Greece August / September 2006
(as always click on thumbnail to see larger picture)
Once again I have a few tails to tell about our travels!!!
We left for Athens on Friday August 25. I caught the bus straight from work to the airport and Andrew met me at the airport as he caught the train from his work in London. It was kinda weird, like we were dating again and meeting up for a quick holiday away!
Anyway, we got there with plenty of time to spare. Even though I was panicking I would get stuck in traffic and Andrew would get stuck at work late! Our plane left at 10pm to Athens, only an hour flight, and then we had a 1 hr 30min wait before we caught our flight to the island of Kefalloni�. We sat at the airport in a VERY small waiting room and I began to wonder what kind of plane we were going on. Next thing we walked onto the runway to a smallish plane with monster propellers on either side. We climbed on to the rear of the plane up about 6 steps while the luggage was being loaded on, on the opposite side. I could see them carrying on the bags. It was so strange, but exciting. The plane was only 4 seats wide! And then when I looked out of the window where we were sitting I noted we were sitting in line with the propeller. My mind started to think what would happen if the propeller came loose!
But we got there safe and sound at about 6 in the morning. There was a time difference of 2 hours behind and as a result Andrew and I were finished!
Spiro and Nat�s met us at the airport and drove us to the hotel we would stay at until Monday. Of course really nice to see them both again. They both have not changed a bit. Andrew of course pleased to see his good friend again. It was really sweet, the Sunshine Inn. It was in the middle of suburbia from what I could gather but we had arrived in time for Spiro�s cousins wedding which we were going to crash! Andrew knew him but I had only met him once on one of my first trips to Joburg! Anyway, the Inn was booked in Greek style �We�re friends and family for the wedding, people from SA and England�. It was really cool.
We dumped our bags in the room and then went to meet everyone for breakfast after which we changed into our costumes and headed for the pool. After being in the cold for so long we were going to make the most of the sun and pool!!!
Needless to say I fell asleep in the sun-lounger and Andrew wouldn�t get out of the pool! But we eventually succumbed to fatigue and went for an afternoon nap in our air-conditioned rooms for a few hours. The temperature was about 35˚C.
The wedding was at 5pm. So after a cold shower and changing, we headed off. The reception was not too far to drive to, it was this really old block of a building with dust roads outside but when you went inside it was really ornate. Beautiful! Just incredibly hot. We were all feeling sticky after only having cold showers an hour earlier. It was a traditional Greek wedding and the �church� only had seats around the outside, against the walls, so we got in early and grabbed some seats. Everyone else had to stand!!! Of course we could not understand a word of the ceremony, but having been to a few greek weedings before we knew what to expect. Spiro and his bride Lee had to say their vows, then walk around the alter a few times wearing these fancy halo type things joined with neat ribbon. Then while they were walking around the alter three times, everybody started throwing raw rice at them like we would normally throw confetti. I have never seen so much rice fly! Of course been completely starved and more hungry than an Ethiopian we even contemplated eating the rice.
Afterwards we went to the reception which was at Lee�s(the new bride) parent�s house. They had decided to set up a permanent function venue at their island home to rent out after the wedding. Start a little business. So they had built a little house, looked like a pool house, which housed toilet facilities and they had sunk a circular cement block in the grass as a dance floor. Well, when we got there I thought I was in another world. It was such a beautiful setting. They even had a bar set up serving whatever cocktail, drink you wanted! As you can see from the pictures, it really was awesome. The food was delicious. I piled my plate so full with all the Greek dishes. After dinner, dancing under the stars all dressed up was really something!
But as the boys wanted to get some scuba diving in the next day, we did not over-indulge and left at a reasonable hour after having an incredibly awesome night! What a great way to start our holiday!
The next morning we went into town as Nat�s and I wanted to do some shopping, Apparently things were priced rather reasonably for designer labels. The plan was that the boy�s would join us for a while and then head off to go diving. I had seen pictures and heard about the diving and was not keen as I did not think it was worth it. So we would go shopping and then catch a cab back to the Inn when we were finished. But what we did not know was that on Sunday�s all the shops were closed, so after a coffee, the boys took us back to the Inn and headed off.
