Kefalonia

Thursday 23rd August 2018

The final long weekend of the summer was finally upon us and Lew and I had decided to take an extra day off work and head to Greece. We had tossed up on which island we should go to since they all sound incredible. We decided not to opt for the famous Santorini with it being peak tourist season and chose the island of Kefalonia. Many blogs I read said that it was still rather unknown to tourists and even during its peak season it is the biggest of the islands so it never feels overly busy. It is also the only island with a national park...sold. Our flight straight into Kefalonia airport was leaving Stanstead Airport at 4.30pm and we had decided to try out taking a bus there instead of the usual Stanstead Express train. It was a fair amount cheaper with it costing £8 ($15.70 nzd) total instead of the usual £24 ($45 nzd) via train and it was only a 10 minute longer journey by bus if the traffic was good and an extra 30 minutes if its not. With it being the middle of the day we decided the traffic wasn't likely to be too bad. It left from one of the bus stops outside Liverpool Street Station and I met Lew here since he had spent the day at work and his office was a short walk away. The bus ride was pretty easy and we arrived at Stanstead at 2.40pm. This time I had printed out my Ryanair boarding pass at work so we weren't going to be charged a stupid amount to print one out. Check in and security went ok except my bag being pulled aside to be checked because of the Gopro and its carbon fibre pole obviously showing up as a suspicious looking item. Stanstead Airport was once again incredibly busy as I guess many other Brits had decided to take an extra day off work. Once we discovered which gate we were leaving from we made our way there and found a spot to eat the dinner I had prepared earlier - meatloaf and stir-fried veggies. Post dinner every other passenger had begun to line up so we joined the queue even though our plane had just pulled up and was still just beginning to off load its current passengers. We knew we were going to be late already as the plane was supposed to leave now with it being 4.30pm but none of us were even on it. As we begun to board a family in front of us were causing a bit of a scene with the man at the gate who wasn't letting them on. We think from what we overheard was that one of their passports might have expired but Greece was their home and they had contacted them embassy etc etc in regards to it. We didn't see them on the plane later so I don't think Ryanair allowed them on. The plane was filthy since it had just flown from Tenerife and we were going to have to sit on it for a 3 hour flight ourselves. The best thing was there were quite a few snooty passengers who complained about this which was good entertainment listening to them complain to the air-hostesses who just replied "well i'm not a cleaner madam" in reply. Lew and I were separated as we refused to pay the £20 ($39 nzd) it was going to cost to swap seats to sit beside each other. I was in row 17 an exit row and Lew in row 2 but we swapped so Lew could have the extra leg room. The flight was still very very delayed and we sat on it for at least an hour and a half until we finally took off at 6.30pm - 2 hours after we were supposed to. This made things a little tricky at the other end as we had to pick up a car and drive an hour south to our accommodation. Lew ended up having a seat next to him so I moved down the plane and no one seemed to care. It was a very long and rowdy flight and we were surprised that they let the other group of people sitting next to us in the exit row buy enough alcohol to be drunk. Completely ideal if the plane goes down. Landing in Kefalonia it was 11.20pm local time (9.20pm UK time) and border check consisted of all those on EU passport to have it glanced at by a police man and everyone else had to wait in a small queue to get a stamp. I was pleased as I definitely wanted a stamp to add to my fast growing collection. What happens if you actually run out of room in your passport I wonder? After we collected my bag we made our way out and saw a man holding up a sign with our names on it. We had organised a car to be dropped off to us and for four days it was the cheapest we could find at €220 (£199 /$390 nzd). Lew begun chatting away to the man about how we are from New Zealand and are living in the UK and this is our first time to Greece etc etc. Then came the discussion in regards to our drivers license and the man had presumed we were from the UK and had UK drivers licenses. He said it was in his terms and conditions that we must have a International Drivers License to drive in Greece otherwise we can be arrested if pulled over by the police. I was very frustrated and asked why he didn't bother to remind us or to even enquire as to what license we would be using because clearly it is too late now. Lew had mentioned these licenses to me 5 minutes before I left home but I had no idea where they were located. Plus we had driven around France, Italy, Spain, UK and Switzerland on our Kiwi license which are all mostly part of the EU so why should Greece be different. A failure on both sides. I was not happy after we confirmed that he wasn't going to give us the car and we were possibly stranded an hour away from our accommodation and we had booked it in a small isolated town planning on driving around to other parts. We said goodbye or rather I stormed off back inside the terminal and I called one of our flatmates Laura to see if she could locate them in our bedroom and send me a photo. Lew went to speak to the lady at Hertz who seemed to have no issues giving us a car on a Kiwi license and was extremely friendly. We left with handfuls of lollies and a map of all her favourite places on the island. Thankfully we didn't have to sell one of our limbs to Hertz just to hire it as it only cost us €360 (£326/$626 nzd) and it would mean that our holiday wasn’t ruined. By now it was 12.30am and we begun our drive south on the small windy roads that were horrifically lit. Lew handled the right sided driving like a boss with hardly any effort at all. Heading all the way down to Poros to Mari Christis apartments we parked up and an old man showed us to our room. We had been in email contact with the apartment owners letting them known our delay and how sorry we were in keeping them awake! The room turned out to be excellent for €50 (£45.30/$87 NZD) a night which was on the waterfront, had a kitchen and also a balcony - not to mention its service every day! Airbnb had nothing on this island really and we had found it by going on Google maps and zooming in on apartments and then emailing each company. The extra work paid off. At 2am we settled in for the night thankful we had arrived and nothing had ruined our holiday so far.

