15th July
Yesterday we arrived to Lassi in Kefalonia
and it rained already at the airport. Our little village is below a busy main
street that leads to Argostoli, the capital. When it rained, the sea appeared
to remind more of a lake and the skies were grey and dull, so we weren´t
exactly ecstatic. Our studio apartment is right on the rooftop of beautiful
summer villa and our terrace takes the space of the whole roof. The inside is
furnished and equipped really nice and homely. We are overlooking the sheer
gulf with floating sailboards. We went to the local beach yesterday. The sand
is grey and soft as a volcano ash. It sticks to your feet, so we looked like
two pygmies after a while. There is also a bar on the beach and the waitress
reminded us of our work colleague, so we were entertained for long few hours. (ZK) But so far we haven´t met
many local Greeks as we are in busy touristic zone. We proceeded to check the
Dolphin market on the main road. It seems everything starts right there, it´s
the town´s replacement for a main square. I spent 40 EU for the first shopping.
How frustrating!
Then we lied on the beach for several hours
and we even drifted off to sleep as we had a sleepless night in Prague, waiting
for 2 am transport to the airport, then travelling straight to the islands. I
got burnt a little....We noticed a new fascinating figure. An old man in bright
yellow swimwear. I called him Hugh Heffner, but Sylva named him in much more
rude way (censorship required), nevertheless, he gave us a reason to laugh a
lot. Otherwise, the cicadas are driving us slightly crazy, they keep chirping
from dawn to dusk. They left pair of binoculars in our room, so we keep spying
on the gigantic sail boats and cruise ships the size of Titanic. It rained
alternately throughout the evening, then the sun came out. We ate a light
dinner accompanied with few glasses of red wine, talking together until very
late at night.
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| Our fascinating view from the house |
16th July
Today, after a brisk breakfast, there was a
meeting with our delegate Magda. We prepaid our full day trip around the
island. I bought a little paper pad for writing my memoirs and some more food.
We just returned from the “new” beach where we spent the whole afternoon. This
smaller beach is probably much better as it is closer to our hotel and to the
sea and nobody disturbs us, even though we noticed some Greek guys in a yellow
speed car watching us from above, who persistently watch the newcomers.
(probably those who are topless). Now we have a siesta on our terrace, where we
showered with a hose. It´s fantastic, we have absolutely everything we need!
Now we are having a snack and wine, trying to dry in the sun, before we get off
to the town in the evening. There is a colossal cruiser speeding in front of us
now. I heard a loud shout from bellow “Ty vole” (which could be translated into
English as Fuck!) It seems our neighbours noticed the boat too. Sylva is
complaining of not being able to see through the binoculars. Now she noticed
she was looking through it with the lids on the whole time. We are just
discussing the tsunami and how would we escape, if it came.
In the evening, we set off for Argostoli
taking the shorter main road with the views of the bay and the expectations of
a nice hot dinner. We found ourselves in a half ruined zone full of empty
hotels, then came into the enormous rectangular square, where we didn´t fancy
eating, so we made our way to the harbour, from where dispatched all ferries to
Lixouri. We grabbed a table at Diana´s restaurant to enjoy some Mousakka and
jar of homemade wine. We became witnesses to an incredible transport manoeuver
when two trucks carrying a load of several mobile houses tried to back up
inside the narrow corridor of a ferry, next to each other. The guy with a
whistle coordinated the whole operation and several more hefty guys run around
the trucks with some rugs to pile under the truck´s tyres. The second truck was
shifting slowly backwards inch by inch, to get right next his colleague. We
were both afraid for lives of the standing by folks, as I couldn´t imagine what
would happen if one of those houses just rolled down on them. But I guess,
driving in dangerous conditions is one of the best Greek skills. They are the
masters of manoeuvering! After the show
we paid and continued walking in the dark along the “promenade” out of the
city. The trail was quite wild. Approximately after half an hour we couldn´t
see almost anything but pitch black, just when we were passing through a scary strip
of a forest alley. Sylva kept holding on to my arm. We started breathing again
once we walked out of that jungle. We were also met by a honking car full of
drunk guys (not sure if Greek or British), then a taxi driver stopped to give
us a ride (not sure if for free, so we rejected the offer as we didn´t want to give up walking) and finally, we
encountered a wild bunch of barking dogs that looked like the three headed Cerberus, which I managed to scare off by a
angry growling back at them. They run off scared to death. Sylva thinks I´m
very good at it. And now, we are finally at home, totally exhausted. Sylva has
worn out flip flops and I have a Moussaka heartburn. Tomorrow we are planning
on visiting Costa Costa beach. Hopefully, we will survive.
