Monday, September 08, 2014
Zante diary 2
First evening
Greece was, for many years always our first choice destination for holidays. Great food, great weather and great people kept us coming back time and time again. Oh, and of course great value. When the Drachma was still king, you virtually couldn't give away your money here. And then the EU and the Euro came and fucked it all up. The adoption of the Euro and a corresponding drop in the pound left the Eurozone, and notably Greece far more expensive for us Brits than before. A 3€ beer which had been £2 was suddenly £3.20, and to hire sun beds on the beach went from £3 a day to £10. It was madness and the Brits left in droves for the likes of Turkey, or in our case, Florida.
With Greece having suffered a bigger than average financial breakdown, and relying so heavily on tourism, something had to give. And put simply, they had to become competitive on price again. Fortunately, they seemed to get the message and when people started reporting that it had become more affordable again, if not a bit a bargain, we decided it was high time to give it a go once more.
From our first drinks at the hotel bar, we weren't let down. Two glasses of wine came to 4.20€, down from about 3€ each when we were in Cyprus recently - a nice surprise! We then headed out for food to the Menir Taverna, one of our old faves, and the prices were great. 3 to 4€ for a starter (which, by the way, were fucking huge and could easily have been shared) and 8 to 12€ for a main (which were equally big). We had two half litre carafes of wine and the final bill came to £13 a head. We regularly spent £25 a head in Cyprus so this was good. It was then, of course, that we saw they had made a mistake, and only charged us for one carafe of wine at 6€. Being the good souls that we are, we pointed this out and the waiter said "no, this is right. You had 1 litre of wine, which is 6€..." We're going back there very soon.
Still feeling tired and emotional after our flight we head to our favourite bar from last time Sunset Boulevard for a quick drink. Four glasses of wine a two large beers later we are handed a bill for 12€. They have definitely got their pricing right so far as I'm concerned! Oh, along with the fact they only played 80s music which meant lots of drunken singing from people of a certain vintage...
So far so good then. The weather is good, the food and people still great, and the price is right again. Let's see what our first day on the beach shall bring...
Greece was, for many years always our first choice destination for holidays. Great food, great weather and great people kept us coming back time and time again. Oh, and of course great value. When the Drachma was still king, you virtually couldn't give away your money here. And then the EU and the Euro came and fucked it all up. The adoption of the Euro and a corresponding drop in the pound left the Eurozone, and notably Greece far more expensive for us Brits than before. A 3€ beer which had been £2 was suddenly £3.20, and to hire sun beds on the beach went from £3 a day to £10. It was madness and the Brits left in droves for the likes of Turkey, or in our case, Florida.
With Greece having suffered a bigger than average financial breakdown, and relying so heavily on tourism, something had to give. And put simply, they had to become competitive on price again. Fortunately, they seemed to get the message and when people started reporting that it had become more affordable again, if not a bit a bargain, we decided it was high time to give it a go once more.
From our first drinks at the hotel bar, we weren't let down. Two glasses of wine came to 4.20€, down from about 3€ each when we were in Cyprus recently - a nice surprise! We then headed out for food to the Menir Taverna, one of our old faves, and the prices were great. 3 to 4€ for a starter (which, by the way, were fucking huge and could easily have been shared) and 8 to 12€ for a main (which were equally big). We had two half litre carafes of wine and the final bill came to £13 a head. We regularly spent £25 a head in Cyprus so this was good. It was then, of course, that we saw they had made a mistake, and only charged us for one carafe of wine at 6€. Being the good souls that we are, we pointed this out and the waiter said "no, this is right. You had 1 litre of wine, which is 6€..." We're going back there very soon.
Still feeling tired and emotional after our flight we head to our favourite bar from last time Sunset Boulevard for a quick drink. Four glasses of wine a two large beers later we are handed a bill for 12€. They have definitely got their pricing right so far as I'm concerned! Oh, along with the fact they only played 80s music which meant lots of drunken singing from people of a certain vintage...
So far so good then. The weather is good, the food and people still great, and the price is right again. Let's see what our first day on the beach shall bring...
# posted by Bucko! @ 8:11 AM 
