Trip to Vassiliki in Lefkada was my first taste of this
iconic island so often talked about by others. It was last minute choice and I
went with my Mum. Right after the arrival to airport in Lefkada, we were taken
by one of the buses directly to our destination, which took about hour and a
half. We drove through the main city and its bay, so interestingly conjoined to
the mainland by a bridge that was opening up from time to time, to allow the
seawater to pass through. In Vassiliki town, we were dispatched from our cozy
bus seats and told by Klara (who was our tour guide in Samos several years
ago), that residents of Rania and Leonidas hotels will have to take off their
suitcases and transfer them onto the awaiting truck and then follow this truck
towards their hotels, as the harbour was being in the process of
reconstruction. We had to laugh at the image of us, dragging ourselves behind
some smelly truck. So there we were, a group of about twenty people, swaying
behind each other in almost a noon´s heat. Our truck was lacking far behind us
and my mother realised that she put her bag with all documents and money on the
driver´s seat, so when I reminded her that it was not very clever idea, she
started panicking and looking for the truck, which was nowhere in sight. In the
end, we found the truck , as we were steered by the owner of the hotel, who
stood in the middle of the road and signalised which way to go.
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| loading our suitcases on a truck was a real challenge |
Rania was at the very end of Vassiliki and sat on a top of a small hill,nicely
overlooking part of the bay. We got very small room with very large balcony,
neighbouring with famous Czech couple of actors. My Mum was so tired from the
march of the death, that she kept saying things like „wash those breads“ (wash those dishes) or „I´m
so tired from that train“. Our room was the size of a baby room with tiny kitchen
(which was basically just a sink for two cups and a double cooker). The only
plus was a large balcony, overlooking part of the sea and several roofs of
other guest houses.
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| our view off the balcony was calming |
After our arrival, we ventured into the town, to see what is
hiding amidst those quiet little streets and were quite surprised to find neat
boutiques, bakeries, artisan shops, coffee houses and jazz bars. On the other
side, the surrounding of our guest house was slightly more isolated and the
beaches were lining the road one next to the other, looking rather overcrowded.
The furthest beach has lot of big stones and the access is almost impossible
without shoes. We´ll try the middle beach tomorrow, but we´ll have to get up at
6 am to grab good positions!
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the town promenade |
We had a chance to make friends with our actor neighbours. The wife
came to our flat and was very upset with the travel agency, as she had a kettle
full of corosion. They bought a holiday for two weeks, and it almost seemed she
would prefer to cancel the whole thing at once. Our Greek landlord, an older
grey haired guy, owns a motorbike that appears to be made of wood. He keeps parking
it in front of the stairs leading off the house, so we have to squeeze around
it. In the evening we went to town at the end of promenade, where we had beef stifado
and chicken souvlaki. The couple of young guys were serving us, but when we were
about to pay, the guy came over asking us our names and shaking our hands, but
then walked away, pretending we didn´t ask him for a bill. In the meantime, a
fanciful piece of nature visited us,a multicolored cat with streeks of red,
white and black all over its body and face, and kept sitting next to our table
like the most well behaved dog. It took the staff to bring our bill another
twenty minutes, which was quite frustrating. In the end, we got money returned
and short of one euro. The waiter didn´t
ask for a tip. He just took it!!! The food was good, but this way of
service will not bring us there ever again….
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| Stifado |
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| our multicolored friend |
In the morning, we went to take a swim on the first beach,
which is the best and also the most loaded with people since early hours. Its U
shape allows only tens of people, as you would imagine. We sunbathed only until
1pm and then went home for lunch. It´s quite hot during lunch time, so it´s
very easy to stay on instant soups until the evening, without going hungry. Me
and Mum played Člověče nezlob se (man, don´t get pissed off), which is a table
game of our childhoods. The deal was that the loser of first game will have to
pay drinks at the swimming pool bar. Mum was the loser. I lost the second and
third game, which made me a double loser and I was obliged to pay our dinner
and prepare the breakfast next day. When we walked later to swimming pool, we
met the actors again and chatted for a while, and when we continued, I managed
to fall into a huge hole in the road and twist my ankle. I flew headlong
through the air and of course fell pretty hard on my knee. With bleeding wounds
all over my poor old body, we had to return home and attend to my multiple injuries.
I felt like a five year old, being taken care of Mummy, who gave me plasters.
Then we repeated the whole journey again, this time with me being more carefull
and avoiding the gaps. We nested at Appolo pool bar, which was more or less a
public swimming pool, where you could stay all day if you bought some drinks.
It was great plan, as there were sunbeds, wifi connection, a glorious seaview,
tasty drinks and not so many people. We tried non alcoholic Mojitos and Mythos
beer.
In the evening we tested a new restaurant called Dolphin. It co-operated
with our Czech travel agency, so they also had menu in our language, and
although the waiter promised to give us discount, he didn´t, but we knew he was
only using it as a marketing trick. We know these cheeky Greek people pretty
well by now. I had Klefitiki and Mum had Rabbit stifado, both delicious. Full
like two barrels of gunpowder, we made our way back home, where we chatted in
the humid night air until 2 am and talked of our past live´s traumas.
