One week by a soccer stadium

Our escape to Thessaloniki went smoothly, other than the actual trip which was also smooth, but expensive (more on that on another post). Things were very quiet, mostly due to Marianna's absence - she spent the week with her grandparents at Litohoro. This meant fewer hugs for me, but a lot more rest for my humans. So the whole week went by with a lot of naps, walks, and of course, FOOD.

With one exception: soccer matches. I might have mentioned that Maria lives right by the PAOK Stadium in Toumba. This week, we were honored with two games, the first one being between PAOK and ARIS. For those of you not familiar with Greek soccer, PAOK and ARIS have been enemy teams since their very creation. Or rather, their fans have been enemies. Paok fans' hatred for ARIS fans is only surpassed by their hatred towards OLYMPIAKOS' fans (an Athenian team).

SO: PAOK is playing ARIS at the ARIS stadium in a different neighborhood in Thessaloniki. But guess what. Just like American football, the tradition is for all those wack- err, fans - to gather in cafes or restaurants and watch the game. So all around our building there are cafes packed with people. We are not watching the game at home, but we can tell what's going on from the noise outside.

Around midnight it's time for my walk, but mom hesitates to go out. Maria makes fun of mom, saying that living abroad for almost 10 years has turned mom into a paranoid who sees danger all over. After all, the game just finished, the fans are cheering, and in a few minutes they will be gone. Mom has another opinion. Having lived near both PAOK and ARIS stadiums, she's had some bad experiences with fans. Once, on her way home from judo training, she found herself in a bus full of fans, coming back from the game. The fans were really fired up. At some point they made the driver stop, open the door so they could go out and beat a fan of the opposite team, then got on again and continued the ride. At some point many of them got touchy-feely with mom, who of course didn't dare to resist, hoping her stop is not far. She managed to get off with no problems, but this experience has made a bit weary around soccer fans.

Mom waits a bit, and finally we go out at 2am. Surprise surprise! The whole stadium was full of fans who were watching a live broadcast of the game at the other stadium. For some reason it took them 2 whole hours to get out and they did so right as we were coming out of the building.

It's hard to describe what followed. Hundreds of people blocking the streets, cheering, singing, dancing, getting on the special PAOK buses waiting for them outside the stadium, you can imagine the rest. Fortunately PAOK had just won so they were in a good mood. We had no problems getting to the park, in spite of mom's fears and my freaking out from all these people.

Now, I have never been shy in expressing my sentiments towards human stupidity. But at risk of becoming redundant, I do have to say it never ceases to amaze me.