On this date, 25th April, one year ago, we arrived on the Greek island of Kefalonia to begin our new life. What's it been like? The pros first.....
Outdoor life
Blue sky and the heat of the sun! Let's face it, the weather is the main reason we chose to live here.
In the summer, we wake up to blue skies pretty much every morning, and the blue is a lovely deep blue. We can feel the heat of the sun as it rises above the mountain from about 7.30am as we're having breakfast outside in the garden. It's also guaranteed that the blue sky and sun stay all day.
We've also had some great weather in March and April this year, and summer hasn't really started yet. We've been out and about as usual and just to show you what I mean about the blue skies - here are some photos. The colours captured by the camera are true to life.
Aqua Alaties beach - Come on! 3rd March 2017
Antisamos - 12th March 2017
The long and winding road to Assos -18th March 2017
Assos - Not a soul around - 18th March 2017
The remains of the castle walls at Assos - 18th March 2017
Fiskardo - nobody around - 22nd March 2017
The Venetian lighthouse at Fiskardo - 22nd March 2017
Views from the round windows of the Venetian lighthouse - 22nd March 2017
Bobby and Rocky in the valley behind the house - 25th March 2017
Sami harbour front - 8th April 2017
We've also had some great weather in March and April this year, and summer hasn't really started yet. We've been out and about as usual and just to show you what I mean about the blue skies - here are some photos. The colours captured by the camera are true to life.
Aqua Alaties beach - Come on! 3rd March 2017
Antisamos - 12th March 2017
The long and winding road to Assos -18th March 2017
Assos - Not a soul around - 18th March 2017
The remains of the castle walls at Assos - 18th March 2017
Fiskardo - nobody around - 22nd March 2017
The Venetian lighthouse at Fiskardo - 22nd March 2017
Views from the round windows of the Venetian lighthouse - 22nd March 2017
Bobby and Rocky in the valley behind the house - 25th March 2017
Sami harbour front - 8th April 2017
Leaving Sami behind in our new boat Athina Vaso - 8th April 2017
A little cove near Agia Effimia accessible only by boat - 9th April 2017
Sami lighthouse - Ithaca straight ahead -15th April 2017
Eucalyptus blinds on Sami beach - 21st April 2017
The new 4G football pitch at Karavomylos - 23rd April 2017
Because of the weather, we've found that we live outside pretty much all day in the summer months. If we're not at the beach walking the dogs first thing in the morning and last thing at night, we are exploring different parts of the island in the campervan or snorkelling at some cove close by, or horse riding or boating/fishing or we are tending to the garden or eating in it.
As the weather is gorgeous and the island is very picturesque, there are ample opportunities for photography. There isn't a day goes by that a photo isn't taken. Photographer's paradise.....not only landscape photos but photos of flowers, insects, animals and birds.
When we first arrived a year ago we found some Balkan terrapins at Sami seafront in a brackish stream leading into the sea. We hadn't seen them for a while but yesterday we saw a baby terrapin so it looks like they're back! No sign of mum or dad though. He/She is only about two inches long.
Spot the baby Balkan terrapin - at Sami beach - 24th April 2017
Another great bonus to the sunny weather is that the hot water is free as we have a solar panel which provides us with plenty of hot water for the day, and getting washing dry can take as little as 20 minutes.
The garden
Vines (our own grapes)
Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia)
Brugmansia
Bougainvillea (white variety)
Callistemon (Bottle Brush plant)
One of my favourites, the bottle brush plant is amazing - the flower heads start off very compact like this.....
they start to open....
and this is the tree nearly in full bloom today on our anniversary 25th April 2017
Feeling safe
Kefalonia has a very low crime rate. I can very confidently say that I could walk around at night, and not be at all worried. I have walked the dogs through the valley behind the house on my own and not even thought twice about it. It's rare that you see a policeman, but when you do he will be carrying a gun. Very unnerving, especially to us as we are not used to the police carrying guns! I can't imagine when they would ever use them here on Kefalonia. We had to register a boat engine recently with the Port Police. Even the Port Police carry guns! They were very friendly and we had a laugh but I couldn't take my eyes of the gun which was in the woman inspector's holster!
The people
I think perhaps it's because we are associated with an unmistakable bright yellow camper van, but we do get noticed by locals both in our village and in nearby Sami. In a way, it's been a real advantage to help us integrate into life here. Everyone is very friendly. As we drive along avoiding the sheep and goats on the road, the local shepherds will wave (At least I think they're waving in a friendly way!). The people in the petrol station know us and when we are filling up they will ask us where we are off to on that day and when we return home we pass a cafe where the older men congregate on an evening. They will wave as we pass and Bobby the Jack Russell will bark at them while trying to jump out of the campervan window! They just laugh.
