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Your baptism in Toumba


Dutch Eagle

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After I read the post of Pontos possibly not going to Toumba due to the delay I thought this should be worthwile a new topic about our first experience in Toumba.

Some are already baptised. Others still dream of making the trip to Toumba.

Share your story or plans!

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The first time I went to Toumba was October 3rd 1990. I was student law at Rotterdam University and got the opportunity to study abroad. I chose Athens. I wanted to look how life was in Greece other than in summer. As there was no schedule of starting lessons at the end of September I went to some cousins in Thessaloniki to visit them. I saw a friend of mine and he told me about the UEFA-cup match agains Sevilla. So we went. Kick-off 8.30 pm. Entered the stadium 6.30 pm because otherwise we could get disappointed.

Gamo tis atmosferes. I could not believe my eyes. This is where I wanted to be more often.

The game itself was not a very good one. After the promissing 0-0 in Sevilla a victory was al we needed and avoiding to recieve a goal.

0-0 after extra time. So penalties to decide the game. Unfortunatelly we lost. As my friend said. Best players must not take the penalties because there is too much pressure. And he was right. Our best players missed. The hardworking defenders scored.

But we gave them an applaus as heroes.

Later on in my life I must have attended another 15 games in Toumba. The past 8 years with my wife and kids. All dressed in the rige fanela!

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The first time I went to Toumba was October 3rd 1990. I was student law at Rotterdam University and got the opportunity to study abroad. I chose Athens. I wanted to look how life was in Greece other than in summer. As there was no schedule of starting lessons at the end of September I went to some cousins in Thessaloniki to visit them. I saw a friend of mine and he told me about the UEFA-cup match agains Sevilla. So we went. Kick-off 8.30 pm. Entered the stadium 6.30 pm because otherwise we could get disappointed.

Gamo tis atmosferes. I could not believe my eyes. This is where I wanted to be more often.

The game itself was not a very good one. After the promissing 0-0 in Sevilla a victory was al we needed and avoiding to recieve a goal.

0-0 after extra time. So penalties to decide the game. Unfortunatelly we lost. As my friend said. Best players must not take the penalties because there is too much pressure. And he was right. Our best players missed. The hardworking defenders scored.

But we gave them an applaus as heroes.

Later on in my life I must have attended another 15 games in Toumba. The past 8 years with my wife and kids. All dressed in the rige fanela!

Not a PAOK guy, never even been to Thessaloniki, but that's a great story. 

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In 2008 I caught a train from Athens to visit Thessaloniki for the first time in my life. I have an interest in Ancient history and I've always wanted to visit the capital of Macedonia.

I recall that the guy on the front desk of the hotel I was staying at was a Paoktzi. He gave me a map and circled Toumba and I decided to go on a walking tour of the city and take in the sights.

It was mid-week and it was rather quiet around the stadium but there were other athletes (weight lifters and other sports) hanging around the ground. Toumba was impressive even though it looked a bit run down and I was only able to walk around the perimeter.

I was surprised to see that Toumba, the Kaftanzogliou and Aris' Kleanthis Vikelidis are all a few kilometres apart. I walked between them easily.

I visited Aris' store at their stadium but Paok's wasn't open. Iraklis' was I recall but I preferred to tour the actual stadium. It looked good. Renovated for the 2004 Olympics. There were a few athletic runners on the track and the goal posts were up.

One of these days I will return and I'll make it a mission to see a match.

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my story is not a short one, but here goes anyway.

 

in early 2010 my wife and I thought we'd take our 16 month old daughter to Greece to see my Yiayia. Thought, may as well get a holiday in and booked 4 weeks with some time on an island and in Athens as well as a stop in Paris to see my best friend who lives in London now.

 

My folks said 'how about we come at the same time' while not ideal from a cramping our style point of view, there was a bit of on hand babysitting that could be done. Dad went over 3 months earlier being retired to see his mum, and my mum would fly over with us.

 

A fortnight before we were supposed to fly out my Theia calls and says your dad has had a stroke and he's in the hospital in Drama.

