PAOK-Panetolikós 1-0 (like eating pizza in Havana)

There I was, at Toumba stadium, yesterday, watching the last minutes of “my” PAOK's championship game against Panetolikós, wondering what I could write about this game. “We” were 1-0 up since early in the second half, sure, we WERE winning, we were minutes away from our 14th win in 19 championship matches so far this season, three more points were about to be earned, but... all I could think of for this blog entry, was eating pizza in Havana(!)...

Back in July-August 2009 I spent two Unforgettable (capital “U”) weeks at the enchanting capital city of Cuba, and since I was traveling on a tight budget, I chose to eat every day at places where the locals would eat, paying in “CUP” (this is how it appears on websites like oanda.com, “Cuban Peso”), skipping places where tourists would eat (and pay in “CUC”, “Cuban Convertible Peso”).

Now, if you haven't been to Cuba, this CUP Vs CUC thing may be... Greek-Chinese to you, so... let's just say that a meal in a “touristy” restaurant, paid in CUC, can, at best, be “affordable”, even if you are traveling on a tight(-tight) budget. A meal in a “where locals eat” place though, paid in CUP, is (at least “was”, back in my days there), “d i r t  c h e a p”, costing no more than a few cents of a euro. Literally. Personally, I chose to... “eat like a local”, save a big deal, and spend it on other... joys of life, other than food.

“ΠΑΝΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΕΙΟΣ ΑΘΛΗΤΙΚΟΣ ΟΜΙΛΟΣ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ” (“Pan-Thessalonican Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans), the... tongue-twisting full name of PAOK (ΠΑΟΚ)

I did have to eat, though, and one of the easiest/cheapest ways out of feeling hungry was grabbing a pizza or two, small ones, easily THE poorest pizzas I have eaten in my life. Poor or POOR, two of those were more than enough for me. Upon finishing them, I was no longer hungry. Sure, I hadn't really-really enjoyed a... memorable culinary experience, a minute after wiping my mouth I would have forgotten all about it, but the truth remained, I was no longer hungry, I could hunger-free go on and enjoy other things that I thought mattered more (than food).

PAOK did win, that 1-0 didn't change, but despite the glorious blue sky (the game started at 3pm), the “friendly” temperature (14-15 Celsius), and the plain joy of just being in my second home (Toumba stadium), despite all these, the afternoon felt... “spoiled” by what was a lethally boring (more like “lethargic”) PAOK performance, which made the fans boo right after the ref's final whistle.

The hunger for points had been satisfied, we had gone from 42 to 45, but the “meal” that had made the hunger go away (until next weekend), had truly been pitifully poor...