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We wake up to a beautiful sunny morning. We have breakfast quickly as we want to catch the 10 am bus to town. Based on our last experience with this bus, we arrive well before the departure time and are relieved to find that there is a an older lady also waiting - a good sign that we have got the time right today. In spite of the language barrier, the Greek lady kindly introduces herself in Greek and then fusses over the children. Seeing Joshua shivering without his coat, she hugs him and then expresses concern to Benjamin that he will dirty his pants sitting on the paved door step. She seems like the universal grandmother, unaffected by the obvious language barrier !
Today the bus does show up at the time we have on the schedule. With the sun shining, the coastline seems even more picturesque this morning as the bus follows the edge of the bays - water sparkling in the sunshine and bluish outlines of hills in the distance. We are about 20 minutes to the next town, though there is a steady line of hotel and resort development most of the way.
We reached
Lefkada town after about 25 minutes. I am always amazed at the skill in which European bus drivers get down the narrowest of streets with cars parked on both sides. Most of the people are getting off in this older part of town and we are the last passengers on the bus when we finally pull into the bus depot next to the marina.
Our main task today is to confirm that we will be able to get to Patras, where our ferry leaves from, on Wednesday. We confirm that we can take the bus to Athens and get off at a town called Rio ( a three hour bus ride), which is another 30 minute bus ride from the port at Patras. This is what we had heard, but we have discovered it is always good to confirm these things. There is a hitch though: Wednesday is Greek independence day (a National Holiday) and though the distance buses run, the local bus to take us from Nidri (where our apartment is) to Lefkada does not run that day. Asking around though, I find you can get a taxi so this next problem is solved.
Just across the
street from the bus station is the new marina. Even now during the off season, you can tell this is a huge marina with room for hundreds of yachts. I take a few photos before we set off for the old part of Lefkada.
Lefkada is a packed tourist town in the summer - a much bigger version of Nidri - and the narrow streets are lined with restaurants and craft shops. We buy a few sandwiches and coffee and Evy spends some time exploring the shops while I take photographs. I think Benjamin and Joshua were bored of the whole thing. Narrow, quaint European streets somehow doesn't do anything for them.
At the bus stop to go back, we run into the kind, grandmotherly lady from this morning. In the middle of the day, the bus back to Nidri is packed with older people who all seem to know each other. We get some school work done in the afternoon and wait for Aunt Helen to come by as she has been at the funeral of her friend this afternoon.
Late in the afternoon Aunt Helen turns up. She says we really have should have gone
with her to the funeral, to see what a Greek funeral is like. As much as this would have been interesting, I feel a bit like we would have been intruding. The idea reminds me a bit of the movie “Harold & Maude” in which the young protagonist enjoys attending funerals people he doesn't know.
Aunt Helen has kindly planned to take us out for dinner this evening so we call a taxi to take us to a taverna that she knows, up in the hills above Vlihos where she lives.
The taverna is beautifully situated looking out over the bay and with a long, flagstone patio lined with lemon trees leading up to it. Inside there is a log fire burning and we are introduced to the Aussie owner (the place is called Aussie Jim's). Though the taverna has a traditional look, there are Australian artifacts on the walls such as a boomerang and a digeridoo creating an interesting hybrid theme.
The food at the taverna is amazing - fresh and very tasty - and with the fire flickering, it is a wonderful evening and a great change to catch up and talk about home. At
then end of the evening Joshua and Benjamin (with the owners permission) went out onto the front and picked a bag of lemons and oranges from the full trees that line the stone patio.
After taking a taxi back down the mountainside, we dropped Aunt Helen off in Vlihos and arranged to come see her there tomorrow.
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