Author Topic: Skala/Blackpool lights  (Read 21326 times)

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Offline Maarm

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Skala/Blackpool lights
« on: Thursday, 29 September, 2016 @ 11:07:35 »
Who on earth thought it was a good idea to put up those horrendous neon lights outside various restaurants and businesses?  I was absolutely appalled to see them it really makes the resort tacky.  Bad enough seeing the reviews over the years saying Skala was a "tourist trap for Brits".  Was hoping that the money spent with the paving (and glad to see the new planting was flourishing) would help negate this image but seeing the flashing red lights made me deeply embarassed and that was before I found the bookies! (I don't know how long that's been there because this was the first time we actually made it to Apostolis  :oops:)

Offline Misty

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #1 on: Thursday, 29 September, 2016 @ 14:37:02 »
The lights must have been installed by the same company as the one in Katelios pronouncing Pork on the spit and Grill house.

Offline Maarm

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #2 on: Thursday, 29 September, 2016 @ 15:25:58 »
Dreadful  :rant:

Offline TonyKath

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #3 on: Thursday, 29 September, 2016 @ 16:10:46 »
The lights must have been installed by the same company as the one in Katelios pronouncing Pork on the spit and Grill house.

Really really
annoyed
us too.

Tony  :rant: 
« Last Edit: Saturday, 01 October, 2016 @ 16:23:57 by TonyKath »

Online Maik

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #4 on: Thursday, 29 September, 2016 @ 16:49:15 »
The surprise is it's taken so long... I'm sure "it's what the tourists want"  :iroll:

Offline Ian_E

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #5 on: Thursday, 29 September, 2016 @ 20:45:59 »
To be honest we have call Skala, "La Skala" for years.... it's turning into some cheap spanish resort...

No doubt I've just offended a large number of people

Offline Aristarches

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #6 on: Friday, 30 September, 2016 @ 11:40:55 »
The lights must have been installed by the same company as the one in Katelios pronouncing Pork on the spit and Grill house.

Really really annoyed us too.

Tony  :rant:

I was there when the "sign" was erected.  No one, either tourist, expat or Greek that I spoke to thought it was a good idea and should not have been erected.  Even the owners didn't like it but this may have been the result rather than the idea.  This may be apocryphal but I was told that a new business had been going round offering cut price deals to drum up business.

It doesn't surprise me that Skala has them but Katelios!?  And on the road into the village?  How long before the 18-30s arrive?

Offline Maarm

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #7 on: Friday, 30 September, 2016 @ 12:58:49 »
I agree with you Ian E -it's become tackier over the years.  Although there's still many nice places to eat there I'm glad I stay a little way out of Skala those lights would give me a migraine (nothing to do with copious amounts of wine I may consume  :iroll:)

Offline HiFi

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #8 on: Friday, 30 September, 2016 @ 16:18:07 »
Never did like Skala anyway to be honest. Lassi all the way!!! :yahoo:

Offline Colleywobble

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #9 on: Friday, 30 September, 2016 @ 18:21:49 »
What's happening to my dream home in the sun? First a big supermarket ,now illuminations? Oh dear its perhaps as well we can no longer make it out there and try to remember how it was all those years ago in 1992!Sad really that the dream fades in the name of PROGRESS!!!. I will just have to think of all the happy times we had and the lovely people we had the privilege to meet over 22 years and all the natural wonders we discovered, turtles nesting, Spring arriving with all its flowers ,Dolphins out off the beach and at this time of year after a shower of rain thousands of cyclamen appearing from nowhere. You can't erase all those memories by filling the place with cheap jack attractions.  I miss how you were Skala!!

Offline HiFi

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #10 on: Friday, 30 September, 2016 @ 20:00:21 »
Err, turtles still nest, we still have Spring and flowers. Skala's lights haven't scared off the dolphins and there's still loads of rain with more cyclamens than you could shake a stick at.....

Offline TonyKath

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #11 on: Friday, 30 September, 2016 @ 22:35:07 »
Didn't know about the cyclamens.  Anyone got a piccie?!  :)

Tony

Offline HiFi

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #12 on: Saturday, 01 October, 2016 @ 08:24:41 »
Loads coming up at the moment. As is often the way, flowers first, foliage second. Don't know how to make my pictures small enough to go on here?

Offline Alan

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #13 on: Monday, 03 October, 2016 @ 13:48:34 »
I know there is a whiff of slain golden geese in the new ticker tape lights in Skala and Katelios, but what I smell most is desperation. Domestic tourism has collapsed and international numbers have been disappointing. Furthermore those who do come are spending far less. So competition is fierce, prices held, and margins so slim that businesses is extremely precarious. And of course the taxation screws are ever tighter. So if the nice lighting salesman dangles the prospect of a slight edge, of surviving the crisis another year, of course the taverna and bar owners will be tempted - who wouldn't? So blame not the beleaguered businesses, but the failures of previous governments and the cynicism of the troika which has sold the whole country down the river. IMHO.

