For a moment, I had to step back. I just wanted to take in what I was hearing. In the midst of the 1996 Summer Olympics, I was at a hotel in downtown Atlanta with a good friend. We were standing aside two other ladies, whom we did not know, listening to a speech on the highlights of Athens, Greece. My friend and I listened as the speaker, himself a native of Greece, spoke of Athens’ history, its culture, and its desire to host the Games. But, it was not the speech itself that caught me off guard. It was the fact that he was speaking in Spanish. In the summer of 1996, I volunteered with the host committee for the Olympic Games in Atlanta. One of the benefits of volunteering with the Games was admittance into places and events otherwise off limits to the general public. One such area was the bid lounges for the cities competing to host the 2004 Summer Games. For the duration of the Games, the organizing committee of each city had occupied a room at a d...
A truthful and often amusing take on travel . . . and life, in general.