And Now on Facebook!

Just in time for the New Year, I have added a Villa Ralfa page on Facebook, you can view it by clicking on the link to the left. So now you can become a fan of Villa Ralfa the first gay and lesbian accommodation, hotel, guesthouse (yes even I do not know what to call it!), on Crete, Greece.

Not only that but you can of course share this blog with all your friends on Facebook too!

During the next month we will be closed for guests as I have to go back to England for a while to deal with my Uncle's affairs following his death in November (it was a nice funeral, small, but then he was 83 so there are not too many of his age group still about). I am also hoping to get into hospital to get my hernia fixed!

Of course I cannot leave Isla, the new dog, on her own so there are friends from Holland staying instead

We have a few new things happening in the New Year 2010, amongst this is the possible opening of a new gay club in Hersonissos, and also during the winter we will be, hopefully, revamping the web site just to please the several hundred who visit it every month. Naturally we will be answering your emails while we are away and if you want to make booking you can use the sexy new 'online booking' system to book the apartment ONLY.

Hoping that you had a good Christmas, and that 2010 will be everything you could wish for!

A Winter Weekend in Athens, Greece Part 3

Some suggestions of where to go and what to do during a short ‘city break’ in Athens.

Part 3 – More eating out, yet another bar, and Kolonaki.

Continuing the saga of a four day ‘city break’ in Athens finds us in need of a little rest and as many of the gay bars/clubs are closed on Monday we can do this without feeling guilty!

After the customary early evening sleep I head off to Goody’s in the middle of the city. Goody’s is the Greeks answer to MacDonalds, the system of ordering at one desk and walking to another to collect your food is confusing, none of the staff speak English but you can always point can’t you? The food is good though and there is enough of it but it is not cheap. But if you want a good burger then you have to pay for it.

Monday is a much quieter night around Monastiraki and Psirri, I find the bar called Inoteka in the Platia Avisinias that houses the flea market. This bar is listed as ‘gay friendly’ but I cannot tell for sure as I am the only person in there. I can say that is interestingly decorated and warm and cosy, maybe if someone else goes there they can let me know. I can imagine spending the evening there though.

Moving on I find a seat in a bar restaurant in Miaouli Street near Platia Iroon, called Rebekka. Normally you cannot get into these places as they are packed but it is Monday. As I sit with a large bottle of beer (€3) and start to write up my notes there is the brightest flash of lightning I have ever seen, followed by a magnificent roll of thunder and torrential rain and hail stones for the next twenty minutes. Never mind it is warm and dry under this canvas awning.

Tomorrow is my last full day and I want to make the most of it, so I take an early night.

Tuesday comes and another bright sunny day, apart from the odd shower of rain I have had pleasant weather but I do need a coat and a sweater especially at night.

My plan is to visit Kerameikos, which is on Ermou Street near Thissio station. This area used to be very run down but is now a pleasant pedestrian area, but beware of scooters. The archaeological site is actually old graveyards where the good and the great of ancient Athens were buried. I expected it would only take me thirty minutes to go round the site, by the time I had been round the museum I had stayed three hours!

Grabbing a spinach pie on the way through Monastiraki, I head up Ermou towards Parliament House. The streets are packed with shoppers as the January sales started today. Reaching Syntagma Square I look in the post office to see if it is still as busy and chaotic as ever. It is. (There are other post offices less busy near Omonia Square and opposite the National Bank in the square off Athinas Street).

Pausing to take a picture of one of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier I carry on to Kolonaki, which is the most expensive area of Athens and is home to many of the foreign Embassies and Government Buildings. Here you will find all the well-known designer shops and most have sales on. There is also the usual number of street cafes where the rich, famous, beautiful and not so beautiful of Athens come to play.

It is the place to take a coffee and so I do. In my chosen cafe the menu is new and wonderfully produced on heavy glossy paper. The price of a cup of coffee is so close to €5 that it is not worth taking your change, and if you also have something to eat then the prices are cleverly worked out to be enough over €9 that it is not worth taking the change from a €10 note! My coffee is called something like a ‘espressocaccia’ and I choose it because it has more ingredients than anything else! When I leave I take the menu with me but leave it behind in my hotel.

Tonight is my last night and I am staying in the city at Hotel Euripides to reduce the travelling time to the airport the following day. I am intending to get another early night, without alcohol, as I don’t travel as well as I used to.

I am warned by the owner that they have the workman in doing some refurbishment but I don’t mind as I want to be up quite early.

For food I head to Monastiraki and the street by the railway line where a burly Greek ‘komaki’ has tried to get me in three times already, (sorry folks I lost the card and do not know the name!). Having ordered and got as far as the Greek salad I realise I have left my money in the hotel and take a fast walk back to get it. The Greek salad is big enough for three, there is half a loaf of bread, and when they arrive the meatballs are enormous with rice on the side. Another case of two eating as cheaply as one! I am serenaded by two Greek musicians as I am the only person in the place, I buy them a jug of raki and a bottle of beer. They ask me where I am from and laugh when I say ‘Krhth’ as I am obviously English. But of course they have relatives on Crete. I pay the bill €23 all up, a bargain considering I couldn’t finish all the food but did manage to drink the half litre of wine!

Strolling back to the hotel I pass Aleko’s hoping it would be open for a nightcap, it is closed so I determine to get back to the hotel for an early night.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I pass a bar that is playing Boney M which segues into Village People my interest is aroused. Well it is early still and one Metaxa and Cola will be OK. The bar is called Cosmopolis and it stand on the corner of Agatharchou and an un-named street quite close to the hotel. I enter and sit at the bar, it’s busy and the barman is in the middle of pouring a large round. For a Greek he appears to be tall and I think maybe the floor behind the bar is raised, standing up I check, but no he really is that tall, and he is an absolute dream, to watch working that is, what else did you think I could mean? He is now pouring a round of Tequila shots, I look around the bar while I wait, the barman taps me on the shoulder and pushes a shot towards me and then points to a crowd of late 20’s Greek males behind me. Obviously this is a celebration of some kind and being a person that never refuses I drink I clink glasses with them all before downing it in one.

I order my Metaxa and Coke, the barman looks slightly bemused and has to open three fridge doors before he finds the Coke, the Metaxa is enormous! I am handed the drink along with a large glass of water, strange? It is warm in here, the music and the mood of the place are infectious and one thing is for sure it is NOT a gay bar, but then I can drink anywhere.

As I sip my drink and enjoy the music I watch the barman and realise that none of the spirits, which seems to be the only thing they sell, has a mixer. Even the enormous glasses of gin go out straight! But why not? Everybody has a large glass of water which gets topped up frequently, no wonder the barman looked bemused when I asked for Coke, he couldn’t remember where it was! Of course after another drink the rot had set in and it was 3am before I got to bed, but with drinks that size and only €5 each who am I to complain? As ever, it is the unplanned events that are often the best!

I am woken the next day at 9am by the sound of hammering and drilling, it seems the workmen started at 7am and they are amazed that I could still manage to sleep.
Breakfast is included in the price of my room, €25 per night, and I am need of something solid. I make my way up to the 7th floor and the first thing I do is turn the thermostat up on the water boiler. (Remember I have stayed here before!). The breakfast here is a ‘Dutch’ breakfast with juice, cereal, cold meats, cheeses, croissants, dried and fresh fruit, jam and bread. A new addition is a toaster, which is very welcome as Greek bread is often very dry and toasting it makes it edible. While I am making toast, the water boiler is now up to speed and I can make a decent cup of tea, don’t even think of trying the coffee here!

I get back to my room, to find the builders have already removed the doors, lucky I packed my suitcase before I went out last night!

