It's all Greek to me! (Sofia, Athens, Santorini)

[Mysterious Sue]

Last week, I attended a conference on the Greek island of Santorini. It was about mining and god knows why it was on Santorini because bugger all is mined there, it was basically an excuse to go for a jolly somewhere hot with EU funds (probably with a side order of propping up the Greek economy). The good goon that I am, I sat down with RCDB and worked out a little add-on trip with some creds and some new places to visit. My speaking slot was on Sunday (nope, no idea why either) and I would be working on the UK bank holiday Monday, I so took a couple of days off in lieu beforehand. There are direct flights to Santorini but they are expensive and at tedious times so, instead, I found a cheaper flight connecting through Sofia, Bulgaria with a few hours layover (1 cred), then flew to Athens, Greece (2 creds and a kiddie), before finally taking a ferry over to the island (zero creds). Lovely.

Part one - Sofia:
Ride-ops taking liberties, old ****, religion and bad Latin jokes.
Top tip, don't google songs about Sofia - you WILL have Alvaro Soler in your head for days.

Sofia is somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for a while. It’s Bulgaria’s capital city and is quickly becoming a tourist hot spot and losing some of its ‘eastern identity’. Although never part of the official Soviet Union, it was ruled by the Bulgarian Communist Party right up to 1990 and has a large amount of Russian influence and history. Its location on the eastern edge of Europe has made it a point of intersection for travelers from east and west and the city has a vast number of churches, synagogues and mosques all jostling for space within a couple of square miles. But enough history – to the cred!

I had a bit of faff at the airport (could it ever be otherwise?) as it turned out the metro system only joined up with terminal 2 and I was at terminal 1 which was completely unconnected and a bus drive away! Having waited for a bus and finally got on the metro, it turned out that there were not in fact two lines as suggested by the map (one red and one blue) but three lines (one red and two the same shade of blue).

Honestly, that's two blue lines that both end at Obelya; you can't sit on it in a loop, one blue line is actually upstairs from the other at Serdika! Why?!

It's all Bulgarian (or Russian?) looking to me

Trains for @jayjay

Finally got to Vitosha for the cred. Yay. It was in a shopping centre called Paradise.

More like 'Paradise Lost' (to be fair, inside it was quite a nice and modern mall)

That loop in the coaster is false advertising. Also, why is there a drop tower that appears to have skewered something?

Getting closer

The ride area was on the roof of the shopping centre and had a really odd layout so that you basically came upon rides one by one. The first ride by the entrance was this - it was being run for one kid and was making an awful, worrying screeching noise. In fact,there were only about 6 guests in the whole park, although I suppose, being the middle of a Thursday, this was to be expected.

There was also a carousel, some kiddie stuff and this, which was tiny and had fully rotating cars and an inverting arm. Gross.

Found the cred which (spoiler) is not a Pinfari but an Interpark, Zyklon. Didn't really improve matters to be honest.

The cred's name is Roller Coaster Typhoon - so close and yet so far!

There was a ride op loitering so having acknowledged my presence, I went to get a token from the booth.

Ummm, I want that one *points to cred*.

Two seconds later, back at the cred, the ride op has buggered off. So I sit and wait for a while until he shows again up with a rather bewildered expression on his face that someone might actually want to ride. We tried to chat but the language barrier limited us mainly to Hi, London and hand gestures. I settle myself in, ride-op presses the big green button and...he leaps right onto the back of the car! He seemed to be enjoying himself riding on the back all the way up the lift hill. Just before the top, he jumps into the back seat and sits down on top of the restraint! Worryingly, this is the second time a ride op has jumped into a car with me when no one else was around - the last time was in Baotou, China and I was not expecting the same in Europe. Oh well, we both lived to tell the tale.

After that fabness, I retreated back to Serdika for some tourist stuff. Apparently, when the station building was being dug out, they found a load of Roman foundations. These are the first thing you see on exiting the metro - literally, you can't avoid them, the exit is kind of in the middle of them. There are foundations and old Roman columns and statues and urns all around the town and in the subways. It's actually very cool.

'in latrina'

St George's Round Church. I still hadn't moved out of the metro exit yet.

Statue of Saint Sofia (or татуя на Света София if you're feeling brave).

Does @jayjay like trams too? I love that there appeared to be no two trains or trams the same in the whole city.

Booze and doggie - home away from home

Sofia has all the religions

Russian church

Die Alexander Newski Kathedrale (this was the last thing I saw and my battery was on the way out so this picture is stolen from Wiki - sue me)

Just a casual subway to cross the road

How did the Roman cross the road? He went 'via' the subway...if you get this, I'll buy you a beer...

