One of our team members visited the 2004 Paralympics in Athens Greece. This is his diary from the trip.

Arrived to Athens (september 22)

We are now settled in Athens. The weather is nice with a tempurature of +25 c. Most of this day was spent chasing tickets for the Champions League Match between Olympiakos and Liverpool. Unfortuanately without result.

Tomorrow we will watch track and field at the Olympic Stadium. We are really looking forward to this. It’s going to be awsome.

Athens so far (september 24)

Day three in Athens has already come and is about to end. So far we have seen the Olympic Stadium and The Akropolis. We have also been down to the Port of Pireuas and ate at a boring fish restaurant and we were disappointed with the food. The subway is working well even though we are travelling with a wheel chair.

Tomorrow we are going to see the bronze and gold games in wheelchair rugby.

Wheelchair rugby (september 25)

Today I’ve have witnessed my first wheelchair rugyb match. We were out in Hellinikio or something like that to see the gold and the bronze games. New Zealand won the gold medal after beating Canada in the final. It was really cool the see the final, in an arena that was packed with fans, and afterwards the prize ceremony.

We also had time to walk a round in Plaka and we rode the bus and subway alot.

Sweden looses (september 26)

Today I have seen my first Goal Ball match. Sweden (my home team) played the olympic final against Denmark. Unfortunately, Denmark won the game. We have also been watching the finals in Boccia.

I have eaten my first greek salad today. The price was just 4 euro, otherwise a lot of things are expensive here. At the hotel, an Amstel 33 cl beer cost 4.80 euro. Same beer was avaible at a street restaurant 500 meters from the hotel and cost only 1.50 euro. That’s a huge price difference.

Tomorrow we are hoping to get down to the beach and try to take a swim in the Medditranean. We got a tip about a beach that should work for disabled people quite well.

At the beach (september 27)

Today we spent most of the day at Athens Riviera. We went, by trolley, down to a place at the coast called Edem. It was nice in the water but the beach wasn’t that good as it was a gravel beach. After swimming, we ate at a nice restaurant before we headed back to the big city jungle.

Tomorrow is our last day before we go home. We don’t know whats happening yet. Maybe a litte bit more of the Paralympics.

Home again (september 30)

Now I’m back home again. The last day we watched 5 a side soccer (5 against 5 soccer). First we saw the bronze game between Greece and Spain and then the final, Brazil vs Argentina. It endend with bronze to Spain and gold for Brazil. It was impresive to see soccer being played by people without any vision.

It was very warm with the tempurature being over +30c and a lot of sun. The trip back home went well even though the Greeks were not so well trained at loading a wheel chair into the airplane.

Written by Johan@journeyreport.com