This evening, Nick and I went to Allou Fun Park with his brother and his girlfriend. I’m sure I’ll be writing about this in detail soon - maybe even a few words for First Drop. For now though: Allou is Greece’s first “theme” park, opened a couple of years ago near the centre of Athens. I say theme park, but its more an awkward mix of odd bits of theming and a funfair.
It’s got some good rides though, including a few I declined. On the rollercoaster front, it has two. One is a standard spinning wild mouse, the other is a junior coaster that packs a bit of a punch with some interesting head choppers as it passes around some rockwork.
More disappointing was a ride called Cape Fear, which attracted the biggest queue in the park. It should have been impressive, being a boat ride through a haunted cave. Unfortunately, with its bizarre selection of scenes (a dodgy waxwork man with his brains shot out and a radioactive waste dump???) and scary finale which involved bumping into a giant inflatable monster head, it left a lot to be desired. Even the locals were shouting at the ride ops about how rubbish it was when they got off.
By the time we left the park and dropped off Nick’s brother’s girlfriend, it was getting late so we decided to stop off for something to eat. Guess what? Yep, some more delicious Souvlaki.
This morning we met up with Nick’s brother for a swim at one of the local beaches. Now I see why people don’t do too much in the midday sun: Even the sand was scorching. The sea was great though - even warmer than it had been around Samos. Since it was such a nice day, the beach was very crowded. It seems like the whole of Athens has come down to the coast today!
After the swim we went out to a taverna for lunch. They served great steaks, but nothing like those at home. I’m used to something like a 4oz slab of meat - here you get a whole cow to yourself! Too much for me!
We’ve just returned to the house for an afternoon “rest”. That’s about the only thing I’m having trouble with over here. I’m not used to going to sleep in the middle of the day, but its fine. It gives me a chance to catch up on some reading!
I’ve just had a very interesting evening. One of Panos’ (Nick’s father) work colleagues was having their daughter christened and invited them and me along, so I’ve just experienced a Greek Orthodox baptism for the first time. It was very kind of the family to invite me, and they made me feel really welcome.
The ceremony is very different to the Anglican and Catholic ceremonies I’ve seen in the past. 
For a start, it went on for about one and a half hours. It was too hot inside the tiny church, so people had to keep moving outside to get some air. This was all totally acceptable - in fact people were even having conversations and paying little attention to the ceremony. While the Godfather has a big role, the father is pretty much left on the outskirts without anything much to do. The eventual moment of baptism was quite a surprise. None of this scoop a bit of water over the baby’s forehead business. No, the baby was violently thrust under the water three times.
At the end of the service, presents were handed around to all the guests and food and drink were served. As it was getting quite late, we didn’t stay for too long, opting to grab a quick meal at the local Souvlaki shop and head back home.
This morning’s checkout was awful. Remember how we’d been assured that everything was fine and the university had sent through credit card details to the hotel to pay in advance? Well, sure enough they’d sent through the details, but the hotel had not taken the money in advance (purely guessing, but the finance people probably never told them to). Anyway, after much deliberation, they agree to process the payment using those card details, but the credit card machine was having none of it. They tried several times, but it kept coming back saying that the payment was not authorised. After all the hassle of organising for the hotel payment and all the forms we had to fill in, the end result was we ended up having to pay with our own credit cards. Lucky I brought mine with me, or I’d probably be stuck at the hotel right now. At the moment I’m so annoyed. Anyway, we won’t let it spoil the rest of our trip…
We left the hotel at about midday and took a taxi to the airport for our 1335 flight. We probably shouldn’t have been surprised that the plane was late, considering it was an Olympic Airlines flight, and didn’t take off until 1410. This had a knock-on effect when we reached Athens, meaning we had to wait ages for our baggage.
Nick’s father Panos met us at the airport and drove us to their house a few kilometres outside Athens. Nick’s mum Katerina was waiting to greet us with some very welcome and delicious mousaka. Time for a bit of a rest now, in preparation for what promises to be an interesting evening.
We arrived on the beautiful island of Samos a few hours ago (you’d have thought the “beautiful island of” prefix was actually part of the island’s name it’s used so much). Was the flight over simple? Of course not!
I met Nick, Ann and Panos at Athens airport as planned, and we checked in and arrived at the gate with plenty of time to spare (I had to leave my wonderful luggage trolley behind - boo hoo - it had been a good friend to me overnight :p). We boarded an airport bus ready to be taken to the plane.One of the women who had checked our boarding passes jumped on the bus and started shouting something in Greek. Of course I was none the wiser, but it seemed to really annoy the Greek-speakers. One old man went especially crazy, ranting and raving at the staff. A quick translation from Nick revealed our aircraft had “minor technical difficulties”.After waiting ages back in the airport, we finally flew over to the island. Not in the plane we were supposed to, but in a rather ancient Focker 50. This seemed much less stable in the air than the 767 from yesterday: it was much more fun. The landing was awesome, dropping hundreds of feet in what felt like a nose dive.
We arrived at the Doryssa Bay resort via a taxi ride from the tiny Samos airport. It was very quick to collect our luggage, although there was a moment of confusion: Luggage Belt 1 started up, so everybody went towards it. Greeks, I am discovering, love to be first. It doesn’t matter what they’re waiting for, just as long as they are first. Therefore, they all huddle around the beginning of the belt, eager to pounce on their suitcases before anybody else even realised they were there. The confusion ensued when Belt 1 stopped, creating a mad dash towards Belt 2 as that started. Of course, after a few seconds, that stopped and Belt 1 started again.
My hotel room is very nice, especially now I’ve figured out the air conditioning controls. Its room 218 on the first floor and quite large for one person. There’s a balcony with a fantastic view across to a big hill.
After dropping off our stuff, we had a quick meal at the poolside bar. Being awake for the last day and a half, I wasn’t exactly feeling a lot like eating or trying new experiences, so I settled for a hot dog. We popped into the resort’s mini shop for some bottles of water, then I retired to my room for a shower and some rest.
At 6pm I met Nick to go and get our conference registration sorted out. Along with the usual conference bag and book of proceedings, we were given a Pythagora’s Cup. This was designed by Pythagoras to ensure that everybody drank an equal amount. As long as you only fill you cup to the line, everything is fine. However, if you’re greedy and try to fill it further, the whole of your drink disappears through a hole in the bottom of the cup.
Briefly exploring the resort, we found a small coffee shop where we stopped for a Frappe. Luckily, that came in a standard glass rather than a Pythagora’s Cup, so I didn’t end up with wet legs.
Overall, the resort is very nice, set around a small Greek village. Unfortunately, while it’s nicely done, it’s all fake. A weird mix of theme park and Club 18-30. I imagine some people spend their entire holiday inside the resort without ever getting any feeling of true Samian life. We’re in no danger of that though, and we’re starting as we mean to go on. In a few minutes we’re going to the local town of Pythag�rio to find a nice taverna for dinner.
Well I managed to survive the night in the airport. Sometime between 6 and 7 Athens time, I realised the black wall I’d been sitting near wasn’t a black wall at all, but a huge window. It gave a great view of the sun rising, on what looks like quite a cloudy day.
Now its proper daylight I can see a huge mountain to the left. I’d take a picture, but I don’t fancy being arrested today.
Athens airport may have the most unpronounceable name of any airport in the world, but its bright and spotlessly clean. The only real downside is the air con: its coooollllddd!
A couple of hours ago I managed to grab a luggage trolley that I’m being very protective of: you’re supposed to pay 1 Euro to take one from a big rack, so I think I was lucky to find this one.
Flight to Samos in 3 hours!