Kefallonia

After spending the last 8 days (August 9- August 17) in Kefallonia, a small village that my Giagia (grandmother) grew up in. I won't write about each day just yet but here are the highlights from our vacation to Monopolata, Kefallonia and its surrounding villages.

Beaches that we visited:
- Xi
- Petani
- Makris Gialos
- Skala
Skala was by far my favorite beach (and I think the girls would agree with me when I say that). Unlike the other beaches that we visited, this one was covered in little rocks. Even the sand was composed of small rocks. We spent hours enjoying the sunshine and scavenging the shore for the "pretty ones" to bring back with us.

Kefallonia Bus Tour: On Saturday we spent the whole day touring Kefallonia by bus. We saw:
- Myrtos Beach
- Assos
- Fiskardo (small town that is known as a tourist attraction for celebrities)
- Agia Efimia
- Melisani Lake
- Drogorati Caves
- Agiou Gerassimo Monastery
- Robola Winery
Best part of the day: Taking a boat ride through the Melisani Lake (bluest water ever!) and exploring the caves at Drogorati. We had to climb over 200 stairs to see this sight, but it was definitely worth it.

Things we will remember:
-LAUGHING. It was a daily ritual but happened most when we were exhausted and ready for bed
- Experiencing Panagias holiday at church with Melissa and Giagia
- Reading a lot at night and just relaxing
- The view from the house of the city especially during the full moon
- Evangelia's hugs and her big blue eyes in her glasses
- Chocolate icecream and Robola wine
- Washing our clothes in the bathtub
Food we ate:
- Gyros from the village restaurant (delicious and very affordable)
- Mousaka from Oasis restaurant in Lixouri
- Homemade meals. Both my Giagia and Thia Evangelia are excellent cooks so on the nights that they made us food, we were very thankful
- Homemade meals (part 2): We shopping in Lixouri and bought a week's worth of food and took care of ourselves on most night. We made three meals/day and took turns cleaning up too. Best roommates ever? I think so.

Things we didn't like so much:
- The taxi drivers that my grandmother relied on/ taxis in general
- The winding roads (The girls took turns feeling nauseous and taking Gravol)
- My grandmother's wakeup calls (WAKEUP, turns on light. OR grabbing my hand). Let's just put it this way, we were always on time, and she was convinced that we were always going to be late.
- The lack of things to do. You can't get anywhere by foot, so everything that we did was during the day, leaving us with very little to do at night. It was alright though, we spent tons of time reading.

People that we met:
My grandmother would introduce me to every single person that we saw. At first, it was nice to see how proud she was to introduce me to her friends and family, but by the end of the week, I couldn't remember anyone's names because I had met so many people. That being said, the VIP award goes to Lambros who took us on a roadtrip on Sunday to Makris Gialos and Skala. Not only that, he also gave us a ride to Lixouri yesterday when the bus didn't show up. He was just overall so pleasant to be around! We actually spent over an hour with him last night just talking around our kitchen table. We laughed a lot! He probably thinks that we're a little "coo-coo bananas" (to quote Selina), but that's alright.

Things that we will miss:
- My Giagia: She was just too good to us!
- Thia Evangelia & Dionysis; They are actually so adorable
- The quietness of the beaches (Mykonos and Santorini are touristic hotspots so we're expecting CROWDS)
- The friendliness, love and generosity of family

Words the girls learned:
- Loulouthia = Flowers (Selina's favorite word)
- Kali mera = Good morning/Good day
- Efharisto= Thank You
- Para kalo= You're welcome/Please
- Karpouzi= Watermelon
- Oréo= Nice
- Ne= Yes
- Oxi= No
...Among MANY others! They're awesome.

Books we read this week:
- One Day by David Nicholls (Kate)
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Selina; Agnes is reading it now)
- My Name is Memory by Anne Brashares (Melissa)
- Withering Tights by Louise Rennison (Melissa)
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (Halfway done; Melissa)
- The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Remaining half; Agnes)
- Something Blue by Emily Giffen (Agnes)
- Looking for Alaska by John Green (Agnes; Selina is reading it now)

I am not going to post a lot of pictures, but I wanted to give you a taste of Kefallonia and some of our adventures










I'm upset that this leg of the trip is over... It was so nice to really experience the culture (it wasn't so foreign for me, but the girls have never really been introduced to this kind of thing). I'm going to miss the family I met.
At the same time, I am so excited to see Mykonos and Santorini. My alarm is going off at 4:15am, so we can get ready for our 7:30am ferry. Mykonos, these Montreal girls are coming!

Good night my loves,

S'agapo (I love you)
Agnes xoxo