Manhandling my luggage back to Monastiraki Metro station about 600 metres away is a challenge with a thick head but I cope and am soon speeding on my way to the airport. Thirty-five minutes and €6 one-way fare gets me back to the airport in plenty of time for my homeward flight to Crete and as the aircraft takes off I ponder on whether I could actually live in Athens and remain sane.

For relevant links, travel and booking information, and a photo gallery visit
http://www.villaralfa.com/athens.html.

A Winter Weekend in Athens Part 2

Some suggestions of where to go and what to do during a short ‘city break’ in Athens. A series of three articles to help you make the most of your stay.

Part 2 – Eating out, another bar, museums and their opening hours.

Having arrived back in Monastiraki it was time to join everyone else at one of the many cafes, which line the street beside the suburban railway line. This may sound odd, but as the line is ‘sunk’ below street level and there are fewer trains on Sunday, it is actually very pleasant particularly on a sunny day when during the afternoon the sun shines directly on you.

This is a place ‘to see and be seen’ as every man and a few dogs are here sitting somewhere or another. For a change the cafes are so busy they do not approach you to come in, it is more a case of find a space and sit before someone else takes it! Here you will find illegal street traders whose stall is a white sheet, which can be lifted, goods and all, and taken away before the local police move them on or fine them.

You will be serenaded by small children playing the bouzouki or accordion with varying degrees of failure, you will have gypsy flower sellers palming you off with roses that last for about two hours, and lottery ticket sellers trying to sell you tickets!

If you are really lucky you will get a cup of coffee within a few minutes, but you will have to wait an hour to try and pay!

I take my coffee at leisure, an hour and a half, and then decide to head back to the Agora to take some more pictures as background and decoration for a web site I am designing. At the Temple of Haphaestos I am accosted by two ladies from Sapporo in Japan. They are on a European Tour and have managed most of the UK and Italy but need directions to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. They have chosen me because I look as though I can speak an English that they will understand. We chat for a while and I explain that it is easier to walk around the Acropolis than climb up it again and then down the other side. They also want to look at the stadium. ‘Is it old?’ ‘Yes 1936 for the Olympics (I think)’.

Finally I return to base for a well earned afternoon nap ready for the rigours of the evening!

Finding a restaurant in the middle of Athens should be easy, in fact there are dozens around the Psirri/Monastiraki area, but this article is supposed to help you so I will send you to Mitropoleos Street, which starts at the square opposite Monastiraki station and heads towards Platia Syntagma. At present the square is surrounded by corrugated iron fence so find the Everest cafe on Ermou and take the alleyway beside it. The first place you come to is good and normally has tables on the other side of the alley, or continue round the corner in Mitropoleos where you will find about ten restaurants! In summer this street is full of tables serving mainly tourists in the early evening and Greeks later on. In January there are still tables outside but you want to be warm and cosy don’t you? Most of these places are ‘souvlaki’ shops selling mainly skewered meats cooked on the barbecue, other are ‘gyros’ shops which is a similar idea but the meat is in bulk cooked vertically. All have other items on the menu if you ask to see it, but don’t expect them to have everything, particularly things like ‘moussaka’!

After a little wander up and down I selected ‘Sabbas’ as my eating place on this particular Sunday night, mainly because I happened to notice, on the way past, that one of the grill chefs had the most beautiful eyes. (OK if you can think of a better way of choosing a restaurant then let me know). Having ordered chicken souvlaki, with tzatziki to start and a quarter litre of house plonk, I proceeded to knock the ashtray off the table and spill a drink on the table behind me as I took my coat off. There is nothing like making an impression! At first glance the price looks expensive as the souvlaki is €9. So in total my meal is going to cost just over €14, but consider this, if there had been two of me and we had ordered a bowl of salad as well then the two of us could have eaten for €17 all up (well maybe €20 because we would have needed more wine!). As it was there was so much chicken on the souvlaki I had a problem eating it all, I found out afterwards that it was meant to be shared between two. Further up the street you can get a chicken or pork ‘gyros’ in pitta bread with a salad for €6.50 and you will get enough to eat!

Taking my time and writing up my notes for the day took two hours and nobody glares at you for taking the table for so long!

By now it is gone 10pm so I decide it is time to investigate another gay bar, this time ‘The Big Bar’ which is supposed to be a ‘bear bar’. One of the great things about this area is that you can walk places!

The ‘Big Bar’ is located beyond Gazi, which is home to many nightclubs including several gay ones. Personally many of these are not to my taste, the crowd tends to be too young and clucky, the drinks are often expensive, and the music is very often Greek ‘popular’ which is not me either! Having said that if you have the time then by all means go and try one or more, I am only trying to send you somewhere ‘reliable’ after all.

Big Bar is located in a side street just over the railway lines as you head out of the city on Iera Street, (on the way out you pass two very fancy nightclubs, one of which asks you to wear a tie, that’s me off the guest list then). I arrive after about 25 minutes (time for the food to settle) walk, shortly after it opens. It is empty, but I realise this is still early and anyway it gives me time to chat to the owner, Christos. One of the best things about smaller bars is you get information and in this case a free beer as well. Christos is interested in the fact that I live on Crete, and tells me what the Cretan men are like (I already know), apologises for the price of the beer which is €5 a bottle (not really that bad considering I have just come from the UK where they charge €9 for the same thing), and tells me how expensive Greek taxes are. I get a slight suspicion that maybe he would prefer to live somewhere other than Athens, but then many Athenians seem slightly jealous of us ‘islanders’ and one of the main topics of conversation in Athens is whether Crete will split away from Greece. This seems a bit odd as it is barely 100 years since Crete became part of Greece, but then they point out that Crete is ‘rich’ with agriculture and tourism and maybe it could survive on its own.

But back to the Big Bar, Christos tells me that the busy nights are Friday and Saturday when they play rock music, and that Tuesday night is Greek music night and he reels off a list of Greek singers many of whom are pop singers from the 1980’s. The place is closed on Monday as are many other places in Athens.

Atmosphere-wise the Big Bar is a comfortable mix of wood grain, dark colours and vinyl with a big screen for showing pop video clips and a glitter ball (a little unexpected for a Bear bar but actually quite a nice feature and it does add a bit of glitz). All in it is quite ‘cosy and cuddly’ just as you would expect a bear’s lair to be! It is not a big place about six people can sit at the bar with ease, which of course makes it a friendly place to be. By the time I leave at 12.30am there are a few more customers including a chatty couple (one Greek the other American I think) at the bar who know Brighton!

Monday is museum day and come hell or high water I am going to get to see the National Archaeological Museum!

One thing you get used to in Greece is wrong information for opening times and the museum is no exception, everything says that it opens at 10.30am on Mondays. It doesn’t, it opens at 1.00pm. Being optimistic I arrive there at midday. Not a problem there is a nice cafe in the forecourt complete with gas patio heaters. The tactile strip on the paving to help the partially sighted runs straight through the middle of the cafe, just to make life even easier at one end are swing doors and the other end sliding doors! Only in Greece. The large Greek coffee comes with a glass of water of course, and also a small dish of cherry ‘spoon sweet’, two small croissants, and a couple of small almond biscuits. All for €4!

The number of exhibits in the museum seems much smaller than it did in 1969 when I was last here and I think that maybe during the refurbishment in 2001/2003 they have deliberately gone for quality rather than quantity. The museum is well laid out and is not so big that you can get bored if you are not that interested in Greek history. I am there for some hours! Those of us who are advancing in years (22 in my case) with not so good eyesight, always have a problem in museums and this one is no exception. The cards they use for the printed text use a ‘serif’ typeface a couple of points too small to be easily read and even if you have varifocals, the angle of the card at the bottom of the case is such that you end up on your knees (a not unknown position), so that you can see through the reading bit of your lenses. The gold leaf work and jewellery I think are the best exhibits.

