Friday 13 August 2004...a night to remember indeed! Andreas was there and presents to you the best photos from the opening ceremony, for which he used his then new Sony 5.1 MP DSC-P93 digital camera. As you can understand from the photos, Andreas was allocated a wonderful position as he was sitting from the TV side and close to the Olympic Flame, even though he bought one of the "cheap" tickets (the cheapest tickets cost 300 Euros or $350!) and had to sit in one of the last rows at the top, as you can see in the photo above. How Andreas got so lucky? Simple: he bought his ticket a year in advance, immediately after tickets went on sale. 

Andreas and all the lucky spectators found an Athens 2004 carton bag waiting in their seat. Inside the bag there was the beautiful official program, a small light that was used by everyone during the ceremony and created the illusion of the stars at the moments when the lights went down, and a small bell which you probably heard during most of the ceremony as a constant background, even though it was supposed to be used only when the huge bells rung at the entrance of the Olympic Flame.

Even though you have probably watched the event on TV or even bought the official DVD, there is nothing quite like being there! And these photos try to convey the excitement and the magic of the opening ceremony of what were destined to go down in history as "unforgettable...dream Games". 

Just click on the photos below to see the full picture: enjoy!

Athens 2004 Home	Opening Ceremony	Closing Ceremony
Athletics	Basketball	Volleyball