Blackburn\'s Trip To Athens: Journal One

The photos from the plane are far southeastern Italy. Brindisi is a port city from the Roman/Greek period and the heel is the heel of the Italian boot.

I arrived in Athens on Monday and spent most of Tuesday going to meetings, getting my uniform and visiting the Olympic stadium. They were installing the grass on the infield, composed of 5'x5' pallets of sod. Here are a couple of views of that. I went to the Acropolis on Wednesday. No, I did not get to go to the Olympia shot put competition, but I watched some of it on TV.

The main competition started on Friday. I was officiating the Heptathlon HJ in the morning and the qualifying competition for the women's discus in the evening. Saturday evening I was working with the running events. There are two sessions (morning and evening) of competition. In the morning sessions, the officials wear a white shirt, tie, and white hat. During the evening, we lose the hat and add a blue blazer.

Things are going well. After about six days I am pretty well settled and know my way around. Best to all.

John

Pictures courtesy of John Blackburn. Click here for a photo album of Blackburn's Trip To Athens.