Friday 24th August

Of course with the time difference being two hours ahead from London we woke up at about 10am. The sun was shining brightly as we drove into the small village of Poros to find some groceries. What came up as 'supermarket' on Google maps really wasn’t what we were expecting as it was a small old shop run by an equally old man with a few rows of mismatched items. We had been used to understanding French grocery stores but Greek writing/language was completely out of our league. We gathered up the basics - bread, fruit cereal, milk and made our way down the road to a bakery to get some fresh buns. I eyed up some very large watermelons I was keen to get later on today once we got back. Driving home we unpacked and quickly made some breakfast and lunch. We sat outside on our deck and Facetimed Lews parents. Today we planned to drive up and do some of the more touristy things as hopefully with it being a Friday it wouldn't be that busy. We left just after midday as I had to book some tickets 10am UK time when they were released for a big Great Gatsby party in London Feb 16th 2019. It sounds insane with multiple live bands, circus performers and DJs. We begun our way up the coast finally being able to see what we had driven through the night before in the pitch black. Greece is like a mixture of so many different countries we have been to in terms of its landscape. It was a lot more mountainous than we ever realised with its limestone rocks and tall mediterranean cypress trees dotting up through the valley. The small road wound its way up the island through many small villages made up of crumbling colourful concrete houses. As I looked on the map I realised we were going to drive right past one of the other big touristy things to do on the island and that is the Melissani Cave. I made Lew pull into the road going to the cave and with it being stinking hot we decided if it was too busy we would come back another time. The amount of cars and tour buses indicated that it was indeed very busy and the line wound itself around the carpark. We decided to just get it over and done with since we were already here and we waited in the queue for about a hour. It cost us €7 each (£6.34 /$12.20 nzd) for a ticket and to be honest we aren't sure whether it was worth the amount of time we spend waiting. I think if you came early in the morning and avoided the crowds it would make it much better. As we came towards the front of the queue the beautiful bright blue clear water became visible and the cave itself with its large hole at the top. This cave was discovered in 1951 and was damaged during the severe 1953 Ionian earthquake and many archaeological digs have taken place and items from the 3rd and 4th century BC were discovered. This includes a clay figure of the Greek god Pan who was god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. There was also a circular dish with Pan and dancing nymphs. The cave is 39 meters deep in parts although the water remains crystal clear with the occasional eel slithering through it. We were loaded into a boat with 10 other people and our boat driver/paddler dressed in jeans and a shirt rowed us out to the middle of the lake. The sun was streaming through the gap in the roof and lighting up the clear water a beautiful light blue colour. The lake is also quite unique as the water is brackish which means that it is a mixture of sea water and fresh water making it only mildly salty (I can confirm this as I tasted some!). The cave is only 500m from the sea but the lake level is 1 meter higher than sea level and the brackish water rises from a 30m deep cave system. The seawater is sucked into sinkholes called Katavothres on the west side of the island near Argostoli and then expelled into the bay of Sami. This was discovered in 1959 where dye was used to trace the movement of the water and 14 days later the dye was discovered in the Melissani cave. Despite the blindingly turquoise water another incredible feature of the cave is when our driver took us down this narrow stretch of water with a rock island in the middle and we were able to glance up at the ceiling covered in very large stalactites that are approximately 20,000 years old. He pointed out where the ceiling had fallen during the earthquake and a large naturally formed dome ceiling was all that was left. The entire boat ride took only about 10 minutes but our driver offered to take numerous photos of us all and even sung to us as we rowed back towards the line of people waiting for their turn. We promptly made our way back to the car desperate for a swim. Next stop of notable tourist activities was the famous Myrtos beach. This absolutely did not disappoint either. The weather had kind of packed it in at this stage and we had a few period of being rained on as we drove the car along the winding road down to the beach. With our beach umbrella in hand and some snack for lunch we stood in awe at the stretch of white pebbled beach below us with its light turquoise water spanning out from it. The entire bay is enclosed within sheer limestone cliffs which adds to the grandness of it all. Surprisingly it was almost dead quite despite the beach being lined with other beach go-ers. Perhaps we had just got so used to the constant drone of noise in London we had forgotten what the peaceful silence sounds like. We found a spot down one end of the beach and stretched out on the pebbles admiring the view. Here we stayed put for the next 3 or so hours swimming in the ridiculously clear blue water and unwinding. The sun was mostly hidden by clouds and we even heard the sound of thunder in the distance but it was still the most peace we had had in a long time. Heading back to the car around 6pm we begun the hour drive back to Poros where we were staying. We stopped by a small town that we had looked into staying in called Agia Effimia and walked along its waterfront crowded by families out of their yachts. Every single restaurant looked inviting on the seaside but we had our hearts set on eating at home and having a relaxing evening. We continued driving passing many small coves with people still swimming before we reached Poros and visited a nice looking butchery called Solomos Meat Market that did some tasty looking chicken kebabs. We also picked up some vegetables from a store down the road and I was finally able to pick us up a watermelon! 3kg worth of watermelon for only €3 (£2.60/$5.30 nzd). :D Lets hope we can finish it all before we leave!

