I Survived Toumba!

By: Chris Pavlakos | March 9th, 2009

My friends, this is Toumba.

The Journey
The day started with a flight from Athens to Thessaloniki that took 45 minutes (fantastic) then onto the bus into the kentro to meet up with Koulis Apostolidis to collect my ticket and then to the stadium. Once I got my ticket I made my way to the stadium. As I was driving I saw a bus with 10-15 people STANDING ON THE ROOF chanting “ΠΑΟΚ ΟΛΕ Σ’ΑΓΑΠΩ” and I knew I was in for one hell of a night. When I got to the stadium about 2 hours before the game there were people everywhere, all wearing black, all looking very angry. I started to make my way through the mass of agression towards the stadium and heard a commotion between me and the stadium. I looked up and saw a large group of riot police in full riot gear lined up in a phalynx being confronted by a group of ΠΑΟΚ “fans”. This was not going to end well. I saw a water bottle fly over my head and my flight instinct kicked in for the first time of many. Its a good thing I turned and ran when I did because 2 seconds later the cops threw teargas and charged the “fans”. It was chaos. I couldn’t see, my eyes were burning, I was puking, I had lost my friend, and I was stuck between riot police and rioters. I ran for the nieghborhood near the stadium to get away from the teargas and collect my breath. Luckily my friend had ran to the same road and I found him there. We waited about 5 minutes and then decided to walk to the stadium again. Big mistake. The teargas had not cleared and I entered into a 2nd fit of tears. pain, and puking. After about 20 minutes the gas had finally gone and we walked up to the stadium. The ground was covered in broken bottles, glass, chairs, scafs, styrofome… it looked like a freaking war zone. Being the reporter I am, I busted out my camera and started taking pictures of the aftermath. One of the ΠΑΟΚ “fans” thought I was taking a picture of his face and lost it. He ran at me screaming “NO PICTURE NO PICTURE” and went to reach for my camera. I put my camera in my pocket and ran like hell because there was 1 of me and 30,000 of him and you cant reason with these people.

The Stadium
I could sum this up in one word: Shithole. But, being that this is a blog, I will go on for a very long time with a shitload of details. My ticket was in Gate 1 and did not have a seat number or row, only said Gate 1. Now I had to go find Gate 1. Of course there are no signs on the outside of the stadium so I just walked around hoping to find it. Eventually after asking a few security guards and police I found it. From the gate to my “seat” was a mad house. It was like being in a crowded metro train with a whole bunch of dirty old men who have not showered in weeks and want to kill you. The “concourse” was about the side of the hallways in my basement and everybody was pushing. The best part of it all was the no smoking sign! When I finally made my way out into Gate 1 it was packed. Every seat was full and so were the aisles so I made my way (slooooowly) up the stairs towards the back of Gate 1. I ended up against the railing that seprates VIP from Gate 1 and packed into an aisle like a sardine. To make it worse the aisles are only wide enough for one person to walk thru and there were 2 people standing on each stair and people trying to go up and down. I was molested constantly for 2 hours. It was a zoo in there in more ways than one. When Olympiakos came out to warm up it rained waterbottles and paper to a chorus of whistles, boos, and vulgarities of a new level. When the game started the entire stadium burst into fire. Flares popped up everywhere, fireworks were shooting into the air and onto the field, and a few banners cought on fire. There were also about 6 lasers around the stadium being pointed into player’s eyes. Any time Olympiacos had a corner, play would have to stop for a minute because the corner taker would get pelted with bottles, flares, fireworks, you name it. Towards the end of the game Mendrinos got a red card and the stadium exploded as if they had scored a goal! Flares went off, everybody stood up and starting chanting and I found it hard to keep a straight face.

Taxi!
Around the 89th minute I could tell that the game was going to finish 0-0 and there was going to be hell to pay for it so I jumped the railing into the VIP section (the ONE security guard was smoking a cigarette and watching the game) and made my way to the VIP stairs and exit. The VIP area was also a shithole from what I saw. When I got outside I saw a few fans had already decided to leave and then noticed another riot police phalynx this one was across the street from the G4 exit, waiting for them to come out and burn down the city. I heard a whole bunch of whistleing and POP POP POP of 3 flares firing off and then I heard a slow, steady hiss and got a third dose of the fucking tear gas! Later I found out that what I heard was the fans running onto the field and chasing Nikopolidis and the 1,000 riot police inside the stadium setting off teargas inside to disperce the fans into the street where more teargas and riot police were waiting! Needless to say, I left the area immediatly. Problem is the apartment im staying at is 15km away and I needed a Taxi. No taxi dared come anywhere near the stadium so I had to walk a good 3-4km before I could even see any taxis on the street and every one I saw was already taken. While I was waiting I had an “only in Greece” moment right before my eyes. Some guy was lining up to make a rediculous left turn across 7 lanes of traffic and at the exact same time 4 motorcycle cops were driving by. One of the cops yells at the driver “POU PAS RE” and the 4 cops surround his car and force him to back up then pull over. They yelled at him for a few minutes and then their radio went off and they left without giving him a ticket. After about 90 minutes of trying to get a Taxi I finally found one that was on its way to my area and jumped in. The cabbie drove like a fucking maniac. He was going over curbs, driving on medians, cutting off papakia, the whole 9 yards. Finally I got to my friends apartment, ordered a gyro, had a beer and went to sleep. Right now I am at his uni in Serres (we left Thesaloniki at 6:30 to get here at 8 ) so im posting on their internet.

I put pictures of my adventure on facebook, check them out.

Next game: PAO-Villareal or Olympiakos-Iraklis.