LEFKADA.

Where we found our muse. Island no.3.

To get to these islands by public transport is difficult, very little online booking and we just hope that the next bus catches up with the next bus to the island. I asked the girls at the hotel last night but no one spoke English. The owner came in as I was trying to find out how to pay for the buses and he said he would come in early and organise it for us. I went down at nine and of course, no one was there. We would just hope that we could buy the tickets there. A lot of hit and miss but we ordered a taxi that finally fitted our bags in and was able to close the boot and we were delivered to the next bus.

This bus hit the road at full speed. We had a ten minute leeway for the bus to the island - so far so good. But so many people hailed the bus down in the middle-of-nowhere places. And Greek phones have such weird and loud ringtones! They were going throughout our trip and people shouting into their phones, people getting on with their groceries and sitting on the steps talking to the bus driver as he increased his speed after each pick up. Whether it was because I had asked him if we would make the next bus or not, I don't know. Beside him were framed photos of saints and every now and then, we saw him making the sign of the cross! We got there just on time, even asking the next bus driver if he’d wait whilst we went to the toilet as again, there was no toilet stop on our four hour journey.

We arrived in Lefkada and found our house we were staying in. We were so excited as we had a room each! Luxury! It was lovely, old and full of character. I had read that people had complained about the noise from the Cuban bar across from us, going late into the night during the summer. We worried how our sleep would be affected.

We headed into town for our first meal of Horta and various dishes. The food was good, the town, sadly slightly derelict. I discovered upon reading that most of the town was destroyed in an earthquake in the 1950’s and what was left was rebuilt upon the stone base with the second floor of corrugated iron which evidently was stronger in case of another quake.

After dinner we thought we’d check out the Cuban bar and there we discovered our muse - an Athenian woman modelled on Frida Kahlo with a lot of charm, personality plus and charisma. She smoked a cigar, drifted about with long dresses and strings of jewellery around her throat. We all fell in love. Her partner was a musician and as the night went on, she took us in hand. She taught us how to smoke a cigar and do the salsa. Who cared that the music went on into the wee hours! That the drinks were a long time coming because she was the only one working. We were there every night afterwards.

The town itself looked slightly Cuban, the colours, the streets, the interesting cafes. I had the best eggplant rolls filled with goat’s cheese at a cute cafe filled with vintage tins and signs. The colours were bright and cheerful.

The coffee good!

And then, the next day, the piece di resistance! The Odysseia boat tour that I booked. We had to get a taxi to the other side of the island to get on board but what a trip it was! The boat is amazing, like an old pirate ship but Greek style. The crew was friendly, the Captain dressed for action on the high seas. The day is perfect. The boat is amazing. Downstairs there’s even a shower. Upstairs there’s Greek paintings of Minoan dolphins and acrobats.

We stop first at the Meganisi cave to swim in the azure, turquoise waters. And then a stop at Spartochorion, to walk up the mountain to a church and then another swim and then we’re off again.

On the way to the next location, our Captain pours us all an ouzo whilst singing a Greek song. The theatrics are welcomed by his passengers,

And then we dock on Ellomenos beach for a BBQ lunch. Someone has been dropped off earlier and he’s cooking the meat kebabs. Salads are made, wine in old fashioned bottles are cooled by the waves. The kebabs are amazing, the Captain serves, picking up the kebabs and dipping them in oil flavoured with crushed garlic and oregano, then a big spoonful of tzatziki and ruby red tomatoes and thick slices of crisp cucumber and a slab of fetta. The best lunch. And then for another swim amongst so many fish! Honestly, this trip is the best boat tour ever.

Then we’re on the way again for a last swim at the island of Skorpios, where Jackie Onassis holidayed when she wedded Aristotle Onassis and then we’re off again. The Captain is up the front, looking out with his binoculars, scarf wrapped around his head, checking to see if the wind is right to be able to hoist the sail and so it is. A few guests help raise the sail and there is the eye of Odysseus on the big red sail as we drift towards home, borne on the breeze, being served big hunks of rose coloured, sweet watermelon. What an amazing day!

Finishing the night with an eggplant stew topped with feta and baked in a clay pot.

After that we head back home via the Cuban bar to smoke some more of the huge cigar the muse Frida gifted us and tried to teach us to smoke it. The girls get it, I struggle and splutter but try to look sophisticated. It is chocolatey and fragrant but after a few puffs, we’re all done with cigar smoking.

Next morning, we have a six hour wait for the ferry to Ithaca and we have to be out of the room by 11 am. The ferry leaves from another part of the island so we see quite a bit of island on our way there. We have an amazing lunch at a Taverna on the port, feeding the fish with the basket of bread they always bring and which we hardly ever eat and which we watched being delivered from a big box on the back of a motorbike.We ate roast chicken with lemony potatoes and I suspect a sprinkle of turmeric, horta and our vegetarian friend had her favourite butter beans or gigan beans as they say on all the menus.

