Life in Patra

Here are some more pictures from our trip to Athens.  Since my last blog Brian and I have been introducing Anita to our domestic life here in Patra.  We have been bowling, to the movies and to lots and lots of meals.  She is enjoying the Souvlaki and Pita (Gyros) as much as I do :-).  On thursday night Yanis, a guy on Brian's team, took us to this really cool bar near the center that played only classic Rock N' Roll.  It was decorated with posters of bands from U2 to Aerosmith to Bon Jovi to Metallica.  It was a really cool place.  On Fri. night we hosted Yanis and Billy for a Mexican meal!  They had NEVER eaten Mexican food before, can you believe it???  We found a market that had some tortillas and avocados and I made some really good guacamole and tacos and we made margaritas.  I think it was a hit.  They liked putting hot sauce on their tacos and ended up crying and sweating all night, but they didn't want to look like they couldn't handle it.  It was really fun.  

For the last three days we have also been watching lots of water polo.  Brian's team (NOP) hosted a tournament this weekend for three other teams.  Two from a town near Athens and the other team here in Patra (named NEP).  On Fri. night they played a team from Vouliagmeni that has another American player on it from the Olympic team, Tim Hutten.  Brian's team won 8-5, Brian scored one goal.  It was good to finally see their team in action!  They have a lot of potential.  It was also good to see Tim, he met us out last night for a drink.  We will be seeing him again next weekend when the tournament travels to their home town.  On Saturday Anita and I went shopping and then to see Brian play the hardest team in the tournament.  They lost by a few but it's ok because it was a really tough team and they are still working out the kinks.  Today they played their rival team, NEP.  There is a HUGE rivalry here between the two because NOP, Brian's team, has been around for basically forever.  At some point some disgruntled players broke away from NOP and created their own team here in Patra, named themselves NEP and gave themselves dolphins as mascots as well.....as you can see they started the rivalry right away.  The rivalry continues on, even more so now because they are currently having to share a pool.  NOP's pool is a really cool outdoor pool on the sea.  Unfortunately, once it gets cold the team can no longer practice there because it costs too much to heat.  They have to bargain with NEP to use their indoor pool for practices and games, and obviously this is quite a challenge.  Their practices are now starting at 9pm at night, often times they turn the lights out on them before they are even finished.  We will see if there will ever be a mutual solution to this problem, after witnessing today, I am not optimistic.  The game started off week for NOP.  The boys, maybe not being used to having to wake up for a 12 o'clock game, seemed a bit sleepy the first half and were down 4-1 after the first quarter and by half time they were down 5-3.  After half time they woke up and started showing NEP what they had and things really got exciting.  It was a very physical match and we all discovered that Brian's coach is quite the screamer!  But Brian scored three goals, the last two being the two winning goals, and NOP won 10-8.  Brian was quite the star after the game.  We were all so happy they won!  After the game we heard that someone (rumor is someone from NEP's "family") had written an article on the Internet basically saying that NOP was going to lose SO badly against NEP that families should not bring their children to the pool to witness such a slaughter.  It was very harsh.....they showed them!  Hopefully they will keep it up and kick their butts next weekend as well!!!