Off to Cyprus

Friday June 10th....Sorry this one is a little long but so much is happening!

The teams split up today, to travel to three different routes. Basically there are 3 routes: my team is running in the Greek Islands, and the other two are on the mainland.  There are 30 of us, police, and 3 Special Olympic Athletes, who stay with us the whole time; they are not competing in the games, so this way of including both them and numerous support staff in the experience. First stop Cyprus until Sunday. Today we got to the Athens Airport and were greeted by many media people and the Airport Manager did a speech. From there a 1 hour flight to Cyprus, the Captain did a special announcement on the plane, which had approximately 80 to 100 people on board. Upon arrival we were met once again with more media cameras, etc... We then waited a long time to proceed into the airport and were greeted by several officials, Special Olympic Athletes and a big police band playing in the back ground.  At each of these ceremonies one of us is designated to give a speech along with one of our athletes. At the airport it was our officer from Cypress and our athlete Adam Hays from USA. The Cyprus police chief gave a speech.

Then we embarked on a 40 minute bus ride to a resort area of Larnaka, Cyprus. We all ran for about 1.5 kms, into an outdoor plaza, called Europis Square, where there were several media and lots of people. More speeches (noticing a trend? J) and then a performance on stage by the locals in a cultural dance.

After that, we went on another long bus ride over 2 hours, but my team entertained themselves by taking photos of each other sleeping, I am with some very crazy and fun guys and girls! From there we went to another resort town, called Pafos, it is a beautiful resort, a lot of English-speaking tourists must come here as everything is in English. There was a giant board walk 3x the size of the White Rock one. We ran through it while many people were seated in outdoor restaurant patios along the water, Spectacular!!  Everyone was cheering us on and clapping, quite moving.

We then arrived to something that I don't think I can really explain....

We arrived to a venue with over 200 people seated outside in front of a giant stage, beside it was an old army fortress, with several stage actors made up. After welcoming speeches, our athletes lit a giant cauldron flame, which continued burning the whole time we were there…speeches and more speeches…Then there was a special performance of music and dance and some kind of poetry. It was apparently the story of Odysseus; he travelled for over 10 years and was tortured before he finally came home...  After that many people began clapping and cheering us on as we walked slowly out. 

Now we are at resort hotel called the Paphos Gardens Hotel. We checked in and had 10 minutes to shower and show up for dinner (well after 10 pm).  What happened next was amazing… each of us were given 3 separate gift bags, containing special chocolates, carvings, hats, etc... then a welcoming speech and an unbelievable buffet dinner. This place is something out of a fairy tale...

Enough about me….we have another early start and travel day lots of running and more speeches on Saturday... I do mine next week...

If my jet lag and acclimatizing aren’t making me too foggy, I think today was the completion of the final leg of the Law Enforcement Torch Run in Delta. We’re all running for the same amazing cause - there will be over 7,000 Special Olympic Athletes competing after we open the ceremonies on June 25. Support from police officers across the region, province, country and world help to make this event so amazing and we should all be so proud… so thanks to all of you that ran and those of you that supported the run… you are in the hearts of every athlete here.