Nick Tselepides 1 Posted August 17, 2004 Athens Olympics: so far, most things have gone smoothly, and they certainly had the best opening ceremony ever staged in the history of the games--a great success, and wonderful in terms of artistic conception. A few basic observations: 1. The games have not disrupted our life as Athenians, as we had feared. 2. Not so many tourists have come. The islands are empty and prices have fallen from 40 euros per day for a room with TV, kitchen, fridge, air condition , to 15 Euros. So come now if you plan a trip to the Greek islands. 3.Some glitches and minor misfortunes: a.Two top athletes had a motorcycle accident--Kenteris and Thanou. b.The head lady of Athens 2004,Mrs Yianna Agelopoulou, the Organizational Committee, had a reception in her villa in Athens and fired off pyrotechnics and fireworks to please the international VIP guests of hers and set off 26 or so fires in the wooded area around her villa, scaring the hell out of guest and neighbours who saw their trees burning and their houses threatened with fire--luckily the Firemen were on standby at 100 meters, so they put the fires out.The case is at D.A.'s office now--and might lead her to court. She is also being sued by the mayor of the area, and the Greek government is thinking of banning all such fireworks. The Prime Minister, Karamanlis, who was a guest in her graden party, left early with his wife, "disgusted with her snobbish showoff party"--according to Greek papers. I wonder what would have happened if, with her rocket fireworks, she had burned the pants off of Bush Senior, Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair, etc.... That would have given the world a laugh.... That is the long and short of it so far. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
finiteless 0 Posted August 17, 2004 LOL, that's quite a mental picture hehe ... lucky the PM got out unscathed! Hey, I saw those Greek guys who won gold at the Diving, and boy, did they go off! Had me laughing. Congrats over that one! I have a close friend who works at the National Observatory of Athens and he says he was present for that one hehe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
