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MARC TOPKINTimes sportswriter Marc Topkin is in Athens covering the Summer Games. In this online journal, he will share his thoughts and experiences of Athens 2004. While the bay area awaits Hurricane Charley, our writer is just longing for the Olympic adventure to begin.
So far, these have been the Waiting Games.
Having been here a day and a half, we seem to spend more time waiting than anything. Waiting for shuttle buses, waiting for press conferences, waiting to see what might go wrong.
Reports that Athens wasn't ready for the Olympics seem to have been incorrect, in that (most of) the facilities and venues are completed (or are just missing small details like landscaping). It's just that the Greeks seem to like to do things on their own schedule.
The trip over was relatively uneventful -- a flight from Tampa to New York, a 6-hour layover (that we killed by taking a cab into the city for a final U.S. meal at the Carnegie Deli), then a 10-hour overnight flight to Athens.
The highlight? Probably the guy -- who seemed to be some type of freelance camera man -- who got so drunk the flight attendants insisted he move out of his exit row seat. He got so nasty when they told him (about 20 times) they weren't kidding that two undercover agents of some sort took him into one of the plane's galleys as a holding area, and he was taken off the plane by armed Athens police. Welcome to the Olympics.
Our accommodations are dorm rooms at the University of Athens. After waiting about 45 minutes at the airport for the mandatory Olympic shuttle, and then riding around for another 50 or so, we got to the guarded front gate. One of our Texas colleagues was coming out and said she couldn't get into her room because it wasn't ready. We don't think she meant that housekeeping wasn't quite done with daily service.
The dorms were built for the Games, and they are still being finished. Like right now. We have cot-sized beds, air conditioning, tiny showers, TVs that carry two English-speaking stations (CNBC Europe and BBC Europe), phones we can't figure out how to use and construction dust on the floor. Security is rigid: Each time we come back we have to go through an airport-type drill, putting our bags through a scanner and walking through a metal detector.
Our first day and a half mostly have been spent figuring out where to go, attending press conferences, and writing advance stories from the convention-center sized media center. Not much opportunity yet to get outside.
The opening ceremonies are Friday and the Games truly begin on Saturday. We can't wait.
Andio (Goodbye)