 

Mum and I fly out within 48 hours and spend the next week doing the nurses job for them in the hospital [never, ever get sick in Greece EVER the hospital in Drama looked like something out of an old school Eastern Bloc cold war era time]. Eventually we get Dad moved to the Diabalkaniko hospital in Thessaloniki and the place and doctors there are amazing. They put Dad in an induced coma and into the ICU for 2 weeks. During that time we can only see him for 30 minutes twice a day at very specific times.

 

The hospital happens to be next to the Hotel Nikopolis so we stayed there so we could walk back and forth. I think I've mentioned this previously but this is where the players and coaches would spend the 24 hours previous to any home game or departure for any away game having meetings and other stuff.

 

This was also during the playoffs at the end of the 2009/2010 season and there had been a Wednesday game at home to Olympiakos postponed for the general strike [the day some psychokhunt threw a molotov at a bank and killed people inside]. They rearranged it for a Sunday and so there were plenty of tickets available.

 

I jump in the car and head to Toumba to buy a ticket. The guy asks me what kind of ticket I want. My answer a pair of the most expensive ones you've got as long as they guarantee me a seat. There was no way I was talking my wife to a game and going in Gate 4.

 

So the day comes around and we jump in a cab to the ground and go in. The wall of sound is immense, we walk to our allocated seats and they're taken. Not being used to not being able to see anyone remotely looking like a steward/marshall/usher anywhere in site, I say to the guy, I think these are our seats. He laughs and says, listen mate I don't know what your ticket says but we always have these seats. Now I'm no hero especially with my wife there so I look further up the stand and there are plenty of free seats so we go a few rows further back and relax waiting for the teams to head out. My wife starts pissing herself laughing when the PAOK players come out to the strains of ACDC's Thunderstruck 'haven't they got any metal songs of their own?'

 

The game starts and we are all over them like a rash, Lino was especially strong that day up and back like greyhound. Nikopolidis fluffed a clearance deflected by Filomeno that went to Muslimovic who slotted it. We dominated large swathes of the game but couldn't exactly relax on a one goal lead. However the scores remained unchanged and everyone left very happy [particularly as away supporters were banned during the playoffs]

 

Below are some photos I took from the game and a youtube link to the highlights.

 

I had been to see PAOK a number of times in Serres, but never at Toumba.

 

4611251610_a6c796b6d4_b.jpg

4611249836_da7baf84ec_b.jpg

4610637257_1056d65e0f_b.jpg

 

https://youtu.be/8mpf_wUtJbI

 

Meanwhile back at the hotel we were there for pretty much the entire playoff run so I saw the players around quite a bit. I even sat and had a coffee with Muslimovic [he really is one of the nicest people you could meet] in the bar. One of the girls that worked there gave my daughter a handful of karameles and told her to go and give them to Fernando Santos to see if she could get her to make him smile or laugh [she swore she had not seen him smile once in 2 years] and she got him to crack a smile, but no laugh, she even got a hug from Conceicao.

 

Could you not laugh at this?

4772859349_6306c73cf1_b.jpg

 

It was the brightest part of a truly awful and horrific time.

Edited by Nea Bafra
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Yes, that is definitely a great story, I hope he's all right now. I've heard the same about the families needing to be the nurses, too.

 

-edit- also, that is a hell of an adorable baby

 

Great topic Dutch Eagle. Can I get you on retainer in case I need a lawyer for the next time I cause an "incident?"

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I've only been to Toumba once, and it was not for a game - it was late July in I think 2011. I was visiting my cousin who was attending school in Larissa, and we took the bus up to Thessaloniki before going to his horio. He more or less took me on a walking tour of the city (most of my family seems very unwilling to visit the city, so I take what I can get), which was great.

 

We took the bus up to Toumba, wandered that road for a while (and visited what he insisted was a famous gyradiko, which I think is now out of business), and then made our way to the stadium itself. I remember thinking it looked like a war zone. We walked to the main entrance, which was locked up, but we then went to one of the smaller ones which had some hooligan-looking types (doubtlessly employees) kind of...lounging about? Anyway, they looked at us suspiciously, my cousin said he just wanted to show his paoktzi cousin from America the stadium for the first time in his LIFE, and they basically let us wander around for as long as we wanted. I remembered thinking how wildly different it was inside than out (in terms of cleanliness vs its exterior appearance) - this was before they really started posting those close-up videos on youtube, so almost all of the pictures I had seen of the empty stands were photo ops or from a distance.

