Athens Area - Pt. 4: Delphi & Allou Fun Park

[Gavin]

This half term holiday, I was planning to stay home, not go anywhere, and avoid blowing cash. Then I thought **** it, and made a last minute trip to Athens for a few days!

This definitely wasn't a park trip since Greece isn't exactly the best destination for that, and the general plan was "I'll see how it goes" with regard to actually going to any parks at all. I wasn't going to bother with Ta Andovakla at all; there's really not much there, but on the way into Athens I ended up having to transfer at the train station about a 10 minute walk away.

Basically, there was a strike on on the day I arrived, which meant that the metro from the airport was closed. It really wasn't a problem at all. It just meant that I had to get a regular train to the outskirts of Athens and transfer to the metro once I was there. Anyway, the park is really close to that station, so I thought I'd take the quick detour.

I wasn't even sure I was going the right way, but after walking for about ten minutes, I saw this:

I got there right as it was opening - 5pm - and there was basically nobody there. A couple with a kid were just getting off the dodgems and having a bit of a mince around.

The gorgeous car park and main entrance, complete with rubbish and discarded themeing from something or other:

At this point I wasn't even sure it was open, but stayed on the road I was walking on which takes you to the side entrance.

There's really not much to report. The park was open (I'm assuming it's more of an "evening" place and people come later), but was definitely just for kiddies. Either their website is lying (it says it's the "Biggest luna park in Athens!"), or they've been removing stuff, as it shows a Top Spin and Swinging Ship, which weren't actually at the park.

There's just the one coaster: Alexanderou, just a Big Apple coaster. Yeah, got my cred. Took a few pictures, then went back to the metro to carry on with the original plan of finding my hotel.

Have some more pictures:

So yeah, that's it for Ta Aidonakia Luna Park. I'm calling it for next year's Eurolive.

 

[peep]

Re: Athens Area Parks - Pt. 1: Ta Aidonakia Luna Park

Ha, what a random little place. I like that vulture theming thing just randomly dumped in front of the entrance. Sounds like you had a fab time there.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: Athens Area Parks - Pt. 1: Ta Aidonakia Luna Park

I love the fact that there are only 3 people in all the pics! :lol:

 

[Lofty]

Re: Athens Area Parks - Pt. 1: Ta Aidonakia Luna Park

What a dire place. I'll be looking forward to seeing your Allou Fun Park report as I could be visiting in the VERY near future.

 

[nadroJ]

Re: Athens Area Parks - Pt. 1: Ta Aidonakia Luna Park

You'd think Greece would make quite a good spot for a parking, seeing as how it's quite a popular holiday destination.

Seems to have that horrible dusty look to it like Spain. Whatadump.

 

[Gavin]

Re: Athens Area Parks - Pt. 2: Random Old Stuff in Athens

I'd completely forgotten that I'd started this trip report. How I could have done that given the overwhelming response it initially received, I'm not sure. Anyway, I was uploading some Greece pictures to Facebook, which reminded me.

I honestly can't really remember the order I did things since it was back in October, but the two other parks I went to were pretty much at the end of the week after doing the usual tourist stuff. I say usual, but for most people on here the thought of going somewhere and doing something that didn't involve at least a Go-Gator is clearly an alien concept, so feel free to skip through those parts.

Some general Athens then. Basically, it's a bit of a dump, especially the area I stayed in (at one point I had to step over a drugged-up prostitute to get into my hotel. Thinking about it, she might have been dead...) but with loads of cool ruins scattered around it.

On my first full day, I basically wandered around a bunch of the ancient sites, but not including the Acropolis which I gave myself a whole separate day for. I won't bore anyone with too much detail (feel free to ask though), but these photos are from, in no real order, the Ancient Agora, Temple of Hephaestus. Roman Forum, Panathenaic Stadium (where the first modern Olympics was held), Temple of Olympian Zeus and some other random stuff.

I'll put pictures of the Acropolis (and another park) up tomorrow.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

Re: Athens Area Parks - Pt. 2: Old Stuff in Athens

Kyle really wants to go to Greece, and particularly Athens. I keep telling him I've not heard a nice word about the place and we'd be etter off going anywhere else in Greece.

 

[Gavin]

Re: Athens Area Parks - Pt. 2: Old Stuff in Athens

^It totally depends on what you want from it though. If you're interested in ancient culture/architecture, then it's amazing, arguably second only to Rome. As a modern capital city, I didn't really think it stacked up with others in Europe. Then again, I pretty much didn't bother with the more commercial areas of the city (shopping streets etc.), and I stayed in a notoriously **** ty area because it was cheap, so my opinion on the place might not be the best informed.

"Anywhere else in Greece" is pretty much your run-of-the-mill, Brits abroad beach holiday. No thanks.

 

[Gavin]

Re: Athens Area Parks - Pt. 2: Old Stuff in Athens

My second full day was spent going up to, and around the slopes of, The Acropolis.

I started off on one side of the southern slope, which had an old, but restored, Roman theatre, before heading up to the top for The Parthenon and other stuff at the top. It was really cool actually, but a lot of scaffolding all along one side of it for restoration work. Bunch of pictures:

If you like the picture above, go to the British Museum to see the rest of it that was "rescued" by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century. For some reason, the Greeks are all bitter and want to get all their old stuff back. That's all well and good now, but they didn't give a flying **** about what they had at the time. The Parthenon is partly in the state it's in now because the idiots used it as a gunpowder store, which, surprisingly, exploded.

So yeah, while it's kind of wrong that we stole all that stuff, they didn't care at the time, or treat their monuments with any respect whatsoever until very recently when they started to realise the tourist money they bring in. If anything, we should go and take the rest of it since they can't afford the upkeep anymore...