So what happens on Monday night? Well that will be investigated in Part 3 along with some links to relevant sites and some pictures

Note: This article was originally published by me in 2008, it has been updated slightly for republication here!

A Winter Weekend in Athens Greece Part 1

Some suggestions of where to go and what to do during a short ‘city break’ in Athens.

Part 1 – The theatre, a bar, a flea market, and a long Sunday walk.

Athens is not a city that many people would think of visiting for a short break, but with airfares and hotel prices at their lowest levels during the winter months this is a good time to think about a short break, but with only a limited time to find your way around how do you make the most of it?

I am lucky enough to have friends living in Athens, but on previous visits (and for part of this visit) I have stayed in the Hotel Euripides, which is in the Psirri district near to Monastiraki. To look at, this is not the most pre-possessing area, however this goes for many areas of Athens, and a lot of other cities! The area was given a facelift before the 2004 Olympics, as was the Hotel Euripides (new bathrooms!) but if you want to stay in a central location with plentiful nightlife at a reasonable price then this, or one of many similar hotels in the area, then you must look past the facade. This area is very crowded at night so for the nervous amongst you I think I can assure you that you will be safe! The area, judging by many of the old fashioned shops, was once the centre of the ‘Rag Trade’ and the remnants of this still exist in the form of many shops, with Chinese looking names over the door, selling wholesale clothing and accessories. There are also a number of wholesale jewellery and craft shops (ardent Ebayers take note!)

On this visit I arrived on a Saturday lunchtime after a very early departure from London Gatwick, so there was plenty of time to pick up a bottle of water and some snacky odds and ends from one of the many local shops, before having a couple of hours sleep. The Hotel Euripides is on a very busy commercial street and can be noisy, so it is wise to ask for a room on one of the upper floors, the 6th floor is particularly pleasant as these rooms face out on to quite large terraces overlooking the rooftops. During the winter months you will be given the remote control to the aircon, which you will need to use as a heater as the nights can be cold!

There are three theatres within five minutes walk, and never having been to a theatre in Greece, I decided that it might be a good idea to give it a try! In spite of it being Saturday night I was able to get a ticket to a show called ‘The Aunt From Chicago’ which has been running for some time, and although, with my limited Greek, I lost the dialogue several times, the show was sufficiently ‘visual’ and similar to a British ‘comedy musical farce’ that I found it hilarious, and if all else failed I could watch the Greeks enjoying the whole affair.

Theatre turn out time is around 11.30pm and to say that the surrounding area was now ‘heaving’ with people would be an understatement. Greek nightlife traditionally starts very late and you can walk through this area, centred on Platia Iroon at 10.00pm with hardly a soul in sight, but by midnight there is not a seat to be had anywhere with still more people arriving!

Further down Sarri Street from the theatre is a small gay bar called Aleko’s Island, which I had tried to visit on previous trip, but as this was on a Monday night it was closed. This time being a Saturday it was open although when I arrived there were only three other customers. Well what can I say about this bar? The owner has obviously been part of the local scene for some time, and arrivals after me were all greeted personally and chatted to as old friends, (this makes the service a bit slow at times, but Heigh Ho, this is Greece), my request for a Metaxa and Coke without ice was met without objection, (some places will hate you for the ‘no ice’ bit as they don’t use any official measure for the spirits and without ice they have to give you more of the spirit!) and resulted in a ten ounce glass about one third full of Metaxa before the Coke was added!

I tried to classify the decor, but couldn’t, although the word ‘kitsch’ did spring to mind. I had trouble deciding whether the fairy lights were left from Christmas or remained all year round. I tried to classify the amateur paintings around the place without success. I tried to classify the music but could only come up with ‘eclectic’, when I arrived it was Tamla Motown, but following a blast of the 20th Century Fox theme it turned into what seemed to be the Andrews Sisters singing ‘I Will Survive’, (I have found at since that was The Puppini Sisters, of course!), and the strangest version I have ever heard of ‘Tainted Love’!

Classifying the clientele was easier, generally older, say ‘fortyish’ going on nineteen, probably something to do with the theatre and mainly regulars. Greek of course, although there were a couple more English guys who it turns out live in Athens, but what a nice bar! After the second drink I was getting very settled watching the ‘goings on’ and after the third I began to feel so much at home that I could have stayed until it closed, but common sense prevailed and I left at 1.30am as I had things to do on Sunday!

Sunday is a day for walking in Athens. In Monastiraki the flea market is in full swing. This takes place in the network of small streets between Monastiraki and Thissio stations, the suburban railway line and Ermou Street. (some of it is open all week, but Sunday is the main day with street traders, licensed and unlicensed lining the narrow streets). The Platia Abisinias has some interesting stalls with a wide selection of odd china, but beware, some of the ‘Tiffany’ lamps were made last month in China and it is not unusual to see someone buy something and see the stall holder replace it with another one ten minutes later! You can however buy ‘spare parts’ such as that brass handle that broke on the chest of drawers when Granny first had it, or replacement (and genuinely old!) crystal drops for chandeliers. On week days you can watch craftsmen repairing and re-polishing old furniture, and I am always amused by the sign that advertises hand polishing, although I have never seen them use anything but a machine!

From the market it is an easy walk through the ancient Agora and up to the Acropolis, entry is free to these sites on Sunday! The Acropolis has changed since my last visit two years ago, it is less complete than it was, and certainly there seems to be even less than my first visit in 1969! I suppose it will be nice when it is finished and I can’t help but think that a couple of hundred Albanian stone masons would have had it done years ago! In the middle of the Acropolis I come across a couple from Perth, Western Australia, where I used to live. By coincidence they live just round the corner from where my (deceased) partner lived back in the 1950’s, and when I mention his name they remember both him and his (infamous) father. It is such a small world sometimes!

The new Acropolis Museum was supposed to be open now, but it wasn’t, and leaving the Acropolis I take the road to the right and down towards Plaka stopping at the Church of the Metamorphosis, I light a candle and stay a few minutes but come out looking exactly the same. On the way down there is a network of narrow streets providing many opportunities for some ‘arty’ photographs and a fair collection of restaurants, but I am heading elsewhere, to the National Gardens and Parliament House.

Entering the Gardens on the southern edge opposite Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus I begin to feel a touch of disappointment as I always do here. I had hoped that maybe with the 2004 Olympics being here, they might have done some replanting. The area itself is tidy as always, and while I can understand that the shade beneath the many mature trees will bring relief from the agonising heat of an Athenian August afternoon, I get frustrated because the network of well laid pathways and small open spaces always promise that around the next corner I will find a secret place or a surprise, but of course I never do!

Having said that there are some fine mature coniferous trees as well as Casuarinas and Saphora Japonicas, various palms, and abutilons. The ‘children’s corner’ still has a selection of ‘budgies’ and canaries along with some fancy hens, cocks, and ducks. There are also some fine looking goats. (The last time I mentioned to someone that I had seen some ‘fine looking’ goats they told me I had been living on Crete for too long!)

After stopping to photograph the fountain by the exhibition hall just to prove I had been there in daylight, I left via a wide avenue of mature jacaranda trees, which, horror of horrors, had been pruned according to Greek Rules; no lateral branch shall be less that 2.5 metres from the ground, no lateral branch shall be longer than 2 metres before it gets pruned. It would not have surprised me if they had pollarded or pleached them, there is nothing to beat a Greek gardener with a chain saw for a bit of pruning!

After several kilometres and 3 hours on foot, meandering slowly through the streets and gardens it was definitely time to think about a little late lunch and a bracing Greek coffee so I headed back to Monastiraki, but more of this in part two!

