Day 96 (Athens/Corinth)

An early wakeup in order to get to Corinth at a decent hour, as we were set to leave Corinth around 3-4PM in order to get back for the last Greek league soccer match at 7PM. A great day was in the making. We ended up catching the 9:40AM bus to Corinth, I read through Corinthians to get a feel for what took place in this city, and we arrived around 10:40AM. Yet, we arrived in the modern day Corinth, the ancient city that we wanted to travel to was another 8KM away. We grabbed something to eat on the run and then purchased bus tickets to the old city, unfortunately, we soon found out that the bus doesn’t run on Sundays! Blah! This resulted in us wasting a few Euro, and then catching a taxi. But not before we got a good look at the waterfront of Corinth, which a giant statue of Pegasus overlooks.

When we arrived in the city, the contrast to the modern Corinth was very noticeable. This was truly a humble looking village-city. We immediately saw some old ruins in the background, and walked towards them. The first thing we went into was an old Theatre. This theatre was one of the most unique of its time, it was positioned under ground level, and was actually able to fill with water and drain – making water type scenes available in the play writes. Paul also preached in this theatre to the city of Corinth, and multiple other biblical events. It obviously was in ruins in today’s age, but the impact was still there. While we were moseying around in there, two things happened, 1) We found a baby turtle, and named it Pavlos (Paul in Greek)… and 2) a Christian tour group showed up and spoke about some of the events more in depth, which we sat and listened to for a half hour or so. Pretty interesting stuff.

After this we headed to the museum of Corinth, housing a temple of Apollo a few old fountains, all of which are included in the ancient ancient city of Corinth, from as old as 200BC. There were remnants of old shops, houses and wells. It was a cool place, in the background was a tremendous mountain of which a castle perched a top. This is seen in most of the pictures I took on this site.

We left here, and were attempting to head back to Corinth. I say attempted, because there are no taxis here. We tried to hitchhike, probably 50 cars passed us without any more than a laugh or a sorry not going that way. So it turned into a "welp" moment and we started to walk towards Corinth, we went about a KM I would say until a taxi was spotted. We flagged him down and jumped in, along with an old lady (bless you) who was already in the taxi. This took us into the city and we grabbed some food and then headed on our way. I had a “Special Sandwich,” which consisted of ham, cheese, hamburgers, tomato, Hungarian salad and french fries. It was 4 euro, and delicious. J

Now jumping to the Olympianos soccer game, 3 things…Tear Gas, Gate 7, Olympianos victory. When we arrived, it was about 6:40, the game starts at 7. We found out where they sold tickets and got in line, the English speaking part was a bit of an issue, the girl didn’t really know what we wanted, and basically we narrowed it down to two gates (somehow?) gate 7 or 28. Gate 7 was more behind the net than 28 was, and also 10 euro cheaper. Gate 7 was 30 euro for the both of us. I tried to ask which side was the home side, but she didn’t seem to comprehend me. We ended up getting gate 7 tickets. As we were walking to our gate, an army of police with riot shields and full body armor were headed into the streets. People were against the fences on all levels, shouting at the police and throwing things. This was going to be an interesting game. Once we got to our spot, we didn’t know what we got ourselves into. The players came onto the field a few minutes after we got there. Our section BURSTED into cheering, lighting flares, shooting off fireworks, shouting songs in unison and waves flags the size of minivans. Brent and I couldn’t help to join in on the madness. Looking around, I noticed the other sections were not as rambunctious as this gate 7 was. Then I recalled how countless graffiti’s we had seen on the way were “Olympianos 7” or “gate 7”. The flags all mentioned something about gate 7. Gate 7 is the place to be, this is the die-hard fan section. It was insane. We stood the entire game, and sang, shouted, and cheered. The atmosphere was unbelievable. For some reason, 19 minutes into the game, tear gas started spreading into the stadium via our side. It must have had something to do with the riot, people came out of the tunnel teary eyed and coughing. Everyone started covering their mouths and closing their eyes, the players were escorted off the field. It was on the brink of unleashing chaos. Luckily, this didn’t last too long, and 15 minutes after it started, peace was restored, and the cheering continued. Olympianos were the first to score, the stadium erupted, this was followed by the opposing team scoring, and then Olympianos getting a PK in stoppage time of the first half. There was no more scoring for the second half – but the atmosphere was still nuts throughout the game. It was a great experience, and I am sure if I knew some of the songs a little better, other than “ooooo laaaayyyy oooooo laaaaaay” – it would have been even better. But I couldn’t have asked for a more packed day full of fun. And the best part is, this isn't even over.