Today we did the same routine, the beach – lunch – swimming pool
(where we had to queue for a place), and then dinner of Gyros and a long walk
along the coast towards the windsurfing beach resort, claimed by British
tourists. This resort was separated by stony, unfinished road and it was
literally a rich guy´s paradise for rich Brits who loved windsurfing. They had
no little guest houses with corosive kettles here, that was for sure. This was
a top luxury resort with 5 star hotels. The young Brits sat all around in bars
and drank Heineken in unison. But to be honest, this artificially manmade town
didn´t appeal to me as much as our „poor quarters“. At least we lived among the
authentic Greek people and experienced the Greek life. That´s why people come
to Greece after all, isn´t it?
Today after breakfast
that I made (yes, I lost in Člobrdo again!), we went straight to the
swimming pool where was not a single soul. Then we went home for lunch, that I
was making….and then we went to the middle beach with only couple of people.
Right at the moment when I told my Mum that I wonder where our neighbours are,
the actor´s wife just appeared in the water under our feet like a Lochness. We
chatted for a bit, while her husband sat on their favorite bench. She then left
and we continued sunbathing until we heard someone shouting from above „it´s
prohibited to swim here!“, in a good humoured tone. It was our neighbour actor,
trying to be funny. There was some Czech family next to us, a couple of naked
lesbians and our Greek landlord. A quite nice bunch. Tired by the heat and exhausted
by dehydration, we dragged ourselves to
the swimming pool once again, and quenched our thirst by cold Mythos. Then we
decided to go for the best Calamari under the Greek sun, into the tavern called
Aqua. The service was perfect, as the owner himself was parading among the
tables and there were no spaces free, which is the index of quality. After our
self indulging dinner, we took a stroll through the streets full of nice
artisan shops. This was the first Greek town, where I haven´t seen the typical kitschy
stuff and souvenirs, that can be seen elsewhere, which was total surprise. In
the end we tried coconut and mango ice cream, sat on the promenade by the
harbour and watched the busy night life.
Later on, at night, we were woken up by
some loud Russian neighbours, who talked on their balcony until 3 am. Our actor
neighbours had a balcony just above them, but either they were deaf and
didn´t hear them, or just didn´t bother
making a fuss. I was ready to throw a saucepan at them if they have not stopped.
Today we went to our swimming pool. The Czechs are so calculative
it hurts. As we noticed, most of them left their sunbeds occupied by their towels
and books and other stuff, while leaving for several hours (to take a nap, to
swim in the sea, to have a lunch etc.) only to block the places for others, who
had to sit at the bar and wait for free bed. Typical small town Czech behaviour.
Of course, the ones that sat at the bar today, were US! I had to cool down my
temper by cold Fredducino, but when I lost my patience, I grabbed my stuff and
just went and took over one of the beds. Nobody said a word to me. If they did,
they would fly across the nearest wall! So this way we relaxed until 4pm and
then returned home for late lunch consisting of instant soup. In the evening we
went to Aqua for another great dinner experience, this time Musaka. The owner
already noticed us, and gave us a warm welcoming smile. Mum finished herself
off by a strawberry ice cream . At night the Brits had a disco party and whole
of Vassiliki town had to listen to it. I had to prepare myself for yet another
night of mosquito attacks. They only like my blood, Mum doesn´t have a single
bite, while I´m like a victim of a machine gun shooting.
This day was almost the same like the others, except that in
the evening we went to Aqua for another Calamari and were full halfway through.
I left at least six calamaris on the plate, as I couldn´t even breathe anymore.
I didn´t want to look like a poor tourist from Czech republic, who takes his
leftovers into a doggie bag. I pretended I´m a rich globetrotter instead, and
left everything on the plate (secretly calculating how much money I´ve just
paid, and suffering in agony as a result).
Today was Hallelujah day. All Czech people left home as a
new batch just arrived. The swimming pool was abandoned. We got two delicious
homemade lemonade jars.
It was truly a relax, until the moment when my Mum noticed
our actor neighbours on the bench and wanted me to take a photo with them. I
was of course reluctant, as I didn´t want to intrude, but as we walked home
around them, she forced me to come towards them and confront them. They
promised the photo, but first of all, they invited us to a little goodbye party
on their balcony in the evening, which we accepted.
The balcony party was great, as my Mum had a lot in common
with actors in general. She used to work for the theatre and movie studios, so
she knew a lot of famous people and could talk about them. We drank wine,
laughed all night, they told us funny stories and so the time went by and then my
Mother realised she still didn´t have her suitcase packed. We parted at 2 am
and it was a hell of a morning, as my Mum was packing her stuff and none of our
mobiles had a correct time setting. Fortunatelly my Mum didn´t sleep at all, so
she woke me up just in time for the truck. By truck I mean the same truck that
brought us here – we had to load our suitcases on it and follow it back through
the town.
All in all, this trip was an amazing experience full of fun
and nice people we´ve met, great food and swim. We avoided the big famous
beaches of Lefkada, eventhough we had a chance to go there, but for us this
time, it seemed like this is all we wanted.
As a courtesy of ALBI store, I´ve been using their travel
products on this journey as shown in the photo. They came very handy indeed.
Thank you ALBI for giving me such marvellous presents. Fr more info go on: https://eshop.albi.cz/original-kolekce/