You will find some pictures on my web site at http://www.villaralfa.com/athens.html

Note: This article was originally published by me in 2008, but has been updated slightly for republication

Greece, The Perfect Gay Travel Place | Welcome to My Blog

Greece, The Perfect Gay Travel Place Welcome to My Blog: "Villa Ralfa"

Dear David, A Series of Letters to a Longtime Friend - The Background

I first published this popular series of letters on the gaylinkcontent.com web site last year 2008. Unfortunately before I could complete the series the web site was closed down by the new owners who are obviously more interested in making piles of dosh than providing a very useful service to the gay and lesbian population.

C'est la vie!

Firstly let me just answer one question that various people have asked me, 'Yes, David is a real person'!!

He is quite elderly these days, and was my first 'affair' as we called it then, what it is called these days I dread to think!

Naturally this was a long time ago, when I was still at senior school and up until a few months after my going to University. Then for various reasons it the relationship was ended, and soon after that my University career as well. The affair recommenced some time after and went on for another three years. The historians amongst you will realise that while homosexuality was legalised when I ws 15, it was only legal if both partners were over 21!

As this was a era when 'Brokeback Mountain' was a reality, it did not really cause a problem, because nobody was out to that extent, which I always felt was a good way to be! Of course after a few gins I can be at 'Out' as anybody else, but that never has been my style!

In the course of my Internet surfing looking for something completely different I found the following on the Wikipedia web site....

"Lord Arran, in an attempt to minimise criticisms that the legislation would lead to further public debate and visibility of issues relating to homosexual civil rights made the following qualification to this 'historic' milestone: "I ask those [homosexuals] to show their thanks by comporting themselves quietly and with dignity… any form of ostentatious behaviour now or in the future or any form of public flaunting would be utterly distasteful… [And] make the sponsors of this bill regret that they had done what they had done" (quoted during Royal Assent of the bill by The Times newspaper on 28 July 1967). The legal consequence of the legislation is often described as partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality as the act introduced a strict exemption from prosecution (distinct from a full decriminalisation) the implication of this being that outside this exemption, homosexuality continued to be a punishable offence in and of itself." (Source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Offences_Act_1967)

I have highlighted the relevant text in blue, and at times I really feel that some people should really follow this advice! Sorry guys!

Anyway I digress, as I often do....The Dear David series was never published completed, although the notes were laid out and ready to go, I never found what I considered a suitable site for them, namely a web site devoted to gay and lesbian articles.

Finally the series is being republished on a different site, starting with the already published articles covering January to May 2008. Of course these articles where original aimed at gay and lesbian travel lers to Greece and the Greek Islands, specifically Crete. But they are appicable to others as well.

You can of course publish them on your web site provided you stick to the rules set out on the articlesbase.com web site. If you would like to publish an edited version then by all means contact me and I will be happy to do the re-write for you.

You can find the list of articles here http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/timo-mitselakis/272845.htm

So You Want to Buy A Property on Crete? Part 2 - Your Dream Property And Its Location

Let's face it, wherever you are, dream properties can sometimes turn out to be a nightmare, and whether you are gay or straight, property on Crete, Greece, can turn out to be the same.


I think it does no harm to be flexible in your approach, but when buying property abroad you will find that you have to change your ideals to suit the type of property much of which is built to suit local conditions and styles.


So what type of property are we looking for? Well again we can break this down into sub headings as follows....


- A block of land


- A ruin for the DIY enthusiast


- A finished house


- A new build finished house


I know the last two look the same but I will explain the difference as we go along. We are really talking order of difficulty here, starting with the hardest and working through to the easiest.



Blocks of land are quite readily available on Crete. You will see signs by the side of the road advertising them, the various agents have them for sale, or if you have visited an area several times (and I hope you have done so as part of your research), then you can ask around among the people you have got to know. In fact you wouldn't be the first person to stand on a chair in a local kafenio and ask the assembled company if anyone knows of land for sale.


Pieces of land can be bought as an investment (but note my comments about your resale market in Part 1), or to build on. If you are just going to sit on the land and do nothing then fine, but if you intend to build then you will need to make sure that you will be able to build i.e. get the necessary permission and licences. There are rules about how much land you must have before you can build, and how many square metres you can build, these are designed to keep housing density down and preserve the character of the area. But naturally you must check these details before you buy as you might find that you can actually only build a very small house, or even worse not build at all!


You must make it clear that you intend to build when speaking with your lawyer so that he can investigate with the local town hall whether development is possible and what form this must take. Gaining the necessary permissions and licences can take time, and you will almost certainly need to have a local site agent to deal with the paperwork, hire and fire workers, liaise with your architect (many of whom will act as your site agent as well!), and ensure that taxes and 'IKA' payments are made. If you are any distance from 'services' you will also have to pay the costs for getting the services to your property and it is not unusual to have to wait weeks or even months to get, for instance, electricity, connected.


In the case of electricity the power company will often provide what is called 'builder's electricity' which is charged at a different, higher, rate. Your final (or any) connection will not be made until you produce the paperwork to prove that all the 'IKA' (social security) payments have been made for all the workers involved!

Building costs can vary according to the type of construction you intend to use and the overall 'quality and standard' of finish. E.g. Ceramic tiles on the floors or marble! Expect to pay around €1500 per square metre to build!



Ruined buildings are a common form of purchase and appeal to those who want a genuinely old traditional property and prepared to put in some work themselves as well as employing others to restore it. It helps here if you already know a builder that can view the property with you as sometimes these ruins are best left as they are, ruins, because there is nothing left to save and you may as well knock it down and start again.

Some features are considered very desirable in old properties so if there are one or more arches still existing, or there is the remains of an old olive or wine press, or an old fireplace you will have to pay more. Even the existence of an established vine or two can increase the price.


There are some advantages to purchasing a ruin, as you will have plenty of opportunity to stamp your own personality on it (provided again that you can get permission to enlarge the building, although if it is within a village boundary you can do almost what you like), but you will not have to worry about getting electricity and water to the property as it will probably be there already. The presence of water and electricity meters is a good sign here!

If you intend to renovate the property yourself please be aware that we don't have B and Q, or Wickes in Greece.....This means that you cannot do a one stop shop for everything you need so you need to be really organised and not forget anything when you visit your nearest large town to go shopping for materials. For timber you must go to one place, for cement another, for tiles another and so on! You will also find that at times it is difficult to get things delivered, make sure that you have an adequate map to guide delivery drivers and that you also know a suitable meeting point such as the nearest kiosk or church so that the driver can follow you from there. Some places will actually insist that meet the driver at the depot so he can follow you all the way!


Finished houses are available in most areas. These are usually older properties, many of which are habitable immediately and are family properties belonging to Greeks, that they no longer need. They will of course be Greek designed and as such are often completely different in concept from what you would expect in your own country. This type of property is very often the best to buy as they usually come complete with all the necessary permissions and paperwork and often only requires a bit of updating and refurbishment to produce either a home or a place to rent out. If you are thinking about future resale values as an investment then note that this type of property is often saleable to Greek buyers!


New Build finished houses are usually those built by developers or local builders 'on spec' with no specific buyers in mind. They do have advantages in that they will require very little extra work on your part beyond perhaps a bit of extra landscaping in the garden and if you buy them at the right stage you will be able to choose your own tiles, floors, and kitchen/bathroom fittings but do bear in mind that if you choose 'luxury' fittings then you may well have to pay more! You can also buy this type of property 'off plan'.

Of course choosing this course will mean that you will probably be buying in a development and will have close neighbours and that all of the houses will be virtually the same design, it is a good idea to tie the developer down to what he is planning to do with the rest of the vacant land if you are one of the first buyers in a development. Locally to me the first buyers in a development had a seaview, this was blocked out a few months later when the developer built another row of houses in front of them!

Again here you must consider the future of the property as most of these are designed by foreigners for foreigners which does limit your resale market.


Location, location, location.......You can buy land, build or buy a house anywhere you like, it is up to you! BUT if you intend to live in it, then you need to be aware of what the local services are like!