Traffic enforcement - Bulgarian style

Sadly, I didn't have time to trek across to the Soviet army memorial which is famous for always having graffiti. Slightly annoyed as this was on my must do list, but after China last year, there was no way I was going to miss my flight. Have another wiki picture for completeness.

So that was Sofia. It was really chilled and pretty and friendly. I recommend it for a nice little relaxing weekend trip.
Next up - the less relaxing Athens.

 

[davidm]

via

is Roman for "the way" sortof (in the context of the name of a road)... so that would be the way that the Roman crossed the road.

(PS "Roller Coaster Typhoon" is the bestest name ever - an in-joke for goons, I do hope it was intentional)

 

[Mysterious Sue]

While I've got time, I'm going to press on with this.

Part 2 - Athens:
When you love Big Apples so much that you have two, more old ****, the worst taxi driver ever, the worst cred ever, and very seedy neighborhoods.
Warning, the first half is tourist stuff so scroll down for Allou Fun Park if you're 'Darren B'ing it and just want to hear about the creds.

Somehow, I'd never been to Greece before (lets be honest, I've probably been put off by the limited cred options). So this was my second new country and second new capital city in a day. Yay! Just 6 EU countries to go now. The plane landed about 10pm and I got a taxi straight to the hotel. I should have noticed something was up when the taxi driver was revving at the guy in front to move in the taxi queue but I just went with it. The guy didn't speak, he just nodded and shot off at breakneck speed on to the motorway. I soon learned that Greek drivers are insane. They make Italian lane discipline look regimental. And my taxi driver took it to a whole new level. I quietly slid on my seatbelt in the back of the taxi as he hit 150kmph towards the toll booths while continuously straddling two lanes and perilously weaving in and out of traffic. Somehow, I made it to the hotel but soon realised that I'd forgotten one very important item for Athens that no one had recommended - a stab vest! I'd booked somewhere a 15 minute walk from the Acropolis - pretty damn central - but Jesus, the area was gross. In the end, I was too tired to worry about it and the adrenaline from the taxi ride was still in me so I was feeling brave. The hotel itself was ok to be fair - I figured I'd worry about the rest in the morning.

Ummm, how delightful

Really inviting

Cred-size motors for coffee grinders!

Anyway, having settled into the idea that Athens was a slight let down and much more dilapidated than I expected, I cut my wandering short and headed straight to the tourist area, which was much, much nicer.

Main square

Hadrian's library and view up to the Acropolis

Roman Agora ruins

Gate of the Agroa

This was lovely, but you couldn't get away from the fact that the on other side of the road, was this utter trash:

Gross

Also, the Greeks aren't big on signs. The way to the Acropolis should have been simple - it's on top of the bloody hill and visible from all around for goodness sake, but there were lots of winding narrow streets and lots of walking the wrong way up steep hills. And it wasn't just me being dappy. By the time I got to the top, I'd acquired a French lady, a pair of fab gay Californians and several Greeks - we were all lost, but we were all lost together. There was one point where we almost gave up hope having found an entrance that was closed and we convinced ourselves that it must be shut. Thankfully, we persevered and finally found a way in.

The only sign I saw for it

I'm sure lots of CFers have visited before but it's quite photogenic so have some snaps.

Propylaea

Temple of Athena Nike

Parthenon

Erechtheion

Theatre of Dionysus

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Ancient Greek stone-carving equipment

Such a cred

Apparently, it was a quiet day by Acropolis standards, so May is a good time to go.

Then I walked down to the Ancient Agora. This was basically some ruins in a park but, as it was getting evening on a sunny day, this turned out to be a lovely place to sit and chill and to eat my weight in cherries form the nearby market stalls.

Temple of Hephaestus

Ancient Greek washing machine?

Ancient Greek pillars

Ancient Greek drainage

They have to lock up the ancient Greek pottery so that people don't try and smash it as a national pass time.

Heard a noise in the bushes and a wild, ancient Greek tortoise appeared! He was fab and totally posed for the camera. 'Is this my best side?'

Stoa of Attalos, which housed the Agora Museum, was rebuilt in the 1950s.

Ancient Greek jury selection - the metal discs represented citizens and a ball was released which fell through the machine to select a row for jury duty every day!

I would have liked to have walked up the nearby Pynx hill - the birthplace of democracy - where the first elections took place, but several people I asked advised against going at night. Boo. And creds had to take priority anyway. Walking back out of the Agora, there was this juxtaposition of modern and old which pretty much sums up Athens to be honest:

Disgusting

I also had a look at the 'flea market' road just off the main square. It included this fabulously disgusting shop filled with hundreds of dream catchers.

Ancient Greek tat.
They must want my dreams so badly. I hope they're disappointed.

