This was merely a Thomson cheap package deal but anyway, it’s a week of a life and the first time I’d been to Greece. Good food, nice people.
1st introduction to Thassos was this excellent overhead join and landing at Kavala airport. 1 of the first HD videos shot on my (then) new Canon 550.
In complete contrast to the backpacking/overlanding I was used to, it was a funny feeling to be met at the airport by a rep and ushered to a bus and then a ferry to the island. But incredibly easy – no difference I suppose to the periodic splashings out we had while overlanding.
I didn’t rate our hotel that highly. It seems to be a place that polarises opinion and indeed a number of the guests at the Galaxy did seem to have a reasonable rapport with Yianni the owner, while others were not so fortunate.
We chose this hotel purely on cost. The breakfast was basic, and the only dish I really liked was the yoghurt and honey. That being said, I don’t blame the Galaxy for that as it was a cheap place.
The rooms were basic but clean, with no tea-making facilties or TV. The shower arrangements may have been the Greek norm, but they represented an accident waiting to happen – which actually did in Amanda’s case. The shower curtain consisted of a sort of half-umbrella arrangement on the wall, with a gap between the bottom and the shower tray. Thus it was impossible to shower without turning the floor into a swimming pool. I have stayed in ‘wet room’ places before and they work OK if you are given something to get the water off the floor – one of those cross between a broom and a car windscreen wiper thingies would have done the trick. But in the Galaxy there was nothing but a small flannel and sure enough, thanks to this and the shiny floor tiles in the bedroom, one day poor Amanda slipped and fell coming out of the bathroom.
The main issue, as other reviewers have also said, is the miserable owner and his wife. They were always on grunting terms with us, but we and other guests got the distinct impression that everything was too much trouble. We tend not to spend that much time in any hotel when travelling, preferring instead to explore, but one evening we came home and found a couple sitting in the dark in the lounge because Yianni didn’t want to turn the lights on! I also asked about changing rooms and Yianni’s response was “we’re full up – speak to Thomson”. This was a lie as at least one of the rooms was definitely unoccupied. We also heard another couple had had this experience, although in their case they were apparently told it was “too much trouble”.
Yianni’s wife also didn’t like being asked to turn my mattress one morning. I wish in retrospect I had simply done this myself, but thought it made sense to ask her to do it at the time the bedding was changed. I made clear that it was probably me sweating during the night that had made it feel damp, but Mrs Yianni seemed to take it as a personal insult. Another time, it was raining and we asked to borrow an umbrella. Yianni said, not unreasonably, that he had 4 and they had all been lent out. So far so good. Just then, Mrs Yianni came past with another umbrella and I asked if I could borrow this instead. Cue a heated exchange in Greek between Yianni and his wife, ending with a dismissive hand wave by Mrs Yianni as she stalked off. I worked out for myself that the answer must have been no!
We heard anecdotally that Thomson had been cutting the amount it paid to the Galaxy (and no doubt its other hotels) by 10% year-on-year, and that Yianni was thinking about cutting his links with Thomson. If this is true, these hard-nosed business tactics are unfair and an abuse by Thomson of its dominant market position, but it is hardly fair for Yianni to seemingly take this out on his guests – it doesn’t exactly encourage them to return!
Anyway, and so to business. Perhaps I should have split up the photos into different albums maybe based on themes, but with somewhere like Thassos it’s not that easy to make a distinction between places. About all I could have done would have been to say ‘Thassos Day 1’, ‘Thassos Day 2’ and so on.
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| Thassos May 2010 |
While out for a stroll along the Limenas seafront, we happened across this fisherman. These poor octopuses (or is it octopi?) need to be tenderised by having 7 shades pummeled out of them like this a minimum of 100 times.
Another time, near the hotel, we happened across this magnificent cock and his hens, cluck-clucking about their business in a patch of scrubland.
1 day, we decided to go for a walk from Panagia to Limenas – the 1 on page 15 of the Walking On Thasso book by Rose Gruwel and Truus Van De Mast. We came across these highly curious and vocal geese just as we were climbing up out of Panagia. The last time I posted this video, someone actually commented on it and said they were HIS geese – fancy that!!
Later in the walk, we came across these ovine campanolgists.
Another day, we hired a car and drove fully around the island. We headed up into the interior and cheated in that we drove (almost) up to the Mt Ipsario summit rather than walking 
The couple Mary and Peter are from Birmingham, although Mary is American. Nice people.
On the last day, while waiting for the bus back to the airport, we came across these seagull chicks. Normally you don’t see them, but these ones were seemingly a bit out of their usual zone on the roof of this house.
Following the seagulls, off to Kavala airport and then up, giving the chance to say goodbye from the air. Passing to the west of Limenas and then south along the west cost of the island, passing Pachis, Skala Rachoni, Skala Prinou, Skala Sotiros, Skala Kalirachi, Skala Marion and Trypti.
