18 Days in August, an Olympic Blog

For the uninitiated I would like to inform you that weightlifting has won the most medals for Greece than any other sport in the last 20 years (maybe wrestling has a longer history).
So when I was ordering my Olympics tickets last year in the first allocation, I was hoping to get the category right and be able so see some of the members of the Greek Weightlifting Dream Team.
Alas I was totally wrong and in this session there were no Greek competitors.
I went to Nikaia Weight Lifting Hall, hoping to sell the tickets outside the venue. Things did not look good from the beginning because the bus taking us to the hall was full of similarly minded Greeks that were trying to flog their tickets.
When I arrived to the hall, the ticket office was surrounded by people waiving their tickets. Still I managed to sell one ticket to a Russian guy (who paid in Dollars!) before the Police started moving on the other people telling them that is is illegal to re-sell the tickets!
I spoke with the site manager and explained that we are not touts and that he is the only one that enforces this law. All the other Olympic sites I have been to and most of Central Athens have been converted to ticket bazaars!
Still he said that he was responsible for this site and that was that... so having to hope in recouping the rest of my money I decided to enjoy the evening.
The Weightlifting hall itself is another gem in Athens' Olympic crown.It is built in Nikaia one of the less "fortunate" areas of Athens, that have provided a steady stream of athletes for this manly sport.
If I am not mistaken it is the only custom built Weightlifting Hall in the World. Although I believe it can make a very cosy indoor concert hall as well (which Athens always lacked).
It is built on the slope of a hill so you have a magnificent view of the Pireus harbour with all its cruise ships and yachts moored there for the Olympics.
Having seen quite alot of weightlifting on TV before I went there, I felt like home in all the familiar surroundings. Things look far smaller in reality than on TV.
What surprised me was that there were loads of people there, from the competing countries (Austrians, Russians, Ukrainians, Iranians, Hungarians, etc), couple of Irish with a flag (what were they doing there?) and offcourse loads of Greeks. I was very impressed by the fact that the Greek supporters like their weightlifting and cheered all the competitors in true Olympic spirit.
We had loads of fun in the end, although the price tag (€45/90) for the tickets was not exactly value for money for 1.5 hours of competition. If you consider that Athletics is 4-5 hours for the same price, or even Equestrian which is half a day.