Well, this is a rare pleasure. These days, the job of updating the Frog Blog has become something of a chore and there rarely seems to be anything exciting to report, so it’s nice to be able to tell a very different story this time. Our big Hellenic adventure began with a long, circuitous journey from Mazeroux to Kefalonia. Step one was to drive to Villebois where Lee & Richard had offered to look after our car for us for the week. From there, Lee kindly took us to Angouleme station where we caught the 12:30 train to Lille.
After a short stopover, we boarded the Eurostar to St Pancras, and then with minutes to spare, got a train to Bedford. My brother collected us from the station and we reached Olney at around 7.30. Dave joined us for dinner (a Jamie Oliver recipe Dad put together) and not long after, we all went up to grab what sleep we could before the alarms went off at around 2.30 am. At that time of morning, there was virtually no-one on the roads, but it wasn’t all plain sailing to Stanstead as a thick fog covered the road. We later learned that the same fog had caused a terrible 100 car pile up in Kent, so we got off lightly.
After a quick breakfast/cheeky eye-opener, we boarded the flight. Ryanair (the most budget of all budget airliners) have recently started flying to Kefalonia and as much as we all revile them, they are the most economical option. The flight was on time, not too brat-infested and over quickly – everything you could ask for really. We treated ourselves to a drink apiece onboard and were staggered to be parted from around €32 for the pleasure. Ouch…
Argostoli airport is not that big so we were through and reunited with our luggage in no time. From there, a half-hour taxi ride took us to our destination: the village of Katelios, down on the southern coast of the island. Since we discovered Kefalonia some 16 years ago, my parents have been going at least once a year, but for Matt and me, it was our first time since 2009 so we were curious to see what had changed in the intervening time.
Fortunately, the answer was not very much at all. A few new apartments had been built, including a large and most ugly hotel block (fortunately located outside the village itself), and a few new bars have opened. The one bit of bad news for us is that our erstwhile favourite swimming pool, Gallini, is no longer open to the public. Similarly, our second favourite, the Blue Sea, has become unique in Kefalonia in that it has started to charge for use of the pool. All of the other pools are open to all, so regardless of where you are staying, you can eat, drink and swim wherever you choose. This tends to work out as well for the resort owners as it does for the guests, so the move seems a bit odd to us. With #1 gone and #2 boycotted on principle, the pool at Efrosini Village has risen to be our #1 choice – most convenient given that this was where we were staying. The other nice development is that now virtually everywhere you go in Katelios has free wifi, so we were able to keep an eye out for work emails whilst relaxing poolside.
We tend to be very chronological with our blog entries, but on our Kefalonian holidays the days all merge into one, so it seems appropriate to honour that by describing the blueprint of our holiday routine rather than going through day by day.
We would get up at around 8.30, have a quick browse online, and then all head down to Katelios beach for a morning swim in the sea. It is a gorgeous sandy beach, and shallow too – you have to walk out at least 100m before it reaches head height. The shallowness of the water, combined with the time of year, meant that the water was close to 30 degrees: a truly wonderful way to start one’s day.
After the swim, we’d call in to the Floridita bar on the seafront, where Mum and Dad (and their drink orders) are well known by the staff. After coffees/beers there, we’d make our way back up to Efrosini to lounge by the pool, sunbathe and read. Lunch would normally be served there too – Greek salads, sandwiches, and homemade chips. And of course, a round of beers. Afterwards, it would be back to the sun loungers for a few more hours. At around 5.30/6, we’d go back to the appartments for a brief chill out and shower.
We’d reconvene at around 7 and stroll back down to the seafront for a cocktail or 2 before dinner. For these, we would either go to Floriditas, Music, or Cozy bar. All boast a large and varied selection of cocktails, but if we hit Music, it would be for Alexi’s superb take on the Espresso Martini and if we went to Cozy, it would be for Peter’s legendary Margarita. The latter, we’re happy to confirm, remains the finest example of its kind we’ve ever sampled. (One night, we asked him to show us the secret and his recipe isn’t too far off ours. The difference is that he, being a fastidious perfectionist, uses only the finest tequila and triple sec that money can buy – ingredients that we sadly won’t be able to find out here).
Next, we’d stroll back up the hill to eat at Jerry’s Elliniko: the only place to eat in Katelios as far as we are concerned. Despite having had a change of chef, the menu there was more or less as we remembered and in fact, many of the dishes tasted even better this time around. The wine, however, is regrettably as unchanged as it is unpalatable. After our meal, we would linger at the restaurant enjoying the company of Jerry, Maaike et al for a few hours before calling it a night.
So that, in a nutshell, was what we got up to. There were variations to the routine though. We hired a car on the Saturday so we could so some exploring, booking it for 3 days. We were offered a jeep, which turned out to be very convenient, as I shall get to. The first car excursion was to repeat a trek that Mum and Dad made with Jerry and Maaike when they came out in July of this year. We drove to Argostoli in order to catch a ferry that runs from there to Lixouri on the western arm of the island (see map below). Before that, we had a stroll through town, shopped a little, and also saw a few turtles that come in to feed off of scraps when the fishing boats return to shore.