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| Sylva having a chat with a local... |
17th July
We just received devastating news. There
won´t be any bus cruise due to low interest of candidates. All of those idiots
hired a car and now we have no trip to go to! I won´t see the beach where
Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz stayed at! So we have no other option then to wait
what Magda will offer as an alternative. I hope someone will journey at least
to Ithaka. Me and Sylva are both upset. We are considering to hire a cruise
boat. In the worst case scenario, I´m willing to put a dead cat behind their
doors as a way of pay back! (only kidding. I love cats) PS: I forgot to mention
an old guy in Argostoli yesterday. He rode a motorbike in the tiny streets of
town, with both feet dislocated to each side in such a way that he nearly took
us down. We saw him once more while having our Moussaka dinner. I´m going to
make myself another coffee to calm down. We spent most of the afternoon at our
beach, Sylva then went to cook macaroni and just when I was taking a shower,
she started to yell at me to have a look at this, that it´s worth it. Then she
brought a wooden spoon to the bathroom. It was covered with red ants! The tap
water tastes like if it came from the huge plastic barrels on the rooftop, plus
it´s warm like a piss. I wrote a postcard to George, so that he wasn´t sad I
forgot all about him. In the evening, we are thinking of visiting the “high
street” for some fun (most probably we won´t find it). Finally!!! They brought
us a new toilet paper, we were starting to panic! Sylva ate already a second
pack of chocolate Caprice tubes. I hope that lazy Magda will organize some trip
for us, Ithaka would do. A minute ago we were in Dolphins to do some shopping.
We had an ice cream and can of fruit beer while sitting on the kerb in front of
the store, doing what we do the best. Watching.
So far it proved to be the only way we could entertain ourselves while
being here, and also the only way how to nourish our social bonds with locals.
Sylva went to cool down in the sea, while I rested on the terrace. It´s
fiercely hot and I´m falling into a swoon. I wish I could make a trip to Samos
to see George!
We had a quiet evening at the rooftop today,
having one bottle of wine, then went off for a new one to Dolphins, and then we
chatted and chatted, until the horrible moment when tens of cicadas rushed out
on us. At first, I thought they were cute little baby mice only to realize a
second later, they were the ugly flying beasts that make so much noise. They
run so fast!!! Since then, we keep on checking every pillow, blanket, bag,
curtains....I hope we won´t suffocate here tonight, because we shut all the
doors and windows as if expecting heavy air raids. Oh boy, what a dangerous
holiday!!!
18th July
Today, after a breakfast, we set off again
to our little beach that was crowded with Russians like with cockroaches. There
was also a man we started calling Mr Turtle. After that we went home to have
some rest, to eat and then continued in sunbathing. There was some
British/French guy at the beach that was as white as a director of lime
factory. Before he left, he stood in the middle of the beach and started
changing into his underwear (under the towel) in the plane sight of all
onlookers, as if nothing mattered. I think it´s rather weird when he had plenty
caves or crevices to hide behind. Then his giant umbrella flew through the air
just to dig into sand 10 cm from me with its sharp spike!!! Now we are stuffing
our faces with salami, even though we are heading off to High street for some
dinner. We want to check all possible tour agencies, because to the simple
question “if there are any other tour operators in the area”, our delegate
texted back “Unfortunately, I don´t know about any” without as much as offering
us some other alternative. And as to the Russians, she told us there are no
Russians whatsoever! She can go and dig herself in Lixouri! In the evening, we
went off into high street and to our surprise, we discovered not only many
tavernas, bars and shops, but mainly! – two cruise agencies that were offering
tours around the island and further. Hurray!
