Vravrona? - 10 kilometers - to the left.
The love of horses has dragged me to many places in the world. In 2004, Greece was no exception. I attended the Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece with my two friends Teddie and Amy. Despite the insane heat and eternally long days, we had a great time.
We have lots of memories from the Games but who can forget some of the catchy phrases that came out of this trip.
(Click on the phrase for the full story.)
After months and months of trying to find an available hotel room, we finally gave up and rented a house on the coast. It was your traditional European home with none of the creature comforts of home, but it was for a short time, our home. Getting to our home away from home was a bit of a challenge. We finally decided to stop and ask for directions. The gentleman affirmatively told us "10 kilometers, to the left" (as he was pointing to the right). After we confirmed the actual direction we headed out...and still couldn't find the place. So we stopped for directions again and asked a different person and we received the same response..."10 kilometers, to the left" (as he was pointing to the right). Once again, we couldn't find the place and headed out again. Finally, I said to Amy, ok, one more time, let's ask for directions and the said, your going to go ask the guy in the Speedo. So, as I slowed the car so she could get out and ask, the guy reached into his Speedo and started scratching away. Nice...so gross... Eventually, we did find our house and when we told the house rental company the story and showed him the map, he said that it was no wonder we couldn't find the place, the travel company left an entire city off the map! Back
On our first adventure away from the events we decided to go to see the Parthenon. After exiting the subway terminal that was clearly marked "Parthenon", we could not see it. So, we asked the next family walking by where it was and silently they pointed up (behind us) and there it was as big as life! Back
It was a little to late in the day to visit the Parthenon, so we decided to just have dinner nearby at a place called Dionysus. While we were there we coincidentally ran in to the American dressage rider, Guenter Siedel who just won the Team Bronze medal just hours earlier. Seeing that we came to the Olympics specifically to cheer on the American dressage team, one can only imagine our delight. As we continued through dinner another group of competitors sat down beside us and Guenter got up and congratulated a women wearing a Silver medal. We made the assumption that this person was Beatriz Salat, one of the dressage riders that one Team Silver in the same competition. Anyway, I got up to use the restroom and then came back. On my way back to my seat, I commented to Beatriz that she had a beautiful horse. She looked at me somewhat confused but thanked me. Suddenly both Teddie and Amy started laughing at me and told me that this women was not Beatriz, but rather, she was the silver medalist for the rowing team! So then the ongoing joke was that I told "Beatriz" that she had beautiful oars. Back
One day, on our way home from the events, we got in our car and I looked at the outside temperature gauge. I remember asking the question "What does 44 equate to in Fahrenheit?". Because we had all been out in the sun all day, none of us could remember the conversion calculation. Finally, after a little research, we figured out that it was 114 degrees that day. Back
On a day when we had the afternoon off, we decided to take a drive along the coast. We stopped at a place for lunch that was located directly on the beach. As we were dining, Amy commented that there was a huge fire across the bay. As we watched the helicopters dipping buckets into the ocean to douse the fire, I believe it was Teddie that asked where our house was. As we gained our bearings, we realized that the fire appeared to be very close to our house. On our way back to the house we ran into road block after road block and could not get to our house. Finally, the fire appeared to be enough under control that they let us get to the house. The fire line ended on the back side of the hill where our house resided. That was close! Back