The trip to the wonderful city of Stuttgart
All trips for us here in Stockholm always starts at the Arlanda airport, the distances are to big for us to travel in other way, but on ther hand it is the coolest way to travel! To arrive at the Stuttgart airport and have minibusses waiting for us... well, that's a luxury that we can easily get use to.

Funny things aside... the organisation of the host city was excellent. Mini busses, great hotels and a BIG sports hall for the big event are some of the key words that describes how our trip to and from Stuttgart was. But nothing is worth without the peple... these wonderful people that made us feel like real honorary guests.

Friday (which was our first day on sight) was the day to lodge at the hotel but the evening had a suprise for us. Our friends made sure that we were welcomed at the official banquet that was helded at our twin hotel. As soon as we got there, we got the first taste of our friend's hospitality with a great reception... of course there was good food, interesting speaches and as always Pontian music and dance. To start your stay in the festival city like this is the best way and were are humbilly thankful and honoured that we were aloud to be there!

On Saturday we had everything from dance training together with Thodorakis Topalidis (and Tassos Tourountzas), shopping and lunch at the local shopping mall and a ride with the Berlin bus to the sporthall. What happened that evening and night? Read here!

On Sunday our program was a little incertain but there were many suprises for us. Everything began when Thodoros, Vassilis and Tassos T came by our hotel in the morning to say farewell because they were leaving home. After an hour they were back together with Sophia K, Sevasti, Sophia D, Giorgos K, Christos, Elvina and Pavlos... to say farewell once again. You have to try really hard for more warmth in your heart!

The farewell visit ended with us packing the federation's mini busses who took us to the local Pontiaki Estias premises. The welcoming commitée there (the federation's president Giorgos A, the association's president Dimitris and many board members) invited us to a real big and Greek lunch. After that we had our last cup of coffee at the airport where wild discussions accured about the future steps that we young Pontians must take to have a better organisation at the upcoming Pontian world congress in Athens at July 6-9.

Before we knew it, it was time for hugging and kissing and everyone went to their gates, get on their airplanes and go home.