Saturday 25th August

Today we once again had ambitious plans to drive up to the top of the island. There is a small fishing town called Fiskardo that was the only town spared in the 1953 earthquake so its appearance is different to the other small towns. On the way up we also planned to go into Assos, another picturesque town on the water's edge. The weather wasn't supposed to be amazing today with more rain forecasted so it made sense to do a lot of the driving today. Leaving the house at 11am we begun the drive up the coast like yesterday and it took us an hour and 15 minutes to get up to Assos. We drove through a few heavy patches of rain and were very pleased we weren't on quad bikes or scooters like some of the other tourists on the island. The road was magnificent the way it wound itself around the edge of the mountains with the steep drops to the ocean below. There was a strange gathering of goats on the road as we came around one corner. Iv never seen so many in my life and they were all different colours, shapes and sizes. They were obviously used to this hang out spot as they didn't even budge when cars begun driving through their gathering. We could see Assos in the distance and it was straddling a small stretch of land with sea either side of it. The road down was windy with lots to tight switchbacks and there was quite a few other people visiting this small village and the roads were really only built for one car to pass through so we struggled a few times. Finding a park on the side of the road we walked down into the town full of colourful houses with beautiful vines of flowers trailing up them. There were plenty of places to stay in here and I think we would look into it next time as it had such a relaxed feel about it. We walked into the main center which is basically just a stretch of beachside bars/restaurants with a white pebbled beach in front and people swimming in the clear water. We managed to get a few pictures in before the heavens opened up and it begun pouring with rain. we decided to continue our drive up north where we would get some lunch and then hopefully walk around the coast to a small beach we had heard about called Kimilia Beach. With Fiskardo being the city in the absolute north of the island there of course was only one way in and one way out. There came a point where a milk tanker in front of us came to a halt and we realised that a bus was also trying to come the other way and no one was going anywhere soon. The tanker driver ended up getting out of his truck and begun moving cars into different slots to allow the bus to come past. It was like he was playing a giant game of the board game 'Traffic Jam' which I clearly remember playing as a kid but the idea is to get the bus out as opposed to the red car. Everything was happening in Greek so we had no clue what anyone was saying but a gap opened up and the bus was able to pass through so we could continue up north. Fiskardo was not what we imagined at all. Despite it being such a drive up here it was tourist central and we had come at lunchtime so the entire small town was just teeming with people. There were seafront restaurants all along with massive umbrellas sheltering sweaty and slightly pink tourists stuffing their faces with local cuisines. From what we could see of the buildings over the giant umbrellas and sails they were indeed beautiful and had a different style of building from the rest of the island. Everywhere you looked bright colored flowers wound their way up buildings that were already painted brilliant pastel colours. It took us a few laps up and down the port side restaurants to decide where we wanted to eat at. I had read a blog that recommended Vasso's family run restaurant just down from the main port where it wasn't so busy. By now with it being 3pm most of the lunch go-ers had packed up and headed out onto small yachts parked up ever so close in the harbour on on bigger cruise ships/yachts to visit the nearby islands. We got a spot out of the sun but this didn't really make much difference to the temperature as sweat was still dripping off us. Lew went for a traditional gyro whilst I went for a tomato pasta. It really was much too hot to eat but €22 (£19.60/$39 nzd) later we were out of there and off to find the walking entrance to Kimilia Beach. I had read that you are unable to drive into this bay so we hoped that it was more quiet than the rest. Initially it was signposted well but then there was nothing and we walked up and down a couple of hills looking for the blue and white sign post to tell us which way to head. Google maps was unhelpful in directing us to the correct pathway so we had to stop and talk to someone in a local cafe. He only knew how to get to the bay 20 minutes away called Emplisi Beach and by now we were really hot and bothered and desperate for a swim so we made our way there. There was no way we would have found the right track as you had to climb over a bit of broken down fence to get to the track. We had to walk through a very snazzy hotel with a tennis court, squash court, a gym and spas before heading down a paved road to the typical white stoned beach. It was rather busy as this was clearly the hotels semi-private beach basically but a sign pointing up a hill showed us the way to Kimilia Beach. Despite being very ready to get into that stunning water we continued the 20 minute trek through the bus to Kimilia. A sign every so often would tell us about the wildlife living in these forests and we weren't sure if there was anything dangerous we needed to know about. The stunning beach came into view with a couple of boats moored off the coast and we could see that it was much more secluded than Emplisi Beach. This is where we finally saw a sign confirming that there was indeed snakes in the forest but the sign failed to state whether they are poisonous if your bitten. Thankfully we didn't see any. We parked ourselves out on some rocks to catch the last of the remaining sunlight with it being 5pm already. We spent the next couple of hours swimming and relaxing on the rock not wanting to make the long hour and a half drive back home. We both decided this was our favourite beach so far as the short walk made it feel more like home. We think there was a carpark you can access on the other side of the beach as we didn’t see many people walk in like we did but thankfully it still didn’t make it overrun. At 6.30pm we made the trek back to Fiskcardo where our car was parked and begun the drive home. We arrived back just before 9pm and picked up a couple of ingredients to quickly make up some burgers and sat outside eating and admiring the full moon.