More pictures:

On the other side of the southern slope was another theatre, the Theatre of Dionysus, which is an original Greek theatre. There's not a huge amount left, but I really liked this place. It's where all the Greek tragedies were originally performed, so it's basically where drama/plays started.

Ok, enough of the culture ****. Towards the end of my time in Athens, I decided to go to International Luna Park. Well, it was actually more of a decision to take the tram down to the coastal areas just south of Athens. There's only a Zamperla Dragon at the park, which I wouldn't have made the sole effort for, but since the park was in the area I was going to anyway, I thought I might as well.

After a bit of a wander down the coast I managed to spot the park in the distance. Unfortunately, from the road it looked closed.

It was around 3pm, so I thought that, like Ta Andonakia, it might open around 5pm. Anyway, I decided to take a closer look:

Yeah, at this point I'd decided that a 5pm opening time was perhaps slightly ambitious. Further expolration would confirm this:

I wasn't overly bothered really. Like I said, I hadn't gone out of my way to get here, and the only coaster listed was a model I've ridden loads before. I just had a bit more of a wander around the area and then headed back into town.

 

[Jake]

Re: Athens Area - Pt. 3: Acropolis & International Luna Par

Spite <3

 

[Lofty]

Re: Athens Area - Pt. 3: Acropolis & International Luna Par

The Acropolis was one of the major kind of downers for me. I REALLY wanted to go seeing it, when we got there, I was VERY underwhelmed. The Acropolis Museum is fantastic. It's a really modern approach with loads of fantastic features inside, especially the glass footing on the ground floor that shows you the ruins underneath, very clever.

 

[furie]

Re: Athens Area Parks - Pt. 2: Random Old Stuff in Athens

I'd completely forgotten that I'd started this trip report. How I could have done that given the overwhelming response it initially received, I'm not sure.

Sorry, I was waiting for a decent Go-Gator picture

Okay, I was actually waiting for the cultural stuff. I love the whole ancient Greece thing and the pictures are cockle warming, except for how poor a state they're in. It's somewhere I'd love to go to to see, only without dealing with going to Greece Trip to London then for me

I didn't realise just quite how high up The Acropolis is, you tend to just see pictures of The Parthenon.

I so want to go to a temple of Zeus too - could you not have brought it back in your hand luggage?

 

[Gavin]

Re: Athens Area - Pt. 3: Acropolis & International Luna Par

Since it's almost a year since I went, I thought it might be time to finish this trip report.

I went to Allou Fun Park on my last full day in Athens, but the day before that I got on a bus and went out to Delphi. It was a 3 hour bus ride away, but the bus station, which was vile, was fairly close to my hotel, so it was an easy trip out really. Anyway, it was totally worth the effort, as it was absolutely stunning.

The bus drops you off in the main town, which is tiny, but you immediately get views like this from the road:

The main historical site is a 15-minute walk away down this road:

And then the sites are scattered along a hillside:

Further along the road, there are a couple of smaller sites:

There's a museum as well, which houses a lot of the artifacts that were found during excavation, but I didn't go in as I didn't really have a great deal of time and I preferred to spend it around the ruins outside. I spent about 3 hours here before getting another 3 hour bus ride back to Athens. Yeah, there was more time spent on the bus than at the actual site, but it was totally worth it, and three hours was plenty anyway.

Right, so onto the final park of this trip, and the only one really worth mentioning anyway, Allou Fun Park. I had to get a bus to the outskirts of the city (Kan Kan bus stop, though there's no info to tell you that on the bus) which drops you off here:

A quick glance down a side street will point you in the right direction.

The Star Flyer swings right out over the road if you're approaching from this direction. There are numerous entrances to the park (in fact, the kiddy section is across the street in a different area), but this is the way you'll go if you're taking the bus.

The park is free to get in and you pay per ride. I can't remember how much the rides were now. I think there was a wristband option as well, but since I was only interested in the coasters, I didn't bother with this.

World's crappiest Scad Tower:

Booster:

Big Apple in the main part of the park is actually a Zierer thing with caterpillar trains:

There's a log flume right next to it, which I didn't bother riding:

There's an actual Big Apple coaster in the kiddy section of the park, also called "Big Apple". I haven't got any pictures of the kiddy section since my camera batteries died while I was in the main section of the park. There's an exit next to the Fabbri drop tower, which takes you out onto a road. If you cross this road there's an entrance to the kiddy section of the park.

Random spinny flat ride:

The major coaster here is this amazing thing:

And there's not a great deal else there to be honest. There was the kiddy area, which I've mentioned, and a 4D (I think) theatre thing, which I despise, and that was about the extent of it.

For a "city" park it's actually alright. It's in a really horrible part of Athens, but the park itself feels very separate from that and is actually quite green and pleasant once you're inside. There's just **** all there though. Ah well, it was a +3 at least.

And thus concludes my Greek odyssey. I should probably think about doing a report for Portugal last December now...

 

[peep]

Oh, I totally missed most of this report first time round so glad you've recently posted again.

I love looking at pictures of Greek ruins but the thought of actually going there kinda makes me feel ill, the surrounding areas just look scabby and just awful, and if I want to see that I can just go down the road lol. I think I'll stick to looking at pictures and visiting London museums.

Once again a great PTR Gavin.

 

[Ian]

There's a log flume right next to it, which I didn't bother riding.

I'm assuming that the log flume is "Quiz River". How can you not be intrigued by a ride called Quiz River? It looks complete sh1te!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f1uAUsoKW8[/youtube]

 

[Gavin]

^Nah, Quiz River was something completely different. I'm at work now, so will watch the **** ty video when I get home.