Online Maik

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #14 on: Monday, 03 October, 2016 @ 18:06:39 »
Agree with most of that, but the trick is to increase trade without making the place resemble a desperate knocking shop. JMO.

Offline Aristarches

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #15 on: Wednesday, 19 October, 2016 @ 09:31:37 »
I have just come back from Chania.  I am beginning to think that all the complaints about the indigenous tourism slump is very much Kef thing.  There were a lot of Greeks on holiday in Chania and the restaurants had as many Greeks as tourists and expats. I am not talking about the restaurants and bars around the Venetian Harbour which were a tourist rip off but the better ones a few streets back.  Perhaps the reason is that the Kef restaurant trade has gone too far to providing food for the British tourist at the expense of  "proper" Greek cuisine.  How long until taverna touts are going to be getting in your way and trying to get you to eat the English Sunday roast beneath the bright neon lights of Katelios?  Sooner than you think, I'll bet.

Offline HiFi

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #16 on: Wednesday, 19 October, 2016 @ 13:33:36 »
A number of tavernas already offer winter roast Sunday lunch........

Offline TonyD

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #17 on: Wednesday, 19 October, 2016 @ 15:11:09 »
Anywhere I can book for Christmas dinner?

Online Maik

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #18 on: Wednesday, 19 October, 2016 @ 17:39:12 »
I could (but won't) suggest a  few places for a decent - Greek - meal on Christmas Eve.

Perhaps it's a bit chicken and egg... if more Greeks come to Kef maybe the meals will become more 'Greek', or will making the meals 'more Greek' attract more Greeks?

Let's face it, traditionally if you ordered e.g. Kef meat pie that's what you'd get. If you wanted chips and veg you'd order them separately. The tourists vote as best 'Greek taverna' one that serves a small portion of Mediterranean cuisine padded out with lettuce leaves (you know the one  ;)).

Having said that, do the (ahem) sophisticated Athens crowd want typical Greek fayre? When I was in Patras in autumn/winter last year the mid-week evening crowds on Feraiou Riga made Skala high street on an August evening seem quiet. All in trendy restaurants/bars - finding a souvlaki shop  (also packed to the gunnels) wasn't easy, less so a 'Greek taverna' as we'd recognise one.

Wouldn't surprise me to find a few places on Kef offering British Christmas dinners during December... if the punters want it, someone will supply it. Those that want it will know where to look, those that don't know where to avoid.

Offline HiFi

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #19 on: Wednesday, 19 October, 2016 @ 19:12:35 »
You can have a full British Christmas dinner on Kef on Christmas Day and yep there'll be plenty of immigrants filling the tables.......

Offline Aristarches

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #20 on: Thursday, 20 October, 2016 @ 12:11:57 »
I wasn't taljing about Christmas dinner.  Obviously, the Greeks will provide such a thing to expats longing for home.  Although, it does make you wonder why they don't go back.

I was referring to an English Sunday roast served in the summer which is common in such places as Laganas and Malia.  I can't imagine eating a roast dinner in the height of summer but then I can't imagine drinking 20 pints of lager a day either. 

Offline HiFi

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #21 on: Thursday, 20 October, 2016 @ 13:19:33 »
Anywhere I can book for Christmas dinner?
Andromeda in Lourdas for one......

Offline HiFi

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #22 on: Thursday, 20 October, 2016 @ 13:20:41 »
I wasn't taljing about Christmas dinner.  Obviously, the Greeks will provide such a thing to expats longing for home.  Although, it does make you wonder why they don't go back.

I was referring to an English Sunday roast served in the summer which is common in such places as Laganas and Malia.  I can't imagine eating a roast dinner in the height of summer but then I can't imagine drinking 20 pints of lager a day either.
See what you're saying. I agree. Although I don't have a problem with the occasional 20 pints of lager.....

Offline TonyKath

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #23 on: Thursday, 20 October, 2016 @ 18:34:07 »
Look guys, steady on!  I've just had to clear up the drool coming through my PC screen, not to mention the puke from 20 pints!
 :pml:

BTW Ari a friend was in Chania in September and said much the same about the tavernas.  She didn't order a Brit Sunday roast!



Tony

Online Maik

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Re: Skala/Blackpool lights
« Reply #24 on: Thursday, 20 October, 2016 @ 18:45:22 »
Not exactly roast beef but if you want something Greek to drool over (steady on)...

Quote
In Greek cuisine, the term sofrito refers to a specific dish native to, and almost exclusively to be found on, the island of Corfu. Sofrito is a veal steak slow-cooked in a white wine, garlic and herb sauce, and is usually served with rice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofrito#Other_meanings_and_versions

Best I had was in San Stefanos - a sleepy little seaside village somewhat like Katelios - but with bingo and karaoke  :iroll: