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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Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

Beyond the Alleyway and the Door 

As Fiskardo is the only place that escaped the damage it is consequently the only village to see examples of the old Venetian architecture.  The buildings around the harbour however had had a very heavy makeover and didn’t feel especially genuine but those in the back streets leading off the harbour were much more authentic.

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My Favourite Pictures of the Greek Islands – 23

Fiskardo, Kefalonia

As Fiskardo is the only place that escaped the 1953 earthquake damage it is consequently the only village to see examples of the old Venetian architecture.  The buildings around the harbour however had had a very heavy makeover and didn’t feel especially genuine but those in the back streets leading off the harbour were much more authentic.

The waterfront was awash with gaily-painted houses and the narrow streets away from the cobbled sea front were lined with tourist trinket shops and all-in-all Fiskardo felt more up-market than the other villages that we had visited.  To go with this impression also went the prices and a simple round of drinks at a waterside bar cost considerably more drachmas than we had become accustomed to spending.  We watched the fancy boats coming in and out of the bay and the harbour and then as Fiskardo is only quite a small place and it was getting crowded we left and headed back down the twisting coast road again through the rugged wilderness of the north-west coast and towards our intended destination of Assos.

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My Favourite Pictures of the Greek Islands – 9

Feral Cat at Fiskardo on Kefalonia

One thing for sure is that Greece has more than its fair share of cats and it is almost impossible to have a meal at a pavement taverna without a feline or two as a dining companion.  The Greek islands in particular are overrun with cats and they are fed by kind hearted tourists during the summer months.  The breeding potential of cats is phenomenal and if an average female produces three litters of four kittens annually and the female kittens go on at the same rate the result is about five thousand cats from a single breeding female in four years

“These cats, that are domestic cats, are not abandoned, neither wild, they live for centuries with the humans. The Greek people of these islands like them without really liking them, they take care of them without really taking care of them; but they accept them totally. These cats are part of daily life, they’ve always been here, like the wind, the sun, the sea, the day and the night.”

Les Chats du Soleil, La Martinière, 1993 by photographer Hans Sylvester

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Kefalonia, Fiskardo and Assos

The north part of Kefalonia is the most wild and rugged and at the very northern tip is the town of Fiskardo which was the only place on the island that wasn’t flattened by the earthquake.  We set off straight after breakfast and after by-passing Argostoli drove through the village of Farsa, which was desperately unremarkable and would have been completely unrecognisable to poor old Captain Corelli.

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