Kefalonia

I think Greece has the most olive trees Ive ever seen, that and orange trees, i bet they are the top producers of Olive Oil? We didn’t know much about Greece and really didn’t know where best to go so first we took the ferry from Bari in Italy over to Kefalonia, one of the Greek islands. After a rough ferry ride and two ferries later we finally arrived. We are in the off season as far as tourism goes so it is to be expected that some hotels and shops are shut down for the season but this island was pretty quiet. I think that we are probably travelling about one month behind what would be best over here in Europe, i think it would have been better to be in Greece for the month of October not November.

The water is beautiful, clear and blue, it probably was still warm enough for a swim but with the weather we have been having, its pretty stormy, we didn’t feel much like taking off our biking gear and taking a dip. Instead we decided to jump on the bike and take a ride around the island and its several small villages. Mostly olive trees, lemon trees, goats and sheep on this island, you can smell them before you see them! The landscape is very barren and rocky too, we stayed in its capital town of Argostoli, it was really nice, they have the main street closed off to traffic and there were lots of choices for restaurants and shops etc. In the heat of the summer i bet this is a bustling little town.

We met a Greek Canadian that had lived in Ontario and moved back here a number of years ago and remarried a Greek girl, he was not overly impressed with the Greek government and the politics over here. He said tourism is down and business are closing and some people don’t know if they are even going to have a job next week, he was considering if it would be best to move back to Canada or not.

He invited us back to his place to meet his wife and for coffee, he filled us in on where to go in Greece and what to expect like, whatever you do stay to the right while driving, the far right as the drivers will drive in your lane anyway, this we noticed pretty quick.

We do like the food here and the price of it, beer is cheap and good and they always serve it with free chips or nuts and coffee, don’t order Greek coffee though, they serve with cake or a cookie so that way we can skip lunch, good for the budget.

We all met for dinner that night for traditional Greek food and it was served not on plates with knives and forks but on greaseproof paper right on the table and eat with your fingers. We had Pita and Zatziki dip with spicy cheese dip, then chips, then green salad, roast port, bbq chicken and beer all for $47.euro for all 4 of us, really good and pretty cheap!