By Humphrey Carter
LAST week, I watched a documentary about modern day Croatia and Montenegro and one of the things that struck me, and the presenters was how spotlessly clean the places were, not only the main squares throbbing with tourists, but the back streets too. Never mind sharing a history as old as Majorca's, the region was bombed to pieces in the early and mid nineties as Eastern Europe fought for independence.
But today, the cities have been repaired, the historic monuments perfectly restored and the towns and capitals cleaned up. And this is one of the many reasons that the Eastern Mediterranean is giving the Western Med a run for its money.
Montenegro, for example, has become so chic, that few locals can now afford to live along the coast because it is now lined with super yachts, many of the ones which used to reside in Palma, and multi-million pound villas and penthouses.
I live right in the centre of Palma, it is close to the office if nothing else, and every night when I return home from work, I have to stumble over the rubbish spewing out of the stained and stinking plastic green containers.
There is supposed to be a green patrol, but I've never seem them on the beat and these bins, due to be only used between 8pm and 11pm, begin filling up from first light. It's not too bad in the winter, but in the hot summer they are magnet for flies, rats and cockroaches - not tourists.