Rock "Concert"

The standard of the music at the so-called rock concert on Ammos beach was terrible.

The drummer was O.K but the overall effect was amateur and a disgrace to the town. Their copies of rock classics by Pink Floyd and Motorhead (!) were embarrasing and many tourists were seen leaving, laughing at this pathetic effort.

Is this really what we want to give to our tourists? A bunch of kids who can't play their instruments? I can only assume that one (or all) of them is related to someone at the Demos

It really is very embarrasing when you compare it to a 13 year old boy in a tourist town in the U.K

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7532050.stm

Now that is what you call a rock guitarist !!!!!!!!!!!

Special needs

Oh, the poor people. Are they sick? or disabled?

According to the argument against the ring, the visitors from Heraklion and the local residents of Agios Nikoalos find it "too difficult" to walk from a car park to a restaurant or cafe.

How far?

200m?

500m?

They call it inconvenient.

I call it LAZY!

This is pathetic. Stop blaming the ring for the terrible season. Blame the people who are really responsible ....

The ones who have allowed all inclusive hotels to dominate the tourism in the town.

Search for the real problem and you may find the solution before next year.

Ghost Town

01.00 Thursday 24/07/08 - Harbour area - Agios Nikolaos

Tourist bar 1: 10 tourists

01.30

Tourist Bar 2: 15 tourists

02.00

Tourist Bar 3: 0 tourists

I know it is a little late for the older ones who "control" things, and they are probably in bed.

JUst thought they should know!

The lord of the rings

Some people, including regular commentator Mr Vasilakis, do not agree with the implementation of the ring.

Why?

It is not the ring that is a disaster.

Our lack of co-ordinated tourism marketing, taxi drivers trying to kill our visitors whilst crossing the road(yes, I saw that on the bridge today!) and not having a professional in charge of DETADAN is the real disaster.

There are no tourists. Ring or no ring.

So it doesn't really make much difference at all, does it? But as usual there are always people who want to blame the wrong thing instead of fixing the real problem.

That, I am afraid, is a much bigger issue than any inconvenience caused by the ring. I would be a lot happier if the criticism of the mayor was directed at the lack of planning for the future, rather than a short term inability to walk a few steps instead of driving your cars around all night, polluting the atmosphere, not only with emissions and smoke but also with noise.

Seriously, it is a better place to live with the ring in place. Ask the tourists ............ if we ever get any.

Parking

So we have a 100 place free car park behind the old "Enosis". There are no signs to the parking except for one which is so close that you have already passed the turning before you see it.

Today, apart from the OTE cable reels it was almost empty.

Why not put a sign before the EKO station - "Free parking - 200 metres"?

.... and some signs to tell visitors how to find the town from there would be a good move too.

Finished?

Believing that it was "finished" I went to Epimenidou today.

Does "finished" have a different meaning in Greek?

It doesn't look "finished" to me !

The Ring

How peaceful the centre of town was last evening. It was a pleasure to walk along the street Roussou Kondourou and to cross from one side to the other without risking my life. No scooters and noisy bikes or kids shouting "malaka" at each other or cars making a volta (what happened to the volta we used to have? The one where everybody walked and talked to each other?)

And still there are people who think it is a bad thing!

When you live in a busy city and you go on holiday you want to relax and have a little peace.

That is why Naxos and Mykonos have high spending tourists and we don't.

If we keep the ring (all season, not just in August) we can show the world that we care about our visitors.

And then we might actually get some!!!!!!

REasons to be cheerful - part 3

Inclement weather and budgetary awareness are driving Brits to book holidays at the eleventh hour, according to online travel agent Lastminute.com The website says the rise in costs and the credit crunch has prompted Brits to wait and see if they could really afford a holiday but now the classic British summer has shown its colours they are booking in droves. The site reports an increase in its week-on-week trading with traffic of unique visitors searching holidays up 23% over the last week, as the weather declined. Most searched departure dates were July 19 and 26 and August 2. It says that European destinations are suffering as Brits look to make their pound stretch further and avoid the costly euro with Turkey and Egypt performing particularly well – both up 14% year-on-year. Bookings to Tunisia are up 95% and Croatia an impressive 150%. Those looking to stay in the UK on holiday are showing signs of taking a couple of shorter breaks rather than one two-week long holiday. Lastminute says coastal areas are doing a roaring trade, with bookings to Brighton hotels up 70% year on year, Bournemouth 20% and Eastbourne 66%. It also reports stronger sales for UK theme parks, attractions, theatre and concert tickets. Breaks including these have gone up 18% year-on-year. Lastminute.com managing director John Bevan said: “This summer our customers are going where their pound will take them further and where good bargains are to be had. We are seeing a strong interest in destinations outside the Euro, whether these are short or long haul. We are also noticing that Britons are trying to find ways to cut corners by spreading short breaks throughout the summer as well as throughout the year but also by finding cheaper ways to have a good time at home or abroad.”