I have had several people staying with me, looking at property, and find their dream in a small resort on the south coast overlooking the Libyan Sea, a delightful spot during the summer, with one or two shops and a local taverna. What they do not understand is that during the winter these resorts are 'closed'! OK there may be one or two people resident all year round, but the shops are not open and neither is the taverna, and more often than not all you will have for company are a few goats and the goatherd, fine for those independent and self-sufficient folk, but you can find conversation a little limited! And do you really want to drive for two hours to the nearest large town to go shopping, particularly when it is pouring with rain or snowing in February?

We do get rain on Crete, and lots of it during the winter, so do pick your property carefully, that empty river bed beside you could well be a raging torrent during the winter!

And the more remote a property the less likely you are to be able to sell it at a later date. On the other hand Cretan villages can be very crowded places and within minutes of your moving in everyone will know your business!

So You Want to Buy A Property on Crete? Part 1 - The Motivation

Around this time of year, autumn and winter, we frequently get out of season visitors, from other parts of Europe, arriving on Crete to look at property of various types. This is not really a 'gay' subject, although some of them are, of course, gay or lesbian, and these blogs are designed to give a few hints and tips based on my experience.


As with any step like this it is a good idea to police our motivations as to why you are thinking of buying property on Crete, or indeed anywhere abroad!


We can broadly split the motivation into four headings -


- As an investment

- A holiday or rental property and maybe later a place to live

- A house to live in full time as you are going to move here permanently

- A business to run for yourself



Investment property would have to be very long term as although prices have risen on Crete over the last five years, the increase in value is nothing like the swingeing increases seen in the UK in previous years, for instance. You also need to thinking about who you might be selling to in the future, bear in mind that the Greeks own most of Greece and the chances are you have just bought a property from a Greek who doesn't want it, so your future market is unikely to be anyone Greek and is more likely to be someone like yourself, a foreigner who is buying here for the same reasons you are.


Holiday properties come in all shapes and sizes, but bear in mind that many people who buy holiday properties feel duty bound to come and use it once or twice a year, however there are a number of agents around Crete who will let it for you, at a price, or you can construct your own web site and do your own promotions on sites such as Gumtree or Hot Frog. It is a good idea to make it multilingual if you can, or at least put the Google 'Translate' Gadget on the site, it makes it friendlier for everyone!

Holiday rentals can be quite lucrative as you will be catering to the 'independent' traveller, who doesn't want the package deal and will pay that little bit more for somewhere nice and unusual.

In the main, many holiday properties are not really suitable for 'full time' living, so you need to go for the full size 'villa' type property if you intend moving to Crete full time at a later date. Although I do know of someone who bought two adjacant properties in the same complex and when they came to move here, knocked a doorway through!

Moving to Crete on a permanent basis can be a rewarding and enjoyable experience if you do your homework properly. The island is large, and there are many things to do and see when you are not working, add to this the Greek lifestyle, food, entertainment, and the generally good weather, and you have a place to stay where you can enjoy life to the full, with all its good bits and some of its frustrations and stressful moments as well.

In there somewhere you have found a hint of other things other than the good!

Firstly, and this is purely your choice and depends on your personal circumstances, I mentioned work! A dirty word indeed.

However, in general, very few of the migrant population here on Crete, lead a life of idle pleasures, many arrive, and after settling in doing nothing suddenly realise that during the summer there is no one to talk to because everyone else is working. Not surprisingly there are also financial considerations here, you may have taken early retirement and have a good pension, but inflation takes its toll everywhere, and that index linking may not be as good in the future as you thought. Not everyone works in the tourist industry, tourism only accounts for 13% of the GNI, but it is a good place to start while you are learning to speak Greek, and you will won't you?

Working will also help you integrate into the local population (foreign as well as Greek!), and you came to LIVE on Crete didn't you?

Frustrations and stressful moments will also, without fail, appear and like anywhere else you will have to deal with them as they arise. Parking tickets, unpaid bills that you didn't receive, land disputes (more of these later!), illness, death, taxation, pregnancy, household repairs, plumbers, banks, and lawyers. All of these will become part of your daily life as they do anywhere else, very few people manage to sail through life without experiencing any of them!

You will need to commit whole-heartedly if you are going to live here, for every few hundred that move here, many move back, often for the strangest, and sometimes the most predictable of reasons. Take the mid-30's couple who went to all the trouble of building a house and furnishing it, and promptly put it up for sale without living in it because the wife became pregnant! Not an unlikely occurance is it? The reason for not having the baby here? Not really specified but I guess the committment was not there. After all we do have doctors and hospitals here, the University Hospital in Heraklion is one of the best in Europe and Greece. (We have people from Germany come here just to be ill!)

Others, myself included, have had to undergo the death of a partner, and although our English friends and relatives expected an instant return to 'home', we have not done so. Speaking for myself I cannot think of a nicer place to be bereaved.

You will hear often from certain sectors of the migrant population who live here 'part-time', how expensive it is here. Of course this is not true, with one of the lowest per capita incomes in Europe how can it be? But these are people who come for maybe one month or two at a time, and who should by now, know where the cheapest places to eat are, but still insist on using the most expensive restaurants that there are! From information I have to hand Spain has equivalent prices, and in France, ONE person can easily spend €100 on a meal out!

Businesses in Greece are always for sale or rent. Sounds like a sweeping statement but it is often true. Many businesses are being sold by foreigners, but often business premises are up for rent or sale from Greek sellers as well, especially after a not very good year.

On the whole I would advise against buying any business here, but then that applies most places for various reasons. The seller will tell you it is a 'very good business', if this is the case why are they selling it? You will find it virtually impossible to see a set of books for any business you are buying, there might be figures that are put it into the tax office, and there might be figures that the current owner has kept, but they will rarely agree.

I have a Greek friend who told me once that he had had three good businesses. Foolishly I asked what happened to them, and was told completely without embarrassment that they all went bankrupt!

If the existing owner is Greek, there is a fair chance that he or his family own the property, and therefore do not pay any rent, but you will have to. And with rents up to €1200 per month for twelve months of the year when you are only open for six of them can make life difficult. There are often occasions as well, when the premises are unlicensed, this is usually due to the fact that the building should not even be there in the first place.

The same applies to staff. All those people that work in that bar, or that cafe, are probably relations and are not on salaries, and probaly do not get their IKA (social security) paid either.

You will also come across the situation where you go to change the utility bills into you own name and find you cannot because none of them have been paid for the last year, or in the case of water bills for the last 14 years. Not paying bills is an excellent way of increasing profits.

But having said that, if you have a really good idea for something completely new and original by all means start up a business, you will probably get a good year first time round before three others places open up doing exactly the same thing within 500 metres of you. (Ever noticed ow many bars and restaurants there are here right next to each other, and yet the number of tourists falls each year?)

Have I put you off yet? Good, I didn't think I would........

In Part Two I will deal with types of property and location

A Short Slideshow From Villa Ralfa the Original Gay and Lesbian Gueshouse on Crete, Greece

An Example of Driving on Crete, The Road to Samaria from Villa Ralfa Crete Greece

Crete, Greece - Gem of The Mediterranean

Not noramlly considered a gay or lesbian destination, in fact most gay travel agents and web sites would have difficulty sending you there, Crete has much to offer the gay tourist who is looking for Greek and Cretan culture, history, and food.

The Greeks will tell you that when the gods created the world, they apportioned all the dry land out to each race, at the end there was a pile of rocks left, and these they threw into the Mediterranean Sea, and this became Greece. Whether the story is true or not, Greece remains a rocky country, which probably explains why the Greeks are so good at moving rocks about, but one particular pile of rocks, the island of Crete is a gem amongst rocks.

