Making A Benefit From Adversity

I once spent a particularly unpleasant time on one of the Greek islands, where the local drainage system was totally inadequate in the summer, leaving what were effectively sewage swamps every spring and summer, in which millions of mosquitoes bred.

Yana Solyarskaya Sweltering In Her Mosquito Costume ....

They plagued me. They tasked me. But most of all they bit me.

Buzz Off

Hope springs eternal in the hearts of men, and having been occasionally plagued by mozzies (mosquitoes) on holidays (notably in Corfu and also once in Turkey), I read the following story with some anticipation .....

Mosquito Beat Radio - Beat to the DEET

..... News agencies reported that a radio station broadcast ultrasound along with its programmes to repel mosquitoes .... great! Radio listeners in Brazil were told that listening station 'Band FM' was all you need to do to beat mosquitoes .... just have the radio stuck close by (probably their ears).

 

Corfu On The Rocks

At least that's the sentiment of the Greeks I talked to, who think the whole country is finished  .... I have just returned from Greece after several years away. I returned partly as I was curious as to how things had developed, and partly to see how it is handling the Euro Crisis.

Needless to say, things haven't gone especially well on either front, but another post covers the euro crisis. I was in Kavos (Cavos) in Corfu, so lets not beat about the bush, it was not a classy place. In fact its very run down and dirty, with a lot of drunken foul mouthed Brits, biting mozzies and wasps, and a faint but noticeable smell of human sewage (all of which I knew about beforehand, so wasn't a particular surprise or disappointment), but its fairly cheap (€2 -3 per bottled beer and a main course plus a beer under €10), and it was very very hot (over 30c everyday).

There is loud music everywhere, plus the ubiquitous quad bikes, but in mid/late September the resort was winding down, so the Gypsy's and most of the African pan handlers, who can both be a real pain on the Greek Islands these days, had gone, and the resort was 'quieter' than normal i.e. the noise volume was not unbearable most of the time. 

I was told that a British firm had been hired to to fix the sewage problem (and potentially the mozzies), by repairing all the broken sewage pipes, and clearing up the still water sites around the island and resort (where the mozzies breed), but when the first payment tranche became due, the Geeks had defaulted, and the company had abandoned the work .... which about sums up Greece all over.

This leaves the resort plagued by mozzies (and wasps) .... the beach is only 'safe' when there is a breeze, which sadly was lacking in the time I was there, consequently I was bitten over 50 times inside a day, but after that, a few basic precautions ensured that I wasn't bitten again. I didn't scratch (which really inflames them and you see a lot of bloody legs in the resort), and I used a mozzie stick (ammonia based), plus a basic antiseptic cream, and this stops them hurting and takes inflammation down quickly. So although a pain in the neck (and shoulders, and arms and legs etc), it didn't ruin my holiday break, but be warned, there were many people who seemed to be a real mess because of the bites.

For the record, if you are not on a vomit, beer and sh*gging party, there are usually one or two decent bars and food places, in even the worst of resorts, but as a rule of thumb in these places, I will stick to the burger/pizza joints if in doubt. In Kavos, if your are over 30 and resigned to a week surrounded by the council estates of the UK, then try the following:

DayTime: BabyG's cafe on the Beach Road - Run by 'Tony' and his family. Quiet, with both open and shaded areas. Home cooked basic cafe foods. Free Internet and Wifi. Very friendly and full of Greek hospitality.

Baby G's Cafe Bar - Kavos Corfu

Evening Meals:

Likourgos Taverna - very good traditional food on the beach, so away from the disco's.

Likourgos Taverna on the Beach Kavos - Corfu

There was also a traditional restaurant actually on the strip, but its name escapes me (it might be The Village Taverna), although the food was good and there was plate smashing and dancing .... it probably suffers a bit in full season.

Late Drinks:  If you don't want head banging music, and all the semi-naked males that this brings with it, then there is only one bar to go to, 'Rodneys Bar', a 'Aussie themed' bar at the far end of the strip (left hand end of strip, if looking from the beach). It features the odd live musician (a singer/songwriter), and chilled out, grown up music, not played above talking volumes. Its part of a chain (TKD's), but was very well managed by an English beach dude called 'Russ Brown'. They also serve up the popular Melon drinks at various prices and sizes ..... only one picture of the bar I'm afraid, but as you can see it has a patio with the bar serving area running against that, and also an inside area.


Rodneys - Best Run Bar in Kavos 

Russ's Melons Were The Talk Of Kavos

You only get out of a holiday, what you put in to it .... Greece has a lot of problems that are not going to get any better soon, and certainly you must really research your resorts before booking them these days (especially Corfu and other popular British resorts, which can be hellish), or end up like the couple I heard, who had come, hated it, and spent the whole time complaining ... if they had spent another £100 or so, they could have gone to a nicer resort on the same Island or the mainland.

Although I won't be going back to Kavos (or Corfu) again by first choice (it was my third or fourth visit over the years), I did and could continue to manage to get something out of it, if I ever ended up there again.