4/10 – Matig
alcooke C.
23 jul 2018
Good views; needs cleaning
VILLA ARTEMIS boasts views so grand that one wonders why the deck offers only a single plastic chair. Comfortable seating and small table seem obvious in its absence.
In the village we had no trouble finding the café where our host’s friend Giorgos recognized us from the first “yeia sas.” He took us to the house and showed us around, left us the keys, and left us to settle in.
After a week in Greece, some in our party were eager to use the clothes washer. Giorgos was unaware of the washer and less inclined to offer suggestions. Some written instructions would have been useful. The dial in Greek is of little value for our limited familiarity with the language. Eventually we got it running. After it finished its cycles, we found that the water was not turned on. So we returned to start. These may be picky complaints, but some written guidelines could have made everything much smoother.
The main room downstairs is – how do I put this kindly? The women in our group thought it lacked a woman’s touch, and one was ready to leave the first morning. It seemed dark, dank, and dingy with too many personal possessions left. The bedroom is accessed via a spiral staircase, a situation where planning for how to get baggage up there could be helpful. We later found the bedroom accessible from outside, up a short flight of stairs to a mid level porch. The upstairs apartment was a bit brighter and somewhat more pleasant and comfortable.
OK, the women suggest I am being too kind. “The upstairs was covered with sheet rock dust and gravel chunks from that strange cement domed ceiling...there was a loose piece of molding at the top of the circular staircase (that I tried to use for support going down). The downstairs was moldy and damp....towels in that bathroom felt wet moments after I brought them in dry. And there was mold in the kitchen down the wall with the half completed construction. The house needed a serious cleaning....I felt like I was choking when inside it.”
There were plenty of dishes. We had “issues” with the electric drip coffee pots. One, when filled with water and coffee and turned on, never functioned. The red light indicated on, but it did not heat nor drip. The other functioned well but made very weak coffee. We ran it through three times to make it almost strong. Our greatest success with making coffee came from using a melita dripper we had brought with us and from using the Briki.
alcooke C.
3 nachten verbleven in juli 2018