18 Days in August, an Olympic Blog

Returning to Athens from New York for the first time in 14 months in order to witness this historic event is a jarring experience. The city is freshly painted, the stadiums ready and waiting, the people excited and everything seems to be ready for the big moment tomorrow. However, I cannot shake the feeling that there is something missing in some way from the games and the city, and I will attempt to document this dichotomy over the next few days.

In short, five things about the city that are beyond expectations:

• New construction everywhere - the billions of euros spent in infrastructure are clearly seen in an incredible metro system (makes me wish that NYC would wake up and spend some real money to move the subway system to the 21st century, but I know I will be returning to the same tired, creaky and badly designed stations that have not seen a fresh coat of paint in decades), the new, well paved sidewalks in the city centre, fresh paint everywhere, vastly improved public squares (with Syndagma becoming a late-might mingling destination, Omonoia's previous sins partially covered, Exarheia seeing its first change in more than 20 years and only Kolonaki's hideous cement towers spoiling the fun) and of course, many, many new roads, stadiums and athletic complexes. But more on that when the games begin...
• Volunteers - from a country not particularly attuned to working for free (or working at all as some of our western allies seem to be implying in their rather bitter if somewhat accurate diatribes against the construction delays) the vast outpouring of volunteer effort is a welcome surprise. Tens of thousands of people in Athens 2004 shirts putting the finishing touches on street aesthetics, directing tourists to the venues, handling crowd control, protesting their garish uniforms...It's quite a sight, and should make many anti-games cynics (of which there are still many here) soften up somewhat.
• The sense of excitement is palpable. People may only have realised the games are starting in the last month, but have now started mobbing the ticketing booths and are eager to participate in any event, even the most obscure ones (and for Greece, this includes baseball, softball, field hockey, cricket... the latter not yet being an olympic sport does not detract people from asking for tickets for its preliminaries). More than just ticket sales however, the true measure of success of these Olympics is the people in the buses and the trains that are proud about the new stadiums and roads, incredibly friendly to tourists and eagerly discuss the fine points of baseball rules and the US's decline in basketball. Euro2004's triumph has certainly given a big push to all sports here, and this combined with the country's desire to prove to the world that it can be a world-class host has brought emotions to fever pitch.
• Life goes on in its usual, languid August summer ways - people eating out late, going from bar to bar, going for a swim, enjoying life and revelling in the glorious late evening sunshines. The world may be focused on the city, but for Athenians this is still the sacred holidays and nothing can disrupt the feeling of relaxation and easy living that is the hallmark of the summer season.
• Security - obviously too much money was spent to install highly dubious security software and systems in order to placate a few countries' fears, but the result is impressive, if somewhat antithetical to the peaceful nature of the games (having Patriot missiles out in the open is surely an Olympic first). People are, of course, sure nothing is going to happen and are going about their ways as normal. More should have been done to advertise this, and perhaps more people from the US would have come as a result, but in the end, this country chooses not to live in fear and views the games as a fun time to be had by all, not an excuse for terror-mongering.

Despite the excellence displayed above however, some things are really not well in the city of Athens.

• Lack of tourists; or rather, a severe drought, if not an outright disappearance. Officially, tourism is down 20% this year, but walking the streets of Athens you can actually play spot-the-tourist and be very bored by the lack of action. It's quite a shock to see an Olympic city virtually empty of visitors; not only does it detract from one of the main reasons of hosting the games but it also makes the whole experience more like a Sunday game local football match rather than the significant international event it should be. There are many reasons why the city is empty, including bad advertising campaigns that failed to entice people to come here, lack of forethought and eventual complete abandonment of the media relationship to knee-jerk reactions against the almost constant allegations about lax security and construction delays, the decline of the US dollar and others. It is incredibly disappointing, whatever the percentage of each cause that contributed to this.
• Lack of natives; in addition to the lack of visitors mentioned above, many Athenians have run away from the city in a ritual repeated religiously every year. Despite the fervent enthusiasm of those who chose to stay behind, the vast majority of Athens is on vacation, the streets are empty and many stores closed. If it were not for the Olympics volunteers and the special lane in the streets accessible only to those participating in the games one would have no idea the world's most important athletic event is taking place here. Athens is quite sleepy; this is part of its charm in the summer but feels very out of place for this occasion.
• Sloppiness in many of the construction projects ; due to the rush to complete things on time, many of the niceties have been pared down or completely yanked. Things like beautification of the cement monsters that have been built, paving, painting, and most other finishing touches have been abandoned, with olympic-themed banners draped over the most obvious holes in a vain attempt to make them look less conspicuous. However, people do notice the dirt in the streets and the dried out flowers that have been planted straight on cement, and is a very bad view of the city to those who care to look beyond the surface.
• The usual conspiracy theorists and politicians coming out of the woodwork to rain on the parade; from the usual stalinists deploring the 'exploitation' and calling for mass absence from the games, to the various anarcho-factions wishing to make a break from their holiday island excursions and make themselves heard by spray painting the walls, to the rampant anti-americanism (always a favourite sport of the Greeks even in much happier times for the US internationally) threatening to engulf even the most neutral observers and people placing even bets on the likelihood of the US team being booed at their introduction in tomorrow's opening ceremony, to the doom-and-gloom merchants forecasting mass poverty, starvation and pestilence after the games are over, to those complaining incessantly about the cost and assumed corruption (especially if they didn't get a chance to get corrupted themselves), Athens is its typical blend of cosmopolitanism and backwardness, not the outward looking city it hoped to be for this event.

Despite the griping above, it continues to be a privilege to be here for this event, and the good things far outweigh the bad. It should be a brilliant opening ceremony tomorrow, and a wonderful and peaceful games. We'll surely find more things to complain about as the games progress (we are the dark Mediterranean type, after all, what would we be without complaining?) but the overall effect is of a positive, happy country engaging in the games. Perhaps not in the way one would expect, and certainly not like most other countries in the world, but nevertheless in good spirit and with immense pride. It should be a wonderful experience; those who have chosen not to come out of fear will have missed something quite unique. We'll attempt to share some of it here over the next two and a half weeks.