First trip to Hellas
We rested in mainland Greece, the town of Paralia Katerini from August 21 to September 1.2011. It was the first time in Greece. We went to Paralia, because we wanted to combine beach and sightseeing holidays with the purchase of a fur coat. Having previously read various reviews /both bad and good/, we bought a 12-day tour to the Lito 2-star hotel with breakfast. Together with visas, it cost 52 thousand rubles for two, tour operator Muzenidis Travel. We never went to 2 stars, we decided to try.
We arrived at the place late in the evening due to the delay of the Aeroflot flight from Sheremetyevo. But at first they didn’t get to their hotel due to some “technical problems with the room”. I think that here again something did not grow together with Mouzenidis, I read about them like that. Here, there is dishonesty in the work of Mouzenidis Travel. Apparently, in order not to miss a single client request for a tour, confirmations are made at all costs, whether there are free rooms or not. And then, when the tourist is at the reception, he is simply “stuffed” into some currently free hotel or apartment. That's all. Of course, it’s very convenient, and it doesn’t matter that everyone is waiting for such a vacation and in a place that he ordered and paid for in advance. The hotel management apologized to us and we stayed 2 nights at the neighboring hotel Regina, 3 stars. They didn’t appear strongly, in vain to spoil the nerves on vacation - this is not in our tradition. By the way, "Regina" is a good three-star hotel in the center of the town, the rooms are renovated with a large bed, there is a small shower, a balcony with a table and chairs.
City. Paralia Katerinis is a small resort town located along a sandy strip of beaches. It consists of many small nice hotels, apartments, grocery mini-markets, there are two large supermarkets / stock up on water, drinks, feta, olives, oil, etc. go there, the lowest prices / countless cafes, taverns, fur shops, jewelry and souvenir shops. I almost forgot, of course there are nightclubs, but I won’t write anything about them, the topic is not for my age category. In the center right by the beach stands the Church of St. Catherine, very beautiful in the Byzantine style. We went into it more than once, listened to beautiful church Greek hymns. The impression was extraordinary, who understands what I mean. The town has many travel agencies, car and bicycle rentals. In general, this is a small noisy, lively town, filled to overflowing with tourists. In the evenings, everyone goes for a walk along the main street, buys souvenirs, ours try on fur coats, some people sit in cafes and taverns. Life boils almost until the morning. Even in the morning you can hear the drunken exclamations of foreigners. There are Russians there, but not very many. Basically - Balkans, then on the list - Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks, Germans, British. Maybe I missed someone. But Europe is Europe. There was enough space for everyone, a complete atmosphere of friendliness to each other and order. It is advantageous to call from payphones / they stand right next to the church /, there are still, it seems, along the beach. The card costs 5 euros. You can talk to Russia for more than 2 hours if you call a landline phone, and about 1 hour 40 minutes if you call a mobile phone. I had a FACE card. An example of dialing to Russia: 80.2003 3 then the pin code of your card, then 007 /code of Russia/, your city code + landline phone number /if you call a landline number/. If you call a mobile, then after the country code 007 dial the mobile number 921... / megaphone / or 911... / mts / etc.
