Day 5

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Day 5: Nafplio to Kefalonia

9:30am we headed down for our last breakfast in Nafplio. 11am we checked out and packed all our stuff back onto the bus. We drove up to the Castle of Palamidi, which looks like a fortress and is light up at night and visible from our hotel. It took about half an hour to get there because we had to drive through the town’s farmers market and the lanes were filled with double parked cars and bikes that Vasilis, our bus drive, gracefully drove around. We found a prison cell in the castle, and boy was it humid inside!! We couldn’t even begin to imagine how prisoners could survive in those conditions and in this heat! Unfortunately, because it took longer than expected to get to the castle, we only had 25 mins to check the whole place out before we had to leave for our 4hr bus ride to the ferry terminal. We practically drove across Greece, which to Vancouverites isn’t very far, but the weather slowed us down. We were forced to pull over and stop for an earlier than expected lunch at McDonald’s. I had a cheeseburger and ‘deluxe fries’ which are just wedge potato fries served with their version of sour cream, which was really just creamy mayonnaise. And to add some flare, all the fries are served with tine forks to keep the grease off our fingers I suppose. Our lunch was rushed since we were in a hurry, but we got some better weather on the rest of our journey to the ferry terminal. And with only a few minutes before the ferry’s last departure of the day, our bus made it on and we walked on.

The ride went by fast and the ferry itself was a lot nicer than anything I’ve seen in Vancouver. They had a big TV room where the soccer game was being aired and their concession stands were more café-like than anything. We spent most of our time on the upper deck since the breeze was, for the most part, warm in the sun. At the end of our hour and a half ride, it got a little cooler as the sun began to sink. We disembarked, got back onto the bus and headed to Vasilis’ daughter’s newly opened bar, visible from the ferry dock and about a 2 minute bus ride. We were treated to drinks, where I had my very first frappe; an iced coffee drink with lots of foam, cream, sugar and strong coffee! After that, we took another 2 minute bus ride up to our residence at the Oceanis University Hotel. I was lucky enough to get one of the four single suites, and all our apartments look over the water we crossed on the ferry. It’s beautiful and VERY Greek! Once we got all our luggage into our own rooms, we headed off to dinner, which was a 15 minute walk from our hotel along the waterfront. I had calamari and everyone helped me finish the dish, as usual. After dinner we all walked the 20 minute walk to Vasilis’ own bar, where we were treated to ouzo (about 4 shots in each glass, only watered down with the littlest bits of ice, which makes the drink turn white for some reason!). After about an hour, Vasilis drove us back to our hotel and I caught up with my family and my boyfriend on skype. Boy, what an eventful and amazing day! Blue waters, white beaches and green palm trees, what a way to spend September!

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