50,000 Screaming Greeks and a Few Anarchists

Getting Ready for the Game
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Our time in Athens was quickly coming to an end.  We had seen the Acropolis and all the major sights in the city, we had visited the monasteries in Meteora, we had explored the ruins of ancient Corinth and Myceane, and we had even taken a cruise around some of the Greek islands.  There was one more sight we really wanted to see before heading home: the National Archeological Museum which houses many of the original sculptures and artifacts we had learned about on our other adventures.  So, Saturday morining we jumped on the metro and headed off.

Geoff and Shelley at the Olympic Stadium
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Now, our tour guide earlier in the week had told us that Saturday was a hoilday.  Apparently, in 1973, a group of students staged a protest by locking themselves in the university.  They were protesting the dictator and demanding freedom of speech, voting rights, etc.  On November 17, the dictator decided to end the protest and sent in the army.  Tanks broke through the locked gates and many students were killed.  This event served as the beginning of the end for the dictator, and eventually democracy was restored to Athens.

We noticed another procession paralleling the march one street away: the riot police.

Greece scored... set off a smoke bomb!
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So, our tour guide told us that on Nov. 17th, people gather at the university to lay wreaths and children dance and wave flags in the streets.  What she forgot to tell us is that in 1973, the Greek dictator was supported by the U.S. government and those who gather to "lay wreaths" at the university then march to the U.S. Embassy where they have their annual anti-American protest!

So when we got off the metro and noticed the hundreds of police officers just standing around (red flag #1) my first thought was, "Cool, there are lots of cops here. If anything happens we should be pretty safe." Not kowing exactly where to go, we asked one of the officers for directions.  He said, "Walk towards that large group of people (red flag # 2) down there and you'll see it."  As we got closer to the large group, we noticed that they were marching towards us... and they were not waving cute little Greek flags, they were waving anarchy signs (red flag #3). We weren't quite ready to give up on the museum yet until we passed the anarchists and noticed another procession paralleling the march one street away: the riot police complete with helmets, batons, and those cool plexiglass shields you see on the news (red flag #4)!  Needless to say, we aborted our mission to the Archeological Museum and headed towards more tourist friendly areas.

We decided to keep a low profile the rest of the day and to avoid places where large crowds may gather... so we went to the the Greek national soccer team's match at the Olympic Stadium.  Not likely for there to be many people there (wink).  Twenty of us decked out in Greece garb, complete with some of the girls writing "Hellas" on their faces, and headed to the amazing stadium built for the 2004 Olympics.  It was really exciting to be there because Shelley and I watched the closing ceremonies of these olympics while in the hospital having Ryan!  The game wasn't very exciting.  Greece played Malta which is similar to the U.S. national basketball team taking on Canada.  Greece won 5-0.  But the experience was great.  Everytime Greece scored (which seemed to be every few minutes) people danced, sang, and even let off smoke bombs.  Quite a different experience than attending a professional sporting event in the States!  What a great way to end our time in Greece!