A to Z of Postcards – K is for Kefalonia

In the first half of 2000 work was getting onerous and less enjoyable and I was beginning to lose my enthusiasm for working for a company (Onyx UK) that was financed by public taxes but was providing an ever deteriorating level of service.  I had a new boss who I didn’t get on with and I needed a holiday so at the beginning of June I went to the Ionian island of Kefalonia with mum and dad and son Jonathan.

As it happened it turned out to be the last time that I went away with dad because he became too ill to travel soon after that.

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Corfu – Moorings, Ropes and Chains

Earlier this month I spent a week with my family in Corfu.  We stayed in the village of Kalami which is a favourite of mine and where we have stayed several times before.

I have written about Kalami before so this time I was looking for something new and came up with these mooring rings in the nearby harbour…

Sunday Sunsets – The Cylcades

This one is from Ios at the very top of the island.

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People Pictures – A Bus Ride in Amorgos

When it comes to taking pictures I like doors, statues, balconies and washing lines, Kim on the other hand likes people pictures so I thought I might share a few of them with you.

Kim spotted this noble looking woman on a bus ride on the Greek island of Amorgos…

The bus fare to Katapola was good value at only €2.80 each and after we paid the driver started the engine and left exactly on time.

We sat close to the front of the bus and in the seat directly behind the driver there was an old woman in widow’s weeds who was determined to talk constantly in some sort of quest to distract him and thoroughly test his driving ability as he eased the vehicle out of the village and began the ascent to the top of the mountain that separates the two ends of the island.

As the bus climbed higher into the interior and the engine began to complain and the gearbox groan the sides of the mountain became surprisingly greener with rugged plants clinging stubbornly to the desperately thin soil and then we reached the top of the mountainous spine of the island and we could see all the way down across the Chora and into the port of Katapola and still the woman in the seat behind the driver kept talking.

I’d have backed that woman in a talk-off against my mum!

The bus stopped briefly at the Chora to pick up more passengers and then the driver set off down the hairpin bends of the mountain road and down to the port.  I think he liked this part of the journey most of all because he made especially extravagant manoeuvres with increasingly theatrical turns of the steering wheel and he was confident too, even at one stage of the precipitous descent taking time out to make a telephone call while still listening all the time to the woman behind him jabbering away.

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The Greek Island of Symi

This gallery contains 10 photos.

Sunday Sunset – The Statue of Erato in Amorgos

At the entrance to the harbour in Katapola on the island of Amorgos is a statue of Erato.  In Greek mythology Erato was one of the nine Greek Muses who were inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. Erato was the Muse of love and lyric poetry,  Very appropriate because it is impossible not to fall in love with Amorgos.

We had a bit of fun with this one…

 

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Sunset Sunday – Egalia in Amorgos

Sunset Sunday – Katapola in Amorgos

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A to Z of Windows – S is for Santorini

By 2008 I had been to Santorini three times before, in 2002, 2004 and in 2006 and although I rather like it I have to say that it is no longer my favourite.

The trouble with Santorini is that once you have been elsewhere it simply becomes less impressive.  Everyone says ‘Oh, you are going to Greece, you must go to Santorini!’  but generally these are tourists who haven’t been to Amorgos, Sikinos or Folegandros and these islands, let me tell you, are many times better that easily eclipse Santorini despite its stunning caldera and unique scenery.

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A to Z of Windows – G is for the Greek Island of Corfu

In the 1980s Corfu was expanding rapidly as a tourist destination and was acquiring an uneviable reputation as a party island and magnet for unruly British tourists on boozy Club 18-30 holidays.   They were drawn in the main to the hedonistic town of Benitses which was well known for heavy drinking, beach parties, wild behaviour and street fighting.  There was a story at the time that even the island police were frightened to go in there after dark but I am not sure if this was really true.

Over the next twenty years or so the locals who lived in the village grew tired of its  reputation and ill-disciplined guests and made a determined effort to throw off its bad ill-repute.  Benitses set about reinventing itself with the addition of a swanky marina, up-market hotels and a string of classy bars and tavernas.

The rowdy youngsters were carefully redirected to Kavos in the the far south of the island where they were kept as far away as possible from families and the mostly well behaved.

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