Trip to Patras (1/4)
Before the actual story, as also mentioned within the small speech, I'd like to extend my sincere and great gratitude to Patras Stratego team, and especially Georgios Trypanagnostopoulos for the special invitation, as well as the work done to organize this wonderful event. For those who were not present, when physically there, it is very obvious that those talented organisers had put in a lot of effort into organizing a wonderful event, something they for sure succeeded at (almost like a spoiler..).
Some tournaments you participate to win, some you participate to experience. This tournament was mostly the experience for me. I always am either "there to have fun" or "in it to win it" and sometimes those two are combined. While of course winning the tournament would have been marvelous, it was not really my main concern. Catching up with some old friends, meeting new people and of course meeting those whom I've interacted with online were my main concern and purpose of the trip.
Day #1 (Friday)
With as little as two hours of sleep, I woke up on friday, traveling day, to go to from Schiphol airport to Athens airport. The day started out by feeling somewhat tired, but yet, energized. Before anything else, I watched the latest episode of my favorite show, Supernatural. Anyway, the first challenge would of course be the dreaded Dutch railways. My favorite company who are always in to offer extra traveling time for the same cost (also known as delays and other forms of troubles). As I arrived at the station, there was an immediate notification that trains to Lelystad were canceled (which also goes by Schiphol airport), so this only left the "intercity direct" as option, which is a highspeed connection between Breda-Rotterdam-Schiphol airport-Amsterdam but often has severe delays and other troubles. My mood somewhat changed upon hearing the regular intercities were canceled, and it was also announced that we should expect a lot of people in the intercity direct. Surprisingly enough, this did not come to pass. The train arrived (on time even!) and I took a seat. One moment later, I really wished I had taken a different seat or even other part of the train, as 4 women took the seats just in front of me and turned it into a henhouse in terms of noise.
While feeling a bit irritated and uneasy with the travel thus far, surprisingly enough, all went rather smooth. After meeting my traveling partner, Dennis, at Schiphol airport, the actual journey was about to begin. The info we received and also was displayed on the information boards showed that we had to be at section 3. Once we went there, people behind the counter were telling us we had to be at section 1, even though it very clearly stated otherwise. They contacted some people who indeed, did confirm, that we had to be at section 1. 10 minutes of walking later, we arrived at section 1. It is quite amazing how large airports actually are from the inside. They had some escalators on the floor, I suppose for lazy people who do like to walk or carry heavy baggage, of which half did not work 😕. We passed the security check and all and went to the proper gate.
It was there where we saw a huge queue of people and the schedule claiming the airplane would leave in 15 minutes (we had to wait awhile before the boarding period begun). Quite obvious that this would not work, the flight was ultimately, delayed, by +- 30 minutes. Ironically, I did not even mind it. Should the train have been delayed even 5 minutes, the first five paragraphs would have been devoted to this fact though.
As we boarded, put our luggage, etc, the journey was about to begin. The airplane took off and thus the journey had really started. While aboard, the people from Aegean airlines brought a nice food package containing of pasta, chicken and some cookies and also brought two drinks throughout the flight. Dennis and I were discussing a few things of which I wanted to take a few notes, so I tried to get my notebook out of my luggage. This also was the moment I rotated my hand-luggage a few times, and I was sure I had put the notebook on top somewhere, but could not find it. A disappointment. I had brought a mini, magnetic, chess game with me, just in case we would want some entertainment while in the air. Dennis agreed to a game and tried to claim the white pieces (which I let him have 😄). Upon putting the pieces on the board, we found out, luckily not the hard way, that the board was not as magnetic as I had envisaged. The pieces were, the board was not. Quite a surprise. Quickly, the pieces were put back into the box before we would be hunting for pawns and knights in the airplane.
While having some interesting and fruitful discussions with Dennis across multiple topics, I also paid some attention to the stuff going on outside. The view from an airplane can be truly amazing.
When we finally arrived in Greece, Athens airport, we needed to get to the hotel for the night. Luckily, plenty of taxi's were on standby, and we grabbed one, as it was quite late, we did not like the idea of having to use public transport for over an hour. Once we arrived at the hotel, everything seemed fine. Seemed fine? Yes, seemed fine. Another surprise was waiting for us, due to a mistake from the hotel, they had booked a room with a double bed opposed to a twin bed, something we considered to be unacceptable.
