Latin to Greek

They feature Southerners at the top, hopefully this is the last we see of them.

10:33 p.m., the frat boys take off first--for Rome, on 8 a.m. train. Five minutes later the hippies get going. Then Joseph/Monica, few hours later, talk about how up and down they've been. Fran/Barry a few minutes later.

Frat boys get to train station, then hippies. Lake/Michelle leave a bit after midnight, ugh. And they start yelling at each other right away, he's just a jerk, swears at her. Ray/Yolanda are last, at like 1 a.m. But it's all good, big reunion at the station, which doesn't even open until 4 a.m.

They arrive in Rome, some cab, others take the subway to Trevi Fountain. Ray/Yolanda suck at train station, somehow. Frat boys at fountain already, find guy on scooter, now gotta go find horse carriages a mile away at Spanish Steps, a bit of a Da Vinci code commercial, it's like a puzzle/code. Dumb.

Why are frat boys so much faster than everyone else? J/M just getting to fountain, Metro riders are who knows where. Hippies are 3rd, then Southerners, then old people, than R/Y. Frat boys at steps, off they gotta go to Athens. Crack code, just says bring these papers to the pit stop. Not much of a code, put one sheet of paper over the other.

Everyone's bunching behind the frat boys at the steps, and cracking the code, then taking cabs to the airport. Frat boys at the airport first, get on 7:25 p.m. flight. J/M, hippies right behind them, then Southerners. Everyone's on the same flight; old people next, then R/Y--all on Olympic Air. Land, off to the Agora via cabs. Quite a happening leg, no commercial yet. Wow, for once frat boys near last--ooh, hippies are last. But Agora doesn't open until 8 a.m.; in a pouring rain everyone's looking for the clue box, some running, others content to let others find.

J/M get there first--a fast forward. Go to a restaurant, break plates until they find a marker, one out of hundreds of plates. J/M do it; R/Y take train to Isthmos Station, like a hundred plus miles away by train. Frat boys go for FF too, old people too. Southerners to train, hippies too. Wind up helping out R/Y with bus directions. Frat boys show up second at restaurant, pure luck at this point--and the frat boys get it. Off to Fortress of Rion, on coast. They waste some time smashing rest of plates. Old people get to restaurant, frat boys gone already. Ugh.

Southerners on train, hippies and R/Y catch it just in time. J/M having trouble getting a cab, say they're out of it. J/M squabble a bit on train to station, he lectures her. Old people taking cab, blame falling behind on not being able to run fast enough. Monica's crying at station, Joseph says it'll be okay; old people show up, they're on same train.

Nice view out at coast; hippies happy, white trash man says not as pretty as Italy. They apparently all get off train at wrong place, wind up taking bus. Get there together, roadblock: bungee jumping. Second group of couples get off at the right station, old woman says she'll do roadblock, then doesn't wanna do it, scared. Nice camera shots. R/Y go first, for once, off they go after Ray jumps. Detour: either Herculean effort--three ancient Olympic events, discus/javelin/wrestling. Or It's All Greek to Me--look for nine pieces of pottery, translate Greek letters to English, spell out city.

R/Y have a map (good), drive off. Hippies jump, they love it. Hmm, frat boys are really gonna have a huge lead. Hippies do Olympics. Southerners jump, he's cheering for her for once, doing Olympics too. J/M get there, she jumps, loves it, doing Olympics. Fran is totally scared, and is just standing there, freaking out, very loudly too.

Back from break, she jumps, is totally terrified. But does it, doesn't look happy afterwards. They do pottery. Southerners discover their map is all in Greek, he's cursing at her, they start freaking out. Idiots. Frat boys driving, pit stop already, and they're done. For cracking the code and being first, they get to attend Da Vinci Code premiere.

R/Y get to Olympics first. She tosses discus, pathetically, but good enough. Hippies may be lost... they're cool about it. Southerners are just yelling at each other. J/M get to Olympics as Ray's throwing javelin, he's having trouble. Quite a bit of trouble. As is Joseph, once they get there. Old couple just jamming with pottery. Southerners lost. Southerners stumble across letter thing, start picking things up. Hippies are totally lost. Into gas station, turns out they've been going the wrong way for--hours. They're like this is it, we're done; but civil about it. Oh no, the show's over if these guys are out....

They're apologizing to each other, back they go. Joseph gets javelin first, then Ray has more trouble. Old people get help translating word. Southerners are yelling at each other, per always. Joseph wrestles guy, they have to get him out of circle--through dumb luck he does. Off to pit stop, 107 miles by car... man, hippies are lucky this is probably a non-elim round. Ray finally makes javelin. They get wrestler out working together, currently in third. But then ask for where fortress is, woman says Patra, he looks on map, sees Petra. Ugh.

Southerners are just screaming at each other, this is not a good task, requires brainwork. Old people find city pretty quickly, off the go in 4th. Southern chick gets it, husband doubts it but then says good job. They're off driving, randomly; old people smash into tree, back window's destroyed. Ask for directions, in the right way. Olympics for hippies, wasting time celebrating. Southerners going the wrong way; she forces him to stop and breath, he's freaking out. Hippies get werstler out, after a while. They get directions.

Everyone's driving; R/Y get there second--that's amazing. They're not overly celebrating; get a penalty for not following clue correctly, 15 minutes for taking bus to train station, along with the other teams. J/M next, they wind up 2nd in actuality. R/L 3rd by a little bit. Southerners are giving up, driving. Hippies think they're last too. Old people are--where? Team #4. Hippies get there, astonishingly enough, before hated white trash. They're totally shocked.

Southerners show up last, just giving up coming out of car--hippies beat them even with penalty. Big kiss for Phil from both of them. Lake and Michelle are last. And are eliminated. He says they got along great most of the time; stressful times and you wanna blame your partner. She says afterwards their relationship works for them, they're getting by the best they can. Ugh.

Oh-oh, Ray and Yolanda are yelling at each other--off to the Middle East, hippies look like they're still behind too. Oh-oh.

Photo of Lake and Michelle from Amazing Race website.