On to some creds then. Allou Fun Park was only open from 5pm, so about 6 I think, I started to head over. I caught the metro out a little way and then taxied the rest as it's a bit out of town and I was being lazy. The taxi dropped me off at a shopping centre the opposite side to the park. Having walked around, I ended up approaching the park though a car park and I went in to what I assumed was the entrance.

You know what they say about assumptions.

Pretty soon, I realised it was a dead end filled with kiddie coin-operated rides. WTF?

It also had loads of Japan-esque ride-on creatures, one of which, had been turned into an animatronic.

Even more WTF!

Further on, there was another 'fake park' with trampolines and some small kiddie rides, but I wasn't going to be fooled a second time. I had a star flier in my sights and finally found my way down the road to the unassuming entrance of Allou itself.

I did a little lap of the park to find out where everything was and hunt out dinner options. The first thing I noticed was an attempt at 'lands', which eneded up giving the place a certain 'Crystal Maze' air.

The log flume was surprisingly well themed - a totally unexpected level of detail. I didn't bother with it, but it was the most popular thing there in the heat.

There was also one of these double arm swinging ship things. Gross. I waited 20 minutes for a plate of chips as all I'd eaten all day were cherries, and then got my tokens for the two creds. The man in the booth tried to convince me to buy a wristband. I probably would have gone with the medium (7 ride) wristband if both creds had been included as it had the log flume in it as well, but it only had the one cred, so...no.

First up was the 'Big Apple' then. Now this is very odd. Allou Fun Park is actually sort of two parks in one, with the kiddie park in a separate area next door to the main park. The 'Kidom' area had a Big Apple called 'Big Apple' which I avoided for shame purposes. But the ride in the main park with the same name (!) was actually a Tivoli Large. WTF? Are there any other parks out there with two different rides and the same name?

The Tivoli is one of the better ones that I can remember as it goes though lots of foliage and gets close to some of the theming for the flume. There were also LED strips down the centre of the track for when it got dark - awww, how cute.

Next up was the Wild Wind 'Loop It'. I'd ridden one before at Oktoberfest and thought it was utterly vile so wasn't looking forward to this one. Once the ride op had been found and opened up the ride for me, he warned me to lean forward and not to put my head between the restraint. That should have been a warning really. Just before setting off, some kids jumped on too. The op said the ride would go round twice and, if we were scared, we could get off mid-way. Ha I scoffed to myself (how innocent I was).

This ride is, without a doubt, the most painful and disgusting coaster I've ever done. Worse than Tornado at Bakken or Tornado at M&D's. Worse than any other incident of headbashing I can recall. And it's only got one damn loop. No amount of leaning forward could stop the hemorrhaging of my head between the restraints as the thing rattled me around like a child shaking a rattle. I was happy to leap out after one go but the children wanted a second lap and I was made to suffer a second time. I'm not joking when I say there was slight concussion including headache and ringing in my ears that evening. UTTERLY DISGUSTING.

So I left. The park is small but nicer than I expected. Loop It can go burn in a fire though. Apparently there are five more of these torture devices operating, not to mention the travelling ones - **** that!

Here's the kiddie park across the road, taken as I left.

I headed back into the city for some real food and night views of the Acropolis. I'm trying to go vegan and food options were limited but, after much wandering, I found a place with a few suitable items on the menu - only to have them tell me that all my choices were off for the night. So I drunk the huge beer I'd ordered to dull the pain from Loop It and made do with loads of fried courgette and grilled aubergine lol. It did have an 'authentic Greek band' though which was quite atmospheric.

On the way back to the hotel, I walked though some lively tourist drinking spots. Athens looks a good place to go out (if you stay in the busy areas and keep away from the flea-bitten suburbs). There was one really cool circus-themed bar with a dragon on top. Apologies for the terrible photo quality - my phone doesn't really do night photos.

So Athens was OK. The tourist stuff was cool but the city is a dump. It's fine for a day on the way to somewhere else.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

May as well try and get this finished up then.

Part 3: Working and chilling in Santorini
No creds but pretty pictures of rocks.

I won't bore you too much with the post-cred trip but I really enjoyed Santorini and thought I'd share some pics in case anyone hasn't been and was considering it. I highly recommend it, and not just for the geology. The climate was ****ing amazing and the sunsets second to none. The place was overrun by honeymooners though.