When we go food shopping, the girls in the supermarket help us to use Greek, and one girl in particular is learning English so she asks us for our help. I have to say her English is excellent and puts us to shame. Our Greek since we arrived hasn't got past - "Hello - How are you? - I'm good - How much is this? and - Goodbye! Shocking I know. I bought the Rosetta stone language software before we left for Kefalonia but alas it hasn't been used since we got here. It's not that I don't want to learn Greek - I really do - I love languages, but it's having the time! I can hear you laughing at this as we are retired but seriously this retirement business is hard work!
There's nothing better than walking dogs for getting to know people and that is certainly the case here. We talk to the fishermen in the harbour as they bring their catch in, the people in the bakery, the local Greeks walking their dogs, and the owners of the tavernas on the sea front one of which invites us in for a morning coffee from time to time.
The workers in the Post Office know us and if they see us on the street they will call us over to give us our mail. (I suppose it saves them from delivering it too!)
We have had trays of orange cake given to us on a few occasions by a lovely older couple in our village. They always give us a kiss and a hug whenever we meet them. The cake is gorgeous and it goes down very well with a cup of tea or coffee.
Even the local woodman delivers the wood for the wood burner with some additional dried oregano.
When we go food shopping, the girls in the supermarket help us to use Greek, and one girl in particular is learning English so she asks us for our help. I have to say her English is excellent and puts us to shame. Our Greek since we arrived hasn't got past - "Hello - How are you? - I'm good - How much is this? and - Goodbye! Shocking I know. I bought the Rosetta stone language software before we left for Kefalonia but alas it hasn't been used since we got here. It's not that I don't want to learn Greek - I really do - I love languages, but it's having the time! I can hear you laughing at this as we are retired but seriously this retirement business is hard work!
There's nothing better than walking dogs for getting to know people and that is certainly the case here. We talk to the fishermen in the harbour as they bring their catch in, the people in the bakery, the local Greeks walking their dogs, and the owners of the tavernas on the sea front one of which invites us in for a morning coffee from time to time.
The workers in the Post Office know us and if they see us on the street they will call us over to give us our mail. (I suppose it saves them from delivering it too!)
We have had trays of orange cake given to us on a few occasions by a lovely older couple in our village. They always give us a kiss and a hug whenever we meet them. The cake is gorgeous and it goes down very well with a cup of tea or coffee.
Even the local woodman delivers the wood for the wood burner with some additional dried oregano.
The food
One thing in particular stands out for us........the local butchers (3 of them in Sami!). The meat is fresh - when we buy mince, the butcher prepares it fresh from a piece of steak meat so you see what you get. It's really good quality with virtually no fat. The chicken is not full of water, and the pork chops are delicious sliced to the thickness that you want. No sign of plastic packaging here! To top it all, while you wait, there's a bowl of sweets to keep you occupied. I'm sure since we've arrived he has to top the sweetie bowl up a lot more often!
The local bakery is amazing - not only does it sell bread but cakes, cereal bars and ice-cream too. My aim is to try every different flavoured ice cream. There must be about 20 different ones. So far I've tried chocolate, lemon, pomegranate, strawberry, coconut, pistachio and pavlova.
Fruit such as oranges and lemons abound on the island. There are orange and lemon trees everywhere. The fruit mostly just drops to the ground and is never used - such a shame. We've been given lots of lemons from friends gardens so I've juiced them and frozen the concentrate to use for home made lemonade in the summer.
Similarly we've been given oranges and sourced them ourselves from the valley. You can't beat freshly squeezed orange juice from oranges hand picked from the tree. I'm now also considering an ice cream maker but just doing research on that topic at the moment. Home made ice cream mmmmm.......
The food in the local tavernas is great. Good quality, but as we live here now we cook ourselves. I made Tzatziki for the first time just the other day - delicious if I say so myself and really easy to make. Next step - beef stifado's. If I make it anything like the Faros taverna in Sami I will be happy.
Another of my favourite tavernas is Familia in Sami. The food is excellent and the view is amazing.
The local bakery is amazing - not only does it sell bread but cakes, cereal bars and ice-cream too. My aim is to try every different flavoured ice cream. There must be about 20 different ones. So far I've tried chocolate, lemon, pomegranate, strawberry, coconut, pistachio and pavlova.
Fruit such as oranges and lemons abound on the island. There are orange and lemon trees everywhere. The fruit mostly just drops to the ground and is never used - such a shame. We've been given lots of lemons from friends gardens so I've juiced them and frozen the concentrate to use for home made lemonade in the summer.
