Sounds like your avwerage Greek holiday to me Greece wouldn't be Greece without those little foibles.

Blimey, things have changed!!
When we were in Kefalonia, the maids drove us mad with their constant cleaning.
We would have been glad of a lie in some mornings.
We called them "Kim and Aggie"

not sure what any of this has to do with the greek economy?

The prices in most shops aimed at tourists are going to be sky high,for instance if i go into the shop where i live in faliraki a tub of butter,a loaf of sliced bread,some cheese and a pint of milk is probably going to come to 7 euro,more in an expensive resort like paleokastritsa,whereas if i go 400yds along the road to AB supermarket,which is a national chain much like somerfield or co-op,the exact same stuff will probably come to under 4 euros,and if you really try you'll get it for peanuts.

As for the maid service,toilet rolls and aircon etc,none of that relates to the recession,greek hotels don't always give you the little things like loo roll,that's greece! and maybe the hotel was just rubbish with things like maids etc,no different to the way it was in the 90's when things were much more prosperous!

if greece was like england it wouldnt be greece

The recession is, however, still affecting strikes and working to rule. The worrying news from the Foreign Office today refers to the likely shortage of fuel caused by the tanker drivers' action from 25th July until further notice. This could indeed cause considerable disruption. As the FCO say "Please ensure you have enough fuel to reach your destination". Whether or not this will affect ferries and even aircraft is not yet clear.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=22596418

This site doesn't like html at the moment so click on the link.

i think in the last 10 or so years i've seen the petrol stations or tanker drivers on strike at least 3 times every year,usually in the summer for more effect,along with postal strikes,bin lorry strikes,OTE telecom strikes,bus driver strikes,airport traffic control strikes,baggage strikes,taxi strikes,ferry strikes,port strikes......there's so many every year that these recent ones have very little impact,particularly on the islands.The Greeks really are barking mad,but try telling them why their economy is the way it is....

Well they've spent years avoiding paying taxes. It's finally caught up with them!!!!

The Greeks are well known for their strikes which apart from upsetting tourists, a major source of the countries income, achieve very little. We lost 15 hours of our recent stay on Santorini when the firefighters closed the airport with their strike. Why bite the hand that feeds you?

In reply to Sambacasuals comments about the title of my posting. It was realy just a comment about the whole feeling we got regarding what we were sold and what we were given. Every time somthing failed to work or was found to be broken all we got were the usual shrug of the shoulders and the 1000yd stare. Taps, shower, hot water,doors jamming etc etc. The Greek mentality used to be It was new 5 years ago so should still be o.k. Cosmos were very coy about the "extras" we could expect to pay. Only badgering e mails got us the truth. As a previous poster pointed out the Greeks have made a lifestyle out of avoiding taxes. When I lived in Greece in the 90s i had a small share in a bar. That was a lesson in chicanery. One day the customs launch sailed into harbour and nearly every business closed due to "family illness" The guy I was involved with bragged about having 2 identities. One for the tax and one to vote. To finish when we arrived at the studios and paid the e5 per day air con rent I cheekily asked for a receipt. "Boss comes tomorrow" What do you think happened? Oh well back to long haul in winter.

Some of your comments are probably due to the fact that Cosmos are a budget company. Air *** is expensive so instead of paying up front you get the option. All of our accomodation this year included it and sheets and towels were changed every other day, quite wasteful really. Maid service was excellent and a light bulb on the balcony was changed on the day we told them. We are well aware that we paid for this level of service but even so apart from Santorini, it was cheap compared to the UK

i think a major issue is that,at least on the island resorts,the businesses and family 'empires' are now being handed over to the younger generation,a generation that was spoilt while growing up during the prosperous years,the older generations have been through hard times,military rule,coups,the cold war etc etc while the new 'owners' knew nothing of any of it,whereas their fathers and grandfathers had a cart,a donkey,hand me down clothes and a bedroom between 4 with no tv,the younger generation have the internet,plasma tv's,designer clothes,flash cars and a comparitively 'upmarket' education and albanians to do all the manual labour,so they take for granted all the things they have been gifted by tourist revenues through their upbringing and don't feel the need to stick to a dying work ethic.

Maybe that's a bit deep and cynical but i've lived and worked among both sides of the coin and the attitude of most of the newer generation seems to come from the above. still love the place and the people though!