Nat�s and I spent the day lazing by the pool and as I had no need to keep my hair straight and looking good, wedding over, I did some swimming too. It was rather weird after not swimming for so long!
The boy�s got back in the late afternoon after their dive. Can you believe they had to chum the water to attract the fish before going in? That�s because they used to fish by using dynamite, everything looked grey and dead. I think I got a better deal lazing by the poolside and catching a bit of colour. Of course Andrew and Spiro did enjoy it. Andrew even enjoys diving in mud for some reason!
The Inn had a poolside restaurant, more like a poolside bar and a pizza oven/braai so we all met up for dinner in the evening and turned in for an early night. Almost everyone was heading back the next morning and we were leaving too.
So Monday morning we headed to the island of Ith�ki where we were going to stay in Spiro�s family house in the village of Kioni. We caught a cab to the port of Sami, where we then caught a ferry across to Ithaki where our first cabbie had arranged for a friend of his to pick us up and drive us to the house. But, just our luck, halfway across we went straight into a huge rain storm. It was weird as you could see it in the distance and the next thing it hit us, we had to run inside as the wind was really strong and the rain came down in buckets. A good laugh until we were left to walk onto the island with no shelter near, and try and find our cabbie who we had never met before. Fortunately we managed to drag ourselves and our bags into a container that was on the dock and Nat�s went off to find our cabbie, she can speak Greek really fluentlyl! So after a few seconds she had found him and we put our drentched bodies and baggage into his dry car and headed off to start our week of relaxation.
The rain eventually stopped and by the time we got to Kioni the sun was out again. Spiro�s house was at the top of the village and had the most awesome view of the bay. It was truly breath-taking. Despite being a true village house built many moons ago by his grandfather it was just perfect! We chose the room which had the best view over the bay, I loved coming back and opening the shutters! Everything was very basic, even down to the loo which was an asbestos outhouse with the shower over it which only had cold water. This was going to be an experience. Their was a warm shower downstairs though, if you didn�t mind having to hold the shower head while you showered. But the house was not plumbed for water so all the water came from a well which was under the house. You had to pump the water to a tank higher up on the property and when this ran out you had to pump
more water. As the water was only obtained from rain this was rather precious. No long showers then for Andrew! But who would want to waste time in a shower when you could swim in sea as clear as a pool and dry off on a balcony with a breath-taking view anyway?
Our first order of business was getting transport for the week. So off we went walking to the next village to hire scooters. We were told by Spiro it would be a quick walk and not to worry, turned out to be about an hour walk on a winding up and down road in 35˚ heat! The night before Spiro had spent over an hour trying to convince us that hiring scooters was really a bad idea. He tried to paint the picture of us permanently picking bugs out our teeth and having pox marks on our faces from killing insects on our foreheads. Nevertheless we were determined to make the most of the island spirit and continued in the heat on the way to get the scooters. It was fun to go back on the bike with the breeze.
Next stop was a few food supplies for the week. Of course once Andrew had wheels under him he wanted to do some exploring too. So we drove around a bit on the island and saw the many little beaches that we would grace with our presence over the next week. Let me tell you about the place we bought our meat. I t was so quaint, a really old butcher. You walked into this fully tiled square room that had meat posters on the wall and some old weighing machines. You explained what you wanted and then the butcher opened this monster freezer room at the back and bought out chunks of �animal� and then cut off what you wanted. We ended up just buying pre-made kebabs and mince. The cool part about the mince was he made it fresh for us. Out came some prize chunks of meat and in it went into the mince machine for us. Don�t get fresher than that!
Dinners that week consisted mostly of kebabs salad and rice. I even got to like rice with Greek yoghurt over it. Very Greek but yummy! The fruit and veg are all grown on the island so they were quite tasty, monster tomatoes though!
Each day we woke up and made breakfast, yoghurt with fruit-salad and toast, local breads/loaves with jam. The jam was from the wedding, they had made jam for everyone to take home as their gifts. Very yummy. Then it was off to the beach. The perfect life!