Sunday 26th August

The alarm went off for the first time the entire trip as I had read it is best to get to the main city of Kefalonia called Argostoli earlier rather than later to see the sea turtles. We left home at 8.30am and made the hour long journey up the island. It was supposed to be a scorching hot day with plenty of sunshine so the sooner we got the city out of the way the sooner we could head to the beach. We arrived at Argostoli and parked the car up on the waterfront. It was already a hot 32 degrees and the sun was beating down on us with no clouds hindering it. We made our way up the dock noticing lots of fish and we sighted our first giant turtle. Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean are famous for the Loggerhead turtles which are considered to be one of the oldest species in the world and they can live up to 65 years. It was frolicking around in the clear water below hopeful of some fish from the surrounding fishing boats to be thrown into it. Another family were surrounding it also and it wasn’t concerned at the GoPro they were putting under the water next to it. We walked up further and there were weather beaten old men in small run down fishing boats tidying their netting. Every time they found a stray fish they threw it overboard and this meant a few more beautiful turtles were swimming. It was definitely worth the early morning start and as always we are surprised at the clean clear blue water and amount of fish. Feeling hot already we made our way back to the car stopping off for some fresh nectarines, peaches, grapes, apples and also some local treats called Mandola which consisted of almonds covered with red sugar. The redness is produced through a type of seaweed that is often used as food colouring. They looked a little like dried raspberries when I first saw them. We also grabbed a cold chocolate and a smoothie for the road with a couple of bread rolls. That would ideally get us through the day as we continued to drive towards one of the more famous sandy beaches on the island called Makris Gialos Beach. It was only 9 minutes away from the city and looked a lot more like the beaches we are used to with golden sand as opposed to white rocks. It was busy but we found ourselves a wee spot amongst the rocks away from everyone on their sun loungers. There was a couple of mastercrafts thrashing about in the waves carting tourists willing to pay money to ride some sort of inflatable device of their choosing. They really should have purchased a more sea worthy boat as they really are more lake going for flat water. We spent quite a few hours here going between the water and lying in the sun. Unfortunately due to the frequency of this we struggled to keep sunblock on us especially since it was so hot and humid out of the water it dripped right off you - we discovered some red patches later. We chatted away about our plans for a tiny house back home in NZ for us to live in whilst we saved and planned for a larger house. That way we could also use our tiny house as a batch lake side once we had finished with it. There is such issues with young people buying their own homes and we feel like most of us are forced to purchase an old house in need of renovating. We arnt keen on this but also don’t want to be paying off someone else’s mortgage by renting. So now we have something to save for I guess! Don’t think I’m going to reduce the amount of travelling we are doing though because thats the entire reason we are here! As the sea water began to rise and waves stared to almost soak our towels with the increasing tide and wind we thought it was time to move on. There were a couple of beaches further south we decided to