Greece (II)

So a quick review of Greece. Firstly, we couldn’t land at Skiathos airport due to a heavy thunderstorm – The runway is allegedly the 3rd shortest in the world and the Australian pilot made a few attempts before we were completely out of fuel and had to divert to Thessaloniki on the mainland. Eventually made it back to Skiathos about 4 hours late which was a bit annoying. Then there wasn’t space to park the plane, so we had to wait another 15mins for a ‘parking space’. Bloody Air Malta flight took ages!

The organisation at the terminal was very Eastern European. In fact Greece basically is Albania/Bulgaria/Romania albeit with a lot more money pumped in and thousands more Northern European Tourists, but under the surface things seem to operate with the same level of (in)efficiency.

Was a bit horrified at first to see ‘All day English Breakfast’ offered menus everywhere and dozens of English around, but after sinking the first Mythos beer of the afternoon in Admirals Bar started to feel a bit more relaxed.

In fact I really enjoyed Greece and hope I can return for a week every year. Of course I still want to rough it in Tajikistan and go to Moldova – Europe’s bleakest and poorest country – but there was something relaxing about a package holiday. And Skiathos did seem very stereotypically Greek.

Around half the bars were run by Greeks and the other half by English ex-pats. Everywhere very relaxed, no police around anywhere. Able to practice Russian with a Macedonian girl called Tamara working at one of the bars. Scenery much greener than I expected. Not as many English around as I thought and most people seeemed to have been several times before so there almost seemed to be a community of holidaymakers who'd seen each other at some point in the past.

Favourite bars:
Kazbar – Colin an English guy (Tottenham fan) plays live music every night.
Bembos – run by a Yorkshire couple – 60/70s themed.
Tamara’s bar (don’t remember real name)
Roof-top bar – on a roof. Fabulous views of the harbour.Jelly bean cocktails served. Only problem was terrible 70s cheesey music played all the time. I can only take so much of Dancing Queen...