Lesvos - a traditional Greek island

Advantages: Traditonal, lovely scenery, lots to see and do.
Disadvantages: Probably not a family island - more for couples - I wouldn't take my grandson here.

...We have been to Lesvos twice - June 1997 and September 2001. Stayed in the North West of the island both times in the resort of Anaxos. It is a traditional Greek village where the few villagers who are there all year round go about their business alongside the very low-key tourism. Not much had changed in four years apart from some new, small apartment blocks and a very posh bakery and a new track to the beach from the beginning of the resort which now makes three ways to get there! The tavernas here serve good traditional food - ones recommended are Niki's (best cabbage salad in the whole of Greece), Mikalis and Stekis on the main road into the village, Aggelos and Golden Sand on the beach road and for great food from the grill try Elly's - no wine from the barrel here though, only bottles, but Peleponnissos is a nice one if you...

Yiassas 23.09.2001 · Read review
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Review of North-Eastern Aegean Islands (Greece)

Greek Without Tears

Advantages: You'll enjoy your holiday more
Disadvantages: None

...mugs." "You are kind and gracious." I was then kissed and hugged by all the workers in the pottery, and given coffee with tiny cakes. It?s this sort of thing which makes learning a language worth while. The course had equipped me to cope very well with all the different situations I encountered. GIVE YOURSELF TIME TO GET ACCLIMATISED Greek has a lot of dialects, and both pronunciation and some vocabulary can vary a lot from island to island. It was not a problem. They are a polite and friendly race, and a request for them to repeat something or slow down usually brought results. It certainly need not put anyone off. In any case, and this is true of any language, if you persevere, after a few days you get an ?ear?, and it all becomes easier. **************************** The course did me proud, What I couldn?t do was read signs...

Schmutzie 29.04.2003 · Read review
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Review of Breakthrough Greek

Greek Tragedy

Advantages: Easy read, fascinating location
Disadvantages: unauthentic feel to natives, structure of book

...of the subject of leprosy and Spinalonga, which is a real place and housed the real leper colony. She brings the story to life very vividly and it was a real pleasure to read the book, as it was such easy reading. There are some lovely descriptions and well-drawn characters. However the descriptions of the whole Greek way of life, speech and interaction does not really feel authentic. It seemed to skip the war rather. The island remained isolated during the German occupation but the story features heavily on Plaka too. Having read Captain Corelli's Mandolin, I expected far more to be happening during that period and for everyone to be affected more deeply. But there is plenty more events that happened so I wasn't too disappointed. The main part of the story is supposedly the telling of the past events by Fotini. It is not stated directly as so...

imogen49 27.10.2006 · Read review
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Review of The Island - Victoria Hislop

It's Really All Greek to Me

Advantages: tasty food, great location
Disadvantages: no cheese balls, small portions, slow service

...It was my birthday recently and I had the fun task of selecting a restaurant to hold my celebrations at. It had to be central London as my friends are spread out of over the metropolis, it had to be wheelchair friendly and it had to be fairly vegetarian friendly, as I'm a fish eater an a lot of my friends are Kosher keeping Jews so a steak house was certainly out of the question. I had pizza last year so pizza and Italian were off the menu so in the end I plumped for somewhere I had eaten at a few times before and liked it. The restaurant in question for my birthday meal was the Real Greek at Bankside by the river Thames. The real Greek is a mini chain of surprise surprise Greek restaurants founded by chef Theodore Kyriakou in 1999. There are seven branches of the restaurant in total (the others being in Hoxton, Covent...

duskmaiden 03.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Real Greek Bankside, London

It was all Greek to me.

Advantages: Good food, prices, atmosphere
Disadvantages: Could do with more fish on the menu

...I was less than impressed a few weeks ago when my son told me that he and his partner had been for a meal at Steki. I remember Steki from ten years ago as a take-out Greek food place that I would have put on a par with Ken's Kebabs. I also remember once having a nasty stomach upset after eating a take-away from Steki. I had vowed never to return. Steki, however, has undergone a complete transformation and is now a very popular eat-in restaurant. It was just after 6pm on a sunny Saturday evening when we were deciding where to go to eat. Osborne Road in Southsea is refered to by the local paper's restaurant reviewer as 'Restaurant Row', and there are still a good few establishments that I haven't tried. People were jostling to look at the menu in Steki's window, and we decided we would go in and see if we could get a table. It certainly...

denella 26.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Steki Greek Taverna, Southsea

Paxox A pretty Greek Island

Advantages: Clean quiet and peaceful
Disadvantages: None really

...make it up to the top with the thunder and lightening going all around. I did. I think Paxos is very pretty and it is a shame we didn't see too much of it - all the beaches and coves that no one goes to. Maybe we should go back in the spring. There are lots of boat trips you can do when thr weather lets you. I have been to other Greek Islands Lesbos, and Kefalonia and I liked these much more....

