It's All Greek (2)

More holiday notes...



1. Beyond the traditional Greek music played by our coach driver (from a frequently skipping CD), there are only three CDs on the whole of Kefalonia. One is The Eagles' Greatest Hits. One is Santana's Greatest Hits. The other is one of those Music To Watch Girls By compilations. Song of the holiday, then? Dean Martin, 'That's Amore'. Every night.

2. So people keep asking me 'where's the tan?' It's not that I didn't lie out in the sun... it's that I've discovered an amazing invention called sun tan lotion. Besides, I have gone brown... you've just forgotten what an alabaster bastard I was before the holiday! On the subject of sun tan lotion though, while I appreciate its necessity - god, what a pain in the arse. Apply, re-apply, slimy yourself up... go inside / in shade for lunch... re-apply later, repeat ad nauseum. Blah. Maybe I should just have crozzled.

3. On the plus side, the water in Greece - while undrinkable to us lily-livered Brits (no ice, thanks) - is wonderful for washing. I don't know if it's hard or soft, but it washes away the soap with just a splash. Very refreshing.

4. Remaining in the bathroom, it seems there are major problems with the Greek sanitation system, meaning they prefer you not to flush loo roll, for fear of clogging up the sewers. Now without getting too scatological... surely something else one might flush is potentially a darn sight more cloggy than a few sheets of toilet paper? Particularly when said paper is so thin that spiders daren't walk across it for fear of falling through...?



5. EARTHQUAKE! Shortly after we returned home, a sizable earthquake shook the Greek mainland. We felt two pre-shocks during our holiday, the first early in the hours of Thursday morning (insert your own joke here about the earth moving while we were in bed, remembering to make me the butt), the second that evening whilst dining al fresco on the harbour / restaurant row. Earthquakes seem quite common in Greece, and none of the locals batted an eyelid... but considering that much of Kefalonia was destroyed by a huge quake in 1953, you'd think they'd be a little more concerned.

6. On the subject of al fresco dining, this was a definite highlight of the holiday for me. I love Greek food (perhaps because it's pretty simple fare - meat and veg, with LOTS of cheese) and relished the chance to sample one of my all-time favourite dishes, moussaka, cooked in its native land. Then there's kleftiko, which they cook in a paper bag, the lamb so tender it just drops off the bone and into your mouth (apologies, veggies); grilled swordfish; meatballs; lots of feta and tasty dips (though they go a bit stingy on the bread when you order a dip); and a new discovery - Kefalonian Meat Pie. Which does exactly what it says on the menu - it's meat, potatoes and rice (I can do without rice, but it definitely added something) in a soft crust pastry. Yum! Though being a typical Brit, I could have done with some gravy. And ketchup...

The other thing we discovered was that at many of the restaurants, if you don't order a desert, they bring you one free. It's always a kind of creme caramel / strawberry caramel affair, and you have to share it... but it does hit the spot quite nicely, and allows you more cash to spend on starters.

Oh, and at risk of treading on a cliched holidaymaker moan... the tomatoes! So sweet! So big! So juicy! So why can't we get tomatoes like that over here?

7. Still with the dining, being that Louise and I are both cat lovers, we were very happy with our nightly dinner guests - the stray cats that prowl the harbour looking sweet (if a little scraggy) and hoping to be fed... generally without begging or making too much of a nuisance of themselves. Not that this prevented one cat-hating grouch (whom we nicknamed Sourpuss - she resembled Judi Dench's slapped-arse-faced sister) clapping her hands and hissing at them whenever they came in sight, even when they weren't anywhere near her. Night after night we observed her commotion - far more disturbance than any of the cats themselves ever caused...



There may be a little more to write, but that's more than enough for one day...