The beaches were beautiful. Pebbly, so rather uncomfortable to walk on barefoot and you had to wriggle to get comfortable on your towel but you could hire lounges on most beaches and the water made up for it. It was like a swimming pool, so clear and no waves. We did a bit of snorkelling but besides the water being so clear, there was not too much to look at in terms of tropical fish. Andrew and Spiro spent hours every day snorkelling and one day even found a Moray eel. They were also always trying to see how deep they could get on a single breath.
One day we hired a boat and went to beaches that were inaccessible by any other way. It was really cool. One had a fishing boat that had sunk which the guys went and looked at snorkelling. Can you believe it that they managed to swim down to 14.2m and took a look at it. In order to prove that got down they had to bring up a small piece of sea weed or sand to prove they had got to the bottom! Crazy, but boys will be boys. One bay we found had a massive private yacht moored in it. Nat�s and I were convinced we would see Brad Pitt on the deck at some point. Turned out to be some boring family!
So most of the week passed like this, a few times we went down to the harbour for lunch, drinks, coffee! And one afternoon we took the hours drive to Vathy which is the capital of the island. It mostly consisted of restaurants and tourist shops filled with junk, but it was the perfect stop for sun hats, Andrew got a straw cowboy hat and I got a floppy orange hat, and send some postcards to send home! And then it was off to the beach again!
Sunday came much too quickly and it was soon time for us to leave. We caught the ferry back to Sami and then caught a cab to the same Inn we stayed in before. Spiro and Nat�s stayed in Ith�ki, so Andrew and I were put to the test with our communication skills. There is no way in hell you can understand the Greek language and being so rural, not many people spoke English. But we managed fine, we even got the Inn�s receptionist�s friend to give us a lift to Town for free. He spoke quite fluent English and had even been to England with his girlfriend. We went into Town for dinner at the main square which had a really �fun� ambiance. As the Greek�s practise siestas, everyone was still out late at night! We stuffed ourselves with souvl�kia and Greek pita�s. Afterwards we went walking around looking for something to take home. Everything was such �junk� so we ended up with nothing. Except me, I was looking at some handbags outside a shop and when we were abut to walk away, the sales girl came out and said �we can work something out�. I played the love-sick girl and said it was up to Andrew. So into the store they went and Andrew wangled her down to half the marked price. A bargain! So at least we got one thing on our holiday besides our hats!
The hotel reception had arranged for a taxi to pick us up to take us to the airport at 6am. But when he hadn�t arrived at 6:20am we started to panic as the plane was leaving at 7am So we started to make frantic phone calls but to no avail and were starting to think we would miss our flight. We even phoned Spiro, the one who got married and asked if he knew anyone that could fetch us. He said he would call us back, anyway, we eventually got through to a cab company who said our friend had just called her and a cab was on his way. Now the question was could he drive like the wind??? So after a few back roads and high speed turns, our cabbie got us in half the time than when we arrived and we walked straight into the airport and onto the plane. Literally. It was the weirdest thing ever. You walk in up to an x-ray machine. Put your luggage on, collect it the otherside and walk 2 steps to the ticket lady. She gives you your boarding card and takes your luggage. You walk out the one door onto the runway to the plane and your bag goes on the trolley 2 meters away from you with some loading guy! Andrew and I sat into our seats breathing a deep sign of disbelief that we had made it�
We arrived at Heathrow to see the aftermath of the airport bomb scare. There was lost baggage strewn all over the airport and loads of people queuing for lost baggage. As luck would have it, our bags took an hour to come through and then my bag had a broken wheel. Irreparable, so off we went to queue in the broken baggage queue along with the lost baggage people. After standing in that queue for about an hour and having one to many people jumping the queue to ask a �quick� question, like �can you promise my bags will be here tomorrow� like the poor lady knows that, I interrupted someone and said �no, you can�t ask a question because every time I end up waiting 5 minutes longer, get in line!�. The poor guy looked at me so shocked and left and everyone in the queue looked at me scared. But the moans of having to wait stopped and it wasn�t long before we were seen to. Now we wait for a replacement bag.
But all-in-all it was a great holiday and we can�t wait to go again. If anybody wants a really relaxing and beautiful holiday make an effort to get to one of the small Greek Island.
Lots of Love
Melanie and Andrew