To think some holiday makers in Greece are odd?

[authcodehobby]

I’ve been on my first holiday in Greece and it was lovely. Absolutely beautiful country and it was great to just spend a week relaxing. We stayed in a little self catering apartment with a shared pool, bar etc between apartments and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Some of the other holiday makers seemed absolutely obsessed with being ‘friends’ with the owners though. Conversations in the pool were all about ‘well I’ve known Jack (the owner) for 10 years now, he looks forward to me coming every year’, which is responded to with ‘oh well I’ve been coming since 2001 so obviously I know all of Jack’s family and they invite me out for drinks’ etc etc. All in competition to let everyone know how close they are to the owner.

Poor Jack was being asked by one woman if he remembered when her friend Sandra visited in 2005 or whatever. He clearly couldn’t.

It’s great for the resort that people think they’re their friends, but why can’t people see that, to the owner, most will be like any other customer, here today and replaced by others next week who will also think they’re best friends with Jack and family?

My friend holidays at another Greek island and never tires of telling us about Eli’s bar and how good friends she is with Eli and I’ve always wondered if she believes it but thought it was just her, but it seems not.

AIBU to think it’s really odd that people believe that people they see once a year who rely on their custom are their friends?

There is a lovely B and B I have been to in Britain a few times. Last time the owner mentioned another guest, a very elderly woman who had been coming to her B and B for years. She was very admiring of her young attitude and positive approach to life. No they were not friends, but the owner obviously did like this elderly woman who had been coming for years.

I think people who believe they have genuinely struck up a meaningful relationship with a waiter/hotelier are not very well travelled and want to believe it.

A woman I worked with went on her first holiday abroad (funnily enough in Greece!) and came back with wonderful tales about how they were emigrating in 10 years as they struck up a wonderful friendship with Yanni from the bar in X resort and how they felt so welcome in his family. The family all worked in the bar and had welcomed them probably as a customer, but for some reason they were now 'like family'

The last time I was at the dentist the dental nurse was asking about holidays and then she told me she has been going to the same resort in Turkey for 18 years and how close she was with Mehmet the security guard. She went through a list of all of his family's names and how he was a fiercely private person, but really genuinely connected with her and her family because she took the time to ask about them etc.

My,, i thought i was cynical but this shows im not alone !

Why would it be seen as some kind of trophy to have become a "friend" of a man or woman who works in a bar/restaurant/whatever? I dont understand. Its not like you have been invited to the table of Christina Onassis on Skorpios.

Most staff in bars nad restaurants work incredibly long hours, have poor job security and are poorly paid. That is largely due to the general gearing of the economy and especially the tourism industry.

What is wrong with being friendly, pleasant,welcoming and exchanging some kind words and conversation?

I think this says more about the cold,aloof British character than it does the alleged faux friendliness of the Greeks.

I well remember several years ago just catching a flight to a Greek island. I had previously tried to sort some accommodation from a Greek website. The owner spoke very little Greek so i just sent him 20 euro in an envelope as a deposit (trust)

When we arrived the accommodation was fabulous. A small detached bungalow in big gardens,in a nice quiet area.

They guy was very welcoming, a big burly hairy Greek chap.. Every day he would come and do his garden, a couple of times he would bring some bread and wine made at home.. When we left we tried to give him some extra as the prices he charged were very reasonable but he would have non of it and wouldnt accept.

Never been to the same place abroad more than once but all the package holidays i've ever been on we've found hotel staff and guides ect falling over themselves to be friendly, loyal (same waiter serve you each night) happy and cheerful with us when we walk into the room/bar/coach. Names and details remembered every evening. Interest in what you've done today ect. Compliments and lots of great conversation (Egypt being the most extreme example).

Were really friendly and chatty back, ask about their life too and are happy to enjoy the fabulous service and we tip very generously for it.
We're under no illusions and that's just fine - it's what we're all there for! We want a good time while we're on our hols and they're at work helping us achieve that while earning a living. Win win for everyone with a laugh thrown in. We all know where we stand.

For years i worked in high end retail where it was the done thing to remember the regular customers details - their names and things they have disclosed to you about themselves ect. They got great service from me every time and i got the commission. Everyone was happy. I don't think anyone thought i was their bossom buddy though and vice versa.

The owner spoke very little Greek

Sorry that should of course have said The owner spoke very little English..

Laiste ,,,so true, i think also this highlights the attitude toward "service" in this country.

If you go to the USA you often get great service. In big stores the staff are often so friendly and helpful. It comes naturally. The customer is king.

In many restaurants in holiday locations and indeed off the beaten holiday track, staff see it as their role to give good customer service. It is not a badge of dishonor or shame to wait at tables.

Things are slowly changing in the UK in this respect.

I well remember driving in Arizona off the beaten track. It was a scalding hot day and i pulled into a "Wendys" chain restaurant in a small town. I got good service and some decent food. The place was very quiet due to the time of day and location.

Anyway after a while i went to the pay desk. There was no one there and i could hear the staff in the kitchen so like you do, i waited a while and just thought, oh well, she will come out in a minute.

Just then another lady entered he restaurant. She asked had i been waiting long. Not long says I,,thinking she was just making conversation.

Anyway she went into the kitchen roasted the staff,,something like "what are you doing in here ? there are clients waiting outside to be served ",,the poor woman flew out of the kitchen like a rocket,, i felt bad for inadvertently getting her a roasting. The lady who came in must have been a manager.