drive down to on our way home. The first was a small beach called Pessada that was indeed rather beautiful with the typical white rocks and clear water. It was pretty busy and we would have to be sitting on some rock around the cove. It was rather windy also so we decided to continue 10 minutes around the bay to the bigger beach of Lourdata. Winding down the coast and through many small villages with bright run down buildings the roads were small and often one way. We popped out at the bottom and a large sandy/pebble beach came into view. The wind was whipping down it but despite this the beach was lined with beach go-ers on sun loungers and swimmers in the water. We decided this one was also not looking so appealing so we grabbed an ice cream from one of the many shops down on the waterfront and continued down to Poros. Our hotel apparently had a small beach just a short walk away and we thought this will be the best option. We dropped our stuff at the apartment and walked 5 minutes down a small grassy/gravel track and yet another small beautiful white stone beach appeared in front of us. There were a few people hanging around and swimming and whilst the sun was no longer on the beach the water was inviting. We spend the next hour of so here swimming around before heading back up. Since we hadn’t really tried Greek cuisine yet we thought tonight we should really head out and see what all the hype was about. There was a tavern up on the hill above us called Tarverna Agrapidos which boasted to have a beautiful view over Poros and also fresh fish. It was a 5 minutes walk uphill and we were in front of a clearly local family owned restaurant with a hand written paper book as it’s menu. It was a clear yes and they found us a table with a view over the port town being lit up by the pink setting sun. We ordered a wine famous for this region called rebola and Lew ordered a local beer. It was hard to tell how much each dish was going to have on it food wise so we opted for a started with a selection of green favourites - grilled eggplant and courgettes, beans, meatballs and some other mystery items. We also went for a Greek salad to share, fried sardines and a pork souvalaki. The wine was rather tart and reminded me of a Sav but it helped wash down the cheesy taste of the feta cheese which I was determined to try despite the ill effects it would have on me layer. Safe to say it wasn’t as good as I remembered and I’m not missing out. Thankfully Lew the vacuum cleaner enjoyed the ‘mild’ taste of it. We ended up getting a LOT of food and after half a drink each we were a tad drunk. The sardines were a little difficult to handle and I wondered whether I should have chosen a larger fish. They were fried whole and I had to delicately, like a surgeon remove the small amounts of flesh around its spine without getting a mouthful of it’s tiny bones. Lew just had to tackle a giant skewer basically and we laughed at how different a ‘souvalaki ‘ is to us in NZ. All up the meal was actually pretty affordable at €33 (£29/$58 nzd) and the chef who clearly owned the place came out to personally ask how we and all the other customers enjoyed the food. Not to mention we had an incredible view of the lights on the town below and even a huge cross up on the mountain above it we hadn’t noticed before. The full moon was out once again and provided enough light for us to make our way home. Tomorrow we would be leaving this stunning place and returning to the hustle and bustle of London life. But I still find it amazing how many stunning places you can get yourself to in Europe just for four days and it really feels like you have had a proper holiday and not just a long weekend.