From fertile coastal plains to rugged barren mountains, from mellow stone houses to stark concrete modernity, from bustling capital to sleepy hill villages, Crete, the largest of the Greek Islands, is an island of contrasts.
Home to around 500,000 people and several million olive trees, the island remains ever popular with visitors from northern Europe, other parts of Greece, and indeed, visitors from all over the World.

Many visitors never venture further than the beach, pool, or the nearest taverna, and remain (blissfully?) unaware of just how large the island is! Unlike the other Greek islands you cannot drive (or in some cases walk) around the island in one day, but having said that, four or five days is sufficient to give time to sample some of the islands’ delights and attractions, and 3 weeks will give you time for a full blown tour. Driving around the island is an experience in itself, road signs appear in both Greek and Roman characters, the spelling however has a certain eccentricity which gives map reading a whole new angle. And the, sometimes, tortuous hairpin bends on the mountain roads could be a challenge to any rally driver. Add to this the occasional appearance of a goat from out of nowhere, and the odd large truck which can appear at any time, and you will soon find your driving skills much improved and your speed much reduced in line with the pace of life we experience here!

To many Crete means the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur, and many visiting cruise ships stop only for the day to give their passengers time to see Knossos and its Minoan Palace and the Museum in the capital, Heraklion. To the uncomplicated farming people of many thousands of years ago, the ‘city’ of Knossos would, indeed, have seemed like a Labyrinth! But outside the city there lie more ruins of interest, and greater simplicity, leading to greater understanding and more insight into the history behind the ruins.

The interior of the island holds many surprises, with spectacular scenery such as the Samaria Gorge, the longest in Europe, and traditional hill villages, churches and monasteries, where little has changed for many years, and where you are just as likely to see someone in traditional Cretan dress riding a donkey as you are a tourist riding a scooter. Even in the tourist resorts development has taken place around agriculture, and the olive trees and field of potatoes behind your apartment block will still be an active part of the life of Crete. Waking to the sound of cocks crowing and goat bells can still be a fact of life even when surrounded by concrete and glass.

Throughout the island the remnants of occupation by invaders from the Romans, through to the Turks, can still be seen, with aqueducts and architecture still plainly visible. But throughout these invasions the Cretan people have remained relatively unscathed and retain their justifiable pride in their island and their culture. With English spoken widely throughout the island to ask a Cretan a question is to invite them to sit with you, and with time measured differently here you are likely to be sitting for while! Long conversations will naturally require food and drink, and eating or taking coffee here are as much an art form as a necessity, with long leisurely meals often prepared from the café owner’s home grown produce accompanied by his own ‘village’ wine. Larger restaurants in the tourist resorts serve ‘international’ menus, but you came here to sample Crete didn’t you?

Of course, we have some wonderful beaches, pick the right place and you can have a cove nearly all to yourself even in August, and our crystal clear, turquoise sea is ideal for swimming, diving, and other water sports. (I often have the sneaking suspicion, still after all this time, that someone puts dye in the water to make it that blue!). Add to this pony trekking, rock climbing, para-gliding, and a round of gold on the 18 hole ‘desert’ golf course and your stay here can be as active or inactive as you like.

Many prospective visitors ask me about nightlife for gay people on Crete. The Greeks, of course, do not admit that they may have gay Greeks at all, for much of the time, although this is changing slowly (like everything in Greece). It is not that they ignore it as a way of life, they just seem to take no notice of it! In the busy tourist resorts little notice is likely to be taken of a noticeably gay couple, but it is advisable to be like the Greeks and be discrete, but then this applies most places, in the quieter villages you may well raise an eyebrow or two! We do have one bar which is now openly marketing itself as ‘gay’, and we do have a busy nudist beach, which is usually of interest, and yes, there are gay Greeks, believe me, I live here!

Having said that, there are excellent bars and clubs, which serve the ‘mixed population’ during the summer months and if your idea of a holiday is clubbing each night from 10pm until 5am, with your days spent recovering, then that is up to you, but I always suggest you try and get to visit Crete one day!

During the summer months transport links with northern Europe are excellent, with many flights each weeks coming direct to the island. Ferries to the mainland and other islands are frequent and make Crete an excellent choice for island hopping or as a long side trip on a general European itinerary. Many of my guests arrive on Crete via Santorini (which can be expensive!) and Mykonos (which they tell me is no longer the almost exclusively gay resort it used to be. I personally haven’t been there since the late 70’s!), and leave again by ferry for Athens. In the winter, ferries still sail as they are the supply chain to the islands. Flights can be a little more complicated as in most cases you will have to come via Athens. An out of season trip to Crete reveals the Cretan community as it really is, as there will be few tourists around and many attractions will be closed. On the other hand you will get to see the island clothed in a mantle of green, and the olive groves carpeted with wild flowers, particularly in March and November, rather than barren hills and red soil that summer visitors will see. The result of temperatures up to the mid 40’s Celsius and rarely any rain from May to September!

Trying to describe Crete, the birthplace of Zeus, the seat of Minoan civilisation, and home of olive tree culture, in 1500 words, is like trying to put a ship in a bottle, but much harder, but I hope this short article has given you some ideas and I look forward to seeing you on Crete, the island gem of the Mediterranean!
Some notes about me, the author. I was born in England and have travelled extensively in Europe including Eastern Europe and Russia when the ‘Iron Curtain’ still existed. In 1981 I went to Australia where I lived and worked in Perth and Kalgoorlie until I was deported, because they have no taste! Returning to Brighton, England, I worked in the electrical industry until I started my own catering business. In 2002 after many happy times on Crete on holiday, I decided the time was right to move here. With goods and chattels packed, and after a long drive across Europe and three ferry trips later, I arrived on Crete in February 2004, and bought ‘Villa Ralfa’ a few weeks later, opening it as a gay orientated guest house in September 2004. Since then I have had visitors from Australia, USA, New Caledonia (!), France, Italy, Holland, Spain, South Africa, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, and of course the UK. You can find my website at http://www.villaralfa.com/and if you need any suggestions for travel to Crete then you are welcome to contact me by email through the web site.

Take Advantage of Cheap Winter Flights for The Winter Weekend House Party at Villa Ralfa

At Villa Ralfa, the original gay guesthouse and lodging on Crete Greece, we are well known for our Winter Weekend House Parties, accommodating a maximum of four guests for an nearly all inclusive weekend.

This year we are offering the same deal and you can read all about it on our web site at http://www.villaralfa.com/gother.html

But how to get here? Well amazingly enough air fares to and from Athens from various countries around Europe are at the lowest they have been for some time, in some cases cheaper than they were last year in fact. And our local carrier Aegean Airlines has fares from Athens to Crete from €2 return plus taxes making a total of €55 return Athens to Crete on various dates from December through until March.

Reseach today reveals €169 return fares from Berlin to Athens with Easyjet, or Milan to Athens for €89 return also with Easyjet.

Or how about a weekend trip from Bucharest to slightly warmer weather, Aegean Airlines have very reasonable flight to Athens, and choose the right dates and you can enjoy a winter weekend on Crete as well taking advantage of the €55 Aegean return from Athens to Crete!

Or how about Paris Orly to Athens for €82 return in February which includes you 20kg baggage allowance and taxes, again you can find onward flights to Crete for €55 return......And with prices for eating out on Crete much lower that you can expect in France (according to information I have been given!), you can still get a bargain!

Below are some useful links to find and book some of these fares....

http://www.easyjet.com
http://www.aegeanair.com
http://www.attitudetravel.com
http://www.villaralfa.com/glink.html

To Link or Not To Link? - That Is The Question, A Mini Blog

Why do we have Links pages on web sites?

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought they were there to provide visitors with useful sites that they might wish to visit for further information.

