Believe it or not, this was a Greek experience!

You can't really see the sign very well, but we are standing outside a theater on Greek opening night of HP7.  But I swear, it was a Greek experience!  It was one of Athens' outdoor theaters, with folding chairs, tables interspersed (each with its ash tray...) and a view of the moon.  The experience also highlighted some differences between Greek and American culture.  I asked about Harry Potter when I first saw the poster and was told a week in advance that yes, it would be crowded, and that we needed to come at 8:50pm.  Another delegation went a few days later to buy our tickets in advance, as of course you'd have to in the US if you wanted to see the first show, right? 

We had an early dinner (7pm) and went to the theater by 8 for the 8:50 show.  The place was open, but they were really confused:  "You have tickets?"  They wanted to see the numbers -- how could we have tickets when they'd just opened?  They looked at the numbers and started exclaiming, "Oh, it is the deka-octo (the 18)!"  The man then looked at me and said that he remembered me coming a week early and asking him about whether it would be in English and when to come, he remembered me!  "The deka-octo!"  Apparently they'd sold 18 tickets in advance, and we had 14 of them.  So they let us go in early and choose our seats.  45 minutes passed, and a few people trickled in, buying tickets just as they arrived.  Then it was 8:50, the theater was suddenly mostly (but only mostly!) full, the lights went off and although it wasn't QUITE dark yet (and there was a nearly full moon), the movie began.  It was great -- at first there was a lot of talking (the Greeks read the subtitles, and don't need to hear the English) and the sound was low, but they turned it up a few minutes later and it was fine, until the intermission -- tense moment and then, BOOM!  Advertisement, lights on and everyone is getting up.  We'd forgotten about intermissions, so the students were all completely startled. I love the outdoor theaters in Greece.  They hide on rooftops or in between buildings, just folding chairs on dirt, but with a concession stand that serves ice cream, coffee, food, beer and wine (reminds me of the San Marco Theater in Jax!).  The cool evening breezes play across the people, the sounds of the city are muffled, but there you are watching Harry Potter!  We had just eaten, so didn't buy much, but around us people had a lot of food.  We put two and two together and realized that this wasn't the main showing, the 11:15 showing was the big busy one -- this one was right smack dab in the middle of dinner!  As we left, we saw a line of people waiting to come in -- THAT was the crowded show I'd been warned about!  We went to the matinee at 8:50pm!