Giannis

*I did that right up because I think some things are worth saying. Other than that there are some funny incidents here. You might get a good laugh. If you don’t want to read this scroll down to read the car review*


It’s 6 about 8 pm. I put all my luggage in the trunk and set off. First I pick up dad and then my girlfriend. At 8.20am we set off for the El. Venizelos International Airport of Athens.

Off course you would be wondering what the heck has to do dad with my vacation. The answer is nothing. He had a company meeting at Athens the next day and I offered him a ride, plus I would let him the car for the time I would be away.

We reached the Airport at about 11.00 and around 1.30pm we were at our final destination. Naxos. This time I decided to spend my summer vacation with a friend and his gf, and he also offered me to stay at his house, and I, pleased, accepted his offer. He owns two hotels, one at Naxos and the other in one mountain in northern Greece. I knew he had an MB CLK so I was more than happy to meet him.

But, he picked as up at the airport with a Renault Kangoo. He used it for his hotel, and sadly his MB waited for him at the Athens Airport. So no CLK review. Sorry

Anyway, it was very funny all that time and here are some funny incidents.

1) Me and my friend are sitting in a cafeteria and talking about girls while just 2m away a 1.80m blonde is talking to a short guy. At some point, without any warning she slaps him. So my friend says “God, she is so beautiful. It’s my dream woman”. I told him “You serious? You would marry her? She just slapped that guy!” and he replied to me “At first I think with my penis. Then I think with my head”

2) We are eating at a restaurant by the sea, which means the tables and the chairs are on the sea. The whole thing is just lovely, just like the food is. At some point two girls came to our table, pointed out the two extra chairs we had and asked kindly in English if they could take them. Off course we said yes. Anyway, when they took them, we all, me my friend, our gfs, and those two gilrs, said in greek, “That’s enough with those tourists. They are all over the island” We all thought the others were tourists.

3) I am talking on the phone with a friend who stayed home. I am at the highest place of the island around 620m above the sea, I think. Of course it was very windy. So he says “It’s very windy where you are. Oh, where are you right now?”. I replied “At the top of the island”. and he said “What the hell are you doing up there?”. “I am talking with you, you idiot!”

Accident

Though all that time there, some bad things happened. A yacht was sunk. It was parked at the island’s marina but at the outside of the marina. And one night, as a ship passed by, the waves made by the ship (we have a specific word for these waves in Greek, I don’t know about English though) forced the ship to rise and fall, and then hitting at the bottom of the sea, since the sea is not that deep in the marina. The yacht broke and almost sunk. Here are some pics of it, by my friends Nokia 6600. It’s night and you can’t see much, but you can see the upper part of the yacht, where the steering wheel us located. Under that there is black glasses, behind which the living room is. The yacht must be like 4 or 5 meters tall, when not sunk.




Two days after that a huge boat with a lifter came and took the yacht out of the sea. Very impressive to see, but I have no pics of it. I was alone at that time. This story also appeared at the news of the Greek TV channels.

As for the people I met there, I met some English tourist and some guys from Belgium.

Car review

So here it is. My first car review on GCZ.
I am proud to review my friends Renault Kangoo!

-Engine: To begin with, it has a I4 16V 1,4l engine with produces exactly 98hp. That makes the car, which is light enough, to move kinda fast. Though the gearbox is to cry for. It doesn’t feel as it should be, the gear shift is not in a good position, and needs much time to get used to it. Other than that, the car accelerates like my house on four wheels. You press the gas today, the car starts accelerating three days later, and reaches 100km/h when you are retired. Don’t ask about acceleration figures. The 0-100 must be around 15 or 16 secs, while it has a top speed of 160km/h. This is because the whole car is an aerodynamic mistake. It has the aerodynamics of my fridge and it can be worse. If the car was more aerodynamic friendly it would be way more quick. A Clio with the same engine needs like 10.2sec for the 0-100!