Of course, as today was our lucky day, the entire hotel was full and no other rooms were available. The person in charge tried to explain what happened about 15 times, something we were not really interested in. Ultimately, they offered that we could have a free drink and a snack at the hotel's bar while they were working out a solution, we of course, seized that opportunity. Ultimately, the hotel, turned out to be part of a larger holding, and they managed to make some sort of deal with an other hotel within the holding, the taxi expenses were covered by the hotel too.
There was a catch however. They only had double rooms.. but since they offered us two of those, this did not become a problem :). We agreed to take +- 30 minutes before going out for dinner (at 23.00). I took this time to explore the hotel room a bit, put some stuff here and there and to take a shower. The shower was a bit of a surprise, something I did not know, is that most water, unlike in the Netherlands, smells a lot like sodium hypochlorite. When I initially wanted to brush my teeth, I did so.. and was surprised with a bad taste. Upon turning on the shower, the same surprise was there again.
As we were ready, we went to explore the area a little. Dennis was most delighted to find that one of his favorite companies was located nearby our hotel. We went to take a picture or two and also found out that the security guards actually were not sleeping 😄. One said something to us, in Greek, which we didn't quite get (not at all) at which point he realised we were just "another bunch of stupid tourists" and let it be.
On our way to a restaurant, we came across an important little store, they sold drinks and snacks. It was there where I made the most important purchase of the day: a bottle of fresh water 😊. As we arrived at the restaurant, quite late, the crew were still happy to serve us. I was quite pleased with the plate of food I got. As Dennis and I began to discuss some organisational topics related to Stratego, I found it a pity I did not bring, again, my notebook with me. I said I would ask the restaurant for a piece of paper, which I did, I was expecting a somewhat decent sized piece of paper, but got one used for little notes. It did do the job so no complaints there 😊 always could have used the backside of the paper too if necessary.
As we got back at the hotel, we went to the place where breakfast would commence the day after and played a few games, including the "Athens 'open' barrage tournament" which I managed to win, beating Dennis 3 to 2 😊. The first victory of this trip had become reality!
As we had to get up a bit early, I was a bit afraid to fall too deeply asleep. I was fast asleep for +- 30 minutes, after which I awoke, at around 3.30 and then woke up every +- 15 minutes or so. Not a great start of a long tournament.
Some tournaments you participate to win, some you participate to experience. This tournament was mostly the experience for me. I always am either "there to have fun" or "in it to win it" and sometimes those two are combined. While of course winning the tournament would have been marvelous, it was not really my main concern. Catching up with some old friends, meeting new people and of course meeting those whom I've interacted with online were my main concern and purpose of the trip.
Day #1 (Friday)
With as little as two hours of sleep, I woke up on friday, traveling day, to go to from Schiphol airport to Athens airport. The day started out by feeling somewhat tired, but yet, energized. Before anything else, I watched the latest episode of my favorite show, Supernatural. Anyway, the first challenge would of course be the dreaded Dutch railways. My favorite company who are always in to offer extra traveling time for the same cost (also known as delays and other forms of troubles). As I arrived at the station, there was an immediate notification that trains to Lelystad were canceled (which also goes by Schiphol airport), so this only left the "intercity direct" as option, which is a highspeed connection between Breda-Rotterdam-Schiphol airport-Amsterdam but often has severe delays and other troubles. My mood somewhat changed upon hearing the regular intercities were canceled, and it was also announced that we should expect a lot of people in the intercity direct. Surprisingly enough, this did not come to pass. The train arrived (on time even!) and I took a seat. One moment later, I really wished I had taken a different seat or even other part of the train, as 4 women took the seats just in front of me and turned it into a henhouse in terms of noise.
 |
| Train information boards @ Rotterdam Central Station |
While feeling a bit irritated and uneasy with the travel thus far, surprisingly enough, all went rather smooth. After meeting my traveling partner, Dennis, at Schiphol airport, the actual journey was about to begin. The info we received and also was displayed on the information boards showed that we had to be at section 3. Once we went there, people behind the counter were telling us we had to be at section 1, even though it very clearly stated otherwise. They contacted some people who indeed, did confirm, that we had to be at section 1. 10 minutes of walking later, we arrived at section 1. It is quite amazing how large airports actually are from the inside. They had some escalators on the floor, I suppose for lazy people who do like to walk or carry heavy baggage, of which half did not work 😕. We passed the security check and all and went to the proper gate.
