back to bed and put the blankets over our head, bullet proof protection!!…at midnight the hotel management calmly rang our room to tell us that the hotel had been tear gassed and would be kindly open our windows,however there is nothing to worry about….nothing to worry about..David couldn’t resist opening  the door to our hotel room and of course the hall way was filled with smoke, he shut it quickly but just the whiff was enough to start us sneezing and the eyes were running.
We did as we were told, opened the window and then assumed our protective positions, in bed with the blanket over our heads and listened to the gun fire and yelling for the rest of the night. It was with a little pleasure that we were checking out of our hotel the next morning, the foyer was still infected with the tear gas. I would hate to have a full blown effect of the stuff as just the small amount we encountered had a dramatic effect on our sinuses...I was using the internet in thefoyer on the morning we were leaving and the whole time the tears were streaming down my face and I was sneezing constantly..David said what are you doing down here in the gassy foyer...hey whats a touch of tear gas when there is free internet, it’s hard to come by overseas!
We left Athens and hired a car to take us to Delphi, one of the sites of the oldest remains of civilization. It is a wonderful village high in the Greek mountains; it was snowing when we arrived. The ancient ruins are amazing, they are built into the side of a mountain, and there is a theatre, a sporting arena and even a gymnasium, those old Greeks were really into their fitness.

On the way back to Athens I made David take a detour to find the township of Marathonis,the home of the first marathon. They have a museum there, but it was closed, so we drove the marathon course, I had planned to run it but glad I didn’t at is it’s the most unspectacular marathon course I've ever seen, the only highlight is the end which is the ancient Olympic stadium. It is still used annually for the Athen's marathon, but believe me it’s not pretty and you couldn’t run it on a normal day, the road is a very busy motorway with limited  footpaths and unending suburbia...so it was a little disappointing, but I was glad I got to see it.

We had another night in Athens, but a different hotel this time! I ran on my final morning,  to the original Olympic stadium, you cannot run around the track, but you can look at it and imagine what the first Olympics must have been like, from there I ran a couple of kilometres of the marathon course, but as I said very hard with traffic and lack of paths, then I turned and ran back to the stadium, pretending I was finishing the Olympic marathon, I couldn’t do a lap of honor, but I pretended I did.    Read On...