Oceanic 2008!

Here's a few pics at opening time of Oceanic, a few little changes but nothing major so i took some more pics.

A normal night at Oceanic!

I said i'd take some pics of the bar when my customers are in so last night i did. A capacity of 40 seats taken 5 of which were for a customers birthday, Les, i felt sorry for him as he had been let down by 10 people from Argassi who had said they would join him thru a zante website for his birthday but they didn't show but none the less my customers sang happy birthday to him and they all enjoyed the buffet i had put on and a good night was had by all, in fact i didn't get out of bar till 4.30am, AGAIN! LOL.

And a quick maths test, thats 1/8 of my customers were off zante websites LOL not all of them like people seem to think.

Anywhoo heres the pics, sorry for quality but its taken on my camera phone:-

I must get a better camera LOL

Please book in advance to reserve a table!

OH MY GOD! I have now started to reserve tables from 10pm as i'm that busy i run out of seats, tonight i have a birthday party in of between 14-16 people so i have had to reserve 20 seats for some of my regulars. I only have 40 seats as it is, most nights all seats are taken, so tonight i have a definate 36 taken with maybe another 20 customers wanting to come in for drinks as normal, cushions on floor may be needed LOL

I'll take pics of tonight to post on here.

John Carpenters "The Fog-Zakynthos"

Well i was up and out at 7.30am after another 3.30am close and on my way in to town i noticed across the center of the island this a grey band of cloud low across the land:-

At first i thought it was smoke from a fire but it stretched across the whole centre of the island and when i hit Zakynthos town:-

As regular visitors know from the last pic if you were to look across from where i was you would see all the port road buildings and fishing boats, when i got in to the fog it was almost zero visibilty, the roads are scarey at the best of times with the traffic without fog LOL

Kalamaki road works finished, well sort of!

Well they tarmaced the roads at last but only where they had dug up, it wouldn't have cost that much more to tarmac the whole surface as there was very little left after they had dug up the road but there you go, heres some pics.

Zante season 08 so far and road works!

Well i would never have dreamt of such a busy start, from the 7th may i haven't closed any earlier than 3am and the latest 6am and most nights full or maybe 2 or 3 empty seats. its been amazing but then again i wasn't open in may last year and i'm doing 3 times the trade i was doing in june but lets not get to excited here folks June is a tricky month as its in between your early bird holidays and high season holidays so i'm thankful for having such a great start to season and lets hope it can continue.

As for the roads they are getting the tarmac down today on the old road but have started again on the main road but shouldn't be to long before its all finished and the roads will be good to drive on at the moment, it has been an absolute nightmare no matter what people say, i love this island as much as the next person but the phrase "rose tinted glasses" comes to mind with some peoples opinions on the road works.

Anyway heres some pics from today.

Here's the situation!

So the island has had no petrol for 3 days but tomorrow the island is meant to be getting petrol but i'll believe it when i see it cause at the moment the ports are closed and no news of strike ending but we'll see, Road works and any work has all stopped so roads are dusty, a mess and dangerous for bikes, suppliers are running out of things slowly as i found out when i went to get my draught beers sorted out they were out of CO2 so couldn't set my pumps up but i've stock pilled on my order so i'm ok for stock and of course no supplies can come over from mainland.

Now this doesn't mean "PANIC!" in the words of Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy, "Don't Panic!" everything to do with the tourism on the island looks ok and i'm sure everyone will survive till strike is over and holidaymakers will still have a great time.

Oceanic-Gastronomi welcome you

Just popped in to Gastronomi restaurant to see how they are and its looking really nice, it is open inside and they are about to sort out the outside and being the nice people that they are they have given me their consent to give any of my customers a special invite to their restaurant that you won't get from anyone else or if you just walk in, so if you'd like your special invite to what i think is the best restaurant on the island pop in to see me for a drink.

Zakynthos update

At the moment out here all the petrol stations are out of petrol due to petrol tanker drivers strike which is affecting rentals, suppliers, road works and basically the whole of the island.

Also Kalamaki cash points all were not working yesterday. one not working, other switched off and third was empty and haven't tried today so those of you coming out this week bring some euro or travelers cheques with you as maybe they will not get filled due to banks not being able to send vans out to refill machines due to petrol shortage.

I'm sure this situation won't last long but better to be safe than just turn up with cards.

By the way i'm doing fine and bar is looking better this year i'll take some pics when dust settles from the roads.

I've been promoted!

Well what a good day i'm having, i've been helping out with info on trip advisor and they have given me the title of Destnation Expert For Zakynthos, i feel very honoured with this title given to me and i hope my little bits of advice given will help people with their holidays to this beautiful island.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g189462-Zakynthos_Ionian_Islands.html

ALL CHANGE PLEASE!

Well i'm ready to open tonight, only took me 2 days to get sorted as a i precleaned the bar before i left but there are major road works throught kalamaki from where they are laying the new sewer pipes and its dust city. They have dug so deep to lay the pipes that where they haven't packed the holes down properly the roads are collapsing everywhere and leaving big pot holes which is so dangerous completion date is 12th of may they say but not what year LOL.

Ok so whats new in Kalamaki Drunk Corner has another large TV, Plus Soda has no outside bar anymore its been taken back to its doors with just a seating area and a large outdoor screen has been built at the front near pavement, Hera restaurant is no longer down the bottom end of the resort but in old Kalamaki road, Paris is no longer a restaurant but now a chill out bar (wonder where they got that idea LOL), Melon bar has been taken over by the owners of the restaurant Select that was next door, Sugar Reef has lost about 3 metres of its front due to the new pavement thats been laid, Sarony's bar is now Rita's bar and everywhere seems to be giving their buildings a lick of paint this season but if you saw the dust that was here you would know why. There are still places not open and haven't seen any sign of anyone working on them so there may be a few left closed by the looks of it.

Last weekend was easter and nothing was open and today is Workers Day where office and Shops are closed for a day off, AGAIN!

Tomorrow i'm doing my nTour of the resorts to see whats going on but my best mate Dez who works at Palmyra in Argassi has told me at least 6 restaurants and a few bars are closed over there, he did tell me the names but i'll give you more info after tomorrow.

Lovely and sunny and warm, bit chilly at night but better than UK HAHAHAHA See you all soon.

UPDATE- Looks like Plus Soda has its bar back outside, see things change very quickly out here