At the start of June I travelled to Kefalonia, the largest of the Greek Ionian Islands. Ros and I did our usual trick of leaving booking a holiday to the last minute and seeing where we could go cheaply. Thus, for the first time, we ended up booking a 'package' holiday with a big travel company. The advantage being that it got us cheap flights, a self-catering apartment and airport transfers all from the same place. What I didn't expect was a crazy Irish lady to meet us at the airport, direct us to the coach and proceed to patronise us for the entire journey to our apartment. ( Ditto for the return journey) Needless to say, our only contact with our tour operator was the first and last day of the holiday.
Hiring a car is the best way to explore Kefalonia as the island is only 50km long and despite having has numerous bus stops (even in remote locations), seemingly has no buses. Driving on the island was an interesting experience to say the least. Having never driven abroad I first had to get used to driving on the other side of the road and a lefty hand drive car. After several attempts to change gear with the door handle and use the seat adjuster as a handbrake, I quickly got used to it. The biggest challenge were the roads and other road users. Most roads were probably laid in the 1950's and have massive potholes so driving at over 30mph is a challenge. Although some roads over the mountains were fantastic winding affairs that were great to drive over. The locals clearly knew we were tourists (think the hire car gave it away) and overtook at any opportunity even if they couldn't see round the bend. Despite all this, driving was great fun and allowed us to visit some very remote places we wouldn't have seen otherwise.
For the most part we followed the guidebook's advice and went to the main attractions on the island which certainly didn't disappoint. Highlights include: Fiscardo fishing village in the north of the island, the underground lake at Melisanni and Myrtos Bay. (See photos at the bottom) All were such beautiful places and Fiscardo was a great place to sit, relax and watch the world peacefully go by. Our guide/boatman at Melisanni lake had a few memorised phrases in English which he proudly produced and frequently told us the depth of the lake in various places. He worked very had for his tip, and I suspect he gets paid very little for the amount of effort he puts into his job. I always feel it's a great shame not to be able to have a proper conservation with people like him. I'm sure, had I been able to speak Greek, I could have found out a lot more about the lake, its surroundings and the boatman himself.
We enjoyed a few meals sampling the local delights in restaurants and prepared many salads ourselves which we ate overlooking the sea from our apartment. (Feta cheese tastes much better in Greece).
I am sure there are many other things I could talk about, but hopefully this gives a taste of Kefalonia.
Until next time,
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