March 9, 2020:
It was a rainy day in Athens, but that didn’t stop me from seeing the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and the Panathenaic Stadium (host of the first modern Olympics in 1896). I even got to break plates after dinner!
March 12, 2020:
Little known fact: I’m a HUGE fan of the Olympic Games! Once every 1461 days (4 years), the ceremony at Olympia Greece takes place to light the Olympic flame and begin the torch relay to the host country. (Winter lighting ceremony begins in Athens.) And what are the chances that I JUST HAPPENED to be in Olympia on the day that they were lighting the flame. That’s amazing in itself since it was unplanned. But unfortunately, the police had the ceremony blocked off for spectators (due to the coronavirus), so I was not able to see the lighting of the flame. It was heartbreaking to know that I was THAT CLOSE and unable to see it. However, just to be in Olympia as it was happening is pretty exciting, so I’ll take it as a win. But I didn’t miss out completely. We were downtown before it started, so we got to see the soon-to-be torchbearers walking down the street to take their spots. And then after lunch (and just missing the torch go by), we ended up about 10 cars behind the relay. Or as I’m calling it, we were PART of the torch relay, LOL! We also got to see the stadium of the Ancient Games, and the location of the torch lighting from a distance.
