Holiday - Day one and two in Diary

Tuesday 5th September

The alarm goes off at 3:30am. Our flight isn’t until 7:15am and the airport is about 10 miles away, but after we almost missed our flight to Amsterdam due to the motorway being closed and it taking two hours to get there, we didn’t want to take any risks! So we were there before 4:30am, hahaha. It was good though as it gave us plenty of time to have a Wetherspoons breakfast and our first alcoholic drink of the holiday.

This flight was also delayed and we were sitting on the tarmac for about an hour, just like we were for our Amsterdam flight! Apparently the French air traffic control were on strike so the airspace over France was a bit messed up so we had to wait.

Flight was good, a tailwind meant we made up a lot of the time that we lost. Kefalonia airport is very small and very unorganised; they only have one baggage carousel for the whole airport. OK so they only have three gates, but that meant we had to stand and watch the baggage for three flights going round and round. It took us about 40 minutes to get our bags!

We then got on the coach for a one hour transfer to the hotel and had our first glimpse of some of the Kefalonian scenery, which is beautiful. It’s a small island, very mountainous, so almost everywhere you look, you can see mountains and the Ionian sea.

The hotel was basic, but it was clean and comfortable, so that was fine. The only problem we had was that it was in the middle of nowhere; the nearest town was a 15 minute walk along a dusty country road with no pavement, so that was a bit hairy late at night with cars whizzing past blaring their horns at us! They don’t even do food in the hotel so we had no choice but to walk into town each evening to eat.

There were lots of nice restaurants to choose from, but NO BARS. We found one bar called Woody’s, but it took them almost 20 minutes to bring us one drink, even though is was deserted. The bar staff were more interested in smoking and chatting. So we only had one drink there and spent the rest of the time either in the hotel bar or drinking on our balcony.

Wednesday 6th September

Sami, where we were staying, doesn’t have a beach. The closest beach is a one hour walk away. We both enjoy walking, so we bought a bottle of water from the supermarket and set off before the sun came over the mountain, as it was about 28C / 82F when the sun comes up properly, and we didn’t want to be walking in that, being all pale and delicate like we are.

We had a good walk, saw some nice scenery and burnt off enough calories for us to start the day’s drinking ;o)

Goats!

Our first glimpse of Antisamos beach. Dave thinks it looks like Jurassic Park and was making up a story about pterodactyls flying through the trees and a herd of velociraptors running down the mountain towards the beach.

We were well rewarded when we got there. The was a bar on the beach, with free sunbeds and parasols. The staff bring all your drinks and food straight to you and you just pay the bill at the end of the day. Unfortunately, the beach is pebbles rather than sand, but that’s the only problem with it. We had a lovely, relaxing day. Sunbathing, reading, swimming in the sea, drinking and eating. We both had risotto for lunch and it was delicious.

Oh, I forgot about the wasps! There were a couple of wasps who wouldn’t leave us alone; we had to cover our drinks with a book and, when we were eating, I had to make a tent out of my towel and hide under that. A massive hornet even made an appearance at one point! For some reason, two of the wasps decided that they wanted to eat my feet; one landed on my toe and I could feel it actually biting my skin! I didn’t want to waft it away in case it stung me, so it sat there for about 10 minutes, actually eating me. Urgh! When a second one joined in, I couldn’t take it any more and had to waft them away and put my socks on…so there I was, sitting in the sweltering heat, wearing a bikini and a pair of socks…I must have looked like a nutter.

We decided not to walk back and got the bar staff to order us a taxi. We got back, showered and went out for food. Back to the hotel, bed and ready for day three.

Last updated September 26, 2017