I mean, I wanted to see a friend off on their flight which meant a night on the mainland and I thought "Why not go via Rafina for a change?" We could stay in one of the little port's hotels, have a nice seafood dinner at one of Rafina's traditional ouzeries and then be up bright and early for the airport and for me to take the fast boat back to Paros in the morning. The trip would have the dual purpose of also providing information for a guide to the "Piraeus alternative" for 'Paros Life' readers.
Hmmm. OK, so everything initially seemed to be going according to plan. We took the SeaJet at 11am and arrived on time just after 2pm. (By the way, if you get seasick easily, you should get some motion sickness tablets for this journey as it can be a little bumpy if the sea is rough. I found 'Emetostop', 'Travel-Gum' and the pharmaceutical-free 'Sea-Band' in the local pharmacy in Paroikia. If you're coming from abroad, you might buy the more common 'Gravol' or 'Dramamine'.)
At Rafina there were a number of taxis available right on the quay and I made a note "taxis easily available" for my article. But, of course, as we'd be staying the night in Rafina, we didn't need one immediately (or so we thought!)
I had with me the telephone numbers of a few Rafina hotels - the Avra, the Corali and the Bravo. Of course I hadn't booked ahead - it was May after all and, anyway, I'd wanted to get a look at them all before deciding.
This is the point at which the plan began to rather rapidly deteriorate.
The Bravo, it seems, closed down quite some time ago. The Avra and Corali are both undergoing extensive renovations in preparation for the Olympics and are temporarily closed (until further notice). Leaving, according to everyone we asked, precisely no hotels functioning in Rafina. So, it was now the middle of the afternoon - that particularly "dead" time in hot countries - when all good taxi drivers are happily stretched out at home enjoying their siesta!
We had just missed the bus to the airport (not that we wanted to be there until the following morning anyway) and the taxi rank in the square at the top of the small hill leading up from the port was deserted except for us and another couple in front of us. No response either from the taxi number (22940-23101) displayed.
Over the course of the next hour or so a number of taxis drove by, but they didn't stop at the rank, just called out to ask where we wanted to go. They all seemed reluctant to take a fare.
When we were finally 'rescued' by George the Friendly Taxi Driver, we learned a little about why that was. He explained that the local taxis don't like to take fares to downtown Athens - not only because they don't know the city very well, but because the traffic is so bad and they usually have to return to Rafina empty. Understandable.
By this time we'd been told that the nearest hotels were the Mati (A cat. tel: 22940-33546, 33502) or the Attica Beach (B cat. tel: 22940-33712) in a place called Mati, about 5km along the coast from Rafina. We asked George to take us there and he said he could do that or, if we preferred, go a little further along the coast to Nea Makri where we'd have a wider choice of hotels and restaurants for the evening.
We took his advice (the 8km taxi ride took about 15 minutes and cost 10 euros) and he brought us directly to the Hotel Nireus (pronounced 'Nirevs') which proved to be a lovely old-style hotel built in 1961, category C, with a lovely 'colonial' atmosphere that I imagined must have made it very popular years ago with chic Athenians coming to Nea Makri for the weekend.
Its outmoded style contributed to its charm and, though not new, the hotel is well equipped with air-conditioning, telephones and TV in the rooms, a swimming pool, pool-bar and spacious lounges. It is open year round. Rooms look out over the sea (it is just across the road from the beach) and cost us only 40 euros for one night. Managers Ilias and Alexandra Apostolou were helpful and friendly.
Nea Makri is a lively seaside resort with lots of restaurants and cafes all along the seafront. There are a number of other hotels (the Afrodite, the Thomas Beach and the Marathon - this last one I checked out too - it's a cat. B, 75 euros per night including breakfast, open April to Oct, tel: 22940-91292, 91255, fax: 22940-95307, email: hotelmb@otenet.gr, www.marathonbeachhotel.gr.)
So we did finally manage the seafood dinner I'd originally envisaged in 'Plan A' at a beautiful little seafront ouzerie, and then walked the half a kilometre or so up to the main town square to the open-air Cine Sissy (22940-91811) to see a movie.
There's a second cinema too in Nea Makri - the Cine Aliki (22940-58981) - plus plenty of shops, banks, a kids mini funfair ground with train, bumper cars, a big wheel and roundabout. There's a nice beach where you can spend the day swimming and sunbathing or you might want to take an excursion to the Attica Zoological Park which opened last year and has a fabulous collection of birds, reptiles and animals (tel: 210-663-4724, www.athensguide.com/zoo/).
We booked George, who speaks English, to collect us from the hotel at 7am the next morning. He dropped me off at Rafina and then continued on to the airport. The fare was 30 euros - standard for this journey.
We ended up feeling like we'd found a great little holiday spot for a short vacation. So, if anyone wants to follow in our footsteps (though minus the long wait for a taxi in Rafina!), here are the relevant numbers:
George the Friendly Taxi Driver: 697-3075624 (preferably book the day before).
Hotel Nireus: 22940-91214, 97527, 97976, fax: 22940-93486, email: nireushotel@in.gr.
Once I'd looked at a map and understood exactly where we were in relation to the airport, it looked like another idea might have been to head south along the coast for Loutsa rather than north to Nea Makri. Loutsa is also a popular beach resort with Athenians and is on the bus route, approximately half way between Rafina and the airport. I found the name of one hotel there - the Medusa (cat. D, tel: 22940-82213, fax: 22940-84563). But perhaps someone else would like to attempt that adventure. Write and let us know what you find out!
The bus route Athens International Airport - Rafina, with a stop at Loutsa, connects the airport with the port of Rafina. The fare is E3.00 for Rafina and E1.50 for Loutsa. Buses depart from the Arrivals level next to Door 5.
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Samples of some beautiful wild flowers of this Greek Island.
Cooking recipes from Alice Meyer-Wallace's Cookbook.
Mary Godfrey's humourous illustrations of life in Paros Island.
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