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Published: September 20th 2023
Our second afternoon in Lefkada Town was pretty relaxed. After the siesta we had a wander round the town, retracing some of our steps as well as discovering new streets and squares. On our walk yesterday we had walked past a couple of stone heads and busts of men with names carved in Greek letters; we passed more today, including a couple of heads of men who because of the dates of their death were likely to have been Greek resistance fighters in WWII - more info on Wiki.
The churches in Lefkada are many, and most appear slightly dilapidated and scruffy. In fact some don’t appear very church-like! We thought one of them was the Town Hall, but were put straight by a woman with probably a New Zealand or Australian accent who walked past us with an empty shopping basket as we were standing looking and discussing it.
We stopped for ice cream. I had a cone with scoop of vanilla, while Sian chose blueberry. The nails of the young woman serving it were incredible! They were at least 4cm long, bright blue with sparkles on them. Her friend / colleague had similar length nails. How on
Our shared starter.
Roast aubergine and shrimp tempura. Note the soft drink to Sian's right. earth they manage modern life with nails that long I just don’t know! Thankfully neither of them lost one in our ice cream.
Plan A for food was to visit Loulistasteproject, the number one restaurant in Lefkada according to Trip Advisor. Trip Advisor also told us it would be open at 6.30pm, and on checking it was definitely shut now (around 6pm) so we had a little while to wait. We then went on to plan B, Antivaro, which I had ‘hearted’ when doing some pre-trip exploring of restaurants. Neither of us were blown away by the menu, which included liver covered in lamb fat, so we moved on to plan C – let’s have a wander and see what we find. So we did, and found a restaurant in one of the squares which looked nice enough.
We were welcomed by a lovely woman, who was very happy to chat. She is from Greek heritage, but was brought up in the USA, now working the summer in Lefkada and spending the winter on mainland Greece or in the USA. Her son works at a different restaurant just across the square.
She told us that Lefkada is
very different in winter, with lots of rain and few visitors. In fact, Aktion airport closes in the middle of October! She was interested in our upcoming kayaking adventure, and was surprised we’d walked to the beach yesterday – apparently she couldn’t have done that, which is strange as working in her restaurant, she must spend a significant amount of time on her feet!
We had soft drinks with a shared starter of roast aubergine and shrimp tempura, both very yummy. It was after 6.30pm by now, so we checked the Loulistasteproject again – still shut, so we went for plan C part two. We wandered down to the waterfront by the wooden bridge and chose a cocktail bar and restaurant called Karma. We were served by a lovely young man with an excellent sense of humour.
We decided that a cocktail would be appropriate by now, so Sian had a Long Island Iced Tea, and I had a Pina Colada. We also had a mezze to share which was delicious but rather large. Sian took a doggy bag back to the hotel.
The wooden bridge is obviously the place to come to watch sunset. Many people
arrived and took photos of the pinks and oranges as the sun set over the beach we’d visited that morning before either disappearing again or sitting down at the restaurant for a drink and food. The colours were beautiful, but we both thought that the sunsets in our home towns (Clevedon and Fishponds) were equally as beautiful.
An early night after a dip in the hotel pool with a plan to meet for breakfast at 8am.
Day 3 saw us checking out of Pirofani and catching a bus to Nidri in preparation for the kayaking part of our holiday.
The bus was on time, comfortable and cheap, costing a mere 1.6 euros (approx £1.38). It was also busy! It seems lot of people were travelling to Nidri and most of them got to the bus stop quite early – as did we! Anyway, we arrived and found our hotel – the Avra Beach Hotel, which is very different to Pirofani.
This hotel is built for numbers not comfort, is pretty basic, has ‘rules’ on the sign-in information, and the reception staff are pleasant enough but come across as being a bit bored. Still, it’s clean and
we’re only here one night.
The afternoon was spent having a wander and a dip. The town is built pretty much along a single street, is definitely very touristy, and is much busier than Lefkada Town. There are many many mopeds to avoid, plus a few cars. We checked out where we planned to eat dinner – Basilico restaurant, number one on Trip Advisor – and where we needed to meet the kayaking group tomorrow lunchtime.
It was hot and the sea was calling so we headed back to the hotel and agreed to meet on the beach. When I got there Sian was nowhere to be seen – she said she would be a little while because she was going to eat up some of the food from the doggy bag from last night - so I popped my towel and sandals at the bottom of a tree and headed into the water, which was calm, warm and blissful! Within 30 seconds of entering the water I’d been nipped on my leg by a fishie near the shore, so I swam on out away from the shore. I watched a parasailling boat launch someone up into the
air and head round the back of the nearby island – it looks such fun!
There is a cache next to the church on the nearby island, visible and swimmable from the beach, but as there was some boat activity between me and the island I decided it wouldn’t be advisable to make the swim.
Sian arrived at the same time as a pack of jetskis decided to shatter the relative peace, and joined me in the water. We had a lovely swimble, only getting out when our fingers were wrinkly. To be honest, I stayed in a few extra minutes to hit an hour in the water!
Dinner at Basilico was tasty. Sian had moussaka and I had Kleftico accompanied by a carafe of white wine. The staff were delightful! We were given a small fridge cake style pudding with cream to share and a choice of limoncello or another liqueur which we didn’t recognise, on the house! I chose the limoncello, and Sian had the other one – I can’t remember what it was, but it was quite pleasant when I sampled it.
We did a bit of people watching, and a bit of
cat watching, and headed back to the hotel. On the way we found a church with the door open, so popped in to have a look. The decor was incredible! Lots of rich gold carved wood, walls covered in paintings of saints, quite dark, and no altar. I didn't think it would be appropriate to take a photo as the priest was present.
Back at the hotel I had a quick nightcap of Baileys on the beach and turned in for the night. Sian just turned in for the night once she’d lent me her antihistamine cream – damned mossies!
Tomorrow sees the start of our kayaking adventure!
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Debs
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What an adventure!
Sounds like you are already having an absolute adventure in Greece before you've even stepped into a kayak! Enjoy more of the Greek wine! Assyrtiko is one of my faves! x