You might wonder why I am even talking about links pages, but you see I realised some time ago that the links and banners pages on my web site are possibly the least visited pages that I have.

Of course SEO specialists will tell you that you need to get lots of links into your site to get its rankings up with the search engines, which is probably why no one visits them these days, because as you will probably know, the 'link system' is reciprocal. A 'You show me yours and I'll show you mine' type of thing. So some web site owners and SEO's go all out for getting lots of links from totally irrelevant sites and these days our wiley surfers know this, so they don't bother to visit the 'Links' page that someone, in this case, me has constructed.

Naurally my links page is based on the same idea, but with one BIG exception, my links and banners are relevant to the rest of my site.

In case you didn't know already, my site is there to publicise the fact that I have a gay-owned and run guesthouse for independent , (those that have wisely organised there own holiday without using an agent), gay and lesbian, travellers to Crete, Greece. So you see the links on my pages are to gay resources, inside and outside of Greece, and other useful information, and many of them are one ended links.

That is, there are no reciprocal links.

Sounds altruistic doesn't it? Well maybe it is, but on the other hand it puts information that my visitors might find useful, in front of them with the click of a mouse, in a new window so that they can book a flight with EasyJet or Monarch, or indeed that doyen of flight information sites for Budget and Low Cost airlines across Europe, Attitude Travel.

Interestingly, 90% of links into my site actually link to my 'Home' page (we will not discuss why I have an Index page and a Home page, it's historical), which is also my preferred landing page, and yet less than 1% of reciprocal links or banners are on that page.

Regular and casual visitors to my site will notice that there are some banners and links spread across other pages, these are the more important ones and are placed there because they are sites that give me more visitors so they deserve a more visible position, rather than being consigned to a page that no one looks at!

In a way I wish that more people would look at my 'Links' pages, because they would find a lot of useful stuff there! Virtually all of them are gay or lesbian orientated, some are our favourite dating and social networking sites, some are bars that we like, and some are accommodation for gay and lesbian folk. But all are useful, and where there is a 'Gay Travel' site we have weeded out the ones that only link to 5 star, all inclusive, hotels designed for straight people, and charging €300 a night!

Of course the other place to look for useful information on the Villa Ralfa web site is the 'Recently Added' page. From here you can share our content on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and see our latest blog post!

So next time you visit our web site, take a look at the links and banners pages, you will even find links to local dive centres and stables!

Why Use a Travel Agent When You Can Do It Yourself - A Mini Blog

All of the visitors, 99% of whom are gay or lesbian, to Villa Ralfa are independent travellers, that is, they have not booked a package with a travel agent.

During the course of the 'booking season', I get many enquiries from prospective guests asking for much general information, much of which can be found on the web site, and some of which cannot. Being very efficient here at Villa Ralfa, I usually follow up on these after a while to see what is going on.

Usually I find that the guests have booked a 'package' through a travel agent.

I don't know why this should be, but many gay and lesbian travellers seem to be less than confident about using the Internet, and so they will not get the holiday they want, they will get the one that the travel agent wants them to have. Usually the one that pays the agent the highest commission. Of course the travel agents will deny this, but I am sorry it is true.

At this stage you may wonder why I am writing this....Well I have just been looking at the web site belonging to 'The Leading Organisation for LGBT Tourism Industry' which has a whole section devoted on why you should use a travel agent and not do it yourself.

Having a look through the web site I find that, apparantly, none of the people listed on it are actually nitty-gritty suppliers like me. Yea sure, they have all the airlines listed as being partners, and they have the big chain hotels listed, although Radisson Edwardian would never occur to me as the place to stay as a gay venue, and neither would any of The Hilton chain.

A quick look at their search results for 'Accommodations' (why do these people insist in putting the spurious 's' on the end?) for the UK reveals that three of the entries are for accommodation agencies letting a number of properties, admittedly they do list themselves as 'Exclusively G/L' and the rest are all hotel chains.

Not one single actual gay/lesbian hotel is listed, and there dozens in the UK!

Searching for 'everything' in the UK produces 40 results, some of which do not have anything to do with travel it appears, but we get the same chain hotels, and what is this? Behold a lot of the entries are travel agents.

Now call me an old cynic if you want, and you can see where this is going.....It now becomes obvious why this web site promotes using travel agents instead of doing it yourself. Some of these travel agents listed have paid a lot of money to be on the site, so the site is hardly going to even suggest that you can do it yourself, is it?

Now why do you suppose the listings have all these travel agents and no actual accommodation providers?

Money.....The travel agents get commission, so they can afford to pay the fees to be on the site, the traveller pays this commission, and wouldn't it be nice if when the agent gives you the invoice, the commission you are paying to him was listed as a separate item?

And it is YOU, the traveller, who is paying it. Paying it in higher prices and with less choice than if you booked it all yourself.

So be independent, spend some time surfing and finding a place that you want to go, not the place that the travel or accommodation agent has on his/her books.

Of course you if you want to come to Crete you can book direct with me, and you can even find a flight through my web site, and I will gaily admit that if you do book a flight through my web site from the UK, I actually get up to £1 in commission. Wow!

And with my accommodation from €20 per night, with no booking fee, and no card fee, (because I pay it!), you can have yourself a real nice stay!

Some Reflection on Gay Travel in 2009 and Some Good Reasons to Book Early for 2010

As the autumn crocuses come into bloom in the garden here at Villa Ralfa, they act as a reminder that it is time to start a review of the past year, and what needs to be done in time for next year’s tourist season.

This year has seen some difficulties in the tourist industry, not just here on Crete, Greece, but in other parts of the Europe also. The tour companies and airlines, expecting lower demand, reacted by reducing the availability of holidays and flights, with the result that prices were not actually as low as some expected. Certainly there were reasonable price packages available in very limited supplies, but many of those taking them found that they were housed in ‘all-inclusive’ resorts which cater for thousands of guests rather than a score or so of apartments.
This is fine if you do not mind going to breakfast, lunch, and dinner when the gong goes, and if you do not really want to sample some real Greek food, or experience real Greek hospitality in family run apartments, but we are gay or lesbian and fiercely independent and because we don’t have children (well most of us don’t!), we are not tied to school holidays. And we don’t need to follow the flock!

Surprisingly for a sector of the population that likes to think itself ‘avant-garde’ and adventurous, many gay and lesbian people still follow the crowd and book package holidays and continue to perpetuate the myth that some destinations are ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’. Two examples in Greece are Mykonos and Lesbos, both of which appear in ordinary package holidays brochures and at peak times are overrun with families and children. Another is Sitges in Spain which back in the late 70’s was the place for gay people to go in Spain.

Back then we were trailblazers in so many ways, but sadly the days when these destinations were exciting and distinctly gay has gone, and they have become just another destination, and in many resorts the sight of same sex couples holding hands by the pool would be distinctly unwelcome ‘in front of the children’. Sorry guys, but in the end there were just not enough of us to run and entire Greek island!
Naturally these destinations do have all gay resorts and entertainment, but as is quite common these days they tend to be expensive, presumably because they are working on the value of the ‘Pink Dollar’. Visitors to Villa Ralfa are, of course, independent travellers ‘doing the islands’ and when I get reports that a bottle of beer in a club in Mykonos costs €8 and accommodation cost €150 per night, then I start to wonder for which sector of the gay and lesbian population they cater. I personally think that estimates of the amount of ‘pink’ money are wildly over-estimated (as I have said elsewhere!). And that many think that if they open a gay resort or accommodation they will have a captive audience.

A good example of this is here on Crete, where I opened Villa Ralfa as gay lodgings in Summer 2004. At that time if you ‘Googled’ ‘gay’ and ‘Crete’ together nothing that made any sense came up in the results. Of course the Villa Ralfa web site changed that because Google loves things that are new, and it was a matter of about 3 weeks before searching for the same terms produced Villa Ralfa in the first ten places! Almost immediately someone else decided to do the same as me, and three years later a German couple took an entire apartment block and tried letting it out as a gay resort. Since then I have had English people staying with me who were planning to actually build a small gay resort way out in the back of beyond.

