So I’ve written about just about everything there is to write about my holiday now! We only did a week in Greece this year; normally we do two. We did quite a lot in that week, including the boat rental, the trips to Kassope and the Acheron River as well as Drepano and Plataria.
If you remember, before I left, I said that I would ‘be interested to see how a village where most of the tourists are Greek and Italian has been effected by Greece’s financial crisis‘.
Because of the week we went – with August 15 (Greece’s biggest religious holiday – the Assumption of the Virgin Mary) – it was actually quite busy. But I think had we gone any other week, it would have been a lot quieter. Quite a lot of the hotels/apartments were not fully booked apart from that week in mid-August when we were there.
There were noticably fewer Germans – next to no Germans at all in fact, which is unusual, because the Germans usually go everywhere. I think I saw one German registration number out on the roads whilst we were there – one with an IZ number plate, meaning its current registered address it in Cirencester’s twin town of Itzehoe.
The thing about being on the mainland is that there are always places you haven’t visited before. There are places we’d love to go back to again, and there are places we still haven’t been, despite this being our third holiday in seven years to Sivota. The other thing is that, unlike on the islands, when you rent a car you can go just about anywhere (on the islands, you’re usually not allowed to take the vehicle off the island).
However, on the mainland, there is nothing to stop you from making the 4 hour journey on the motorway across to Thessaloniki, or the 8 hour journey down to Athens, if you really wanted. The Meteora, although quite a distance away, can be done in a daytrip (perhaps if going independantly, an overnight stay would be best though).
I’m not sure exactly where our next holiday will be – but I would certainly like to return to Sivota one year in the future.
And if you’re looking for somewhere to go on holiday, do try Sivota or somewhere else in Greece! Greece needs all the help it can get at the moment – a lot of people are so desperate for trade out there that you can get some very good deals if you know where to look.
FH.
