TAR S33 average statistics after E8
- Ryan & Dusty 2
- Kim & Penn 2.25
- Raquel & Cayla 3.25
- Arun & Natalia 5.87
- Lulu & Lala 5.87 (eliminated in Nea Kallikrateia)
Despite being statistically the strongest team, I need to point out that Ryan & Dusty have won three legs whilst Kim & Penn have won four legs. The only other team to have won a leg were Anthony & Spencer way back in the first leg in back in London. Kim & Penn had a slow start but have certain hit their stride, having won three legs in a row - it was just one flawless leg after another, with no mistakes and I am thrilled to see them perform so well as I really like them! Ryan & Dusty on the other hand seem to have succumbed to fatigue and have finished in the middle of the pack with three consecutive third place finishes, behind Raquel & Cayla who have consistently outperformed Ryan & Dusty in the last three legs. Usually in most TAR seasons, when a strong team emerges early in the process, you would think, "yeah they're most probably going to win." But if you were to look at Ryan & Dusty's performance in the last three legs, you wouldn't be that convinced that they are definitely going to win this season and Kim & Penn have improved so much compared to the earlier part of the season. Nonetheless, the objective at this stage is always simply to live to fight another day, to survive until the next leg and to stay focused on winning the final leg - right now at this stage, I say any of the top three teams have a realistic chance of winning. Let's give Raquel & Cayla some credit as well for showing they can keep up with two extremely strong teams this season - they have certainly proved themselves in the last three legs.
Who do you wanna see in the final three?
I hate to say this but it is the top three teams. I adore Arun & Natalia but I want a tight race to make the final leg extremely exciting. If you have a team that's obviously weaker than the other two in the finals, then it becomes a two-horse race. I just don't see Arun & Natalia keeping up with the three strongest teams. Don't get me wrong, I think they're a great team but I'm simply discussing this from the point of view of what makes an exciting finale in TAR. But let's see, every single team made errors in this leg: some errors were bigger than others, that's what makes TAR so unpredictable.
Where exactly in Greece were the teams in this leg?
The leg started in Peraia beach, which is actually a nice beach area very close to Thessaloniki airport, literally just 2 miles or 3.2 km away - so it was a convenient place for the start of the leg near the airport. In contrast, the city center of Thessaloniki is a good 10 miles or 16 km away from the airport. The rest of the leg was run in the area south of the airport, in the opposite direction of the main city so they were actually reasonably close to the city but otherwise it still felt like the Greek countryside. This reminded me of TAR S32 E1 when the racers arrived so late in Piarco airport in Trinidad that the producers didn't even try to get them into the main capital city Port of Spain; instead, they did a task in the suburb of St Augustine very close to the airport. So yeah they were just racing close to Thessaloniki airport in this leg too.
Did you like the tasks on this leg?
Not really, I felt some parts were pointless - let's begin with the teams having to take the clue off an olive tree, what was the point of that? Olive groves are a big part of the Greek countryside but all they did was run in, grab a clue and left. However I did like the roadblock involving the stuffed vine leaves (dolmades) because there is an element of attention to detail about which way up the leaves have to be which tripped up a number of racers: thus it allowed teams that paid great attention to overtake others which rushed into the task. I felt it was fairly pointless to get the teams to spell the word 'souvlaki' as they were doing it in English - having visited Greece several times, one of the most interesting aspect of their culture is their language because of the Greek alphabet which isn't used in any other language but if happen to speak a Slavic language which uses the Cyrillic alphabet or if you have used it in science and mathematics. There was a menu in Greek at the food kiosk so this could have been a task involving the Greek language, like trying to match six items on the menu to the name written in Greek. But no, they defaulted to making it about eating again and that's disappointing. I was also a bit bored with task involving the saints - the fact is once you've failed once, you can't fail again because you would already know what the questions are and which saints to look out for in the lecture. The questions should be random, about any of the saints mentioned in the lecture so as to make it a lot harder. Thus overall, I was left fairly disappointed with this entire leg. They were in a beautiful part of Greece, but the entire leg was so poorly planned.
Were you surprised that Lulu & Lala were eliminated?
