Glad We’re not in Mykonos

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We plan on a relaxing day today, not venturing too far from the pool or the beach in front of the hotel. We also need to plan for tomorrow’s proposed venture - a bus trip to a beach a bit further afield where we hope to spend the day lazing on some sunlounges. We still have vivid memories of an ill-fated trip to a beach in Sardinia a few years back when we couldn’t rent any sunlounges because they’d all allegedly been booked out months in advance. On that particular occasion the beach was so crowded that we quite literally couldn’t even find a few square millimetres of sand to lay our towels down on, so we ended up trudging several kilometres back to the car and then driving an hour or so back to the hotel.

All the prime beaches here in Naxos seem to be on the west side of the island. Plaka Beach looks to be the pick of them, so I Google “sunlounge rent at Plaka Beach”. Two sites come up. One says to “check back for availability or chose a different date”, and the message doesn’t change no matter which date you chose, even if it’s in the middle of winter. Hmmm. The second site looks more promising. I nearly got scammed yesterday trying to retrieve Issy’s missing iPad so I’m feeling a bit cautious. The reviews suggest proceeding with caution as one of the companies they partner with, the DK Oyster Bar in Mykonos, has several lawsuits pending against it by tourists from the UK and US. They suggest instead just turning up at the beach and hoping for the best. That sounds good to us, but I’m left feeling a bit intrigued by the Oyster Bar story.

I Google “DK Oyster Bar“, and the screen lights up. I’ve been told by a lawyer friend that if you use the word “allegedly” often enough your chances of getting successfully sued are greatly reduced. I’m not sure it would do too much to reduce your chances of ending up with a pair of concrete shoes in the bottom of the harbour, but anyway …. allegedly, allegedly, allegedly; there that should do it. The first story is about a couple of Canadian honeymooners who were lured into the Bar on the promise of free sunlounges, and were then charged over AUD$600 for a beer, a cocktail and a dozen oysters. An American mother and daughter are suing the restaurant after they were charged nearly AUD$900 for two crabs legs and two mojitos. When they queried the bill they were quickly surrounded by five “gansterish“ looking figures dressed in black, who told them that if they refused to pay the police would be called, they’d be locked up, and they wouldn’t be able to return to their homeland. Apparently standard modus operandi is to lure customers in with the free sunbed deal, but you then have to buy at least one drink. The drinks menu then doesn’t have prices on it (one complainant was assured by a very pushy spruiker that they were “cheap”) and the food menu quotes seemingly reasonable prices until you realise that the fine print says that they’re per hundred grams, not per serving. The fine print is apparently very fine; it seems you only ever discover it after you get the bill. TripAdvisor is dripping with negative reviews and warnings, but clearly not everyone reads these before being lured in. The owner justifies his shady practices with “there is not a free country in the western world that would force us to explain to each customer why we charge the way we do.” They were apparently fined AUD$40,000 recently by the Tourism Ministry for “seven or eight violations”, but that would presumably be a drop in the ocean for these guys, and they continue to operate. I know we sometimes complain that our homeland is over-regulated, but these (alleged, alleged) crooks would be shut down in a heartbeat if they tried these sorts of ruses back in Oz. I know we’re not in Mykonos but I’m still feeling a bit spooked. I tell Issy to bring a magnifying glass and the Google translator with us tonight, and to be prepared to spend a long time scouring the menu for detail and fine print before we get lured into any eateries.

We wander into Naxos Town for a bite of lunch, and I then leave Issy shopping while I climb the hill to Naxos Castle. It seems that the Venetians ruled these parts for more than three centuries from 1207 to 1537, and the Castle is the old Venetian town. What’s left isn’t really a castle at all; just a few of the walls integrated into other buildings. It’s a maze of narrow alleyways up here, and there’s a church and an archaeological museum crammed in as well, both of which are unfortunately closed this afternoon. It’s all very attractive.

On the way back to the hotel I take a detour up to the Altes Restaurant, which is on a hill on a small peninsula almost next to our lodgings. And what a perfect position for a restaurant it is, with excellent views out over the water in all directions. So where is it? Well apparently all was going well at the restaurant, club and bar here until 2000 when the locals complained that the prevailing wind was blowing late night noise right at them, so it had no choice but to close down. The site has subsequently been abandoned. The frame and some of the stairs and walls are still there, covered in graffiti, so it looks quite funky. Apparently it’s a very good place to watch the sunset from, and a lot less frenetic than the Temple of Apollo.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Amazing Sunsets
There is no reason to go exploring when you have this in front of you. Beautiful.

[RENanDREW]

Like Mykonos...
Some of your photos look so much like Hora in Mykonos, but without the hordes. The stories about DK Oyster Bar kept coming up on my news feed before we travelled, so we were extra careful about drinks menus when there. Absolutely shonky, but like you said, it's clearly a system that works for them, so they don't appear to care.