Tuesday, September 09, 2014
Zante Diary - 3
The first full day - the facilities
I'm glad to report that despite some reservations when booking, the hotel Contessina is as lovely as we remember, If also a bit different. It's had a full refurb since we were last here, including extending the bar out into the pool area (100 brownie points to whoever came up with that one), and building a new kitchen and dining area, which means you can now get a full hot breakfast everyday if you so desire. This is good. The breakfast provided last time was, quite frankly, pants, and we ended up going to the next door bar most days to get something edible. But it's all good now, with the hotel even providing proper PG Tips and COLD milk to get your day set up right. Major brownie points for that one too. Oh, and the sausages, omelettes and bacon are quite good as well to be fair...
But this isn't the best thing about the refurb (ok, I can hear you shouting now "NO!!! Nothing can be better than a pool bar!"). This best thing about it is all the rooms, and, more importantly, their plumbing, has been updated. This means we are in lovely, new, air conditioned room with a proper bathroom. The first time we came to Greece I can remember crying when I saw the facilities. We had a wet room, about four foot square. You could actually have a shit and a shower at the same time. And woe betide you if you forgot to put the toilet roll outside the room first...
But this is great. It's a good sized room and for the first time ever the shower is in its own proper enclosure! Dry bog roll and towels is a distinct possibility now, as is being able to take a dump without your arse being washed at the same time. Two thumbs up.
There are, of course, one or two problems. Whoever fitted the shower head pretty much screwed it against the wrong wall. You stand in the enclosure with it spraying the opposite wall, with you staying perfectly dry at your end of the tray. Move so you can get wet, and you will burn your bollocks on the taps feeding in to the hose. Twist the shower head to face you and it will blast out your sinuses before going on to spray the ceiling. But to be fair it's a great improvement over what we've had before, even if, when you finally step out of the shower, you find the tray isn't actually attached to the floor, and all the water runs into the middle drain hole as per...oh well...
As is the toilet. At long last a Greek bog you can flush toilet paper away in, rather than having to put it in a little bin hidden down to the side (something so gross it used to make me vom.). Now like at home you just use and flush away. Civilisation in the Ionian at last. Although Lisa has pointed out that it is rather likely that the sign telling you not to flush the bog roll has simply gone missing...either way, a big improvement.
And last time, although our room was air conditioned, they hadn't run the drain for it outside, and it dripped onto the marbles floor tiles. This made each night a bout of either unbearable sweat soaked sleeplessness, or cool, calculated, Chinese water torture. Now the aircon is brilliant, they just made it so fucking noisy you'd rather boil to death in your own juices than put it on. Once again though, an improvement.
So, you can now sleep and shower in comfort, have a decent cup of tea and a hearty breakfast, and then swill mojitos to your heart's content while cooling your piggies in the wonderful pool. Seriously, what's not to like?
I'm glad to report that despite some reservations when booking, the hotel Contessina is as lovely as we remember, If also a bit different. It's had a full refurb since we were last here, including extending the bar out into the pool area (100 brownie points to whoever came up with that one), and building a new kitchen and dining area, which means you can now get a full hot breakfast everyday if you so desire. This is good. The breakfast provided last time was, quite frankly, pants, and we ended up going to the next door bar most days to get something edible. But it's all good now, with the hotel even providing proper PG Tips and COLD milk to get your day set up right. Major brownie points for that one too. Oh, and the sausages, omelettes and bacon are quite good as well to be fair...
But this isn't the best thing about the refurb (ok, I can hear you shouting now "NO!!! Nothing can be better than a pool bar!"). This best thing about it is all the rooms, and, more importantly, their plumbing, has been updated. This means we are in lovely, new, air conditioned room with a proper bathroom. The first time we came to Greece I can remember crying when I saw the facilities. We had a wet room, about four foot square. You could actually have a shit and a shower at the same time. And woe betide you if you forgot to put the toilet roll outside the room first...
But this is great. It's a good sized room and for the first time ever the shower is in its own proper enclosure! Dry bog roll and towels is a distinct possibility now, as is being able to take a dump without your arse being washed at the same time. Two thumbs up.
There are, of course, one or two problems. Whoever fitted the shower head pretty much screwed it against the wrong wall. You stand in the enclosure with it spraying the opposite wall, with you staying perfectly dry at your end of the tray. Move so you can get wet, and you will burn your bollocks on the taps feeding in to the hose. Twist the shower head to face you and it will blast out your sinuses before going on to spray the ceiling. But to be fair it's a great improvement over what we've had before, even if, when you finally step out of the shower, you find the tray isn't actually attached to the floor, and all the water runs into the middle drain hole as per...oh well...
As is the toilet. At long last a Greek bog you can flush toilet paper away in, rather than having to put it in a little bin hidden down to the side (something so gross it used to make me vom.). Now like at home you just use and flush away. Civilisation in the Ionian at last. Although Lisa has pointed out that it is rather likely that the sign telling you not to flush the bog roll has simply gone missing...either way, a big improvement.
And last time, although our room was air conditioned, they hadn't run the drain for it outside, and it dripped onto the marbles floor tiles. This made each night a bout of either unbearable sweat soaked sleeplessness, or cool, calculated, Chinese water torture. Now the aircon is brilliant, they just made it so fucking noisy you'd rather boil to death in your own juices than put it on. Once again though, an improvement.
So, you can now sleep and shower in comfort, have a decent cup of tea and a hearty breakfast, and then swill mojitos to your heart's content while cooling your piggies in the wonderful pool. Seriously, what's not to like?
# posted by Bucko! @ 12:30 AM 
