Kefalonia Week

This week concluded my four-piece heritage puzzle. I have now been to every country, and where possible the town / met family from each of my great grandparents.

In order of appearance:

Gran's dad – Vienna, Austria, I met Elisabeth
Grandad Mullins family - Ireland, met family that everyone else has met haha

Grandad Britton's family – Cork, met lots of family, stayed on the farm where my great grandad grew up on

Gran’s mum – Kefallonia, Greece

I didn’t get to meet anyone from Gran’s mum’s family. Apparently, those that are left don’t speak English and live on the main land more. There are some American relatives Uncle John tells me, but they only visit in August. So I spent a great 5 days just leaving the Greek life, like my yai yai might’ve.

I flew into Kefallonia from Athens at 6:30am on Monday. We landed just as the sun was rising and I had a beautiful drive to my hotel with dawn breaking over a new day. As the hotel was all asleep I sat on the front porch watching the sunrise over the ocean. Lucky for me the son of the owner came out earlier and let me into my room. A quick shower and I was into bed, fast asleep.

My hotel is massive and run by a mother and son. They staff are so welcoming and kind; nothing is a problem for them. On Tuesday they had a pool party to celebrate their 3rd birthday, of being open I assume. I think everyone they knew attended haha. It was great.

After making up on lost sleep I took a walk to the nearest and biggest town on the island Argostoli. It was a beautiful walk along the coast. The landscape reminds me a little of home; it’s bush, and dry, but green in places and then the sea is right there. The water is a beautiful clear and blue colour. Along the way I past the local lighthouse, a famous water mill station, various restaurants and lots of walking tracks.

I walk through the town, through the square where 5000 Italian soldiers where killed by the Nazi’s in WWII, I visited the little shops and walked past the marina. I had dinner, consisting of haloumi and then roast lamb, before heading back to the hotel.

My days consisted of mostly sleeping in, going for swims and hangign out at the hotel until it was cool enough in the afternoon, around 6pm, to walk to Argostoli. It was usually around a 20minute walk and I often found myself stuck in the town as it got dark quite quickly once the sunset. So I walked fast haha.

One day the staff ordered me loukoumades. They smelt so good that the staff then ordered themselves some. They were amazing! Still I like Gran’s haha, but these were the best so far.

On Friday I booked into a tour of Kefalonia. We visited the old castle, stopped in at the castle café for a cold drink, went to Myrtle beach to take pictures – so badly wanted to swim here, had lunch at Sami beach, stopped into melissani lake and drogarati cave before visiting an Orthodox Greek church where those of faith could kiss the saints feet and the robola winery.

It was a really great tour, although I do wish we could’ve stopped at Myrtle beach for a swim. The most disappointing parts were the Melissani lake and Drogarati cave. I was really looking forward to visiting the lake, the pictures online looked amazing. But it’s now nothing more then a tourist trap. We lined up to get on the boats. The fit 10 of you on and then as quickly as possible whip around the lake and cave area and then back to shore. Only half of our boat got a photo with the good light – thankfully that was us, and then they asked for tips. One boat even pushed us out of the way so he could get to the next group faster.

The Drogarati caves weren’t that exciting. I don’t think I’m a cave person haha. But overall it was great. I was pleased to visit the robola winery to confirm my thoughts that Greek wine is not good. I tried everything, a wine, red, rosa and nothing took my fancy.

However, I did learn about why they Greeks have wine in plastic bottles. The wine in plastic bottles has next to no preservatives and is very fresh. The wine in the glass bottles has some preservatives and lasts a bit longer. But I’m sure she said that the plastic bottle wine would only last 14 days at best.

In what was a _____ fashion, I arrived into Kefalonia on sunrise, I departed at sunset. We flew out over the island, giving me one last few of Yai Yai’s home before heading to Athens. What a beautiful week it has been. I am so glad that I got the opportunity to visit, to eat, and to learn.Læs mere