Vassiliki, Lefkada

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.

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.

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!

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….

Stifado

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/