Resebrev från Grekland 2006

 

© Text & Bild: Arne and Ann Sjöblom,

A week in Kefalonia, Greece, July 8-15, 2006

We travelled with Swedish travel agency Airtours and stayed at Grand View Apartments. Some general aspects of staying in Kefalonia:
- Do you want to stay at a place with convenient walking distance to sandy beaches and tourist restaurants? Stay at Lassi or Skala
- Do you want to see and experience the whole island including traditional Greek restaurants? Stay in, or around, Argostoli and rent a car for the whole week as we did.
We booked a car through CBR and picked it up at the airport. It was a Hunyadi Atos with a/c (absolutely necessary) and a somewhat weak engine (1.1 liter). The car was alright but don't ask about how many miles you will get out of a full tank of petrol. The island is so hilly that you can't trust any traditional mileage information.

Grand View Apartments is located on a hill about 2 km from downtown Argostoli and you really need some sort of transportation device to get to and from Grand View Apartments. The accommodation was alright when you have a room with balcony but we got a twin room on the terrace below which smelled of mould. Not very nice but we managed to switch from room 13 to room 2 since we only needed 2 beds. There is a small shop at Grand View Apartments but they don't have fresh bread and other stuff that we think is necessary for breakfast.

Best supermarket we found was just opposite the hospital on Souidias street in downtown Argostoli. When you head down to Argostoli from the Lassi-junction (where the AVIN petrol station is located) you take the second street to the right (tight corner) and you will find the supermarket on the right side after ca. 500 meters. There is also a SPAR just beside the football stadium but that store is smaller than the supermarket mentioned.

We think that El Greco was the best Greek restaurant in Argostoli. Run by a family and nicely situated just above the main square in Argostoli (NB! It can be hard to find parking space in central Argostoli but we always found parking space around the cinema which is located two blocks above the main square). El Greco serves traditional Greek food and you can check the daily specials in a counter. The son of the family, Petter, takes care of you and his mother Anna runs the kitchen. Lots of locals visit the restaurants during the night which is good sign. A dinner with starters (saganaki, tzatsiki, termosalata) and some traditional main meal (chicken in lemon, moussaka) along with a couple of beers totalled about €22-25 for two persons. If you behave you will also receive a complimentary brandy (traditionally perfumed 3 star metaxa) or some dessert (we received some crème caramel). We dined four evenings out of seven during our week and always enjoyed ourselves. We also tried out a "traditional" touristy Greek restaurant in Lassi but was disappointed since we got the feeling that we were only interesting for the waiters until we sat down at a table. After that initial contact they hunted for more customers outside the restaurant and more or less forgot about the guests they had inside the restaurant. The food was about a 4 on a 10-scale with watered down tzatsiki, etc.

When in Kefalonia you have to travel around the Island and check out the beaches. Best way to reach the northern parts (Fiskardo, Mythos Beach, etc) is by travel straight across the Island from Argostoli to Sami over the mountains and the head north by Agios Efimia. We did try the western route from Argostoli to Mythos Beach but we found both the road and the local traffic to be stressing. We visited the western part of the island by taking the ferry from Argostoli to Lixouri (about €6,70 for a car and two people, one way tickets, every half hour from 6 AM to 24 PM) and then toured that part of the island.

 

Places to visit:
- Fiskardo, the small village way up north on the island. Picturesque, popular among private yachts, small harbour with highly priced restaurants (a Greek salad is €7). No beaches to be found but we heard that you can find beaches (small stretches) around the corner from the harbour. It takes about 90-100 minutes by car from Argostoli depending on how stressed you are. Beautiful views towards Itaka and Lefvkas.
- Assos, a small but very beautiful village on the west coast above Mythos beach towards Fiskardo. Very picturesque!
- Agios Efimia, small village north of Sami. Not much to see, just a small harbour. But on the road from Sami to Agios Efimia there are small beach patches where you can stop and take a refreshing dip in the big blue.
- Sami, sleepy village from where you can take a ferry to Itaka (three times per day). You can also visit the Drogkarati caves nearby (which we "avoided" on our trip).
- Lixouri, a small town compared with Argostoli, not so much to see. Some nice restaurants to the left of the square when looking up from the waterfront.
- Argostoli, when window shopping down the main shopping street (Valianou) you realise that people seems to be well off on Kefalonia. There are lots of shops with high quality clothes and the prices are matching the quality. Of course you will find tourist shops with "original" DKNY sun glasses for €8,50 but there are more highly priced shops than cheap tourist shops. The sea front is busy with tourists restaurants and fruit markets. The main square and surrounding streets are free from traffic after 6PM which is good for the coffee shops around the square.
- Lassi, lots of shops and supermarkets for tourists. Enough said.

Drive through areas:
- Drive through the hilly area above Argostoli towards the airport (not the main road through Lassi) and you will end up in small nice villages such as Helmata, Metaxata, Peratata, Kourkoumelata. Especially the last village is nice to drive through towards Sarlata and Svoronata. Check to find small village restaurants in this area. We looked but didn't find anything interesting but maybe you can look harder.

- Drive through the small villages above Lixouri; Monopolata, Dellaportata, Favatata and you will find nice views over Lixouri and Argostoli on the other side of Gulf of Argostoli.

The beaches; Sunbathing and swimming. Sandy beaches, where you can walk 25-30 meters out in the water (I am 1,86 meter i.e. 6,1''), are mainly located on the southern part of the island. Other beaches are mostly filled with small pebbles and rather steep when going into the water. Normally I couldn't keep my head above the water when being about four meters from the shoreline on most beaches.
- Lassi area; Markrys Gialos and Plays Gialos. Long sand beaches with lots of tourists and locals. Sun umbrella and two beds was €7. No real restaurants but there was some coffee and snack shops.
- Xi on the southern part of "Lixouri-island"; Rather narrow sandy beaches with red coloured sand. Lots of tourists and locals. Sun umbrella and two beds was €6.
- Petani beach on the western part of "Lixouri-island". Pebbles on the beach and rather stony sea bottom. Big slabs of stones laying around in the sand and in the water. Good place to go snorkelling. Good road to reach the beach. Best beach restaurant on the island with rather cheap Greek salad (first restaurant when coming down the road). Sun umbrella and two beds was €7-8.
- Platia Ammos (300 stairs to heaven). Looked for this place which is situated on the western part of "Lixouri-island" but missed it. We think you can find it when travelling on the road north of the Kypouria Monastery. Keep looking for a sign to go left towards the sea and follow that dirt road to a parking place where others have parked their cars. It is supposed to be very isolated and a beautiful place to watch the sun set in the Ionian Sea.

- Mythos beach. When coming from South or North by car, do stop and take pictures and the special parking places for picture-taking! The beach is somewhat 300 meters below you and it is so beautiful that you have to bring pictures home. The beach is mostly made out of pebbles with sand stretches. A small noisy coffee shop where you can buy a sandwich and some refreshment but no real restaurant. Parking place can be hard to find. Sun umbrella and two beds was €9.

Mythos beach from North.

- Antisamos beach outside Sami. A small and narrow road which starts in the harbour are takes you to this beautiful beach which is rather narrow and where you have cars going 3-4 meters behind you on the hunt for a place to park the car. Simple coffee shop where you can buy beer and refreshments. Pebbled beach. Sun umbrella and two beds was €6.
- Helias beach, east of the airport and south of Kourkoumelata and Sarlata. A hidden beach where it is hard to find parking place but well worth the trip.

We also visited Lourdas beach during one evening but didn't find it any special, more like the beaches in Lassi.

Arne and Ann Sjöblom, Sala.

 

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