Tourists are on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to punctuality

In the musical “Mermaids and Witches” by Yannis Dalianidis, filmed in 1968, The scene is typical At the relative insistence of Phaidon Georgitsis, Chronis Exarchakos goes to Athens to bring tourists to the island, as the latter wants to invest in buying land. Exarchakos returns with a boat full of tourists, who turn out to be single. As if that weren’t enough, they also raid the only tavern on the island, Yiannis Vogiatzis’s, and devour his meatballs!

dream

There was a time when tourism on the islands was a distant dream for the average Greek. It was mainly the privilege of wealthy and well-off foreign tourists. In the years since then this scene has changed. Visiting, for example, Amorgos, which had always been a destination for the “cool” tourists and the few tourists who had no problem sleeping in a tent and eating canned ham, is no longer a great achievement.

Now, on the beautiful island that has become world famous. A film directed by Luc BessonYou must have booked accommodation from winter to summer, at prices that in no way remind us of the pure past. But you don’t have to go further than Amorgos to find that things have generally gotten out of hand and that our era is starting to strongly resemble the 1960s, when the number of tourists in the Aegean islands was much lower than it is today.

Unsustainable cost

The ticket prices on the ferry (both traditional and non-traditional) have in many cases proven to be unaffordable for a family wanting to spend a few days on the island. As much as the ferry operators claim that there are no increases, when a family has to pay 880 euros to go to Rhodes or 530 euros to travel to Paros, there is a problem. This is because the cost is not only the tickets. It is the accommodation (if you are not staying somewhere or do not have your own house), food and the small daily expenses that are essential on vacation. In simple words, if you need on average another 80 euros for accommodation in the middle, the bill for the week is 560 euros.

If you add to that the amount of food, the total has exceeded 1,500 euros and is heading towards two thousand. How many family budgets can bear such a burden when accuracy has long remained the number one problem of society?

The Devil of the People has found a solution to this challenge. Holidays in places where there is no need to connect by ferry or on islands where the ferry operates, without the need to book a cabin or travel a long distance.

Young

But at the same time, this does not apply to the younger ones, who are basically divided into two categories. The first is the one who has already moved to the islands since Easter to work for the season. She will work overtime and be lucky to get paid, and she will have to stay with ten or twelve others who will have the same fate in some house, where she will be lucky if it has basic infrastructure and she will not even pay for it. , and she will return to Athens in September, saved – but nailed to whatever savings she has made to bid farewell to the winter.

The other group will want to spend a few days in Koufonisia, Paros, or Ios. There, a middle-aged man’s skepticism about how the bill will pan out is defeated state by state by narrow temperament and underestimation of needs. In short, a simple sandwich or petogero can easily feed you, without having to order at a bar. As much as the prices of these products that have always been a sure solution for the insatiable hungry have increased, they remain a more affordable option than anything else.

I remember a girl years ago sitting with her friends in Fira Square in Santorini. They were eating pasta from a popular fast food restaurant, with tomato sauce and cheese. One day I heard her talking on her cell phone and confessing to her friend on the other end of the line that she was “enjoying her lobster pasta” with a view of the caldera!

So with lies we will have a holiday again this year. May the grandparents’ houses in the country be good, and may the grandparents live many years (with their pensions), let’s also say a thumbs up to the unfortunate neighbor who made sure she had a garden and whatever she did, tomatoes and tomatoes. Cucumbers we will definitely eat.

Happy summer.