And then we head to a bar that has a pool so we can hang out for the rest of the day. I order an amazing cocktail - watermelon, amaretto and Southern comfort which sounds terrible and so I had to try it but it was good. And then suddenly I felt as if I was coming down with a cold and it hit me like a truck. Luckily there was a beach chair and I went into a daze (and no, not from the cocktail). It was such a weird feeling but finally the ferry arrived and we were transported to yet another Ionian island. The fabled island of Ithaca.

SKOPELOS.

Mama Mia magic. Island no. 2.

Skopelos, the Mama Mia island. A brief ferry ride from Skiathos and another town of white houses, lime washed streets and lovely shops. We settle into our strange little two bedroom apartment with a kitchen separate out on lovely balcony with a view of the water in the distance and we check out the town and have some lunch. A friend who’s with us has a tuna salad and after a few minutes, she begins to have a reaction. The daughter takes her off to a chemist, the chemist says take her to the medical centre and there she is pumped with cortisone and put on a drip for a couple of hours. It was from the tuna we think, having googled it. That’s the last of the canned tuna for her for a while. But we were impressed that they looked after her so quickly.

The next day we walked to a beach that google said was twenty minutes away - it lied but on the way up a myriad of white staircases, we came across a little cafe run by an old couple who had met the Mama Mia stars and had photos with Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep. We stopped and had a juice before we were on our way again. The beach was windswept and picturesque and we had the best zucchini chips with tzatziki.

All the Mama Mia tours were booked out so we hired a car and I was impressed with our friend's skill in driving a manual on the wrong side of the road with crazy drivers and tiny roads clinging on the edge of cliffs. We went to the famous church on the cliff and sweated our way up the 110 steps to the tiny church which is nothing like the one in the movie (but we had been warned). Still, we lit candles but it was so hot and there were so many that they instantly melted into a sea of wax.

Then we went to another beach where scenes were filmed but it was full with a lot of loud music coming from the bar so we tried for another beach, the one with the jetty from one of the scenes from the movieB and there we found peace. It was quiet, we settled beneath a fig tree that provided us with tasty sweet figs and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. There was a small cave that you could swim into and when I went, there was a Greek guy singing and when you were in the cave, it had amazing acoustics. He was a bit embarrassed and stopped and I told him to continue. It’s moments like these that travel memories are made. On the way home, we sang Abba songs. I think our Mama Mia tour was the best.

The next day, I found a cute cafe where I sat with a selection of different cats and enjoyed good coffee.

On our last night we ate by the harbour and then were treated to a performance by a group of circus people who were also musicians, did acrobatics on their boat while behind them a full moon lit up the harbour. A nice farewell. Next day we were on a journey to the other side of Greece.

VOLOS, IOANNINA AND BEYOND.

We took the ferry back to Volos, staying the night there and eating a wonderful meal of garlic oyster mushrooms, stuffed vegetables and ouzo and got to chat with a couple from New York in search of the husband’s relatives and then the next day we were off on a long journey, longer than even we thought possible.

I had chosen a lakeside town on the western side of Greece as it was almost halfway. We boarded the bus knowing that even though it was a four hour trip, we would at least stop halfway. It didn’t stop, we just kept driving and driving, over mountain passes with hairpin bends and just when we thought we were stopping for a break, the bus driver got off and when we looked out he was having an animated discussion with some police and showing them his documents etc. It took ages and we were all getting nervous but finally he got in and drove off. But the amazing thing was we got to see (well from a distance), the amazing monasteries built atop the Meteora rock formations that arise out of the plain. There are twenty four monasteries built between the 13th -14th centuries on these immense natural pillars.

Five hours later we arrived, desperate for food and toilets. The bus hadn’t stopped once, normally they stop for a break at a roadside restaurant, this time, nothing. We looked at the taxi rank and were slightly concerned at the slightly dishevelled drivers and their even more dilapidated cars. We had to take the first one and his boot was already full of his stuff, he starts to try and jam our bags in and gives up on trying to close the boot. Luckily our hotel is not far, as we all look out the back as he charges off into the traffic.

We head into town for sustenance and happen upon a restaurant with an Aussie manager. His family went to Australia but he never really felt at home there and returned to Ioannina, a beautiful lakeside town with castle walls and an island with medieval houses on it. I wish we had longer here but it’s just a night. This is a restaurant where you eat the food of the day which is on display. I have male chicken as it is called in a rich tomato and cinnamon stew with vegetables and we order half a litre of wine and he tells us it’s not enough and brings a litre which he tells us is on the house. And as usual, when we ask for the bill in Greece, they bring you something - this time, the sweetest watermelon.

