Greece 2011, Sick, Suicidal or just Anti-Social

This year in our hotel room on the island of Amorgos I was amused to find in the guest information folder a helpful copy of the Regulations, Article 8 of the Law 1652/30-10-86 which is a list of rules associated with renting a room. These made amusing reading and these extracts were the pick of the bunch:

Article 1

“The hotelier may refuse the leasing if the clients a) Looks conspicuously ill, b) is under the influence of alcohol or c) has an untidy appearance.”

This seems a bit harsh, whilst I agree that a hotel might not want to let a room to a drunk what if someone who needs a room had suffered from sea sickness on the ferry and was looking a bit green or was just a bet dishevelled at the end of a long day back packing? Who decides what constitutes being untidy I wonder?

Article 8

“If the room is leased for a fixed time the hotelier has not the right to break the lease unless the client a) transgresses the regulations, b) is taken ill suffering from a contagious disease or any other disease causing inconvenience to other clients, or c) behaves against the commonly accepted moral law.”

This seems a bit unfair on anyone feeling a bit unwell or has a cold with an annoying cough for example and I would be intrigued to know exactly what the commonly accepted moral law is?

Article 20

“The client on arrival at the hotel must hand over to the hotelier or to the competent director the precious or of considerable value articles and the money that he carries with him, against receipt.”

Can’t help thinking that is going to be a bit inconvenient, especially the money bit, how are you supposed to eat?

Article 21

“In case of illness due to an infectious or contagious or mental disease as well as in the case of death or suicide of a client the hotelier is entitled to compensation by the client for the expenses he underwent as a result of the happening.”

My advice is try not to have any sort of illness that might be messy, such as diarrhoea for example, and if you are going to kill yourself do it in a way that is quick to clear up otherwise your family are going to end up with a large bill. On the other hand I’m not sure how relevant this illness rule is because under Article 8 a sick client will already have been thrown out on the street and that includes the mental cases who might do themselves in.

My personal favourite:

Article 23

“It is forbidden a) the preparations of meals or decorations by the clients in the hotel room also the taking of meals in the room with the exception of sick clients, b) the use of petrol engines or electrical appliances, c) the use of electrical current for other purposes than lighting or shaving”.

You will have spotted the inconsistency here because clients aren’t allowed to be sick (see article 8), who in their right mind is going to use a petrol engine in a hotel room and why is it ok to use electricity to shave but presumably not to dry your hair?

It goes on “d) the washing of linen or clothing, e) the placing of luggage in the corridors, f) the changing of position of the rooms furniture and the operating of holes into the walls for hanging photographs, g) the keeping of domestic animals, h) gambling, i) noisy music and songs which might cause inconvenience to others.

This is a pretty comprehensive list of don’ts and I have personally broken at least half of these rules. I have certainly eaten food in my room, used electrical appliances, washed my dirty underpants out in the sink, played cards for money, encouraged a cat to come in, reorganised the furniture on the balcony and put my bag down for a moment or two in the corridor. On the other hand I haven’t ever used a petrol engine or a Black and Decker drill to make holes in the wall or organised a rave in my room.

Article 24

“If the client violates the provisions of the regulations, continually makes noise and behaves in an improper way he may be considered as undesirable and asked to leave the hotel within twenty-four hours and evacuate his room”

I wonder why, if someone was behaving so badly, they get twenty-four hours notice to leave when a sick person, it would seem, has to vacate immediately – this hardly seems fair!

Greece 2009 - Day 5 Sifnos, Kamares

Once on board we made our way to the open top deck and made ourselves comfortable in the sun. We knew all about the Agios Georgios because we had used it last year so we knew the best place to sit. After the commotion of leaving the harbour the ferry settled down on course for neighbouring Sifnos and it was quite perfect. There was a calm blue sea, electric sunshine and a cloudless sky, with a mythos in hand I could have stayed there on the top deck for a fortnight but it was only a short forty-five minute journey and as we watched Serifos disappear behind us in haze of heat we quickly approached Sifnos where we had stayed last year but needed more time to see the things we missed.

The boat arrived in the port of Kamares early in the afternoon and the apartment owner met us in the busy main street and drove us no more than five hundred metres to the hotel and without any fuss showed us to our little room at the top of the pretty little hotel complex. It was absolutely delightful with traditional decoration and furniture and a terrace with a glorious view over the beach and the surrounding countryside and although I cannot adequately explain why we felt immediately at home.

It was a beautiful day and from the balcony there was an unbroken blue sky and we were surrounded by scrubby hills that were not attractive at all but paradoxically very attractive indeed. Apparently the whole of the summer through late July and August had been spoilt by continuous high winds but today there was not a hint of wind and the place was simply idyllic.

On the downside, somewhere along the way I lost my sunglasses. I was very attached to those sunglasses, I found them on a golf course in 2003 and they have been with me ever since.

After we had settled in we wasted no time in going back to the harbour where there was a great selection of tavernas set along the side of the water with the sea lapping gently in a soporific sort of way and an enormous amount of fish swimming around in the expectation of being thrown chunks of left over bread. Kamara is a lovely sort of shabby chic village with a strip of lively, colourful shops on one side of the main road and temping tavernas and bars on the other. It is all nicely understated and feels warm, friendly and safe. We choose a table at the water’s edge and had a leisurely meal that probably included Greek salad and calamari but I was just so relaxed that I simply cannot remember, I was so happy it was like being wrapped in a comfort blanket.

After lunch we picked a spot on the beach and lay in the sun and went for a swim and squandered the rest of the afternoon as it just casually slipped slowly away towards sunset time. Back at the Sifnaika Konaika apartments we enjoyed early evening on the balcony of exactly the same room as last year that we had liked so much we specially requested again. I had a cup of tea and then came to my senses and followed it up with a mythos and then there was the best part of the day when Kim found my sunglasses – I had left them in the car on the journey from the port to the hotel – what a relief!

Later we walked back to the port and we ate in the harbour of course, at a taverna with green tablecloths and a traditional rustic menu and we spent a whole evening eating, drinking and feeding the fish with the over generous portions of bread that were served with the meal. We both liked Serifos but we liked it here better, it seemed more relaxed, more friendly and best of all less expensive. When we had finished our meal we climbed the hill back to the apartments and sat on the balcony with a bottle of red wine until very late.

http://www.sifnaikakonakia.com/index.htm