We sat down in a quite pleasant tavern Nefeli, while being served by Kostas.
Sylva had grilled sea bream and me a Kefalonian meet pie. It was all perfect, although
we were overcoming our tiredness (the previous night finished at 2 am). Now we
are heading off to bed and tomorrow starts with meeting Magda. We will show
her!!!!
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| some lovely dinner at NEFELI tavern |
19th July
Now we met Magda and told her about our
private investigation. She seemed happy to be informed about those
possibilities. We booked a one day tour around Kefalonia. We bought tickets from an older British lady
with a tattoo on her shoulder, whom we obviously disturbed from reading her
Norwegian detective book. It cost us 31 EU, but we are pleased with ourselves.
We discovered a shop in town that sells everything half price comparing to Dolphin,
which sucks. Magda kept telling us about her quite hectic and grim beginning of
the season. She had to deal with an 80 year old man, who died the first day
after arrival. They found him dead in his room next day. Poor guy, he didn´t
even have much fun. She said, she had to bring a father and his daughter to
hospital yesterday, so another calamity /not as much for her, as for the girl/
Thank God, me and Sylva are still doing fine! There was a Greek guy on the
beach today, who reminded me of Osama bin Laden. He wore a weird shaved army haircut
and a thick beard of a terrorist, but fortunately, he had his son with him.
They were only looking for pebbles inside those caves. I hope. There was a big
uproar in the adjoining villa. The Russians were screaming at each other. The
hysterical female screaming kept on going for at least ten minutes non-stop.
Well, you can´t say we would be bored in here. I´m starting to catch some tan
already! There is a 60´s Beatles and Rollings Stones night in one town bar, but
Sylva doesn´t want to stay up too long, as we have to be at Dolphin´s at 9am,
where we should be picked up by bus. I hope it won´t be full of Russians and
drunk Brits. We were on the beach up until 2pm and now we´re having little
siesta. I tasted my first tzatziky, yum yum! Oh yeah, we saw an ugly cicada
outside the house today. It must have been the baby, as it still dragged its
cocoon behind. They are really creepy bugs! Magda destroyed our theory. I
thought that cicadas chirp when they move their wings because of the heat.
According to her theory, they rattle in the attempt to provoke the female
cicadas to come over and have sex with them. I guess they are very lusty, as
they rattle all day long! But, who knows where Magda took this information. Her
knowledge of the island proved to be quite lacking in accuracy,lately. Soo,
there was no 60´s party – we put on some clothes, put make up on – and set off
to Ionian tavern, where I had amazing Kefalonian Lamb Kleftiki and Sylva
grilled squid. Now we´re back home. Whole my body burns like hell, I think I
overdid it a bit with sunbathing. I have only 100 EU left, I have to stop
spending so much! I´m very curious at tomorrow´s trip. Hopefully, they will
deliver us back home safely.
