After a long hiatus, due to traveling through Israel, I am back. We just got back from Israel yesterday; however, this blog post is going to be about what we did the night before we left for Israel.
After about two weeks of living in the Artemis with no real travel under this semester’s belt, the students were anxious to do something big. So, the night before we were to leave for Israel, just about all the students found something big to do. Probably not the best time to go out and do stuff, but no one could resist. About 5 students went with Vicky (our receptionist and Greek teacher) to go see a play in downtown Athens. In addition to that, 17 students and myself went to the AEK football (American soccer) game in Athens.
Those of us going to the game first went to the mall in Athens. We had a couple of hours to walk around, shop (if you so chose) and eat dinner. One of the students and I split a bucket at KFC in the Athens mall. It tasted great! It was almost identical to the KFC back home. A bunch guys went to the Ruby Tuesday in the mall and ate a ridiculous amount of ribs.
The stadium is just one subway stop from the mall, but we decided to walk it because the time on our previous tickets had expired and we didn’t want to have to pay another 1.40 euro (yes, they have raised the price of subway tickets, while we’ve been here this semester!) just to go one stop when we would have to buy tickets again after the game. Also, I wasn’t exactly sure where the subway stop was around the Olympic complex (the game was being played in the 2004 Olympic Stadium). It only took us about 15 minutes to walk there from the mall.
As we entered into the stadium complex many from our group bought scarves and other AEK paraphernalia. As our group purchased items at the stands entering the park we were told a very colorful (to say the least) story of a drunken fan’s favorite AEK football victory…
Our seats were amazing. We were about row 19 I believe, from the field! We were right even with the goal line. If you bisected the corner-kick corner that line would just about hit us. Needless to say we got to see a great game on our end of the field.
This was my first soccer game to ever go to, even though I played the game from kindergarten through 10th or 11th grade. It was so much fun. If we were about at 11 o’clock in the stadium, on the ground level, then AEK’s “super-fans” were at about 6-7 o’clock in the upper deck. They were really something to watch. They threw toilet paper and flares and yelled songs all game long. The stadium was really empty. In fact there was only maybe 20 people in front of us, in all the 18 rows below us in our section. Only half of the stadium was being used, and it was not very full at all. I should also tell you that this was some sort of a rivalry game, from what I’ve been told. The team name was Aris (after Ares, god of war) and they were from Thessaloniki (you may know it as biblical Thessalonica).
After the game we walked back to the mall’s metro station and got on the rail to head back home. As we waited on the platform for our metro, fans were there, chanting and singing, even though AEK lost 2-1. Even once the metro got there the fans were singing on the actual metro as we zipped across Athens and into the outlying areas. Dr. James met us at the Koropi metro station since the buses had quit running for the night. He took all the girls back and then came back for all us guys.
Even though “our team” AEK lost, we didn’t care. It was still an awesome cultural experience and I hope that this group will want to go back for another game. I’m always down for a game. Especially since the ticket for our great seats only cost 20 euro, not a bad deal… I guess.
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