Having just returned yesterday from a five-day whirl through Greece, there is still a lot to process back in here in rainy Berlin. But I wanted to put this up, a short video of our chance encounter with Olympic history when we managed last Wednesday to run into a Greek-American tour guide at the foot of the Acropolis hill. She asked if we spoke English and told us that while it hadn’t been publicized at all, the passing of the Olympic torch for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver was set to happen right there in half an hour. So we scrambled up the hill to plant ourselves feet away from the grand columns of the Parthenon, a gaggle of camera-pointing reporters, the Olympic flame flickering in a bronze bowl, Greek medalist Vassilis Polymeros and his futuristic-looking torch. As predicted, the event was sparsely attended with only about 70 people observing, giving us that odd and pleasant feeling of accidental exclusivity. The video gets a little shaky after the torch is lighted as I’m trying to simultaneously navigate rocks and point the camera, but it rights again as Polymeros passes westward before the female figures (Porch of the Maidens) of the Erechtheum building in the distance. The torch was flown to Canada two days later to begin a 45,000 km journey across that huge country. (Our friend said the Olympics weren’t doing the usual worldwide run this time around after the “trouble with China” last year.) By the way, that’s Yuhang yelling “woo hoo!” as the torch catches fire. It was pretty momentous. Man, I really wanna go for a run right now.

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