The last 2 lemons of the season picked from our tree on 16th April 2017
Similarly we've been given oranges and sourced them ourselves from the valley. You can't beat freshly squeezed orange juice from oranges hand picked from the tree. I'm now also considering an ice cream maker but just doing research on that topic at the moment. Home made ice cream mmmmm.......
The food in the local tavernas is great. Good quality, but as we live here now we cook ourselves. I made Tzatziki for the first time just the other day - delicious if I say so myself and really easy to make. Next step - beef stifado's. If I make it anything like the Faros taverna in Sami I will be happy.
Another of my favourite tavernas is Familia in Sami. The food is excellent and the view is amazing.
Familia in Sami
Across the street - the view of Kefalonia and Ithaca from Familia - 25th April 2017
Relaxed way of life
That goes for all of us!
Bobby and Rocky chilling after their morning beach walk -23rd April 2017
So.... they were the pros...now the cons.
Family and friends
This is the obvious one. We miss our family and friends enormously. We can't just pop in and see them now. However, the world is a smaller place these days and with technology such as Skype it means at least we can hold video conversations with them which helps. We've had lots of visitors since we arrived which has been great. May it continue. Of course it's only a 3 and a half hour direct plane journey back to Newcastle Upon Tyne in the UK - it's not like we live on the other side of the world!
Expense
We've found that central heating oil is expensive, so in the winter we use the central heating to warm the place up while we get the wood burner going. The wood burner is great and very cozy but it really only heats the main room and doesn't quite reach the bedrooms. We've managed to source wood for the coming winter (eucalyptus, pine and olive). It's amazing what a bit of beachcombing does! We also get a supply of wood locally which is a mixture of olive and pine to top the supply up.
Food is little more expensive here, especially toiletries. We use the local shops as oppose to the likes of Lidl and Carrefour which are probably cheaper but are on the other side of the island. Sun tan lotion is ridiculously expensive. Unfortunately we need a supply of this as the summer temperatures reach up to 34 degrees. This is where family and friends come in and they send some over, or bring some over with them from the UK. Even with postage it's cheaper to do this than buy here.
Certain items such as Marmite are also ridiculously expensive. A small jar here can cost up to 5 Euros! I love marmite too. Family and friends - please note!!!!
Food is little more expensive here, especially toiletries. We use the local shops as oppose to the likes of Lidl and Carrefour which are probably cheaper but are on the other side of the island. Sun tan lotion is ridiculously expensive. Unfortunately we need a supply of this as the summer temperatures reach up to 34 degrees. This is where family and friends come in and they send some over, or bring some over with them from the UK. Even with postage it's cheaper to do this than buy here.
Certain items such as Marmite are also ridiculously expensive. A small jar here can cost up to 5 Euros! I love marmite too. Family and friends - please note!!!!
Flies, mosquitoes and wasps
This is a problem when you're eating outside or you're at a beach during the summer months. The wasps can be incessant. They even follow you out to sea when swimming. Nothing puts them off.
Rubber stamps
The greeks love their paperwork and rubber stamps. Full stop. Say no more.
All I will say is that we recently bought an engine for our boat - It was easier to buy the house than it was to register the boat engine! This is how it went:
- Visit local Port police to pay to put the engine in the boat
- Visit tax offices (yes plural!) in Argostoli (other side of the island 30 minutes away over 2 mountains and 2 valleys) to determine how much tax is to be paid (pick a number from the air springs to mind)
- Visit the bank in Argostoli to pay the tax on the boat engine. Yes - that's right.... we can't pay the actual tax at the actual tax office! The teller in the bank was a young man. When we mentioned that we thought we had paid too much tax for the engine he shook our hands and said: "Welcome to Greece" and we fell about laughing.
- Re-visit local Port Police to show the rubber stamped paperwork which shows we have paid the tax, so they can add the engine on to the boat license. This can't be done straight away so....
- Re-visit local Port Police the next day to obtain boat license with added engine information.
Where are the fish?
We thought living on a Greek island would mean plenty of fresh fish - Alas, it's not the case. Mark has been out fishing from numerous places but with no luck. Hopefully, now that we have a boat he can go further afield. The man we bought the boat off caught a 25lb grouper fish in the bay of Sami just before he sold it to us. Fingers crossed, although the local fishermen don't like to give their fishing spots away. I'll have to get out with the binoculars and see where they go!
So......do the pros outweigh the cons? ........ of course they do!
Karavomylos harbour with Sami in the distance - 23rd April 2017
So......do the pros outweigh the cons? ........ of course they do!