From Lixouri, we drove down to the southern tip of that part of the island with a specific resort in mind. This is on St Nicolas beach and has a most bohemian, hippie commune feel about it. After a swim, we ate at the taverna shack on the beach and then made our way back home, this time opting to drive back to Argostoli rather than take the ferry.
The next car adventure saw us heading up the Eastern coast where we revisited some old favourites: first, Skala (good for shopping and cash withdrawals), then Poros where we stopped for a beer at a lovely bar right on the sea. Next was Sami where we stopped for lunch and a little more shopping. From there, we were tempted to press on to Assos, one of the island’s real treasures, but we’d all seen it a few times before and it would have added quite a bit to our journey, so instead we made our way back.
The previous evening, Maaike had told us about a monastery near Poros that was worth stopping at, so we decided to end the days’ exploring there. It is situated very high up on a cliff and is accessed via a steep and tortuous, 5km dirt track. I’m not sure we would have made it in a standard car, and even in the jeep, it was fairly hard going. As it turned out though, it was well worth it. The monastery itself is a lovely building, but the real show-stopper was the view over the island (see photos). The final car adventure was to call in to nearby Kamini beach in Ratzakli, home to the Aeolas (‘Wind’) taverna. The food there is exceptional and it is close to the beach itself so we made an afternoon of it.
Done with the jeep, our next adventure was a boat hire. We collected this at around 10 am and started off exploring the coast to the west of Katelios, anchoring the boat and jumping overboard wherever we saw a stretch of beach we liked the look of. Mum & Dad had a taverna in mind that we were going to stop at for lunch, but it had closed, so we instead found ourselves returning to Kamini beach and Aeolas taverna for our second lunch there in as many days. The sea had been millpond calm all day, but the wind that usually only picks up in the late afternoon suddenly got quite strong. We boarded the boat with difficulty and after several minutes of going nearly full throttle, realised that we hadnt made any progress at all and were still at the same beach. We were being thrown all over the place and got thoroughly drenched too, so were all quite relieved when we got back to return the boat, somewhat earlier than originally planned.
Another couple evenings deserve a special mention. The first is Monday, when every week at Jerry’s, a group called Anatoli and the Boys plays traditional Greek and Kefalonian music. We actually had a stripped down version (more Anatoli and the Boy really) as the guitarist and the bazouki player had both left for Athens due to other commitments. This left the singer, the talented and very beautiful Anatoli and Nikko, who is a real maestro on the piano keyboard. The band was due on at 8.30 so we made sure to get to Jerry’s early to not miss anything. The band was setting up and Analtoli in particular seemed to be very nervous. They were getting ready to start when suddenly, the calm was shattered by an underground train right under our feet that shook the whole restaurant in a cacophony of rattling crockery. After a second or two of utter confusion, it dawned on us all that there is of course no underground train in Kefalonia and that what was hitting us was an earthquake (a 4.7, we later learned). No sooner had this sunk in than it was all over – nothing damaged and no-one hurt, but everyone a little rattled (literally and mentally), poor Anatoli included. Drama over, the group proceeded to play for a staggering 4 hours and we stayed to enjoy the whole set, followed by few drinks and a smoke courtesy of Jerry.
The other specific night to mention is the following evening, which we had arbitrarily chosen as the night to celebrate Dad’s imminent birthday. After an extra cocktail down on the seafront, this took place (bien sur) at Jerry’s where we asked Maaike to give dad his favourite dessert, plus a candle to blow out. They went one further and presented this together along with a rendition of happy birthday. Very sweet of them.
Wednesday was the ‘Day of Lasts’ – last swim in the sea, last chance to soak up the sun by the pool, and last meal at Jerry’s. Historically I have been unable to maintain much good humour on the final day of a Kefalonia trip, but knowing I would be coming home to peaceful Dordogne and not to a nine-to-five in London helped offset this. Somewhat anyway; it was still very sad to have to bid everyone goodbye the following morning. The charming intimacy of Argostoli’s small airport is less appealing on the way home when you are buffeted from queue to endless queue and ultimately funnelled into a crowded departure gate along with a couple other flights’ worth of passengers. The pilot’s warning as we landed that summer was now over in the UK and that it was 13 degrees and raining outside was also far from welcome.
We said our goodbyes at Stanstead and caught the ‘Express’ to Liverpool Street, feeling foolishly underdressed in shorts and sandals. After replenishing a few vital supplies, we went out for a meal that evening in nearby Stoke Newington. Iain drove us in his newly acquired car to Yum Yum, an excellent and swanky Thai place. In a pleasing continuation of our holiday cockail theme they even had Espressotinis on the menu. Tired from our journey, we weren’t long to bed that night. The next day, the big journey home continued from St Pancras to Paris, Angouleme, Villebois, and then at long last, back to Mazeroux which we reached at around 10pm.
So, that brings us up to date, and back to reality with a bang. It is drizzling, cold and grey outside and I am wearing a sweater and socks for the first time in months so we aren’t enjoying the Dordogne’s welcome all that much. That said, a far warmer welcome has come from our pusses who are overjoyed at our return, so that is a nice consolation. We now have a few days to recover before Matt’s Dad’s visit, but for now, that’s all the news from us. Until next time.