Hotel Lito. The owner of the hotel is a pleasant Greek uncle. The service is very polite and friendly. After the resulting embarrassment with the settlement, we ended up in a large room: first a small room with a table, bench and wardrobe, then the main room with 2 small and one double beds, air conditioning, refrigerator and TV. The furniture is a little old, but everything is decent, especially considering that in the room we mostly only washed, changed and spent the night. The bathroom is combined, the shower is funny without a curtain. A balcony with a table and chairs overlooked the main cheerful street. From the balcony you can see the church, right behind it the sea. Everything and everything is nearby, as it was indicated in the reviews of other tourists, after reading which, having appeared in this town, there was a feeling that you seem to have been here before, only somehow a very long time ago. Please note that there may be mosquitoes in hotels, / in Lito and Regina they were / saved by a fumigator. With the replacement of linen, everything was very clear, we slept on fresh sheets, wiped ourselves with a bunch of clean towels. But cleaning, namely washing the floors, was carried out well, very modestly and without fanaticism. I was very pleased with the breakfasts of the hotel and their variety and quality. I read a couple of bad reviews about them, don't believe it! No sour and repetitive food was ever served! They served scrambled eggs or fried eggs, a stuffed boiled egg, non-sour boiled sausages / of course, not 100% meat /, cold cuts of meat, cheese, salted olives and black olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushroom type soup from a bag, several types of salad / by the way, Greeks, almost all salads, except for vegetarian Olivier, are seasoned not with mayonnaise, but with yogurt /, yogurt without fillers, muesli, jams, chocolate sauce, dried fruits, cereals, peeled ripe melons and watermelons, juices / of course, not fresh /, mousses, jelly, cookies, decent coffee, milk, tea. What else do you need, gentlemen, Russian "bourgeois" from two stars ? ! By the way, breakfast at Regina was much more modest, although the hotel is more expensive. In general, I recommend this hotel to everyone who came to relax actively, and not sit in the room. The only “BUT”, if silence is still important for you at night, then it is better to stay in a room with windows overlooking the courtyard or choose a hotel a little away from the center. Don't worry about the distance to the beach. There, in my opinion, this distance from any hotel is not great, since Paralia itself is not large, it stretches along the beach, and the distance between hotels, for example, 1 and 2 lines is 10 meters. We are not "sleepy", but we had to fall asleep to the noise and hubbub from establishments until late at night, and double-glazed windows did not save us. But nothing, slept after the sea, excursions or shopping and a delicious dinner, like the dead. So, if this fact does not bother you, do not overpay 10-15 thousand, settle in Lito and enjoy your vacation. By the way, the hotel had a lot of elderly guests. The hotel has internet and a safe at the reception /1 euro per day/.
Yes, I haven’t forgotten yet, one day, driving a pleasure train in the evening, we noticed that 4 star hotels are located away from Paralia itself. They also stretch along the beach strip, and it seemed to us that it was completely sad in the evenings and there was nowhere to go, if only to go somewhere by transport.
Paralia beach. The beach and the bottom of the sea are fine fine sand. And in general, the sea in the Paralia region is very shallow. In principle, the distance from the hotels to the beach is really 20-100 meters. But we never settled down in the center, since the water here is really dirty due to the large amount of algae nailed to the shore, silt / after all, a long time ago there were swamps in this area / and other garbage, and also because of the international heap of vacationing people . If you want a normal sea, take a walk a few hundred meters from the center, it’s good for your health, and purely from the cognitive side too. If you stand facing the entrance to the temple, which is right on the seashore, on the right side there will be a disco Omilos, then the port, many go behind it, it is deserted and clean, but it seemed a bit far to stomp. We often went to the left / we liked it better there /, along the stretching beach strip towards the Cocus disco, and fell where we liked it best. The beach strip is endless, each piece of it with sun loungers is supervised by a certain bar. As has been noted more than once in the reviews, in order to use an umbrella and sun loungers, you need to order some drinks - water, cola, beer, iced frappe coffee with and without milk / highly recommend / - to choose from, the cost for two is 5-8 euros. If you leave the beach, and then return at another time, you need to make an order again. Some, in order not to pay too much, rest with their umbrellas / they cost 5 euros / and mats. Also an option. Well, there are far fewer people away from the center. Expanse, pure water, turquoise. There are a lot of shells in the water, a variety of fish, crabs swim. The sea was a little stormy only one day, and so - calm, beauty! Local sellers of sweet pastries / 1.5-2.5 euros / are worn all over the coast, as well as Vietnamese or Chinese women offer massages and black merchants with all sorts of junk.