We walk down to the lake just on dusk, soft silken apricot light drifts across the water and as we walk home, we discover this is the city of silver, where most of the silver jewellery of Greece is made.

If it wasn’t such a long journey to get here, I would come again. The streets are decorated with beautiful murals and there are quaint cafes, one of which I go to before we leave the next day for Lefkada, the island on the west side of Greece.

Skiathos.

Island number 1.

So getting public transport in Greece is a bit tricky. It exists if you can just work out how to access it. It’s taken a lot of research (which got me nowhere) and finally the hotel owner has come through with timetables and tickets. We have to take a taxi to the bus station as bus stations are always in the middle of nowhere in some dodgy part of town, (this is no exception) but we’re finally off and away to the port of Volos where, after a lengthy bus trip, we will stay overnight and then do the next leg refreshed. The port town is grotty as all port towns are and the taxi driver tries to jam our bags into his very small boot even when we hint that we might need a bigger taxi. As we take off in a puff of dust, the boot pops open and when we point this out, the driver just shrugs. We count our bags as they are removed and are relieved to know we haven’t lost any on the road.

We head off for lunch and here we learn what happens when you order ouzo pre meal. Ouzo arrives along with various dishes of pickled foods…and then we had ordered our lunch on top of that. Suffice it to say, we were well fed.

Next day, we boarded the ferry to Skiathos. An island on the eastern side of Greece in the Ionian sea. We arrived to palpable heat and a lack of taxis but finally we were delivered to a house with a small studio in a lovely garden with ten cats in residence. The studio is beautiful - white linens, lace, pastel colours, pale green shutters, a quirky bathroom with a separate shower in a cubbyhole in the hall with a tree branch to hold the curtain and a lovely outdoor area that we don’t use much as it’s too hot. Fairytale, it’s called.

The daughter is worried about the walk into town in this heat, as we’re a bit of a distance from there but as we walk along the little roads, we pass so many fruit trees that we lose track of time. We snack on tiny blackberries sun-ripened and warm; there are quince and pomegranate trees heavy with unripe fruit, butterflies hover and flutter, dogs stretch out in the heat, the sound of thousands of cicadas fill the heated air as we suddenly come out near the inlet of water and find a street full of restaurants on the water’s edge.

We chose a lovely one and I have feta in filo pastry with mama’s homemade fig jam and we order the horta as per usual. We also try the Retsina which is smooth at first and then leaves a strange aftertaste.

That night we eat at Milos, at an old mill, tables outside by the water where we have big saganaki prawns and discover that the planes come in close, really close. Tomorrow is my birthday and the daughter notices that one of the planes is a TUI one, my mum’s name. I feel it’s her saying hello. On the way home, we feast again on the blackberries along the roadside.

The next day we head off on a boat trip to beaches you can only access by sea. Lovely calm waters and we walk up to an old church and then we go to another one with a taverna on the beach run by father, frustrated son and very overworked chef. We wait patiently but no food appears, we ask once, then twice and then worry that the boat will leave without us. Everybody is complaining, the son walks off when we refuse to pay for the whole bill as we were only served half of the food, then the father is yelling and the whole scene erupts Greek style and we leave them to sort it out.

The next beach we are told may be too rough to land but if they do, as soon as we hear the horn of the boat, we have to be ready to jump onboard. Needless to say, I don’t swim, the daughter and I look for rocks instead and we’re ready to board when it does blow its horn.

The next day is my birthday and we walk into town for a birthday breakfast. Fantastic pastries Skiathos style, filled with nuts and an excellent iced coffee because here it is too hot for the hot one. And then we wander up a lot of white stairs and light some candles in the church. It’s a cute town with interesting decor in the restaurants and lovely art shops. We swim in the blue, blue waters, walk back past plum trees and beautiful butterflies enjoying the lantana here that seems to not go wild as it does in Australia.

That night we dine at another restaurant on the water, watching the fish, listening to a cute little English girl call Violet, regale us with stories about her life, watching a fisherman come in, wild and weathered but seemingly without a catch of fish. We eat pickled samphire which I’m not so keen on, pumpkin flowers stuffed with smoked ricotta and served with tzatziki and I had an amazing dish of squid and boiled greens And then, the entertainment for the evening - plane watching.

And it’s a thing! People gather near the runway, there’s even a bar there where you can buy a takeaway ouzo and watch the planes take off and land. The winds are enough to blow off hats, glasses and scarves, a variety of which litter the rocks and beach. The daughter found her hat metres away, her friend found her glasses even further. It’s the highlight of the evening for many a folk on the island of Skiathos. We are sad to leave.