The heat is on……..

but fortunately we’re having a little respite from the heat at the moment due to a thunderstorm last night which brought the temperature down considerably. It probably won’t last but for the moment I’m just revelling in the fact that I can sit down without sticking to my chair! We’ve been making do with fans dotted all around the house but we finally had to succumb to an air conditioning unit due to the fact that the temperature in the kitchen was pushing 93 degrees! That kind of heat really saps your energy and makes you reluctant to move or do anything really. Junior was also suffering from prickly heat which she hasn’t had before and so we bought a mobile unit to push around the house to wherever the need is greatest!
There has been a lot of talk recently in the Greek press about pushing tourism to help the country pull itself out of recession but I think they need to get that message across to the people who actually work in the service industry. Yesterday we went for a drive out for lunch – mainly because we’d borrowed a friends car which has air-con, unlike the rustbucket we drive! We ended up in Argalatsi further down the Pelion and headed to a central square where there were lots of taverna tables and chairs set out. There were a couple eating and other people having a drink so when the waitress came over we ordered drinks and asked for some food. She wrote down the drinks order but shook her head at the request for food even though she then asked the people at the next table if they were enjoying their meal. After delivering our drinks she collected her bag from inside the taverna and went off home – it appears she didn’t want to take our order because she was about to finish her shift! Needless to say we had the drinks and then headed back up the coast to Kala Nera where we’ve been before and which seems to understand that if you have a bar or restaurant you generally have to serve people We had a very pleasant meal in ‘Nirvana’ along the seafront and from the table junior could just jump down and splash about in the sea.

No-one can sit back and expect people to come to their country without providing something special. It is not enough to think that where you live is unique and that its natural beauty will entice people regardless of prices, difficulty of getting there, threat of strikes or shoddy service. Most people work hard to save for their holidays and they cherish the one or two weeks’ they get away from their normal life. Where are they going to go? To a country where they might find their flight disrupted, the ferries on strike and the welcome less than cordial? The surroundings just aren’t enough, the service has to be there as well. If Greece expects to pull itself out of the current financial crisis using the tourism sector if needs to get it’s act together first.