Local kitchen. We did not regret at all that we took the tour with breakfast only. The food in the establishments is excellent, I don’t remember that somewhere I didn’t like it. Everything was very tasty, the portions are large, the service is excellent, the waiters are polite and quick / read a lot about lazy, slow - not true /. Our catering in all respects is very far from the Greek. Do not be afraid to eat in different establishments, everywhere will be good. Everywhere / except for fast food establishments / after eating their order, they brought a present in the form of cakes, cakes, desserts, just fruits, wherever. Fruit fondue in chocolate was served in the famous Pinakofiki tavern / that is, Palette /, in which we stayed more than once, we really liked it there. The cost of a normal dinner with drinks for two is about 20 / meat dishes / - 30 / seafood / euros, but it can be cheaper. There is no particular price difference. In the center, as always, more expensive, a little further - cheaper. We tried a lot of things, including local pizza / a large piece of 1.5 euros / and Greek fast food - gyros pita / costs from 1 euro, also by the way an inexpensive option for a hearty snack /. Although gyros is an amateur, too meaty and heavy for digestion. I liked the resinous white wine Retsina, red dry wines, Mythos beer are good. Fruits: delicious grapes 1-1.40 euros per 1 kg, peaches and nectarines 0.80-1 euros, figs 2.5-3 euros. Metaxa is the most delicious - five-star / in the store 5 euros a bottle of 0.2l /, 0.5l of anise vodka "Uzo" in minimarkets costs 3.6-5 euros, 0.7l "Metaxa" 3 stars 13.8 euros, olive oil / if you will buy with you, the best there is considered to be Cretan / 5l tin can costs 17 euros.
Excursions. After arrival, in the morning meeting with our guide at the reception, we drove off on an excursion to the city of Edessa, famous for its waterfalls. After Edessa, our path lay in Aridea. This is a beautiful place where we visited the hot healing springs under the open sky. The center of health tourism is concentrated here, many people treat their ailments. Well, we also received treatment during our excursion in hot and cold pools and stood under hot and icy waterfalls. Tasted from the source of local medicinal water. Very good! Finally, everyone dined in a tavern located near the waterfalls, bought delicious homemade wine, honey, some mountain teas, etc. in the shop. Then we set off on the return journey. We bought this tour from Mouzenidis, we wanted a Russian-speaking guide, it costs 50 euros per person. In the evening we arrived at our Lito, where our things were already in the room.
The second excursion to Meteora was taken from Mouzenidis for 55 euros. In front of the monasteries soaring in the sky, we were taken to the icon painters, where there is a brief excursion about local icon painting and icons. Bought souvenirs there and forward to the monasteries. We have opened beautiful views of the creations of nature and human hands. Christian monasteries on the tops of rocks really seem to hang between heaven and earth! Very impressed. Go for it, you won't regret it. I’ll also tell you about the prices from Mouzenidis for other excursions: Athens - 70 euros / 50 children /, Olympus-35 euros / 25 /, Thessaloniki only transfer-25, Greek evening-25 / 20 /, Pleasure boat-25 / 20 /, Cruise " Saint Athos "-65 / 50 /, Aquapark-35 / 30 /. Mouzenidis here holds a tight monopoly on this business, in the city Russian-language excursions cost the same. In other languages in local offices they cost 2.5-3 times cheaper.
We bought our 3rd excursion to Mount Olympus there for 15 euros per person and went on a double-decker bus with Poles and Romanians, there were 2 guides. It was possible to take an English-language one for 9 euros, but it didn’t suit us every day. Had a good time too. We went to the foot of Mount Olympus - to the village of Litohoro, walked in the mountains / Olympus is not one mountain, but a mountain range and no one will definitely drag you to the highest peak of Mitikas or Stephanie /, visited the mountain monastery of St. Dionysius of Olympus. It is a pleasant, peaceful, beautiful, holy place. In it we visited the temple, the museum, put candles, who wished, walked around the territory, were in the monastery shop with souvenirs, honey, and other sweets. Then we set off along the mountain serpentine on the way back.
About the need for knowledge of English, I will say that you can, of course, do without it, but it is more convenient to speak it at least a little. Yes, they look at you differently. You never know, something will have to be clarified, or even demanded. The guide will not always be at hand. It turned out that in none of the two hotels where we visited, in Russian at the reception, except for “hello”, “thank you”, “please”, they don’t know / although many other hotels have Russian-speaking staff /. In the tour offices, not a word at all. My deeply mediocre stock came in handy. Well, who has what desires and ambitions. And so, almost all cafes and taverns have a menu in Russian plus Russian-speaking staff. Regarding our guide Katerina from Mouzenidis Travel, I will say that she did her job well. She came daily to our hotel in the morning and in the evening, answered all the questions tourists had, explained everything, showed and told.
