Zakynthos is a small island, one of the Ionian Islands in the southeast of Greece. It offers mountains, beaches and little Greek villages almost too perfect to be true.

We stayed here for the last week and sometimes felt like having been beamed into one of these TUI travel catalogues. Due to a 200 hundred year period of Venetian rule, the architecture still has an Italian touch. Due to springtime and Mediterranean climate, you d now find flowers everywhere but also trees with ripe lemons, mandarines or oranges, palms and lizards taking sunbaths. The islands pace is slow and chilled. For now.

Because, in contrast to this almost-too-perfect-to-be-true feel we also felt like having been beamed into a modern Western movie. Between May and October each year Zakynthos is flooded by tourists mostly from central Europe. We, thus, passed by dozens and dozens of all-inclusive hotels with empty pools and shut doors and windows. We d walk through completely devastated villages only consisting of clubs, bars, restaurants etc. all closed right now. There d be advertisements everywhere depicting half-naked young people (supposedly) having the time of their lives. Advertisements for 'crazy golf', 'Amy Winehouse tribute' parties, for cocktail happy hours, for hiring cars, scooters and quads, for turtle watching tours, canoeing and 'real traditional Greek food'. Once tourism was a nice way to make a living on the island. Nowadays it has gone downhill tells us a local. Too many people in summer, too loud, too drunk, too many accidents. This year, for the first time, bans shall be introduced to take back control of tourism and tourists in the island. We got a very vivid idea of what overtourism means for and does psychologically, economically and ecologically to the island.

At the same time, we were lucky to have a very kind host who came along each day bringing some tomatoes or olives from her garden, warm soup on a coldish rainy day or a full dinner typical for the Greek Independence Day on March 25.