 

Anyway, after we got our fill of pictures, we went to the store, which I believe had just been renovated, and I bought some shorts or something similar. I've noticed that staff in clothing stores in Greece (at least when I go) seem to be way too interested in getting too-close and too-personal when you're trying stuff on in the dressing rooms. Or maybe it's just my taut, rippling muscles? Either way, I wish it wasn't dudes who did this. Long story short, I think I got molested.

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Wow great story, sorry to ask this is your father okay now?

 

 

Thanks Pana, unfortunately Dad had had a succession of strokes from about 2003 up until 2010 with about 4 major ones up until he had that one in Greece. Up until that one they had only left a minor loss of peripheral eyesight after he had rehab, however the one he had in Greece left him blind and mentally affected. Once we got him home he had a couple more big ones and passed away in 2012.

 

As sad as it is, from what the neurologists have since told us, the condition he has that caused it, meant that he probably had in excess of 30 strokes/bleeds in the brain over the decade, some obviously though would have been too minor to notice. By the end it was in part a relief as well as a loss.

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Yes, that is definitely a great story, I hope he's all right now. I've heard the same about the families needing to be the nurses, too.

 

-edit- also, that is a hell of an adorable baby

 

Great topic Dutch Eagle. Can I get you on retainer in case I need a lawyer for the next time I cause an "incident?"

 

she's six now, she tells me she wants to play for PAOK when she grows up. Unfortunately for her that might be easier than breaking into her local club's womens team.

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Well my aunt lives very close to Toumba about a 8 min walk.  I dont go to Greece often so i only watched 3 games in

Toumba, all exhibition games since i was going in August.   The game i will never forget was a game against Leicester

that my cousin took me to and well he decided to take me into Gate 4.  

 

The things that happened in that Gate during that game i will remember for the rest of my life. 

First a young teen started climbing the netting and shaking himself on the netting while he was up there.  Well what goes up must come down and when he came down about 3-4 guys literally starting kicking the s%$#! out of this poor kid. I mean klotsies the works.    I turn to my cousin and say 'why are they doing this'??   The answer he comes up with is ' They just put that netting in recently , its new '   LOL 

 

Later in the second half the game was pretty much secured by PAOK , everybody in our row was pretty quiet.  Well all of a sudden this guy in the row in front of us with no shirt and tatoos turns around and screams to us 'SIKOTHITE RE GAMOTO , PROTO FILIKO '   you could see the vein popping from the side of his head.  Next thing i know im jumping and clapping and yelling as loud as i can fearing i would end up like that kid in the first half.

 

Anyway was a day i will never forget and it was just a friendly!!!

Edited by Polikastano
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I lived in Oreokastro for a year and some change when I was a teenager.  I went to a couple friendly matched in Toumpa with my father, before I actually gave a s%$#!.  That's about it.  I  tried to go for a couple big Euro and League matches the last few year, but my kids are 5, 3 and 2 so it tough right now...but I'll get there for a big match soon enough.

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I've made a promise to one of my cousins who in his younger days used to be a gate 4 psycho that if and when PAOK make it to he champions league group stages I will fly over for a fortnight and take in a home and an away game and take him with me.

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Thanks Pana, unfortunately Dad had had a succession of strokes from about 2003 up until 2010 with about 4 major ones up until he had that one in Greece. Up until that one they had only left a minor loss of peripheral eyesight after he had rehab, however the one he had in Greece left him blind and mentally affected. Once we got him home he had a couple more big ones and passed away in 2012.

 

As sad as it is, from what the neurologists have since told us, the condition he has that caused it, meant that he probably had in excess of 30 strokes/bleeds in the brain over the decade, some obviously though would have been too minor to notice. By the end it was in part a relief as well as a loss.

Hi Nea Bafra, sorry to hear the story of your dad's health problems, and I know this is off topic. I have experienced something similar with my father. 

