I was reading an article recently in the rather dubious UK newspaper the Daily Express, and it was all about how lovely is the island of Lefkada. I had no argument with the description of Lefkada at all, and none with the idea of promoting it as a place to visit. What I did find rather too difficult to swallow though, were the words, and I quote: “Any jaunt to Rhodes, Crete, or Mykonos – three of the best-known Greek islands – will inevitably involve negotiating hoards of tourists looking to go to the same restaurants, bars, and sun spots.“

Now, as you’ll probably know, I lived on Rhodes for fourteen years, and have now been living in South East Crete for almost five. I’ll make no comment on Mykonos, since I don’t believe that it should be grouped along with the first two islands anyway. But, to read that the idea of coming to either Rhodes or Crete would inevitably involve negotiating “hoards of tourists looking to go to the same restaurants, bars, and sun spots” made me see red. Incidentally, adding to my feeling that’s it’s very poor journalism to so generalise, is the fact that the word ‘hoards’ is incorrect. If the writer was referring (and the context strongly indicates that he was) to large numbers of people, then the correct word is ‘hordes.’ Enough said on that then.

My view on how Rhodes has changed over the years still stands, and yet I can’t let that article pass without mentioning that there are nevertheless still many very quiet spots on that island where the true Grecophile can find the ‘real Greece,’ definitely away from the masses – fact. A true gem of a seaside village on Rhodes is Stegna, plus the area where we used to live, Kiotari, although having suffered the construction of a few huge A.I. hotels in recent years, nevertheless still offers quiet spots for those who look hard enough, as does the delightful village of Gennadi, just 4 km down the coast from there. Arhangelos itself, although quite a large village, is very essentially Greek, even during the tourist season, and I could go on.

Here on Crete it’s an even bigger insult to say that you’d be ‘negotiating the hordes,’ since Crete is a huge island, well over four hours from end-to-end by car and, I’d say, probably 80% of it is wild and unspoilt. Just because Crete has a number of airports and a few resorts that have become very well known as offering the kind of holiday that people who want a ‘lively’ time would look for, doesn’t mean that the entire island is crowded and noisy. Crete has too many untouched villages to even mention (among them the one where we’ve made our home, in fact) and miles of quiet coastline where you can find beaches with sparse numbers of sun worshippers, even in July and August. We’re fortunate enough to have landed in the municipality of Lasithi (there are only four such ‘counties’ on Crete, and they are Chania, Rethymnon, Heraklion and Lasithi. The first three are named after their main town, but are all primarily rural in the vast majority of their land area), and apart from a couple of tourist ‘hotspots’ like Agios Nikolaos and Elounda, the place is primarily agricultural and you most definitely won’t encounter any hordes. Lasithi is blessed with numerous wonderful beaches and coves, most of which are never overcrowded, and there are waterside tavernas, like the ones I’ve talked about in some of my recent posts, for example “Local Haunts” and “Food for Thought.”

The photo at the top of this post was taken at one of our regular summertime haunts, the “Cacao” café at the Western extremity of the village of Gra Lygia. We go there usually on a Sunday, at around 11.30am, where we order a couple of freddo espressos and stretch out for an hour or two while taking the occasional swim. That photo above was taken on Sunday July 28th at precisely midday. The ones below were also taken on various Sundays over the past few weeks…

Looking at the above shots you’ll have noticed how crowded the place is. Why, you can’t even see the surface of the water for leaping bodies (heavy irony), eh? Gra Lygia beach is a couple of kilometres long, by the way, and is populated I’d say by 90% locals. Don’t come to Crete, you’ll be negotiating the tourist hordes…

Incidentally, I read a lot on Facebook about how much cash people have to shell out for a couple of sunbeds and an umbrella these days. Each to their own, of course, and I know that some people don’t like parasols and sun beds. OK, let’s not argue about that one. I happen to love them because at my time of life you want comfort, end of story. What I definitely do not like is when they’re so close together that if you stick your arm out you can end up molesting the woman on the lounger beside yours. That’s a real possibility in places where they take the mick out of the tourists, I’m afraid. Also, they need to be sparse enough for locals and others who don’t want to use them to be able to find a decent enough sized patch of beach to ‘camp’ on with their mats and towels. In such conditions, I don’t see anything wrong with them. What’s most wonderful about our area though, is the fact that almost all the cafés who have umbrella and beds around here don’t charge for them at all, as long as you buy a couple of drinks. In other words, the beach ‘furniture’ is simply an extension of the tables and chairs further back, and closer to the building. Now that’s reasonable, right?

The majority of local Greeks do not want to spend an entire day on the beach. We too tend to do what they do, which is to turn up, order a coffee, then spend an hour or two relaxing before leaving again. If you’re gonna be charged an arm and a leg for sun beds, you’re going to find that slightly galling, right? I’ve even talked to Greeks who’ve been visiting Ierapetra from the more touristy parts of the island, and they’ve not even known that sunbeds are free on our beaches, as long as you buy a drink. A mature couple was standing beside the beach last season, evidently Greek, when I said hello while passing. They asked me, “Excuse us, but how much are the beds here please?”

I was well pleased to be able to tell them how the system works on our beach, at which the wife remarked to her hubby, “It’s a different Crete down this way Manoli!” They were residents of Hersonissos, which is only just over an hour away by car, but may as well be the other side of the planet when it comes to the ‘hordes.’

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that our drinks in those photos are not in those ubiquitous cardboard cups with those dome-shaped plastic tops, through which you poke a plastic straw. For some time now we’ve been following the ‘green’ advice about carrying our own cups and straws with us. I’m not boasting or sounding off here, but we do truly believe that if everyone did that it would make a vast difference to the amount of trash that ends up in the environment. Our ‘flasks’ are double-skinned metal ones and they keep the drink cold for ever. In fact, even if we take a couple of hours to sip our coffees to the end, the ice is still intact inside. usually in this climate in those cardboard cups the ice is long gone within half an hour and what remains of your coffee becomes decidedly tepid, yuk. Our straws are aluminium and last forever. We simply wash them in some drinking water and lick them off before packing them away, then give them a thorough clean out when we’re doing the washing up back at home. All too often the straws given when you order an iced coffee are made of black plastic, which is the worst kind. I’ve read many times that for some reason black plastic is non-recyclable, which is why garden centres are switching from black to gray for pots in which they sell new plants and seedlings. Not only that, but when they bring you your drink the straws are packed in those annoying little see-through plastic sleeves, which instantly blow away on the breeze if you put them down even for a second. We’ve found that if you proffer your own reusable cups when ordering your coffee, the staff are only too pleased to take them from you and fix the coffee in them, thus saving the café the expense of buying ever more cardboard cups and plastic tops. The cups we use cost us about €8 each and we’ve now had them for almost ten years and counting. There’s an idea for you if you care about our planet.

Returning to the main theme of this post – by all means read that dubious article in Britain’s Daily Express, but if you feel like sending them some feedback, you’ll have my vote. The moral of this post then is – don’t believe everything you read in the papers!

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