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Saturday, 29 June, 2002, 20:22 GMT 21:22 UK
'Booze fuelled' Faliraki
Club scene
Men and women get 'staggeringly drunk'
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There are two worlds on the Greek island of Rhodes; one, taking up the majority of the island is a pretty upmarket holiday destination, where middle class and largely middle-aged Europeans wander around sun-dappled streets or potter around luxury hotels.

Then there is Faliraki, colony of sorts, overwhelmingly British, overwhelmingly young, and, come the night quite literally staggeringly drunk.

Sunbather
Days are spent in the sun nursing 'hangovers'
Booze fuels the whole show. Faliraki does exist in the day time - there are rows of shops selling tourists' necessities; bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants making up the rest of the resort.

But Faliraki is not really destined for the day time. Day is the period you use for working off the hangover under the burning sun.

The night is when Faliraki comes alive. It is not a particularly pretty sight, but then nor are many of Britain's towns and city centres on a Saturday night.

The air fairly ripples with sexual tension, with a good dose of sexual aggression thrown in. Men and women travel around in groups, shouting to or at one another.

The resort has been painted in pretty lurid colours in some accounts - a place it may seem, where men and women are reduced to some primal state.


Drunkenness on a biblical scale. Like it or not, this is how people enjoy their holidays

There is an astonishing amount of drunkenness; it is the way in which nearly everyone seems very drunk over a long period of time which seems particularly shocking.

To get and stay that drunk, you really have to work at it.

But in some ways Faliraki is just drunkenness writ large, drunkenness on a biblical scale. Like it or not, this is how people enjoy their holidays.

In a blaring disco, Kerry from Darlington is half way through her evening. She is two days into her two week holiday. She has been loving every minute of it.

Only one thing has cast a shadow over her time here: the stories of rapes and sexual assaults that she heard before she came out.

"We have tried to stay away from the Greeks," she says.

"Everybody's warned us to stay away from them.

"So, one of our friends came back a few weeks ago, she said 'stay away from the Greeks, they won't take no for an answer'."

Kerry says it is a shame because the Greeks are the nicest boys here.

Limited safety

Talking to women up and down 'club street' it is clear that pretty much everyone has heard about the attacks.

The women take precautions, staying in groups, making sure they never walk back to their hotels alone.

But it may not be enough.

The police are very obvious on the rowdy streets of Faliraki; it is part of their effort to cut down on the wilder drunkenness that spills out of the heaving bars.

A by-product is that the streets around the clubs are much safer than they were before.

But the police say that whilst they can keep the centre of the resort safe, what happens in homes and hotels where thousands of youngsters stay.

If you are a parent you would be horrified by nearly every aspect. But isn't that the point?


Talking PointTALKING POINT
Club rave sceneHoliday excess
Is lewd behaviour spoiling Britain's image overseas?
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