Kefalonia

BRINDISI - IGOUMENITSA

26/6/04: DEPARTURE BRINDISI – IGOUMENITSA And finally off we goooooo, yuppidu we can't wait to take a swim and eat moussaka and pita!!

Having arrived in Igoumenitsa at 7 (local time) in the morning we head toward Preveza/Lefkada (about 120 km) and after a while we stop for our first Greek breakfast consisting of a "cappuzzino" pronounced the Greek way in a café along the road, and then again ready to reach our destination: CEPHALONIA! To reach Lefkada you go through a tunnel at the end of which you pay 3 euros to the toll collector.

Having arrived in Lefkada the little town of Lefkas is still asleep..and we keep driving to go to Vassiliki in the south of Lefkada, I think we took the wrong road, or rather we took the longest one, and we start going up and down through the mountains along astounding curves until we reach the very charming village on the harbor of Vassiliki full of little bars and souvenir shops, and while waiting to take the 12.45 ferry (you can check the schedules on let's do a bit of shopping and enjoy an espresso coffee, let me open a parenthesis on coffee: in Greece NESCAFE' is very popular, and so is the frappé, in fact the espresso in some places they don't make it, the price ranges from 1.50 to 2 euros. Ferry cost 35 euros (car and 2 people).

In an hour we're at the small port of Fiskardo which seems to be the Portofino of the island, in fact we decide not to eat here so as not to be immediately fleeced…..but a mini fleecing we did get a bit further on in a restaurant along the road..We were starving!! With full bellies we get back in the car and finally arrive at Agia Efimia, a small and very quiet village gathered around the little harbor. We immediately go in search of the apartment we had booked on the website, a girl was waiting for us who let us choose among almost all the available studios and for 25 euros a day we stayed here 4 days instead of 3 as planned because we had a wonderful time, the owner Dionisios is extremely kind and friendly. Goal: sea-swim-sun We head toward Sami, along the road there are many little coves of white pebbles and crystal-clear water, in fact we stop at one of these and..

SPLASHHHH mega-swim, water fresh, just right to revive us from all the heat endured during the day. We like the place a lot, you breathe an atmosphere of relaxation, tranquility, in short it's a paradise for us! And essential: there's no one theeeere, few people even in the village, wonderfuuuul.

MYRTOS AND ASOS PENINSULA

9.30 am ready to plunge into the beautiful waters of Myrtos which is the most striking beach we have ever seen, the intensity of the color of the water is indescribable as is the size of the beach. You reach it easily by car along a road full of curves as indeed all the roads on the island are, which descends all the way down to where there is the parking lot and a few tavernas. We spend the morning basking in the sun and swimming until 13.30 after which...HUNGER looms, we get back in the car and go back up where there are various tavernas, we go to "ALEXANDROS" where we get two very fresh Greek salads and the "stifado" of Cephalonia which is a kind of meat stew with tomato sauce accompanied by fried potatoes, (a light lunch...) We have coffee sitting in a café on the beach of the splendid village of Asos where we spend the whole afternoon.

Asos too is full of bars and houses and studios for rent, so much so that it seems a place inhabited by tourists only in summer, I read on a plaque attached to a wall that Asos was rebuilt thanks to help from Paris (that's why in this little corner of the island we found many French people with a snobbish air!).here there is also a fortress built by the Venetians from where they say the view is very beautiful, unfortunately we tried to reach it on foot but it was too tiring because curve after curve we never got there, so we took the car despite there being a no-entry sign, but since everyone was doing it....anyway the road is unpaved, narrow and sheer without protections so we turned back, it was SCARY!!! Day concluded with dinner in a taverna located on the road toward Argostoli reachable on foot (5 minutes) where we taste the island's dry wine the "Robola", delicious! The bottle is the

same one they sell in supermarkets for 4.50 euros but at the restaurant it costs about 9.00...oh well, we're on vacation and everything is fine.

ANTISAMOS - MELISSANI CAVE AND DROGARATI

3rd day: ANTISAMOS beach – MELISSANI cave and DROGARATI 10.00 am and we're at the beach planting the umbrella among the white pebbles, there's not a living soul, even the small beach facility is closed... Crystal-clear water and almost immediately deep, indeed very deep. From above the view is magnificent, the beach lies between mountains with very green vegetation...it's lunchtime...we go to Karavomilos near Sami we find a taverna on the sea, they almost put the tables in the water, anyway, nearby there's the little lake, nice with lots of friendly ducks. We go to visit "Melissani Lake"(Karavomilos locality) ticket cost 5 euros. You get there through a short tunnel from where you see in the distance the blue color of the water illuminated by the sun.

It's rather chilly, bring a long-sleeved shirt!! The lake is visited by taking a ride on a little boat rowed by one of the rowers a bit annoyed who do this job all day, the lake is striking with stalactites and stalagmites. And now let's go to DROGARATI which is nearby, ticket cost 3.50 euros, in the cave concerts are held thanks to the splendid acoustics, by now the stalactites and stalagmites are all dead, there's no ban on taking photos and you just have to see the havoc they made to carve out space for the concerts, with stalactites cemented over..hmm... We spend the afternoon in "our" little cove and have dinner at the restaurant "MAKIS" on the road to Sami, here the dessert is offered with a pleasant surprise by the establishment, nice we like it.

