Volume 3, Issue 9, September 2009 Journalism as never before  

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Diplomatic Dilemmas and Tourist Traumas

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - Diplomatic DilemmasApologies for this piece being a little British-centric, but every summer many of the Brits amongst us find ourselves scratching our heads in disbelief at the stories of some of the antics that our compatriots get up to when travelling abroad - thinking about it, though, ‘disbelief’ might actually be the wrong word, as some of the stories are depressingly familiar. This year has been no different. Here on Crete we have had the usual run of ’badly - behaved youth’ stories emanating from the 18-30s crowd in Malia. But we leave those aside to bring you news from the UK Foreign Office of some of the strange pleas for help that Consular Staff abroad have received from British tourists. Questions that have been fielded by officials around the world include “Can you tell me how to make my son behave?”, “Where can I buy a decent pair of shoes?” (this in Italy!), and “I don’t like the size of my breast enlargement, what should I do?” Our favourite is the following: “I’m trying to make jam. What is the correct ratio of fruit to sugar?” (Editor: The trouble is, someone at the British Embassy probably would be able to supply a decent jam recipe, but that’s hardly the point….).

On a more serious note, it would seem that many people are unclear about what the role of Embassy staff actually is. We speak here specifically about the function of British Embassy officials, but similar guidelines may well apply to many other European Foreign Offices. To quote from the horse’s mouth, Chris Bryant (British) Consular affairs minister says: “Our embassies are not there to provide weather reports or give advice on unruly children. Consular staff are there to help Britons in real difficulty abroad - from victims of crime and bereaved families to those involved in accidents or who have lost passports”. If you are a British citizen you will find more information online on the www.fco.gov.uk website. The address of the British Vice Consulate on Crete is: Candia Tower, 17 Thalita Street, Agios Dimitrios Square, 71202 Heraklion; phone 2810 224012, email: Crete@british-consulate.gr and the opening hours are from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm from Monday to Friday. Many countries have at least some form of Consular representation on Crete - check with your own relevant government department for further information.

When is a Hotel not a Hotel? And Lost in Space….

Firstly, let’s get a potential misunderstanding out of the way. For those of you who are saying ‘Actually it should be AN hotel rather than A hotel’, our response is: ‘pedants, the lot of you’. Enough said. Anyway, here is a rather sweet story that the BBC recently reported about being lost in France. An un-named British tourist managed to get herself locked into a French town hall after being under the misguided impression that she would be able to book a room at the "Hôtel de ville" (not a / an hotel!) in the Alsace town of Dannemarie. Before trying to check in, she went to use the loo. It being Friday afternoon, in the meantime council officials finished their meeting, left the building, and locked the doors. She spent an uncomfortable night on chairs in the lobby before being rescued the following day. Our unfortunate traveller has now moved on: Whilst the Hôtel de ville in DRethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - Lost in spaceannemarie is an impressive public building, Dannemarie doesn’t have a / an hotel as such, the nearest guesthouse being in a neighbouring town. We wish her luck.

So now it’s time to stop the Brit bashing. This next story concerns a Swedish couple behaving like space cadets whilst on holiday in Italy - and also might be a salutary tale about placing too much reliance on modern technology. The couple, who were on a driving holiday, had initially planned to go to the romantic island of Capri, but managed to end up in the northern town of Carpi because they had misspelt the name in their car's GPS system. Faithfully following the instructions from the ‘sat nav’ they drove 650km in the wrong direction. Once they got to Carpi, they apparently asked where they could find the famous Blue Grotto. "Capri is an island. They did not even wonder why they didn't cross any bridge or take any boat," a bewildered official in Carpi is quoted as saying. Last heard of, they were heading South….

Where Can I Recycle Waste Items?

Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle - RecyclingApart from using the blue and yellow recycling bins for household waste other items can be recycled as follows:
Disposal of broken electrical goods. There is a depot just outside town which will take anything ‘that had a plug on it’ (including washing machines and fridges). Drivers, take the National Road towards Heraklion in Misiria. Turn off the highway after about 100—150 metres, hang a right and you should soon see recycling bins etc. The depot is open from 6am to 3pm on weekdays, and from 6am to 12 noon at weekends. For further information call 28310 57940. For large objects that need collection call 195 from any phone.
Old telephones and small telecoms items. There is a green bin in the entrance of the main OTE office..
Batteries. various places in town including OTE, DEI, Germanos, Marinopoulos and Champion.
Old cars. DRAKOS on the left hand side of the National Road a short way out of Rethymnon (going towards Hania). They even pay you as they recycle the spares and give you a paper for tax purposes!