20th July
The morning begun by us running after a bus
from Dolphin. It drove and drove....until we were perplexed as to could we be
standing in the wrong place? The fat little lady got off the bus when we made
it to the door, and told us that they would turn around and pick us up. We
called her Edna Bedna (as one animated character). She was quite chatty British
lady who knew a lot (and I mean LOT) about the island. She´s lived in Kefalonia
for 23 years, maybe that´s why. She didn´t shut her mouth for 5 long hours. Not
once. We drove through Argostoli along the mountain roads. Our driver Dimitris
drove like a God. The way he turned around the bends was unbelievable. The
first stop was at Myrtos baylooking down the hill onto the beach, where part of
the Captain Corelli´s Mandolin was directed. Magda told us, there is a very
dangerous current that keeps on pulling you into the sea and the sandy undertow
keeps pushing you back. There must be a life guard at watch all the time. The
water was turquoise blue, almost translucent. I could stand and watch it for
ages, that´s how breath taking it was. Then we arrived to Assos, which was a
small harbour town similar to Kokkari. It had these lovely tiny multicoloured
houses set on the hill, bright doors and even brighter pink bugenvileas growing
on every corner. It was extremely hot and we had to quickly hide in some shades
and have an ice cream to cool out. Magda told us to buy some honey from the
local 90 year old man, who keeps his beehives high up in the mountains. The
harbour was very small but fascinatingly beautiful. There was few people on the
pebble beach, but not many. Some young Greek guy with a white scarf on his head
was scrubbing the doors with salt, and some older man was checking up on him
from the venetian balcony. The old honey man stood under a huge tree, all
clothed in ragged clothes, dirty and filthy, with his old hands covered in grey
dust. I felt sorry for him, working his butt of for few coins. I bought a small
jar of honey. He didn´t speak any English, he just took my money but he didn´t
have any change, so I had to give him exact amount. Sylva then told me “did you
notice that snot on his shirt?” Fortunatelly, I did not. Cos if I did, he
probably wouldn´t sell me anything. But at least I can be proud of owning a
real Assos honey, made with love and care of an old man who doesn´t have time
to waste on cleaning his nose! Next stop (after we climbed up the incredibly dodgy
bends) was to be Fiskardo. We drove about 20 minutes through a mountain resort,
then dropped down to a harbour size of Kokkari. There were tens of beautiful
little shops and bars, but we didn´t have much time to walk around, as we had a
limited time to have our lunch. We sat next to the boats in Captain´s Cabin
tavern, for some lasagne and pizza. There was a colossal Onassis style yacht on
our side, and there was an old man with another few old guys joining him one by
one. (One, who looked like some British colonizer in a straw hat) passed by his
boat and had to come back, as he lost his way, then sat down next to the first
chap and stared in front of him for another hour with open mouth. There was
about 4 guys altogether, none of them talking to each other at all. Funny way
of spending time with buddies! After
that we hurried back to the bus, without as much as buying any souvenirs, then
left off for Melissani caves. Sylva didn´t join me, as she is scared of the
closed up places. This was an underground lake the size of a huge swimming
pool, with the roof that let the sun light in, which created amazing light on
the water surface. The water was cold only 15 degrees and I believe, pretty
deep too. I sat on a little dingy with another people, and our dark Greek
Cháron drove us through the caves to the very end, while paddling and singing
some Greek anthems. It felt tranquil and peaceful, and slightly colder then
outside, which was refreshing. When outside, we had time to buy some souvenirs,
I got a small black handbag for my evening dress. Sylva then fed a small hungry
cat with the leftover pizza. The cat must have thought it´s Christmas. After
this stop followed another cave, Drogarati, which I didn´t want to see as much,
so we spent all spare time by shopping. I finally discovered a ceramic store
where they sold baking bowls for my Moussaka!!! The trip then continued into
the Robola valley with the most famous church of St. Gerasimo. It´s the patron
saint of all Kefalonia and many sick people and adorers come here to pray.
Robola wine factory was just behind it, so we came in for a short excursion and
wine tasting. I have to say, the whole crowd of British travellers behaved
perfect, they were mostly older couples from decent backgrounds. The only
trouble we had was a British family of four, whose little offspring Emily kept annoying
us with her screams all along the way. The only time when she didn´t scream was
when she fell asleep with exhaustion or was fed with yet another bag of Taytos.
I didn´t hear ¾ of Edna Bedna´s speech due to her. On the way back we got separated
into two buses, one of which went straight to Lassi, and another back to Skala.
We got Manolis instead of Dimitris, which made us sad and frustrated, but we
tipped him off each with few bobs.
We still went to the Costa Costa in the
evening, naively thinking we will catch up on the beach party that was here
during the day. We went to Nefeli to have some starters at least. Kostas
brought us Souzokakia meat balls in tomato sauce and for me couple of
vegetarian spring rolls, and we also tasted some feta cheese spread on bread and
few slices of melon. Then we ran by the adjoining bar (to avoid the
omnipresent obtrusive guy called George), who kept waving at us every day when
we were passing on the street in the attempt to invite us for a drink.
