Kefalonia Here I Come - June 2006

“What do you mean, Kefalonia?  I thought you said this trip was to California!”  That corny joke can only be used once or twice at best so I quickly shut up.  The Embassy has a Greek language program and one of the teachers is Ergini whose husband works in the Embassy.  She’s Greek-American and her grandparents were from the island of Kefalonia, largest of the Ionian Islands that lie between Greece and Italy.  Ergini leads trips throughout Greece for Embassy members – about twice a year.  We had previously taken her trips to Ancient Olympia and Kalamata so we had high hopes to visit her native island.



About twenty of us from the Embassy (including spouses) boarded our bus Friday afternoon about 2:30 pm and headed past Corinth and Patras to the small port of Kilini.  Kilini was an important city during the Crusades and was called Clarence at that time.  We had dinner at a taverna in town before we boarded our ferry, bus and all, for the island of Kefalonia.  As we sailed away we had good views of the famous Hlemoutsi (or Chlemoutsi) Castle, a strong Frankish fort built between 1220 and 1223.



Our cruise was pleasant and we arrived in the capital city of Kefalonia, Argostoli, about 11:00 am.  It was close to midnight when we arrived at the Galaxy Hotel on the outskirts of Argostoli and went to bed.



About 5:00 am we were suddenly awakened by a sizeable earthquake.  Well, it seemed sizeable to me since we haven’t experienced that many earthquakes.  It shook us both awake and Rita reported to me later in the morning that there was a follow up aftershock that I slept through.  At breakfast everyone was talking about it and someone said the news reported it to be 4.9 on the Richter scale.  We didn’t get any reports of damage other than loss of sleep.



We boarded our bus and headed south along a pretty coastline with secluded beaches.  This was a touristy area, however, and we noticed most of the signs were in German and Italian here.  We turned around and drove into Argostoli where we all visited the small archeology museum.  Most of us wandered over to the pedestrian walkway in the town center that was filled with nice shops and sidewalk restaurants. 



Next the bus drove around the Koutavos Lagoon and up into the mountains past the village of Valsamata where we first stopped at the Robola wine co-operative.  Robola wine, a mild, dry white wine, is native to Kefalonia and is smartly marketed in Greece.  The director of the co-op gave us a tour of the bottling plant and then into the tasting room where we sampled several wines.  We ended up buying a few bottles as it was easy to take them onto the bus and back home. 



After the co-op we stopped at the adjacent St. Gerasimou Monastery.  St. Gerasimou is the patron saint of Kefalonia and many of the men from the island are nicknamed Gerry or Jerry when they travel to the USA.  Rita and I joined the crowd going into the small chapel but I didn’t wait around to see the unveiling of the mummified body of St. Gerasimou – but Rita did.



We went back into the village of Valsamata and had lunch at a pretty little taverna where one of the choices was the local dish simply known as Kefalonian meat pie.  I think it is sheep or goat meat in phyllo pastry and mine tasted good until I bit into a bone.  They said it was homemade by the Yaya (grandmother) in the kitchen.  Maybe her eyesight is going off.



Our bus returned to Argostoli and we all caught the ferry across the Argostoli Gulf to the pretty town of Lixouri.  Our large bus could not maneuver through village streets so we had to head in a northerly direction and then cut back west to go over the mountains and our destination of Petani Beach on the west coast.  You’ll have to find a very detailed map that shows Petani Beach but it is a very beautiful beach in a beautiful setting.



The main beach one reads about or hears about, if one researches Kefalonia, is Mirtos Beach.  Ergini informed us that there is friendly competition between those who live on the main part of the island where Argostoli is located and those who live on the Lixouri peninsular.  Ergini is from the Lixouri side and says that the other side is snobbish and her side has just as pretty beaches as Mirtos.  She, in fact, inherited property at remote Petani Beach and has a small beach house there, but it was too small to accommodate all of us. 



The road down to Petani Beach is steep and curvy and at one point our bus could not go any further, leaving us to walk down the remaining way.  We spent the afternoon on the beach which was small pebbles instead of sand.  The beach was very pretty and surrounded by steep cliffs.  A few people went swimming but most of us rented lounge chairs and umbrellas and relaxed.  The beach is not very commercial at all except for one lone taverna where Ergini arranged for us to have our dinner.  It was very nice on the covered deck at the beach where we had beer, wine, and choices for dinner.  Rita and I both chose fish – I had the sea bass while she had sea bream.  Both tasted fresh and excellent and it was a pleasant experience to watch sunset on Petani Beach.  After dinner Ergini arranged for some cars to take people back to the bus but Rita and I decided we could use the walk so we, along with a few younger people, made our way back on foot.  Instead of taking the ferry again (maybe it had quit running?) the bus drove the long way around the Argostoli Gulf back to our hotel arriving about 11:00 pm.



Sunday morning was uneventful with no earthquake wake-up call.  After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and the bus headed up the east coast of the Argostoli Gulf through the villages of Farsa and Katochori to Divarata where we had beautiful views of Mirtos Beach from high overhead.  With my binoculars I could see soaring eagles and a few kayaks in the bay around Mirtos Beach.  It looked stunning and I regretted that we didn’t have the time to drive down to the beach as we did yesterday.  We drove a bit further north along the Mirtos Gulf and turned around at the 16^th century Venetian fortress of Assos.  We crossed the island to the pretty port of Efimia and turned south to visit Lake Melissani.  We did a tour on pretty Lake Melissani which was an underground cave lake until some of the roof caved in leaving part of it open to the sky.  The water is turquoise blue and we were herded into rowboats with guides who rowed us around the lake. 



Next we went to the port of Sami where some people opted to stay in town.  Rita and I chose to visit nearby Andisamos Beach along with a few other people.  We took taxis to the beach where the movie “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” was filmed in 2001 with Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz, and John Hurt.  It was another pretty beach in a cozy setting.  On the way back to Sami our taxi driver pointed out where the village earthquake scene took place – there are no movie props remaining now.



We had a late lunch at the harbor side Dolphino Taverna and killed time until our 5:00 pm ferry sailed from Sami to Patras.  There our bus took us back to the Embassy and our cars.  We arrived home about 1:00 am and hit the sack without unpacking.  It was tough getting up Monday morning and going into work.



This was our first Ionian Island which was a bit greener as that coast of Greece gets more rainfall.  There is a lot on Kefalonia to see and even though we jammed a lot into a weekend, we could go back to see some of the sights we missed.  So many islands to see and so little time!