It was there where we saw a huge queue of people and the schedule claiming the airplane would leave in 15 minutes (we had to wait awhile before the boarding period begun). Quite obvious that this would not work, the flight was ultimately, delayed, by +- 30 minutes. Ironically, I did not even mind it. Should the train have been delayed even 5 minutes, the first five paragraphs would have been devoted to this fact though.
As we boarded, put our luggage, etc, the journey was about to begin. The airplane took off and thus the journey had really started. While aboard, the people from Aegean airlines brought a nice food package containing of pasta, chicken and some cookies and also brought two drinks throughout the flight. Dennis and I were discussing a few things of which I wanted to take a few notes, so I tried to get my notebook out of my luggage. This also was the moment I rotated my hand-luggage a few times, and I was sure I had put the notebook on top somewhere, but could not find it. A disappointment. I had brought a mini, magnetic, chess game with me, just in case we would want some entertainment while in the air. Dennis agreed to a game and tried to claim the white pieces (which I let him have 😄). Upon putting the pieces on the board, we found out, luckily not the hard way, that the board was not as magnetic as I had envisaged. The pieces were, the board was not. Quite a surprise. Quickly, the pieces were put back into the box before we would be hunting for pawns and knights in the airplane.
 |
| Food during the flight |
While having some interesting and fruitful discussions with Dennis across multiple topics, I also paid some attention to the stuff going on outside. The view from an airplane can be truly amazing.
When we finally arrived in Greece, Athens airport, we needed to get to the hotel for the night. Luckily, plenty of taxi's were on standby, and we grabbed one, as it was quite late, we did not like the idea of having to use public transport for over an hour. Once we arrived at the hotel, everything seemed fine. Seemed fine? Yes, seemed fine. Another surprise was waiting for us, due to a mistake from the hotel, they had booked a room with a double bed opposed to a twin bed, something we considered to be unacceptable.
Of course, as today was our lucky day, the entire hotel was full and no other rooms were available. The person in charge tried to explain what happened about 15 times, something we were not really interested in. Ultimately, they offered that we could have a free drink and a snack at the hotel's bar while they were working out a solution, we of course, seized that opportunity. Ultimately, the hotel, turned out to be part of a larger holding, and they managed to make some sort of deal with an other hotel within the holding, the taxi expenses were covered by the hotel too.
There was a catch however. They only had double rooms.. but since they offered us two of those, this did not become a problem :). We agreed to take +- 30 minutes before going out for dinner (at 23.00). I took this time to explore the hotel room a bit, put some stuff here and there and to take a shower. The shower was a bit of a surprise, something I did not know, is that most water, unlike in the Netherlands, smells a lot like sodium hypochlorite. When I initially wanted to brush my teeth, I did so.. and was surprised with a bad taste. Upon turning on the shower, the same surprise was there again.
As we were ready, we went to explore the area a little. Dennis was most delighted to find that one of his favorite companies was located nearby our hotel. We went to take a picture or two and also found out that the security guards actually were not sleeping 😄. One said something to us, in Greek, which we didn't quite get (not at all) at which point he realised we were just "another bunch of stupid tourists" and let it be.
On our way to a restaurant, we came across an important little store, they sold drinks and snacks. It was there where I made the most important purchase of the day: a bottle of fresh water 😊. As we arrived at the restaurant, quite late, the crew were still happy to serve us. I was quite pleased with the plate of food I got. As Dennis and I began to discuss some organisational topics related to Stratego, I found it a pity I did not bring, again, my notebook with me. I said I would ask the restaurant for a piece of paper, which I did, I was expecting a somewhat decent sized piece of paper, but got one used for little notes. It did do the job so no complaints there 😊 always could have used the backside of the paper too if necessary.
As we got back at the hotel, we went to the place where breakfast would commence the day after and played a few games, including the "Athens 'open' barrage tournament" which I managed to win, beating Dennis 3 to 2 😊. The first victory of this trip had become reality!
 |
| Random setup (worst in history) before the barrage games |
As we had to get up a bit early, I was a bit afraid to fall too deeply asleep. I was fast asleep for +- 30 minutes, after which I awoke, at around 3.30 and then woke up every +- 15 minutes or so. Not a great start of a long tournament.
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