Shopping. In Greece, shops are open from morning until 13.30, then from 17.30 to 20.30. I will not dissuade anyone from going to Kastoria for a fur coat. Because, how many buyers, so many opinions. Someone brings fur coats from there profitably, especially our “fur coats”. They have already established channels with the Greeks, and they go to certain factories, and not to where they need to earn a guide, etc. With me, women were taken to Kastoria / transfer fee - 25 euros per person / and they returned with nothing, they could not find the right model and the prices are quite biting. The price of a short black black glam is from 3.5-4 thousand euros and more. I was immediately determined not to go there, but to choose goods on the spot and devote myself to relaxation. Which I did, having previously walked a couple of evenings through numerous fur coat shops. I tried on a great many models of different colors and styles, talked with the owners and sellers / with the Russian language there is better than in our markets /. There are no exquisite models from the catalogs of Kastoria's factories in Paralia, but you can pick them up. Basically, they sell mink of different shades, sewn in loose or plates / which is cheaper /. There are beautiful models of gray-blue broadtail, as well as a raccoon and a fox. I was in the mood for black mink. A very large offer in the salon "Empire of Fur". I was taken there on different floors, the choice was quite large, but the prices did not lag behind. Since this was the first store I stumbled upon, I went on my way to walk around other salons. I am not a great specialist in furs and the more I chose, the more I doubted where the black glam / American mink without a long awn with good undercoat /, and where the black nafa / Canadian mink with the presence of a long pile, is also not very bad /, as good-natured the Greeks with great pleasure indulge in an ordinary mink or, at best, nafa after pre-treatment of the fur for glam for a lot of money from 3 thousand euros, and even talk about it, but of course not about themselves, but about “other” salons of the same Paralia. As a result, I bought a black fur coat made of Scandinavian black velvet mink, 110 cm, with a hood, sewn in dissolution / it has a long pile, it resembles glam, and merchants pass it off as such to buyers inexperienced in furs /. The lining was not sewn to the hem, I checked that the lining was soft, not rustling and white. The pile does not climb at all, there was no unpleasant musty smell either in the cabin itself or from the product. I bought it for 2.2 thousand euros. At home, everyone is delighted, and then time will tell. If you go there for a fur coat, you can take dollars, since their prices are in dollars, and for those who have euros, they are converted to euros. Try to choose products on the main street Nikis, there are the most decent salons. If you buy something, take a completed check from the seller, 2 copies / one for Greek customs and the other for ours /. In order not to waste time communicating with Russian customs officers upon arrival, fold the fur coat neatly and do not put it in the fur store's branded package / of course, take the fur coat in your hand luggage, anything can happen with luggage /.
What else can you buy in Paralia? To the left of the church there is a shop with women's knitwear from 4 euros. We bought men's and women's thin leather jackets for 100 and 90 euros. But in general, all the shops are littered with beach accessories, souvenirs and a lot of cheap Chinese junk.
By bus / stop is also nearby / for 1.5 euros you can quickly get to the town of Katerini. It is better to go in the morning, because even with such a modest opening time, it is not a fact that all shops will be open after the siesta. This is a nice Greek town with local people. Tourists come here to walk and shop. We also walked there and bought our gifts from sales. There was no special cheapness, as, for example, in Spain / except for summer assortment goods, mainly for the youth /. There is a selection of good adult and children's shoes and children's clothing made in Greece. Many boutiques with Italian goods at appropriate prices, even at a discount. In general, there is where to go, and something can be picked up.
In conclusion, I will say that we were satisfied with the rest. Everything that was planned for the period of the trip - excursions, the beach, shopping - they did everything and returned home happy. Greece is a beautiful, colorful country. The Greeks are a very educated, cultured, affable and friendly people. Everywhere, wherever we were, we had a good attitude. If we talk specifically about Paralia, then you need to go there as soon as possible for the reasons that I indicated at the beginning of my modest opus. There are many more Greek beauties on the islands and Halkidiki, which I also want to see in the future. And if you have any questions, I'll be sure to answer. Good luck to all!
