As I am soon making my way to Greece, as at the beginning of this blog, I would like to make a few comments about various hotels in Rafina. I will probably stay the night at one of them when I arrive in Greece.

The Avra is a recently upgraded hotel down on the front of Rafina. As I mentioned earlier, it used to be a mosquito trap, and in fact one of my most memorable mosquito battles was there. There was a crap mosquito who I could feel every time it landed on my face or anywhere else on my skin; the special chemical it puts on the skin so you can't feel it land must have been ineffective. At first, I flicked the biting insect off with my sheet. It tried again landing on my face, but again I thwacked it with the upper part of the sheet. The mosquito was stunned by my impudence. It tried again, this time on my knuckles, but I could feel its legs crouching there. I waved it off brusquely. This really got it. It could not believe my arrogance at denying it the right to my blood. First all its whine got louder and louder and angrier, as if warning me not to mess with it. But that didn't work, and once again, I swiped it off. It was all or nothing. Divebomb kamikaze time. The mosquito plunged through the air at me again and again and again, each time being rebuffed. This was no way to get to sleep, being attacked by a raging flying insect. Eventually I turned on the light, stalked the mosquito, found it lurking on the wall to regenerate, and killed it with a rolled up newspaper.
The Avra in the last twenty years, as I mention elsewhere, has all but got rid of the mozzies with daring feats of air conditioning, mozzie plugs, insect-terrifying television and other such mod cons, making it the best hotel in Rafina itself to stay in - but it's expensive now, especially after the Olympics-period refurbishment. Strictly not for independent travellers on a budget.
Another expensive, excellent hotel, which has the advantage of being quite cheap off season, is located not far from Rafina, up towards Nea Makri. This is the Attica Beach Hotel, always willing to do bargains in unseasonal periods and warmly recommended at those times. It is a very good hotel with divine breakfast - no rusks, lukewarm water in cups with sachets of Nescafe and tiny little packets of jam. No; you can help yourself to copious amounts of yoghurt and honey, fresh bread and rolls, jam from a bowl, real coffee, and cereal if you want it. Don't even think of staying there during high season, as you will see your budget disappear.
Rafina also has the Corali (I misnamed it the Krystalli in the earlier part of this blog for some reason). Like the Avra, it has recently had an Olympian refurbishment, and I hear from other sources that it's still cheap, but it's a lot more cheerful than it used to be, and therefore well worth considering if you're on a budget. I have not been able to ascertain whether the old unfriendly Klepht lookalike with his habit of visiting his mother-in-law still holds the reins, but I shall check when I arrive in Rafina.
Unfortunately, discretion prevents me from mentioning another hotel not far from Rafina where I once stayed with my Turkish girlfriend. We should have taken our cue from the fact that a lot of men were furtively pacing in and out, often with loudly made-up girls giggling and wiggling in with them; cars came and went; and the proprietor only wanted my passport, not my girlfriend's. The walls were not especially thick, and as we cuddled up to each other, we were surrounded by creaking, moaning, groaning and banging. The local knocking-shop was in the middle of the countryside.
There is another, cheap hotel in Rafina where I am planning to stay, but I am turning up there on spec. and will talk about it when I arrive.