*fridgepants

This thread is making me think of all the stories of "love rat waiters" in Take A Break.*

Haha

Bad at bold

I live in a touristy area and get this all the time. I think they love belonging for the short time they are here. The truth is that it can be pretty miserable belonging here in reality. Winters are desolate and lonely and summers are frantically busy for most people living here as we are at our busiest catering to the tourists.

I'm suddenly thinking of poor LUIGI in the League of Gentlemen

www.facebook.com/BritishComedy/videos/the-league-of-gentlemen-luigi!/1775585152658782/

v.funny

I suppose the true test is, when Mr&Mrs Blighty go on about what a good friend Stelios is, is to ask them if they have ever invited Stelios to stay with them.
Isn't that the true test of friendship? - reciprocity.

Do you know what i've seen that sketch more than once and this is the first time i've noticed that couple at the near table!! How could i have missed that?!

Its such a cliche, the friendly Greek folk.

It's a cliche because it's true. DH is Greek and we spend quite a bit of time there every summer. He told me a story about some really nice Norwegian tourists who used to come to his parents petrol station every year and how they became friends and used to exchange gifts. My dad stayed in a hotel where they kept a framed photo of a guest who has been staying there all summer, every year since the 90s.

Yes, Greeks can be a bit racist (towards Albanians and "Macedonians", example) but they certainly don't despise European tourists or laugh at them. Why would they?

I can't speak for other countries but I think there is something about the Greeks!

We holiday in the same place on Crete every year (alongside other trips to new destinations.... but we like knowing that we can land and immediately relax, head for a beach we know and like, a really good quality apartment etc). We've been there six years in a row now. On our most recent visit we came with our new DD, and the owner had bought us a few little dresses for her and a toy, and the next morning the meal that I had raved about the previous year was on our table waiting for us. We've met the owner, her partner, her parents, his parents, her sister, her sister's spouse and kids, the guy on reception's wife... If they're faking it they're doing a bloody good job.

@VintageVelvet " I truly doubt you speak Greek".

Ho ho. You know what they say: "What do you call someone who only speaks one language?"

"British!".

Congratulations. You are so truly British that you find it hard to believe that other people would learn a second language.

Sometimes they do remember people, my parents used to go to a hotel in Crete ,they went very early in the season so not loads of other people around, and the owner spent ages with them, telling the best places to go bird watching or where had the best displays of flowers and one year he invited them to spend Easter with his family. He didn't invite the other guests.

I love Greece, but it's definitely not a Greece only situation. I don't understand why people choose to go to the same place year after year anyway? We've been to some amazing places, with wonderful people and things to do/see, but once it's done it's done, surely the point of travel is to discover new places and have new experiences???

I had the same sort of thing in a small country house hotel in Wales. People like to feel they "belong", I think.

Not to rain on the Greeks-are-friendly parade but I had 2 Greek housemates who tried to bully the rest of us. They deliberately left globules of shit on the toilet seat, had loud parties but complained when I had one friend in my room.

My view, from my own experience, is that people from every race / nationality are capable of being friendly or nasty. No one has a monopoly on friendliness / hospitality.

Yes, noticed this heavily in Greece! Especially Crete! Not great being Scottish with half of the guests/staff unable to understand you lol. Spent the 10 days feeling like an outsider haha.

To all the people saying why would you go back to the same place again and again..we used to say exactly the same thing..and think it was a bit stupid..until we found a place we fell in love with. Now we find it really hard not to go back there because nowhere else lives up to it for us (though we do travel elsewhere too). When it happens to you you will understand, trust me.

I can understand people falling in love with an area and buying a holiday property there, or just spending a few months at a time. It's a bit different from the people who send their 2 weeks abroad a year in the same place, at the same time, booking the same sun lounger every single year

It doesn't hurt anyone, it's just funny.

I love Greece and its people, and have been going to various islands and parts of the mainland for many years. A little village I've now visited several times has a lot of repeat custom from the same kind of people who call the locals their friends. I am reminded of Shirley Valentine and how he was waiting to try his chat-up lines on the next plane load of women ... Having said that, I do find them hospitable, warm and kind. I find the Spanish and Italians the same - I think it might be us reserved Brits who are at variance, and I think we find the welcomes and friendliness kind of 'unbuttons' us and that's why some people go overboard about their friends the waiters, the restaurant owners, the shop keepers and so on.

Must admit I have only positive experiences of Greek people based on holidays in Corfu and Crete - pleasant, friendly and helpful in marked contrast to some other countries I have visited

People are just generally friendlier in other places than they are in the UK and mainland Europe. That's why people keep going back to Greece and Turkey in the Med and the US.

Given a choice, I'll always go to the Eastern Med rather than the Spain/France/Italy end due to the unfriendliness and almost hostility. My particular favourite is Cyprus which is somewhere I seriously plan to move to in retirement.

Of course, tips are part of it, but the "locals" in Eastern Med countries do seem genuinely nicer and friendlier people. I've been caught out a few times without any spare change for tips and they've been absolutely fine - once when my return flight was delayed for a couple of days years ago (more like 25 years ago!) I ran out of money and was literally down to my last few coins - one of the guys outside the airport approached me with his trolley to take my luggage and I told him I had no money for tips, and showed him my last few coins, and he just waved it away and helped with my luggage anyway, for nothing.