Monday 27th August

The final day in paradise. There was no alarms set this morning and the sunrise was what woke us up. I sat outside on the deck in the sun getting some of this blog written. We packed up our stuff post breakfast and headed down to the small beach we were at last night just a few minutes walk away. We had a check out time of midday and our flight wasn’t until 4.30pm but we were unable to get a late check out. We were the only people at the beach and it was so peaceful swimming. That was until we discovered some of the small cute fish actually bit us a couple of times when we weren’t swimming. We both got such a fright but didn’t mind too much when we saw the size of the fish. We had a quick chat to Lews parents and then got in one last swim before my phone alarm went off to tell us to head back to the apartment. Half an hour later we were showered and packed up. Our hosts said their goodbyes and we left thinking what a wee gem we had managed to find by just searching on Google - perhaps we should try it more often. Since we had time to kill we drove south to the town of Skala. More coloured houses and more beaches but this area did have a lot more resorts than we expected. With it being lunchtime we decided now was probably a good time to eat and the place I had in mind from reading some blogs turned out just to be a cocktail bar. We drove around a couple of streets away from the beach and discovered a more local looking restaurant called Kaliva. Parking the car outside we quickly looked at the menu and decided this would be perfect. The Greek man pointed us to the entire deck with a smile on his face insisting we choose where we wanted to be. Since the sun had come out through the rain clouds sitting in the shade was ideal. They had a good lunch deal of chicken gyros for €4.50 (£4/$8 nzd) and we also got a orange fizzy drink made in kefalonia. They seem to do really good fizzy drink here that’s at least 20% orange juice! Highly recommend it! The food was excellent and the bill only came to a total of €13 (£12/$23 nzd) which is probably one of the cheapest lunches we have had yet. With time to kill still we routed ourselves to a beach literally at the end of the airport called Minias beach which took us through some small back roads and ended up wanting us to drive into someone private residence. Clearly it didn’t realise that there were two designated carparks for the beach. We walked in and the beach wasn’t anything special really aside from having some sand but it wasn’t lovely and golden like previous beaches we had been to. There wasn’t any planes taking off so there wasn’t much excitement unfortunately and that was the main reason we came. Heading back to the car we had a 7 minute drive until we reached the terminal and dropped our car back to Hertz. Heading into the tiny terminal it looked very different to midnight on Friday in the pitch black. As expected we were very very early but the terminal was air conditioned so it wasn’t unpleasant. Today we were flying with Smartwings which is a Czech airline and one we hadn’t flown with before. It looked as though the incoming flight was going to be late by 50 minutes which wasn’t ideal since we were flying to Prague and then taking another flight to London with a two hour layover - it would be a close connection time. The terminal was tiny and we had to stand up to wait it was so busy but Lew was tracking the incoming flight and they had managed to make up the time by 15 minutes. It arrived just after it was supposed to leave with us and the airport staff did an excellent job at turning the plane around and getting us off the ground within half an hour. Ryanair would have still be staring at the baggage complaining about how they arnt going to be on time and making everyone later. Anyway clearly we had got used to incompetence. Even the one of the airline staff greeting us at the door said he would look into our connecting flight to make sure we would get there. He came to us after we took off and said we would get in at 6.10 pm with only a 20minute delay so we would be fine. We felt like high five-ing the airline just for doing its job well! The flight went just fine with no issues and transferring terminals in Prague was also easy. We had time to go to the cafeteria to get some snacks. Lew of course going for a baguette, chocolate milk and a chocolate banana snack. I opted for a cup of tea I’d been craving all weekend after forgetting to bring some tea bags. We had some fruit leftover from the weekend that I snacked on that also. We headed to the gate where out of nowhere I spotted my favourite treats from Austria called Manner Neapolitan wafers and Lew urged me not to just buy the one packet but 4! I would have to savour them over the next coming months until I can find them again. We made our way to the gate and frustratingly we had to go through security again which meant fumbling around with liquids and laptops etc. The Smartwings flight was relatively on time and we had no issues getting on the plane. We arrived back into London Gatwick airport at 9pm and had to catch the Gatwick Express back to London Victoria and then catch the underground to Stockwell station. I was now very thankful we had something sweet to snack on as it had been awhile since we had something proper to eat back in Skala. A piece of toast sufficed when we finally made it home around 10.30-11pm and we headed straight to be as we are back to the reality of work tomorrow to make some more money for future adventures!

Forever horrified at the cigarettes you can buy in Europe

LewisAugust 24, 2018