Yes Sambacasual is absolutely correct in their observations. We are straying of topic but two similar tales spring to mind. One day on the island I was watching part of the harbour being replaced{a large ferry from Piraeus had demolished it}and up to their waist in water were a group of Albanian labourers. In the evening one the gang was behind a bar I went into working well into the late hours. The other tale regards the family I was renting a house from. They had a bar and day taxi boats as their main business. Language was a problem so when I needed to explain somthing to them I got a greek chum to write a brief note. I handed it to the father who then gave it to his two teenage sons who gave it to the youngest of the family. All of them looked perplexed. Later in the bar my greek chum explained they probably could'nt read as there was no need to in their line of business.

typical sounding anecdotes there porcao,greeks tend only to look inwards to their own lives and their own little world,whereas we Brits tend to look outward to the rest of the world before we examine ourselves.

Going off topic can be good no matter what any mods may say,it tends to enlighten people as to things they would otherwise never see or experience

they are no different to any other nation if you think about it, and as the mod for the Greek forums i haven't found anything wrong with this thread,

as a self confessed Greenville i understand both ends of the discussion and when there myself i work to their ways... take off watch as the only important times are Light o'clock and Dark o'clock,, if anything is broken if its not essential then forget it, don't rush anywhere there is nowhere else to go..

yasus
wizard

believe me wizard time does matter when you work for them,try turning up 5 minutes late

forgive me asking but that's a greenville?

no a bloody American spell checker i keep changing it and it keeps changing back

Greekophile

yasus
wizard

Well we love it there, and have never let a door hanging off or a shower curtain falling on us stop us from visiting. In fact as Shirley h said - by now we expect these little foibles. Roll on next week

A couple of points for HT moderator & Helen T. As for not bothering about things that are broken and dont really matter. Would you allow any member of your family to dig out a totally sealed plug from a sink of soapy water with a carving knife? I think not. Anyone who fancied a bit of litigation would have field day here. One slip with the knife and that would be a nice little earner. Shower curtian? Luxury! There wasn't one. The shower itself was a hand held affair so water went all over the floor and the only anti slip mat was a tiny towel mat. Putting my Heath Robinson hat on I manged to suspend the shower head using a wire coat hanger. I put candle wax on the floor at the balcony door to stop the screaching noise driving the people below to distraction. We soon got used to puting a bath towel on ourselves when using the kitchen sink tap as someone had removed the diffuser and more water ended up on us than in the sink. I am all for the little quirky things that tell us some cultures see things differently. Life is not a one way street. Meeting someone coming the other way only broadens our perception. What I wont buy into is this meek and mild attitude of accepting shoddy service and smiling through it. As a traveller I believe that if we dont push for better standards then we desrve what we get. We have travelled Greece from the mid 80s and have some great memories. Sometimes though you just wish they could see things from our point of view other than all day fried breakfast. After all we are paying the money are we not? Some will argue that is what makes Greece so greek.

porcao,these things will never change and i believe this is why Greece has seen such a decline in British guests in the last decade,to the average holidaymaker paying £400 for a week in a 2* greek apartment with the aforementioned problems and terrible little rickety beds etc is madness when you can go to spain and stay in an apartment that is essentially at an equal standard to what we have here in the uk,or even in our own homes,ie proper kitchen equipment,modern fittings,secure doors,patrolling security and so on and so forth for the same money,to the average family greece and spain are similar enough,both hot and sunny,both got great beaches,plenty of restaurants,bars and sights etc,only with more in spain for the kids. forget your love of greece for a moment,and you'd probably all choose spain aswell,especially as a couple or a family.even their 4 and 5* hotels are equivalent only to a 3* on the costas or canaries.

but as i've already said,you try telling the Greeks this,it's the same in the bars,we're no longer impressed by chips with everything,only fools and horses,free shots of schnapps and every premiership match live and "traditional basic greek decor",we can get that on a £99 jolly to magaluf

Anyone who fancied a bit of litigation would have field day here.

you would be welcome to try but Greece doesn't have the it's all someone else's fault American litigation system as we do in the UK [more the worse for this country] Greece is still a place where common sense takes the lead so the plug doesn't have a chain ..then find a bit of string and put on it [thats probably about as much as they would do..] and don't let children play with knives

as or Spain.. been several times [for a supposed cheap option which in the end is no cheaper than Greece] Give me Greece every time, I find the local food[ whichever style as every region and island has its own take on a recipe] much better than Spain and the locals much more friendly

yasus
wizard