21st July
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| the famous Myrtos beach from above |
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| Assos village |
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| In Fiskardo....siesta time |
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| Melissani caves with the Nymph´s lake |
We took a swim right in the morning as a
part of a weight loosing programme. Then we ate very healthy breakfast.(Only 1%
fat yoghurt!!!!) So no Moussakas or pies or lasagnas for me! We have a plan of
either going to Costa Costa or to Argostoli in the evening. So, in the end, we
chose to go to Argostoli to see the lighthouse. The scenic route along the
coast is amazing. We walked on a sunlit road surrounded by hills and sea on
each side, with the sunset slowly settling in. We noticed a little straw hut at
Kalamati beach, so we went to investigate it. It was left abandoned for now,
with only one couple watching the sunset. It looked as if belonging to some
aboriginal tribe or at least bunch of Jamaicans who got too carried away when
building their straw house. After that we continued on our route, where we met
the Cerberus dogs. In the daylight they turned out to be just three cute
puppies, that wouldn´t harm a fly. Someone was approaching is from behind. An
old man rode a bicycle and kept ringing its bell, while barking like a dog. You
never know what kind of madness will come into your way. We also met several
runners, it seems some of the Greeks try keep in shape (about 1% of the
population of Kefalonia anyway). By the time we reached the lighthouse, it was
already dark and we barely saw its silhouette. There were still some people
around, some fishermen and a lady with cat and dog sitting in unison by the
stony banks. When finally in Argostoli (after 2 hours of walk), we went to
Diana´s for dinner. I had beef stifado. Very delicious! When we walked through
the streets of the city, we were quite amazed at the amount of people in the
streets and bars. The first time we went here, there was no one around, it
almost looked like a ghost town. This city lived at night, that´s what we
realized! We met our neighbours from Koukla villa,then we climbed up the road
towards our home. (Sylva used the gardens of Argostoli national park for toilet
stop, sorry guys). We were tired and slept like two babies. PS: the landlady must
have grabbed my night dress when doing her chores. I will have to come to her
and say “enschuldigen sie bitte, eine nacht schwartze dress?”, as she only
speaks German.
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| St. Gerasimo |
22nd July
This morning started by early swim again,
which is rather refreshing, even though you don´t feel like jumping into a cold
water as soon as you get up on your feet. Sylva is cooking our breakfast now.
She´s stirring the eggs. We are only left with 3 days, so we are slowly
planning on how to spend them most effectively. It´s quite windy outside and at
night I had a feeling I sensed slight earth moves. Considering the wind and big
waves that we have, I pray that tsunami won´t sweep us away. That would be the
last straw. We went to Costa Costa where we grabbed the chairs in the first row
and spent there about two hours until we were washed away into the fifth row.
The waves were amazingly huge and just perfect for some frolicking. It was 6pm
when we were packing up our stuff. I underestimated the sun again. Now I´m
forced to put Total yoghurt on my burnt face (the good advice of Zakynthos
inhabitants). We stopped in Zorba´s pub on our way back, where we made friends
with Cristos from behind the bar. He told us about his army service of 18
months in Pythagoras, Samos and about how he had to carry a heavy loaded gun
mashine on his shoulders for about 5 hours each day, all that without a single
drop of water. Greek army sucks! We ordered some Kebabs to go and off we went.
Now we are sitting on our terrace, drinking wine and munching on Caprice
chocolate tubes, yum yum. If I should pick up on the characters from the beach,
I would mention a girl with a strapless swimming bra who was holding on to it
while several huge waves rushed over her head, and she had a trouble to get up
and catch breath. Everytime she took one, another huge elephant wave came right
over her head. It was funny, but at one time I was considering to jump for her
and save her (not sure why I didn´t. Maybe because it was so funny to watch
her) Anyway...the night dress was found. Our landlady mixed it into the bed
sheets when washing them. The song “This girl is on fire” keeps playing in my
head over and over for some reason.