-Driving part and comfort: The car is very tall and also sits very high. This is not very good. Actually it is no good at all. When you turn the car, you have a feeling that the car will lift and fell off. It has the feeling of those big buses when they turn at high speeds. Other than that it is a Renault. This means it has soft suspension, very soft I could say, and the seats are also good enough. They are soft and comfortable, with zero side effectiveness. The car is so tall that you can stand still in it and your head won’t reach the roof.
When I first tried to drive it, it was nice enough. In the city it was quite ok, since it accelerated as I expected and it wasn’t like it would fall at the side when you turn. But when I took it out of the city, in those curvy mountain roads that make you want badly an RWD car it was a real disaster. I am used to drive like Schumacher in a Volvo in such road. So I tried the same thing with the Kangoo. What I got, was the other three passengers to ask me never to drive it again. If you want to keep the car confortable don’t reach more than 80, and if you want to avoid puke, don’t turn with more than 40. This is it.

-Materials: I have not seen worse plastics, except in some Hyundais and some Kias. The half of the dashboard was almost broken. The plastics are hard and not nice to touch. The same with the cloth of the seats.

-Equipment: The car had nothing. I was lucky to see that my friend ordered it with extra steering wheel, four wheels, seats and a radio. j/k The car had steel wheels, and no RCD. It had a simple Radio Cassette. Oh, it didn’t have a rev counter next to the speedometer. What else can I say.

General look interior/exterior: I think the exterior design is a real mess. It wants to look like a minivan but it doesn’t. It’s like a silly little face. Those front lights is the worse part. As for the interior, pretty base. Just what you would expect from a 8.000€ car which cost 15.000€. I started to feel sorry for Renault.

If you asked me to tell you what I think of this car in ten words it would be:
“If you don’t really need it, don’t buy it”
It is a horrible car, but it is big and can carry enough luggage. Just what my friend needed for his hotel.

--End of car review

the story continues here:
 when we were to leave the island, we boarded the plane on time, and just before landing off, the pilot announced that because we were overweight we would leave some luggage back at Naxos. I was sure that mine would stay back, since my bag weighted 54 kilos.
So when we arrived at the Athens airport we were glad to know that only the luggage going to connection flights came with us, which meant that we needed some extra time to give our addresses so that our bags are sent to us via courier.
Anyway, it took us like 2 and a half hours. The funny thing is that no one told us exactly what happened. Anyway, my bag arrived the next morning so it was no big deal.

Anyway, I drove at that road, where the crazy greeks reached 350km/h with a M6, and it’s a hell of a road.
Hope you enjoyed, and here are some pics (Nokia 6600)

Naxos beach at night (only the half of it – the other half didn’t fit in the pictures)




*edit; i think those pics are not that clear!

klier

lol, nice read man. Glad you had a good time!
Renault Kangoo.... HAHAHAHAH

Snake Vargas

Yeah, glad you had a good time, too.

As for the Renault, it's probably not helped by you Giannis, and your friends all sitting in it - with each their 54kg luggage! You bringing your whole wardrobe eh?

Too bad about the boat, too. Must be pretty nasty for the owner.

MikeJ

What, no pics of the car?

Giannis

Hell yes - It was fun...

As for the Kangoo, my friend didn't let me take pics of his car. He is not a fan of internet. (i had to ask permission to post pics of his car!). At least i was glad to hear he still has his CLK220 and he is going to buy a Cherokee!

As for the boat, i happend to be where the accident happend just 20 minutes after it happend. That yellow things for the oil were already there! And i saw the owners. They were surprised. They didn't expect something like this to happen. It was a very peacefull night!

BMW_Dude

Good to see your back and had a good vacation mate!

I'm very sad to not see any pictures of the Kangoo, would have just made my day! j/k

GTA8.5

Nice write up Giannis! I`m glad you got back in one piece! I was also expecting more pix of your vacation

Giannis

Glad to be back in one piece

as for the pics, i am sorry. I have no camera, and my gf forgot hers home. My friend had also one, but i was not with him all the time. I only have some pics of my company. So not something really worth seeing...