And the reason it says I am posting this on Sunday, May 15th is because I started it on Sunday but didn't get back to it till now, which is Wednesday, May 18th.
Okay!
From our impossible-to-find hostel we grabbed a taxi at 6:00am and arrived at the bus station with time to spare for our 8:00am, 3 hour bus ride to Patras. I looked out the window at all the citrus trees and half-finished construction projects while Emily dozed.
Once in Patras, we had a fair amount of time to kill before our ferry ride to Kefalonia, so we sat outside at a corner cafe and drank tea alongside a bunch of scraggly old men chain-smoking and chattering away in Greek. Out of curiosity and general excitement at being in Greece, we wished we could have a conversation with them, a feeling which was probably mutual considering we were the only outsiders, let alone females, present. Old Boys Club indeed!
Then we had a 3 hour ferry ride.
I love taking the ferry so much! A Washington kid for sure.
Upon arrival in Sami, the town where we would being staying for the next 3 weeks, we met and introduced ourselves to our Work Away host-family-dad and dropped our bags off at the boats. The catamaran we would be living on, along with her broken-down sister, was moored at the pier, a 25 minute walk or so from our host family's house in the neighboring town of Karavamilos. We then met and introduced ourselves to the rest of the family, and went out for drinks and dinner, where Emily and I both got a little more than drunk off of the strongest gin and tonics either of us had ever had in our lives. After some lively and good-natured dinner conversation, we said goodnight to our host family, made our way back to the boats and fell asleep in our little shared sleeping cabin.
The Work Away arrangement was as such: everyday Emily and I would work from 9:00am to 11:00am or 12:00pm, we would have the afternoons to do with as we wished, and then we would join our family for dinner around 6:00pm. While Emily helped out around the house with general upkeep and looked after Jasmine, the youngest member of the family at 18 months, I would help prepare the boats for the upcoming sailing trip. This involved great deal rubber-glove-wearing, hazardous-chemical-spraying and immensely satisfying mildew-zapping. In order to repair the broken-down catamaran, the entire boat needed to be taken out of the water. Near the end of our stay, I would accompany our host-dad and his brother and his brother's girlfriend who would be flying over from Ireland, on a 5 day sailing trip up to a marina in Preveza. But more on that later.
(On the map, Kefalonia is the largest island in the Ionian Sea.)
Everyday Emily and I would wake up at 7:30 and poke our heads out of the skylight in our cabin to be greeted by pale blue skies and bright morning sunshine. I would usually jump out of bed, lured by the thought of Tea and Breakfast, and face the chilly morning air first, while Emily (sleepyhead!) curled up further under her blanket. The dialogue usually went something like this:
Me: "Emi! Get up! I'm making you a cup a tea but you have to get up to drink it!"
Emily: " MrRHHGHHHgh its cold!"
Eventually the lure of breakfast would overcome Warm Bed, Emily would join me and we would sit outside and listen to Elvis Presley while eating our breakfast. I was scrolling through the music on her iPod one morning and happened to settle on Elvis and that was that. At first it was like we were in a Quentin Tarantino movie because we were listening to the boisterous music of Elvis early in the morning while doing mundane things like making tea. On an island in Greece. But then it just became a perfectly normal aspect of our daily routine.
Tea, strawberries and 8% fat Greek Yogurt like I will never taste ever again unless I go back to Greece, bread with butter and homemade marmalade and eggs from our host-family's chickens.
We ate lots of lovely Greek vegetables for lunch.
With feta and olive oil of course!
And we ate tomatoes every single day. Literally. I mean, look at that! How could you NOT?
The supermarket sells lemons which is crazy because lemon trees grow everywhere.
...like this Monster Lemon from our host-family's tree!
We also grazed on tea and biscuits all day. And yes that is a baby french-press I am using to drink my Earl Grey since we accidentally broke one of the matching mugs. It too broke after only a few days while I was washing it. :( It was so cute! RIP litte guy.
It was my personal favorite to top the biscuits with yogurt and marmalade.
Part 2 soon!
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