23rd July
Today we were heading off to legendary
Ithaka! We stood by Dolphin´s supermarket in the attempt to catch our Panem
tour bus on time. It arrived 20 minutes late and to our surprise, it was driven
by our sweet little Dimitris, so we weren´t really that angry. When driving
through the narrow street of Argostoli, we got jammed in by a female driver in
front of us, who parked her car in the middle of the road. Dimitris tried to
honk her out, but she was probably too busy shopping. Then we saw her rushing
in and driving off. The three police guys on the motorbike were waving at her
from behind and making her speed off pretty fast. We changed a driver outside
Argostoli, and several more people joined our bus. We took off to Agia Efimia,
where we got onto the boat landing in the harbour. Claire (The British tattoo
star) told us, the capacity of Romatika boat is 200 people. I wasn´t so sure if
we´re not number 201, as the boat seemed rather overcrowded even before we
entered. While everyone around was nicely seated already, me and Sylva took
refuge in front of the captain´s cabin on the upper deck. The view was best
from here anyways! It was steered by an old “Sea wolf” and a handsome younger
guy. As to my information up to date, the old guy was called Dionisis and his
son was Makis. So let´s refer to them like that to avoid confusion. The crew
members didn´t end there. They had a young Greek girl to translate all
information given by an older British lady who reminded us of Edna Bedna, but
was called Vanna. We slowly scrambled along the coast towards Fiskardo, where
we took on another crowd of hungry-for-excitement tourists. Then we slowly made
our way to Gidaki beach, the only problem was that the boat didn´t land on the
beach but close enough for us to swim there. As it was rather cloudy and windy
until now, we didn´t feel like swimming and then walking in Vathy in our wet
swim suit on. Most of the people jumped headlong in, one woman didn´t even bother taking off her t-shirt and swam
around in it. (she swam even when everyone was back on the boat and Makis had
to honk to get her out of there). There were several funny characters there of
course, as usual. An older British man with a textile hat and Bermudas with
pineapples, whom we called Hunter Pampalini (cartoon character), and then a
Greek lady who believed to reincarnate into Rose from Titanic, while she posed
for photos in the rear of the ship. There were also mother with her daughter,
who had vamp eyebrows that Sylva adored and kept asking me if she should have
it done too. I told her not to, if she doesn´t want to look like a serial
killer. The journey to Ithaka was long and tiring, but gorgeous. There were
high mountains all around us, making a shield of never ending measures, opening
up their passage to us like a welcoming embrace. The wind kept slowing us down,
but we fought against it like an icebreaker that fights off the bergs. Sylva
was cold and as she looked into the captain´s cabin, Dionisis noticed her
clenched teeth and called her inside to warm up. I stayed on the deck making
more photos, not knowing what was to come. He walked out from the cabin after
few minutes calling me “Tereza, Tereza”! and gesturing at me to get in. When I
did, I was horrified for split of a second. Sylva was steering the whole boat
by herself, sitting in the captain´s chair!!!! I immediately realized the lives
of 140 people are in her hands. Mr Pampaliny kept turning around to see Sylva
behind the wheel and nervously smiled at her. I think I saw a glimpse of fear
in his eyes (or was that a minute consideration of jumping over board?) When I
gathered myself, I could enjoy the scenery again. I saw a tall white cliffs
from which the poet Sapho jumped to her death. And then we finally arrived to
the fabulous Ithaka´s main city, Vathy. We started our tour by a creamy pistachio
and coconut ice cream, then went around the town and its little streets and
shops. There wasn´t many people, I guess we arrived in the siesta peak time,
when even dogs were under the table. Only silly tourists were parading
themselves in the hottest time of the day on the banks of the city! We made it
to a lovely Spanish style citadel where I made some photos of Sylva next to a
white combi. When leaving the scene, I grabbed onto the back door to open it,
but the whole backside cracked and fell down only hanging on one little hinge.
