The Imperial Uplifting Primer For Visitors To Athens

So, let us speak of another important issue: how to get to Athens, what to do when you are there, how much it will cost you, and how to persuade your significant other to come with you and not kill you for playing card games.

Traveling to Greece

To be honest, most of our foreign visitors, will be flying in (although for Iron Warriors, there is the concept of driving to Italy and taking a boat to Patras, and driving to Athens, or taking a trip through the Balkans, but somehow I doubt it).

You will be landing here.

Now, one of the things that we are looking into, is to plan for how to get you to your hotel or accommodation. The initial plan is to have someone be at the airport to pick you up, either one of the local volunteers, or a shuttle bus, so that you won’t have to worry about things. Alternatively, we will be providing you with instructions on boarding the Metro, and arriving at one of the stations near the hotel, where you will be picked up from one of our people and whisked away to your accommodation. So, getting to and from the airport will be done with our help, and hopefully with minimum fuss and confusion.

I just did a quick scan of prices for tickets, and without any sort of group price or bargain, prices range from €120-180 for destinations that have frequent correspondence to Athens, and €230-270 for destinations that don’t have such frequent correspondence. As we get nearer to the actual event (say in a couple of months) we will be trying to get people that want to come on over in contact with each other, so that you can get better prices.

Staying in Athens

Your choices, as they are shaping up, are the following:

• Find your own bloody accommodation! (sorry, couldn’t resist)

• Stay in the hotel where the event is taking place (we are still in negotiations, but this will cost about €90-120 per night for a double room-we are trying for the 90)

• Stay in a hotel within 5 minutes walking distance of the venue for €70-80 per double room.

• Stay with one of the players (can’t really quantify this offer yet, but there is usually a large number of Greek players that host foreign players when they come on over)

It should be noted that the prices include breakfast and that these prices are for double rooms (ie the price for one person is €40 in the €80 per room scenario).

This is the link to the venue/hotel.

Again, we are in negotiations and trying to sniff out better prices for those coming, but I want to give you an initial estimate about things, so you can budget worst case wise.

Persuading your significant other to come [EdAris: Pay attention, kiddies - this is the bit that separates the boys from the men ]

Aha! Now we get to my master plan. Come on over with your missus/mister, who does not play L5R. The event is in early Septmeber, so the weather should be good (however, the way weather is around here you can never say). So what I need to do, is to help you persuade your significant other to come on over, and allow you to play with your little Rokugani friends.

Okay, so here goes my sales pitch: One of the reasons I like hosting tournaments in Athens, is that it allows me to look through the eyes of foreigners at my city, instead of my own jaded look, and appreciate it. Athens has many flaws, but it still remains a city of many many wonders (a rough travel guide can be found here and another one here). Athens offers a concentration of archaeological sites that few cities in the world can boast, culinary delights and shopping of quite a few things in much cheaper prices when compared to other parts of Europe. Also, within an hour to two hours’ drive, there are some pretty amazing beaches. If anything, there are enough things to see in 4 days that should keep everyone interested.

So, while you play cards, your significant other will be:

• Shown around the city by friends of ours (my my that does sound very “goodfellas”) or on guided tours (we intend to see what people want, and implement accordingly).

• Weather permitting, a bus might be chartered, so that those that want can gο to a beach and work on their tan and swimming while you suckers get to play cards (please don’t go with them, we actually want you to play in the tournament!)

• At night, they can join us for the party which will be open to all players and anyone accompanying them, or if you are so inclined, you can go out by yourselves for doing horribly un-geeky romantic stuff.
  

So, to recap:

• You get to play cards and be geeky.

• They get to go sight-seeing, shopping, swimming etc.

If you can’t sell this, you are doing something wrong! [EdAris: Save the "I'll give you my credit card" line as your last line of attack. You have been warned.]

Again, for any clarifications or suggestions, feel free to comment or drop me a line.

Regards,

Michael