ITACA

We decide to do the excursion with a tourist-carrying boat (price 25 euros), there's also the ferry that seems to leave from Sami (2 euros per person and 10 for the car ). The coast of Ithaca is rather rocky with an alternation of coves of white pebbles. First stop VATHI which is the capital of the island, here the inhabitants are a bit rougher, we stay an hour, it's dreadfully hot, the captain tells me we're lucky because there's a bit of wind, usually the temperature is 40 degrees without a breath of air, GULP! The little town is nice too, made up of new houses rebuilt after the 1953 earthquake.

Second stop KIONI, a small harbor with bars at convenient prices, but we throw ourselves into the first little cove in front of the port (they follow us in droves help..), we're dying of heeeat! For those who will go to Ithaca also visit Stavros where there is the bust of Ulysses, we didn't go, sigh!

Before returning we take a mega swim from the boat in a wonderful cove. Return at 17.30. Shower and food at "Makis".

AGIA EFIMIA - SOUTH OF THE ISLAND.....

DEPARTURE FROM AGIA EFIMIA heading SOUTH We were supposed to go to KARAVADOS which is halfway between Argostoli and Poros but since in this area the villages consist of 3/ 4 houses with nothing else around, we change destination and head toward Skala, here we find a fantastic apartment, brand new with sea view from Mrs. Rita probably English married to a Greek who rents us the apartment for 50 euros, (I think we could have found it for less too). Skala swarms with English people, young couples and middle-aged couples, not to disparage the people but I've never seen so many ugly and fat people all together!! It seems like an ex-British colony, the buses come and unload them here. Apart from this which is not bothersome anyway Skala is nice, the beach is very long and made of small pebbles with transparent water.

From a cultural point of view it's interesting to see the remains of a Roman villa and its mosaics (reachable on foot, perhaps after having been to the beach).

KATOKATELIOS – KAMINIA BEACH

We go to see the beach of Katelios a small fishing village, the beach is pebbly, very beautiful but since it's windy we leave. Kaminia beach is very long and sandy, here there is also MOUNTA where the caretta-caretta turtles come to lay their eggs. For dinner we discovered a small little place that makes GYROS-PITA, delicious, with coke and fanta plus three pitas we pay 9 Euros, besides the price it's the dinner we liked most. We had fun celebrating Greece's victory in the European Championship, for the occasion there were fireworks and some horn-honking.

REST IN SKALA

We go to SPITHI beach which is the continuation of the Skala one but not toward Poros, it's a dead-end road where you leave the car and continue on foot along the beach, let's say it's the nudists' oasis, despite there being signs as big as a house written in all languages saying that Nudism is prohibited, and the same fat men and women I was telling you about earlier are in "without veils" version, My God what an HORRENDOUS spectacle If you go there don't stop where the rocks and nudists are but go further on and you'll find an expanse of light and deserted beach MAGNIFICENT! Dinner at the GYROS-PITA friend's place;-)

ARGOSTOLI and the beaches below

Having arrived in Argostoli we don't understand anything anymore, the signs disappear and then reappear and by mistake we go to see the monument to the ITALIAN FALLEN during the war and a little further on, the pit where they were massacred by the Germans.

We found the road! MAKRIS GIALOS and PLATIS GIALOS beach, here it's more touristy in fact there are lots of people on the beach and this is a real sand beach, and the sea is wonderful, it's worth staying the whole morning.

Near here is the "TOURCOPODARO" beach very beautiful but we don't go down because it's too hot to stay under the umbrella. On the way back we try to visit the Gerasimos caves, here too the signs disappear and faced with so many branches we don't know what to take, we come across a little church hmm...was that it?dunno Back to Skala (35 km) shower and food. After dinner we enjoy a beautiful full moon reflecting on the sea and we eat one of their little pastries made with honey, the baklava is delicious, get it at the pastry shop on the road.

POROS

Poros too is a nice village with its harbor from where ferries to Kyllini depart. The beach here too is very long and pebbly. We spend the morning in Poros, we eat in one of the many tavernas on the sea where I taste the "dolmadakia" the vine-leaf rolls stuffed with rice, mmmmhhh very good. Afternoon at another beach along the road where there are many little rocks so we can go visit a few colorful little villages. Dinner at the restaurant "MIABELI" where all the waiters are happy to serve us because..we're Italian!

tour of the LIXOURI PENINSULA

tour of the LIXOURI PENINSULA A mega stressful tour, on the road toward Lixouri we stop in a café where we meet the owner Mrs. Marina who speaks good Italian and rents houses in FARSA, but the coffee has run out and she tells us that if we want good coffee we have to go to Naples, funny! We arrive at the pebble beach of PETANI, which in beauty rivals that of Myrtos, the water is warm but touching with your feet at depth there are currents of cold water, nice sensation. Today we only eat a sandwich and set off again toward XI the beach from

HEADING HOME

DEPARTURE HOME sigh sigh The vacation is over unfortunately. Cephalonia is beautiful, let's hope we'll return some other day and then go to Zakynthos. If you're looking for sea and tranquility, this is the right island, the food is delicious, the Greeks are kind and almost all speak English, some Italian, what can I say? For those leaving:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!