I run off as a guilty school girl, but
we both cried with laughter. Sylva went back to repair the damage. Sylva then
ordered a gyros to go, while I kept browsing through the tiny streets and
shopping for my presents. I got a beautiful bottle opener with a bronze cock (the
bird)on top. It was only few euros and I needed to bring myself something from
Ithaka, the home of Odyseus, whom I´ve read about in the book of Greek myths
and fables. Sylva was considering buying expensive pearl ring that exceeded the
90 EU price tag, but she did resist the temptation in the end. There was an
ivory white bust of Odyseus in the main square and some other Greek god or hero
(with the body of God anyway). Sylva mentioned that this is a real Greek man!
No wonder, after seeing so many guys with the pot belly of a pregnant woman.
After hour and a half, we embarked
again, only to set off back home. The same route applied, only with one more
visit, which was Kioni town. They told us we can swim there, but the beach was
devastatingly tiny and the area around the pier didn´t look very appealing with
all those sweaty tourists jumping on each other´s head and circling in the
water right next to cruisers. So we decided to stay off this time and went for
a stroll through town instead. When returning back, it was so hot, that even I
attempted to ignore the rather squeezed conditions of our “swimming pool”. I
discovered a little bush on the side of the pier, behind which was an
accessible hillside leading straight into the sea. It wouldn´t be impossible.
So I took off my shirt and shorts, while Sylva stood above my head and kept
assuring herself that I´m not doing anything stupid. I insisted it´s fine, and
that everything looks just perfect, until the moment when I noticed about
twenty black sea hedgehogs in the water that I was just about to step in to.
Quite horrified, I put my clothes back on and told Sylva to drag me out. Forgot
to mention the bush smelled like the only tree in town where everyone goes to take
a leak! So that was the end to my swimming. We stood in the heat on the pier,
waiting for another boat to leave before our little ship with three little poor
sailors could re-enter. After Kioni, we took the Ionian sea by storm! The boat
was sailing fast now, dashing ahead like hundreds of horses, being constantly
washed away by giant sprinkles of the sea and several showers that covered the
lower deck, forcing the inhabitants of the area to lift their arse and shift to
a much safer zone (well deserved!)We left our Dionisis captain in Fiskardo, as
that´s where he lived, and then went back on the wide sea with the sun leaning
into our back and the wind throwing our hair into a funny mess. The whole boat
quivered everytime it dipped into a massive swing,leaving us feeling like on a
roller coaster. Now I felt like Rose standing on tip of the Titanic! Makis was
now the only responsible captain on the boat and he steered it damn well. He could
easily manoeuvre back and forth while landing backwards, with a Marlboro
hanging from his lips, as if it all was just a toy. Me and Sylva watched the
way he does it. Both of us kept hanging around after everyone left the boat and
headed for the bus (I recalled vaguely that we were supposed to go to the right
and 300 metres), but I needed to take some pictures of the cabin! When he
walked out from behind us, he spread his long arms and said “My job finished
for today, girls. Tomorrow you come”, and smiled at us with his broad teeth,
hiding behind sunglasses. Sylva patted him on the shoulder, giving him thumbs
up for today´s rodeo sail. When he noticed I´m taking photos of the cabin from
the outside, he suggested I go in and take as many pictures as I like. So
that´s when Sylva immortalised me sitting behind the helm. Makis looked at us
and asked if we want picture /me and her/ together. So I said “Only with you”,
and he agreed. He arranged for some leftover British couple to take our
picture. Then we left Makis behind and run for our lives to catch the bus, but
didn´t have a clue in which direction. Everyone seemed to be gone at once! As
we frantically looked around in the middle of the crossroad (there were 4
possible ways to go), the British couple who took our photo previously, now
smiled at us and explained which way to go. Thank God for British tourists!!!! We
run like two harebrained muppets along the harbour (around official Captain
Corelli´s tavern) and around Makis and his boat (hopefully he didn’t notice us), and up to our bus, where everybody
waited for us! (AGAIN). Then Manolis
drove us home. We encountered a pack of wild goats on the road in
mountains,some of them tried to escape by creeping under the guardrails and
