We recently got back from 2 weeks in Kefalonia.
Yes thanks, it was wonderful. Greece really has it all. Good weather, nice food,
friendly people, incredible scenery, amazing culture and history and now they
even have a football team that wins things! I think I might put in for a change
in nationality! Oh, the plumbing? We don't talk about the plumbing!!
Without going into too much detail it's fair to say that the holiday cost less per day than a reasonable standard hotel would in England, even though we were flying several hundred miles. Of course if we had stayed in England we would have had difficulty finding places to eat, expensive car parking, inflated prices in tourist centres, silly opening hours and all the other problems that we take for granted at home. Then people wonder why the British prefer to go abroad for their holidays. I wonder why anybody comes to Britain. Perhaps it's time that we appreciated the history and culture that make other people want to come and visit us because we don't give tourists many other reasons to be here.
We still had to put up with the usual problems of travel though. Turfed out of the hotel room six hours before pick-up, cooped up like sardines in a plane for three hours before stopping so far from the terminal building that we needed a fifteen minute "bus" ride back to customs. The tour companies really take their customers for a ride in more than one sense!
The place we stayed, Sami, had just about been taken over by British tourists. Not that there were too many people, you couldn't describe any part of the island as being crowded, but the British can be so insular, even when they go abroad. I think that many of our tourists would really only be happy if every bar sold Tetley's and the harbour front was lined with Fish and Chip shops! If they don't like being away from home why do they go for goodness sake?
One of the main myths that the Brit abroad
will tell is that they have to compete with the German tourists, particularly
for the swimming pool sun beds. This involves getting up at the crack of dawn,
sneaking down to the pool and "reserving" the beds by putting towels
on them. Now there wasn't a German to be seen in Sami but this behaviour was
still going on. Often the culprits then didn't bother to turn up to use "their"
beds for two or three hours!
Let me put this nice and simply so even they can understand. If you do that
you are a SELFISH GIT!!!!!!! One day you will come down to the pool to find
that your towels have gone for an early swim without you!
Me? Of course I wouldn't have anything to do with it;)
You don't have to go far in Greece to see the national flag flying over a building. I think that's actually true for most countries. I remember in Canada that most municipal buildings also had the regional flag flying. Here in England it seems almost to be a crime to fly the Union Flag. Until recently flying the Cross of St. George was even worse. The authorities seem to want to drive out all our pride and self-respect. Perhaps it's no surprise that we don't look after the place very well.
It's refreshing to see that the Greeks
have managed to retain a sense of trust and honesty that I don't think that
I have encountered anywhere else. That must be really difficult after years
of experience with Western tourists. In taverna's they are quite happy for you
to leave the money on the table and walk out. They don't want to check that
you are paying or that you've left the right amount nor do they worry that anyone
else will pick up the cash.
Refrigerated drinks cabinets with glass fronts are left outside shops all night.
In England these would be smashed up and the contents removed in days but it
doesn't happen there. A few years ago we found on that was actually unlocked
so you could help yourself and leave the money in a small bowl.
When we go to Greece we do hire a hotel safety deposit box but we are only worried
about the other tourists, not the Greeks. I suspect that they still leave their
front doors unlocked at night!
Is anyone laughing at them for their naivety and gullibility? I think that we
should be crying for ourselves.
The country actually seems to be stuck in a time warp. Sami hadn't changed since we first went there eight years ago. Ok, there was a Captain Corelli's bar and the roads were a little better but in any aspect of importance it was the same. When we went into the mountain villages of Lesvos a few years ago it looked like things were going on as they had a hundred years ago. Life passes by, people come and go but nothing changes. Everyone is happy. The Greeks - no the Hellenes - have been there for thousands of years. I think that they'll be there for a few more yet.
Progress? Who needs it??