Tens of groups of tourists from France, from Britain, from Germany …..are, as we speak, taking part in excursion programmes around Crete. They are visiting villages, gorges, archeological sites and monasteries and whilst they are enthusiastic about what they see, they don’t stop complaining about the high price of coffee, the lack of cleanliness and the mistakes on road signs!
The President of the Tour Guide Association of Crete and Santorini, Mr. Vangelis Alefantinos, spoke to the Patris newspaper and talked about what the tourists say when they travel around, exploring the island.
“The standard complaint is the coffee. They tell us that at home they can buy coffee for for between 80 cents and 1 euro, whilst here they have to pay 3.50!”
“They also regularly comment the lack of cleanliness on the main road network, as well as the road signs! Some are only in Greek, whilst others are badly written in English – they esee them and laugh!”
But the truth is that they enjoy more than they complain.
Mr. Alefantinos said that it is unusual to stop at a beach or on a mountain and for them to say “how beautiful is that?” “They love the Cretan food, the “ladera” dishes such as green beans in tomato sauce, the Greek salads, the meat cooked in the wood ovens, the meat cooked on the split, the cheese pies with honey and all the local cheeses.”
“What impresses them the most though is when they are given a “kerasma” a gift of something to eat or drink as a welcome. When they ask why have they given us this, the reply surprises them. It’s perhaps not surprising that these gestures impress them when you see even couples paying their food bills separately!
“Something else that the foreign visitors also constantly question is why the locals who are supposedly suffering an economic crisis, they are out and about, all the traffic, with people on the beaches and in the cafeterias, which always seem to be full. They are confused when we explain that this is our psychosynthesis and they do not understand how we can have fun in a crisis.”
Tornos