Well yes actually. Firstly, they got hopelessly lost in this leg and even Arun & Natalia did a better job of navigating - when I saw how they were driving themselves around in this leg, I was worried for Arun & Natalia but goodness me, Lulu & Lala stumbled upon the pit stop whilst looking for the food kiosk despite leaving the dolmades roadblock in third place when Lala did a fantastic job there. But when they got so terribly lost, they were so far behind they weren't able to catch up. It is unfortunate - I do feel for them. I have visited that part of Greece in 2020 just before the first lockdown and we got a rental car to get around that part of rural Greece and sure enough, we got lost a couple of times. I remember trying to find my AirBNB in a small town and we must have driven down the same stretch of road about five or six times, unable to find the farmhouse house. So yeah, I do feel for Lulu & Lala. They were a great team who grew stronger and stronger with each leg, but unfortunately one team had to be eliminated in this leg and it was them. I'm so sorry to see them go.
What is a souvlaki?
Actually it is just small pieces of meat on a skewer that is either grilled or barbecued. There are various versions of this concept of grilling/barbecuing small pieces of meat on a skewer all around the world. The racers had theirs served as a sandwich in flatbread but you can eat the souvlaki with salad and french fries as well. This is basic Greek street food and very common in Greece. I like going to these barbecue restaurants, where they will have all kinds of tasty grilled meats.
What about the dolmades, the stuffed vine leaves, are they nice?
Yeah I like them but really, they're more of a side dish rather than a main course. Some people may find them bland as you taste mostly just rice when you bite into it but of course it then depends on how the cook seasons the rice filling in it.
Do people in Greece speak English well?
Well, yes and no. I noted that in this episode, all the locals they interacted with spoke English - this is because English is the default second/foreign language in Greece. If you walked into a train station or a bus station, then signs would be in Greek and English (but in a very small town, it might be in Greek only). English is the language that most students learn in school out of sheer necessity to access more information online. Thus well-educated, younger Greeks tend to speak English fluently but not don't be mistaken - I've had times in Greece when I had to speak Greek (I can speak basic Greek after having visited Greece several times). For example, when I was in a supermarket in Edessa (near Thessaloniki), the staff spoke no English at all and even my AirBNB host (an older lady) was clearly using Google translate to message me on the app but when I met her in person, she spoke to me only in Greek which was fine by me as I was only too eager to show the locals that I spoke their language. But it's quite random, I remember getting souvlaki in Thessaloniki by this very down to earth place, I spoke to the guy there in Greek and he replied in perfect English, like he was almost upset that I was denying him his chance to show off his flawless English. But the racers on TAR would need to find younger people if they were looking for help or directions. I was so disappointed none of the racers spoke even a word of Greek.
Why did they do the Greek saints challenge outside the church?
Have you ever been into a Greek orthodox church? They are absolutely stunning and if you go during a service, you will hear chanting and singing in Greek, there will be candles and incense it is quite the experience. The only other churches that rival the theatrical nature of a Greek orthodox church service would be a full on Russian orthodox service which I've seen plenty of as well. But even if you visit an empty Greek church, the walls are usually lovingly decorated with elaborate paintings of their saints. So why did they make the racers do the challenge outside the church rather than inside? Couldn't they have at least made the racers respectfully go into the church to light a candle before taking the test? Even my local Greek church in my neighbourhood in London is stunningly beautiful and atmospheric. I know what you might be saying now, a place of worship is not the right venue for a TAR challenge, but TAR has ventured into many prominent churches, temples and mosques before and so as long as you behaved in a respectful manner, then why not?
Next week's post would probably be a lot shorter!
The show is televised in America on Wednesday evening, but I'm in the UK so I don't get to see it till Thursday and I'm flying off to France for a long weekend for skiing on Friday afternoon. So I do have Thursday evening and Friday morning to do a shorter post - I would definitely try to pack in advance so I will be very relaxed on Thursday and Friday. I also have a work dinner thing next Thursday as well so next week's post would probably be very short but better than nothing!
Alright guys so that's it from me on this episode in Greece. Please leave a comment below and many thanks for reading.
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