 

My parents were planning to go to Greece in 2013, but dad had a major stroke early that year and they couldn't go. His was a clot, rather than a bleed. It's affected him considerably, but he can still walk, speaks OK, etc. His sight has been affected and as a result he cannot drive. You don't realise what a terrible thing a stroke can be until it happens to someone close to you. 

 

If all goes well, I am planning to go with my younger son and them in the next summer, but I am very skeptical and worried about anything happening over there, especially with their poor medical system as you say. It is a risk, but they are determined to go.

 

Anyway, I haven't been to Toumba, but would love to one day (I am a Pao supporter and have been to Leoforos and OAKA many times). I have been to Kaftantzogleio back in the mid 80s. It was a huge slab of concrete, no plastic seats and a very ordinary pitch. It looked a lot better in the years after the 04 Olympics, but Greek stadia in general are not great. The atmosphere is fantastic in places like Toumba and Leoforos, but the facilities leave a lot to be desired.....you wouldn't want to go to the toilet at the half time break! Hopefully one day when the economy improves we will see better stadia all round Greece.   

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Nice stories by everyone. Here is mine.

 

The first time I went to Toumba was in 1984 during my first ever visit to Greece. I have been a fan of the team since mid-70's, and of course all my family (cousins) in Thessaloniki were PAOK fans, so it was a no brainer that a visit to Toumba was a must. Thankfully in those days the big teams in Greece still played pre-season friendlies unlike today. My first game at Toumba was a pre-season friendly between PAOK and AEK. Even though it was in the middle of the vacation season (August) in Greece, Toumba was quite full. It was a great experience.

 

Since then I went to Toumba on many occasions. Since I visited Greece mostly during summer, most of the games were pre-season friendlies. Also saw a pre-season friendly against Aris at Charilaou Stadium among others. 

 

The only competitive games I managed to see at Toumba was the one time I went to Greece during winter. It was against Panionios in December 1990. The other competitive game I attended was the infamous CL qualifying game between PAOK and Maccabi in 2004

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very much so Dutch! 2 wins from 2 games that I've seen, home and away. I'm here another month, some big games ahead I hope to get to. I'm staying in Florina, so a couple hours away from Thessaloniki, mostly PAOK fans here, met a few of the guys from the fan club, treli haha. Last night at the kafeneio a couple gavroi tried to watch the game, they couldn't handle the constant heckling and left early into the second half.

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Great stories everyone!!  Unfortunately, I haven't been to Toumba.  The one time I've been to Greece back in '94, I had lost interest in football and sports in general, unless you count chasing girls as a sport.  In addition, PAOK was serving a 5 year ban in Europe, and at the time, that would have been the only game I would have been interested in.

 

I didn't start following PAOK seriously again until Bajevic become our manager.  Those years in the 90's and early 00's were rough in terms of presidents.

 

I don't know when I'll be going to Greece again, life always seems to get in the way, but when I do, I'll be organising my trip around PAOK games.  How our priorities change ...

 

Pontos, you're one lucky dude.  Got to see the unveiling of Berbatov, AEK, Dortmund, Olympiakos.  Man, it doesn't get much better.

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  • 3 months later...

basically i got baptised in several away games of PAOK in Athens in the decade of 90es. i was already a PAOK fan in Athens since the championship of 85 when i was 7 years old. finally i had the chance to go to Thessaloniki and Toumba in 2 games with the Panellinios Athens PAOK Club, 1 against gayroi in the late 90es, and 1 against skouliki in the early 00es.

 

in the 90es there were always crazy PAOK fans coming for the games in Athens, so believe me that was a hard core baptism each time !  :D

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 years later...

Paok Aris 2-2 in 1976. 

Paok dominated in the beginning, but an incredible Aris comeback from 2-0 down.

40000 fans, Paok and Aris fans all sitting together (those were the days). 

I think there was no Θ4 fan club back in those days (was established later that year...?) and certainly no Super 3 either.

Not many banners flags and scarves as today... No χαρτάκια either (that started a couple of years later)

Stadium jampacked 2h before the game.

Great atmosphere, everybody went home in one piece... 

Took us 2h (!!!) to drive back home...!

 

 

 

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