I'd booked an express, 7am ferry across from Athens to the island, crossing the Agean Sea. There are several boat companies to choose from but I picked the shortest 5 hour crossing on Seajets. Although I'd booked in advance, you could only collect your tickets from the port in person - rather annoying! As the port was a little way out from the city, I decided to leave collection to the day of the sailing so made sure that I rocked up an hour early - 6am. Eurgh. As I got on the boat, a rainstorm set in with thunder and lightening. Any thoughts of standing outside and getting a good view of the other islands was dashed - I should have just got a damn flight connection from Athens, it would have been cheaper but I thought the boat would offer a nicer view! Oh well, at least I didn't go for the scenic 8hr sailing! The boat was also a bit turd with very small allocated seating and nowhere really to stand and walk about.

Yeah, probably just get the plane tbh.

As we drew closer to Santorini, the weather brightened and I finally got outside and was treated to a view of the caldera. The island complex was once a big volcano and the top blew off, so all that is now left is a circular-shaped island and a bump of magma in the middle. There's only one opening for big boats to come into the caldera. The boat docked amid a huge bang of thunder and then the rain suddenly stopped and within 5 minutes, there was bright sunshine! Hurrah.

Geology!

I took a tourist bus up to the hotel and had an hours sleep before walking into town to get some food and pick up a hire car. I was staying in the 'capital' Fira and had plans to drive up to the northern point of Oia that night to get the best view of the sunset. Turns out, I got a car upgrade and ended up with a bright yellow Fiat 500 with fold back roof. This would have been nice if it hadn't decided to rain again the second I got in the car. Five minutes down the road and I was forced to park up because the monsoon deluge meant that 1. I couldn't see and 2. rocks and plants were flowing down off the slopes into the road! Parked up for ten minutes and...sunshine again! The weather in this place is mad! Thankfully, that was the last of the rain that I had on the trip, but you could sometimes hear thunder out to sea even when the sky was blue and cloudless - crazy.

Not quite as **** as I imagined. Had trouble getting just me up hills though so god knows if you actually had two of you in it.

So I had a little jaunt about the island, seeing all the sights - windmills, churches, geology... Turns out the main coastal road was being resurfaced and was basically dust for several miles. Met some strange traffic on the dirt road!

Saturday's weather is...changeable!

Traffic - Santorini style

Finally got to Oia and fought for a place to park with everyone else on the island who had descended to watch the sunset. It was cracking!

Caldera view. Stratovolcano!

Next day, I went off to a place called Akrotiri, a Minoan-age archaeological dig with an entire village preserved by volcanic pumice. It was incredible and completely blew me away. They had urns and pots and wall paintings preserved from 4 thousand years ago. There was even a five-story building with an upstairs toilet, stone stairs and a running sewage system under the street! All for a civilisation that pre-dates money and had a barter system! Incredible stuff.

What were once timber beams have been filled with concrete to give the buildings support

The vases on the left are authentic, the ones on the right, replicas

Again, it's 4,000 years old!

Bed frame casts preserved by the pumice.

After that, I had a little walk down to the Red Beach which is a geology goon's heaven with layers of pumice to gawp at.

After returning the hire car, which I only had for one day, I had a mooch around Fira which was full of villas built into the cliff and winding streets to get lost in. I thought it would be cool to walk down the big steep cliff path to the harbour at the bottom. Sadly, most tourists picked up a donkey half way down and they had made the path disgusting for those walking with open shoes on, past large piles of poo. Joyful. Had a look around the small harbour before getting the cable car back up again.

The debate continues - is it a donkey, a horse or a mule?

Cruise ships in the caldera

And that's it really. The weather the rest of the time was superb with sunshine and cool breeze. I got a little burnt and found a vegan-friendly cafe to camp out in for the rest of the trip with amazing tahini and falafel wraps. Nom. Also found this fab flowery restaurant for a chill out with incredible fennel 'pie' and aubergine salad to die for. Greek food done right is just the best.

Actually had to do some work, but I could think of worse places to be working in. This was my walk to work every day...

...and this was the view from my 'office'. Feel free to be jealous ;p

So, in summary:
- Sofia is cute and well worth a visit. +1 cred and crazy ride ops!
- Athens is gross but you kinda have to go for culture (just don't hang around). Prepare for the obscene cred and ludicrous driving.
- Santorini is gorgeous but there are no creds so, you know, priorities.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

is Roman for "the way" sortof (in the context of the name of a road)... so that would be the way that the Roman crossed the road.

Guess that's the literal translation. Yeah, Via is just Latin for 'street/road'. Think yours is better tbh.
Damn, guess that's a pint owing.

I really hope Roller Coaster Typoon is intentional as well. Surely it's too similar not to be?

 

[Smithy]

Athens looks like a right ****hole

 

[Coaster Hipster]

Really like your report on Santorini! There's some fab landscape there. Puzzled to hear about the changing weather though Thanks for the good read

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Rare case of the culture being better than the creds.
No need to 'Darren B it', if that's the term.