Hotels on Samos island: Oceanida in Pythagorion.
In our quest for hotels on Samos we have for the time being chosen for this hotel: Oceanida in Pythagorion. It is situated at a 4000 meter distance from the center of Pythagorion, at the beach, but since we rent a car anyways it is all fine with us. We hope to find a quiet place with the sea and the beach in front of us. At a 1000 meter distance the shops start and there is a busstop. The closest restaurant is at a 300 meter distance from the apartments. There is a reception where you can rent a safe (ca. € 8,- p.w. 2007), bar, restaurant, internetpossibilities and a small swimmingpool with beds and parasols.
Strange rules applied in the hotel. When we left for 6 days to go islandhopping we found our key unattended to, laying on the reception desk where we left it 6 days earlier. You have to leave your key when you go out and so anybody can get into your room, since there is 50% of the time (daytime) nobody around, and almost never anybody behind the reception at all. And allthough we said that we were going away for a couple of days nobody bothered to check if there was anything in our fridge and so they had put out the electricity completely. When I complained about this because I could throw away all the food that was inside, I was told that off course I should also have said that I kept things there. I my way of thinking it would be the other way around, and all they needed to do is to open the door of the fridge to see if there was anything inside. Would he have said "sorry" instead than that would have been to end of it for me though. When we left again later that day I didn't want to leave my key unattended to again, so instead of leaving it on the reception desk I though it would be wise to take it with me. The owner than litterally shouted at me in a loud voice that he was sick and tired of me and my attitude especially after the fridge accident when I bothered him while he was relaxing in the jaccuzi and, and he stated that I obviously did not know how things worked in Greece and in hotels (I was only there about 100 times and have seen hundreds of hotels, plus I work in a hotel myself, but I gues I am a slow learner). In a loud voice he threatened to throw me out of the hotel. I left wondering who didn't know how things work in hotels: him or me. This together with the bad state of the rooms (we have been in two, one was a "renovated room" that we had to leave after it started leaking through the roof on several places, and one shabby room with a picture of a church of Santorini) is for us reason to not return. The position of the hotel is not bad but will also not be to everybodies taste, completely isolated and far away from everything. You need an hours walk over dark paths and over the main road towards Pythagorion if you want to have dinner, and with only one frying pan in the kitchen and no other pots or pans cooking dinner ourselves was not an option. You need a car and be prepared to drive in the dark over a road with no lights, and than over the busy highwway near Pythagorion. You look either at the pool, or at your neighbours, because of he way the hotel is build. The umbrellas on the balcony provide shade for anybody else but you when you are sitting outside. Quiet maybe but for us still thumbs down. The pictures are of the renovated room where the water leaked through the sink and dripped next to the electrital devices.

<XMP></body></xmp>