couldn´t fit). We nearly forgot t get off the bus at Dolphin´s. Once there, all
in one piece, we set off to Ionian for a piece of hot heavenly manna, a
Moussaka in a clay bowl! (not as good as Samos one, but one step behind). Then
we shopped for some souvenirs, said hi to our lovely Kostas from across the
road, and went to buy a teddy bear. My one is called Fiskardo, Sylva´s one is
Kostas Cristos. It was quite dark outside and the storm was coming. I could see
the lightning approaching and one shopkeeper went berserk and run into her shop
shouting that the brime storm is coming and everyone thought it´s the end of
the world. I realized later on at home, that she didn´t mean brime storm, but
rain storm. Greeks sometimes pronounce things with a funny accent, you just
have to get used to it. It slowly started to drizzle, but ever so gently, you
couldn´t even notice it. However, we decided to take refuge next door in
Zorba´s, where several guys took on a dancing sessions and performed some
stunts like picking up a little glass of ouzo (while having hands on the floor)
and grabbing it into their mouth, then drinking the contents, all accompanied by
loud cheers and clasping of the hands in the rhythm of a Greek song. Cristos
showed up as well, but was at work, so didn´t have much time to talk to us, but
he came over to the dull barmaid and told her to give us another drink of our
choice for gratis, which she couldn´t handle and looked at us in quite unsympathetic
manner, as if we came to steal her
husband-to-be. We only had two small pints of Alpha beer, then set off for home
and went to bed. At 3.30 am the earth shook! Me and Sylva both woke up frightened
to death, as we were woken up from sleep by sound of shaking bed and wooden
cabinets and the terrible moving sensation where you feel like the whole world
around you will crumble. I instinctively held on to the bed rails as if
clinging to something solid. The earthquake took only about few seconds, then
another wave came, but this time we knew what it was and weren´t as petrified.
We were told that this could have been on the 2-3 of Richter´s scale. No matter
how much I wanted to experience the sensation of an earthquake, I do not wish
to do it again. Once was enough, thank you.
 |
| on a way to Ithaka |
 |
| Vathy, Ithaka |
 |
| new captain in charge! |
 |
| with Makis Palikisianos, our real captain... |
24th July
This
morning begun as the terror of cicadas! I was inside attempting to change from
my swimsuit when I saw Sylva running around the terrace like possessed by
demons shouting “she´s here” she´s here”. It only took me few seconds to
realize whom she means. She was talking of cicada that kept chasing her back
and forth. The sea was slightly clogged by sea pooh poop (as we call it) and
with grass. I saw Mr Turtle swimming around, so I turned to Sylva and told her “Mr
Turtle is here”, but she probably didn´t hear the MR part and started happily
(like a child) look around for turtle, but could see none, until I explained to
her, that I meant Mr Turtle. What a terrible disappointment! When walking up
the path to our house, one crazy cicada flew on my ear and I started screaming
and running up the hill. If anyone saw us that day, they would think we are
nuts. Now we are cooking some pasta with tuna and cheese, in a desperate
attempt to get rid of the leftovers. After this we went on to the beach until
7pm and then went home. We put on our best clothes and done our make ups to go
among the civilised men and women. We ended up in Nefeli, chatting to Kosta,
who gave us lessons on earthquakes and comforted us that these ones are just
small and insignificant, as they are used to have them here 2000 x in a month
and some of them on the scale of up to 6 grades. We ordered Taramasalata, the
best thing I´ve tried. It´s eggs fish mashed with some white soft bread, with
adding of olive oil and lemon, but it definitely has the wow effect, as it
looks so ordinary on the plate, but tastes so good on the palate! We chatted
some more, while he kept serving other tables, but it was good to be cared for.
Then we said our goodbyes and left off for home.
Over all, the whole stay in Kefalonia was
full of fun and the island is definitely worth visiting, even though I missed
the charm of Kokkari town and the promenade. Apart from that, we saw everything
we wanted to see, and experienced mostly things we enjoyed (excluding an
earthquake), and apart from taking a ride on a giant rubber banana dragged
behind a boat, I think I fulfilled my dream of this year´s holiday. I even made
some friends, which is above my expectations.
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