Niki Hotel

Olympiakos

by grkboiler

Olympiakos is by far Greece's most successful football club, one of the best-supported and also THE most hated. They are based near Athens in Piraeus and owned by Socrates Kokkalis. He bought the club in 1992.

OSFP, or Olympiakos Syndesmos Filathlon Piraeus (Olympic Association of Sportsmen of Piraeus) was formed on 10 March, 1925 after the merger of Piraeus Football Club and Piraeus Fans Club. The name was inspired by aviator Notis Kamperos. The club has had its down years but has pretty much dominated ever since it was formed. It has more titles than archrivals Panathinaikos and AEK combined! Olympiakos is nicknamed "Thrylos", meaning "legend".

After 10 straight years without a title, the worst stretch in their history, Olympiakos won an unprecedented 7 league championships in a row between 1997 and 2003. In 2004, they were finally knocked off by Panathinaikos.

Unfortunately, Olympiakos has failed to register in European competitions, always finding a dramatic way to lose. Olympiakos' colors are red and white. They play at Karaiskaki (Built 2004, Capacity 33,334) located at Faliro.

Olympiakos have won 32 Championships:
1931, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1947, 1948, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1966,1967, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003

20 Cups:
1947, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1959,1960, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1981, 1990, 1992, 1999

2 Super Cups:
1987, 1992

10 Doubles:
1947, 1951, 1954, 1957,1958, 1959, 1973, 1975, 1981, 1999

1 Balkan Cup:
1963

Bus to / around Piraeus

by amsterdam_vallon

Bus and trolley tickets are 0.45 Euro each and can be purchased at special booths and kiosks near the bus stops. Once you are on the bus or trolley, validate your ticket by asserting it into one of the meters for that purpose; the ticket will be punched and dated. Then keep the ticket until you leave the bus, since it's not uncommon to have a ticket-checker to check their validity (if you are found that you haven't punched your tickets, you're required to pay around 15 - 25 Euro.

This are the important lines from Piraeus :
- 040 PIRAEUS - SYNTAGMA
- 049 PIRAEUS - OMONOIA
- E1 PIRAEUS - VOULA (EXPRESS)
- E96 PIRAEUS - AIRPORT (EXPRESS)

The Old Neighbourhood

by Yank_o

I grew up in a lively neighbourhood 1km from the centre of Piraeus and just a 5-minute walk from the sea.

It is at the foot of the Prophet Elias hill, one of the two short (fully built-up) "humps" in the townscape.

This hill has traditionally been the home of the town's strong Cretan community. Around the other one (the Odegetria) is where the also important community from Mani (the southern tip of Peloponnese) has settled.

Piraeus had almost no indigenous population at the time of Greece's independence but now is home to about 200,000 people (within the municipality's limits).

We Piraeus people also talk sometimes of a Greater Piraeus (which in turn belongs to Greater Athens), having about half a million residents in total. It includes a number of municipalities mainly to the north and north-west of the peninsula that forms the core of Piraeus.

"The Sea"

The peninsula of Piraeus has a unique shape formed by:

- The main passenger (and onetime also commercial) port in the west
- The marina at Zea a.k.a. Pasalimani
- The smaller marina (onetime fishing harbour) of Mikrolimano a.k.a. Tourkolimano
- The canal between the original coastline and the landfill area of the Peace and Friendship indoor stadium

The sea is very important for the life of Piraeus. It is not only home to the ports but also seat of Greece's Shipping Ministry, the Piraeus University (with maritime studies as a key area of study) and numerous shipping-related companies.