Των καιρικών συνθηκών και των δημοσιονομικών ευαισθητοποίησης είναι κινητήρια Brits to book διακοπές κατά την ενδεκάτη ώρα, σύμφωνα με την online ταξιδιωτικό πράκτορα Lastminute.com Η ιστοσελίδα λέει η άνοδος του κόστους και του πιστωτικού κρίσιμη στιγμή έχει ζητηθεί Brits να περιμένουμε και να δούμε εάν μπορούν να προσφέρουν πραγματικά τις διακοπές, αλλά τώρα το κλασικό βρετανικό καλοκαίρι έδειξε τις χρωστικές αυτές τις κρατήσεις στην droves. Η ιστοσελίδα εκθέσεις για την αύξηση του εβδομάδα-εβδομάδα για διαπραγμάτευση με την κυκλοφορία των μοναδικών επισκεπτών που αναζητούν διακοπές μέχρι 23% κατά την τελευταία εβδομάδα, καθώς οι καιρικές μειώθηκε. Οι περισσότεροι έψαξαν τις ημερομηνίες αναχώρησης ήταν Ιουλ 19 και 26 και τον Αύγουστο 2. Αναφέρει ότι η ταλαιπωρία των ευρωπαϊκών προορισμών, όπως Brits δούμε να κάνει τους λίρας τεντώνονται και να αποφευχθεί η περαιτέρω δαπανηρή ευρώ με την Τουρκία και την Αίγυπτο που εκτελούν ιδιαίτερα καλά - και οι δύο μέχρι 14% από έτος σε έτος. Κρατήσεις στην Τυνησία είναι μέχρι 95% και η Κροατία ένα εντυπωσιακό 150%. Εκείνοι ψάχνουν να παραμείνουν στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο για διακοπές παρουσιάζουν συμπτώματα της λήψη ηλικίας μικρότερης των διαλειμμάτων και όχι ένας, δύο εβδομάδες καιρό διακοπών. Lastminute λέει παράκτιες περιοχές είναι εμπορικές roaring κάνει, με κρατήσεις σε ξενοδοχεία Brighton μέχρι 70% από έτος σε έτος, Bournemouth Eastbourne 20% και 66%. Αναφέρεται επίσης ισχυρότερες πωλήσεις του Ηνωμένου Βασιλείου για θεματικά πάρκα, θεάματα, θέατρο και εισιτήρια συναυλιών. Διακοπές συμπεριλαμβανομένων αυτών έχουν αυξηθεί κατά 18% από έτος σε έτος. Lastminute.com διευθύνων John Bevan είπε: "Αυτό το καλοκαίρι οι πελάτες μας, όπου θα τους λίρας θα λάβουν επιπλέον και καλές ευκαιρίες, όπου πρόκειται να είχε. Βλέπουμε ένα ισχυρό ενδιαφέρον για προορισμούς εκτός του ευρώ, αν αυτά είναι βραχυπρόθεσμα ή μακροπρόθεσμα. Είμαστε, επίσης, διαπιστώνουν ότι οι Βρετανοί προσπαθούν να βρουν τρόπους για να εξοικονομούν με την εξάπλωση σύντομα διαλείμματα κατά τη θερινή περίοδο καθώς και όλο το χρόνο αλλά και με την εξεύρεση τρόπων φθηνότερο να έχουμε μια καλή στιγμή στο σπίτι ή στο εξωτερικό. "

Olive oil

"A Greek olive oil has won first prize in the medium green fruitiness section of the Mario Solinas IOC Quality awards for extra virgin olive oil in 2008, according to the results announced by the International Olive Council based in Madrid. This is the second consecutive year that the prize has gone to an olive oil produced in Greece. The award was presented to the 'Agricultural Cooperatives of Kritsa' from Lasithi, Crete during a special ceremony held on Thursday"

So within 10km of the town we have the best olive oil IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!