The German couple stayed open for one season, and the planned resort as far as I know never got off the ground, if it did then their web site designer needs a kick in the arse as none other than me ever appears in search results!

So why did they fail? Because they didn’t do their homework and were trying to cater to the wrong people, that’s why. Gay and lesbian visitors who come to Crete don’t come expecting gay nightlife although there is quite a definite scene here, they come for the history, the archaeology, the scenery on this beautiful island, the food, and perhaps a few days on the famous Hersonissos nudist beach!

Here at Villa Ralfa we understand this as all of our guests are independent travellers, people who have got up off their butts and done a few minutes work on the Internet and discovered just how easy it is to do it yourself! Which is why we are here to help! Our web site, which is about as consistent and eccentric as ‘Craigslist’, contains a wealth of information to help the independent traveller and because we know the island we can tell you how long it will take you to get to somewhere and what time the buses run, and how to get from the airport for €3 rather than €35 in a cab.

But in spite of all this, we still get prospective guests who ask for the information and availability but get no further because they don’t book flights soon enough! I forget how many times I have said this now, but I am saying it again, book your flight as early as possible, in fact for next summer now is a good time because once it is booked the price is fixed. Gone is the time when you could get a standby flight cheap at the airport, gone are the days when prices went down as the flight date approached. The carriers realised a long time ago with the advent of Internet booking that passengers tended to search for flights but not book them until later, so of course they increase the prices as time goes on!

And naturally there are still many living in the past and conveniently forget that oil and aviation fuel prices have risen dramatically over the last few years.
Even as I write this in October, the majority of the budget and charter airlines across Europe already have the flights for next summer up for sale on their web sites, and it will come as no surprise to anyone I am sure to find that the number of seats on an aircraft is actually limited! Our links page is possibly one of the most underused on our web site, possibly because many links pages are totally irrelevant, but ours actually contains a wealth of USEFUL links, including one to Attitude Travel which collates all the budget airlines in one place.

An additional facet is that Villa Ralfa only takes a maximum of 6 guests, a fact which is quite clear from the web site, and prospective guests often try and book a room in July for an August arrival date when all the August dates have been booked since January! You would be surprised how often guests ask me about availability in January but do nothing more and are disappointed to find that it is taken when they try and book 4 or 5 months later.

All this amounts to one thing, book early! Doing so guarantees your flights are available and at a reasonable price, and once you have booked and paid all your costs are fixed and final,and you get to go where you want to go not the leftovers that the travel agents have on offer.

Hey Presto, holidays done in a flash all through the power of the Internet!

Want to be Adventurous and Surprise Your Friends? Consider Athens and Crete, Greece for that Winter Break!

Mention Greece and the Greek Islands and most will think of hot summer days basking on a sun bed by the pool or on a beach by a sparkling turquoise sea, few would imagine such a destination for the winter traveller who would think Canary Islands or North Africa at least! So how many people do you know who can say they have been to Crete in the middle of winter?
Crete, however, is one of the Greek Islands that still receives visitors during the winter months, from cruise ships that stop for the day in Heraklion, and from visitors arriving by air or ferry to stay at one of the time-share hotels, or who just like to come to Crete during the winter months. And with a permanent population in excess of 500,000 people, (and several million olive trees!), Crete has more places open to eat, drink, and be merry, than other Greek island during the winter months.
So what does Crete have to offer during this off peak period particularly for the gay or lesbian traveller?
As you will have read elsewhere no doubt, there is not a large gay scene on Crete, but of course there are some of us that live here all year round, both Greek and foreign, but for many gay travellers their visit to Crete is not centred around gay nightlife, but around visiting the island itself and to explore the archaeology on the island. Yes, Eros Bar in Malia is open during the winter at weekends and also Villa Ralfa, the only proclaimed gay accommodation on Crete, is open for most of the winter (we do like to go on holidays ourselves sometimes!).
One ‘barrier’ to visitors during the winter months is getting here, but this is not as difficult as it sounds as transport links with Athens are available all year round not only by air, but by ferry as well, and Athens is well served by air links around Europe and indeed, worldwide, all year round, so why not a winter break in Athens with a side trip to Crete for a weekend. Time enough to see Knossos, the museums, (which stay open all year round), drive around the island at leisure, view some of the sights, enjoy some famous Cretan hospitality, and some Cretan food!
So where to start?
A good place to start is at the Athens International Airport web site. From here you can see which destinations/air lines fly in and out of Greece. Then you can visit the relevant air line web site and book your ticket on line. Yes, it really is that simple! No more queuing in travel agents and being sent somewhere that THEY want you to go rather than where YOU want to go, no more fruitless searching on travel web sites looking for dates that don’t exist!
On the link at the end of this article you will find the links to some of the relevant web sites.
But for instance, did you know that there are three Greek airlines that fly in and out of the UK everyday with scheduled flights from various airports? And then there is Easyjet as well from Luton and Gatwick. As an example Aegean Airlines are offering flights from London Heathrow through to Crete via Athens from €120 plus taxes, and Easyjet have return flights to Athens in December and January for around €120 return including taxes. Even Birmingham and Manchester are served with flights to Athens in winter and one thing is virtually guaranteed – Even if it rains, Athens and Crete will be warmer than Northern Europe!
Even if you are not in the UK you can find airlines that fly to Athens during the winter months!
And if you fancy a bit of cruising, fly to Athens, and then take the overnight ferry from Piraeus to Heraklion, about €70 return plus a cabin if you want one.
So what will the weather be like? Well from experience as I live on Crete, I can tell you that very often up until Christmas you can get day time temperatures up in the mid 20’s. After then it can be cooler and often in February we can have three or four days when it is only 8C day and night. Yes, we get rain and very heavy rain at that, but in return you get to see Crete when it is green, and even on the shortest days the clarity of light is a delight for photographers and painters, none of the grey overcast light when at 3pm it cannot decide if it is day or night! You can check the weather for yourself through the link at the end of the article. And it is not an unusual sight to see snow on the mountains a few kilometres from the beach, a source of wonder for many winter visitors who thought we bathed in eternal sunshine. To put this into a little more perspective Crete is slightly south of the state of Colorado in the USA! Even in Athens which is to the north can be gloriously sunny in mid-January; I stay there for a few days every year and have only experienced heavy rain for half a day two years ago.
So what can we do when it rains? Summer visitors will know that activities on Crete revolve around the beach and the pool, but of course, at Villa Ralfa we are here all year round so we have books, games, and other indoor entertainment, TV and DVD players, and you are welcome to sit in front of the big log fire that we have most days and sip a glass of sherry before you head off out for something to eat.
And what can you do on Crete? Well we are talking a relatively short stay, although we do get visitors who come for all of the winter. So you can visit the main archaeological site at Knossos, the museums are also open (ideal for the rainy days), and with the aid of a rental car you can get away from it all up into the hills and watch for the vultures, and stop for lunch (sometimes only €14 for two) at many of the small tavernas that are open for us locals. If you are here at the right time you can watch the olives being picked, but forget romantic notions as this is highly mechanised process these days. Evenings you can find bars and restaurants that are open, mostly serving good Greek food, but forget about moussaka, you rarely see it on the menu in a ‘meze house’! Above all you can RELAX.
So be the intrepid traveller and think about Athens and Crete as a winter destination, you friends will be surprised when you tell them where you have been.
For more information and links to relevant web sites visit http://www.villaralfa.com/winter.html where you will also find details of our winter special weekend which includes breakfast and one evening meal.