Alison3 06.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of Paxos (Greece)

Earworms: It's All Greek to Me?!

Advantages: Easy to pick up. Useful phrases.
Disadvantages: Greek speaker can be hard to understand without booklet to hand.

...INTRODUCTION As a regular visitor to Cyprus, I lazily relied on the fact that most Cypriots speak fairly good English, so apart from the usual niceties (?Good morning?, ?Thank You?, ?Please? etc.) I never really made much of an effort to get my head around the complexities of Greek language. However, because I have a vaguely Mediterranean look about me, my polite efforts at pleasantries with the locals usually result in a delighted riposte of quick-fire local lingo which I had no hope of keeping up with, never mind understanding. I was a little fed up of trotting out the necessary but embarrassing line that always followed such aborted exchanges ? ?Milateh Anglika?? (?Do you speak English??), so, in a fit of optimism, I decided a little self-improvement was in order. Determined to learn enough to hold at least one round...

Hishyeness 04.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Earworms Rapid Greek Volume 1 - Berlitz Publishing

GREEK NIGHT OUT.

Advantages: HIGH QUALITY FOOD AND GREEK DANCING
Disadvantages: We had to go home.

...round of Kah-lee-SPEH-rah (teaching the girls Greek) was warmly greeted. It is so nice to go into a greek Restaurant where they do speak Greek. We were shown to our table where Drinks were ordered, a few Beers and 4 Large carefs of RED WINE. We were sat at a large Table, the restaurant quickly filled up, Word has got around and it gets booked up. There were some central tables where the Buffet was to be layed out. At this stage looking at faces and people poised to rush forward, you could tell they were worried, "WOULD THERE BE ENOUGH FOOD" "WILL I LIKE GREEK FOOD" As my wife and I had visited a Buffet Night there two months earlier we knew there was not going to be any problems. This is a REAL GREEK place and the GREEKS do not let their guests go hungry. 8 o'clock and plates started to appear from the Kitchen...

poshtroika 06.09.2007 · Read review
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Review of Pappas Greek Restaurant, Nottingham

Shape greek style

Advantages: taste nice
Disadvantages: smell=strong

...Introduction As I am famous for being on 'diets' when I saw these in Tesco, I thought they sounded lovely. There is 4 yoghurt's in the pack, 2 lemon and 2 orange. I really enjoyed eating these and I will tell you why... What are they? These are Danone shape yoghurt's which are low in fat and Greek style with fruit. They are free from sweeteners, preservatives and colours. In Sainsbury's these are the only flavours you can get but I am not sure about the other supermarkets. They come in 125g plastic pots and the whole thing weighs in at 500g. Packaging The four yoghurt's are in white plastic pots with a blue themed foil lid. The outer packaging which secures the yoghurt's is made of cardboard and one half is blue themed with the Danone and Shape logos and the other half is made up of pictures of oranges and lemons which makes...

hstokoe44395 24.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Danone Shape Greek Style Citrus Yogurt

The Real Greek - sensational greek food at a good price

Advantages: Food is delicious
Disadvantages: Waiter service was slow

...My partner and I decided to take a brisk tour of London during August and to keep costs down a lot of our spending was part-financed by Tesco clubcard vouchers. Surprisingly restaurant chains are reluctant to allow such payment methods, but we fancied a change from the normal, and as neither of us had eaten Greek food before, well it seemed a good idea. The Real Greek is a small chain of 7 restaurants (or as the waiter suggested) Tapas style. We chose the Marylebone location which is only a couple roads away from Madame Tussauds. This particular restaurant is quite small with around 40 small tables. We arrived around 8pm and had pre-booked a table by e-mail through their website. It was a very different experience for us, but we were a little worried when despite the waiter being very helpful we couldn't understand the menu...

chrisc92 04.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Real Greek Bankside, London