If that was in Spain or Italy the newspapers would be full of press releases to tell the world how great their oil is.

Who is in charge of press releases for Agios Nikolaos?

Speed ramps

Now here is a thought. Cheap and totally effective. Requires no policing, and can be implemented in a few hours. The website link http://www.signplas.co.uk/road_speed_ramps.htm has a shopping cart for the demos to use.

If we put speed ramps down, (it can be done overnight!) around Kitroplatia we would probably not need the ring at all. If most of the drivers could only travel at 10km/hour the volta would stop.

Of course they would have to go right across the road to stop the motorcycles and scooters.

That way people would still be able to get to the restaurants and bars

But slowly!

Local newspaper - comments

Interesting reading in the local papaer that there is a 100 place (free!) car park that no one uses. Amazing that people in the town will pay 500.00 euros for membership of a gym but cannot walk 400 metres from their car to go to a cafe. Perhaps some BIG signs to tell visitors entering the town and some marked parking places would make it more useful. I didn't even know it was there until I read the newspaper.

The tour guide who said that the prices were high in Agios Nikolaos is entitled to his opinion. It is a free country and a democratic one. What madness to try to find a policeman to be a witness and sue for defamation. It might have been a better idea to take the licence number of the bus and the name of the company that employed the guide. A word in the ear of the owner might make more difference. At least this highlights the fact that we need to re-market the town.

Why are we wasting our time and money on the "IRIS"? Who is interested in organic dyes for clothing. How many visitors does it get? Not a lot, you can bet. Another waste of time and money. It was closed for 2 years and no-one even noticed.

Bravo for the suggestion that we should make more of the (tenuous) connection with Nearchos. The plaque at the entrance to the marina is written in (ancient) Greek. A translation nearby in a few other languages might assist our visitors to see the connection with the great admiral.

Only in this town

Only here could someone have the idea of re-surfacing the road at the "fanaria" in the middle of July.

Why???????

They have had the whole year to do it.

Do they get some twisted satisfaction out of doing things at the worst possible time?

What a fantastic welcome to the town that was for visitors. Angry drivers, policemen everywhere, traffic gridlocked. Not even the scooters could move.

Who makes these decisions?

The ring has started?

So our blogger Mr Vasilakis thinks the ring has already started!

The reason there is no one on the streets is that no one has any money

If the tourists don't come the, waiters, bar owners and shopkeepers have no money and they cannot give money to their children to put petrol into their cars and "papakias" to drive around all night.

I was in the town last night too. Talking to a restaurant owner who cannot afford to pay his staff.

Maybe the politicians should stop scoring political points and realise that they have to work together for the good of the town.

It is a little too late for this season now. But we could be taking action to stop it from being even worse next year. If we don't do something right now we won't have a tourism industry at all.

Speeding and policing

Several "professionals" have spoken to me about the closure of the harbour/kitroplateia area in the last days.

One said we need more police. We have enough for a town this size.

We don't need more police. We need the police that we do have to stop the things that are wrong in the town.

You can often find 4 or 6 of them waiting at the "fanaria" to give tickets to someone driving at 51km/hour.

Where are they when motor bikes, cars and taxis are driving in the centre of the town at dangerous speeds? I saw a taxi last night driving down Akti Koundourou travelling at 80km/hour past the hotels (Coral/Hermes). Motor bikes do this on a regular basis and never seem to get a ticket.

One day someone will die because of this. It might be a small child or a tourist (or both!)

Which one of these is the most serious crime?

Taxi drivers are not above the law, even if they think they are. At least you can say that they have a reason to be "running". The others are just inconsiderate idiots who damage the quality of life for both residents and visitors.

We could start by giving tickets to all the people without number plates. There IS a reason why they do this. And it IS always illegal.

Football

So the traders on Roussou Koundourou plan to play football in the streeet to show their disapproval of the new measures.

Grow up and stop behaving like small children.

The single biggest complaint by tourists who visit Agios Nikolaos is the noise from the constant "volta" by scooters, cars and motor cycles.

This measure will bring more visitors to your shops, not less.....

The shops should be asking for it to apply from April to October instead of this half hearted effort for 6 weeks in July and August. The majority of visitiors are low spending French and Itaklian and they don't care if it is noisy as long as it is cheap.

The British, Germans and Scandinavians (the ones with the money!) care a lot about the traffic noise.

You don't see many in the town these days do you?