Greek Summer

Greece is one of my favourite summer holiday destinations - the sunshine, the heat, the sea, the food, the wine - all guaranteed to be ever-present and excellent. This year was no exception.

My friend Dave was celebrating his 40th birthday over a big party weekend in Kefalonia so Ollie and I happily made it our summer holiday destination. We spent the first two weeks of September in Kefalonia and Lefkada.

Our first three nights we spent back in Assos - my favourite place in Kefalonia - a charming little bay and village. Dave and Piero were staying nearby so we had lunch with them twice (including one very long lunch that turned into dinner!). We swam at the beach there and at Dafnoudi beach. We rotated our meals between the cafe and the two waterfront restaurants. 

Hello Assos!

First breakfast

Assos

Breakfast time

Still breakfast time

Long lunching

Lunching with Dave & Piero

Dinner time?

More of Assos

Assos

Breakfast at Picnic

Walking through the forest to the beach

Dafnoudi Beach

Dafnoudi Beach

Fiskardo

Fiskardo

Next up we took the ferry for two hours to Lefkada - time to explore a new island for a few days. The island is very pretty, even greener than Kefalonia and very mountainous. We stayed in a gorgeous airbnb in a tiny village at the top of the mountains called Drimonas. It was surprisingly cool up there so we had to rug up.

Our Airbnb

Drimonas

Sunset from our Airbnb

Our little picnic

Drimonas

Drimonas

On our first day there, we checked out Gialos Beach and Porto Katsiki beach - both with stunning aqua water. Unfortunately it was very windy on that side of the island so we couldn't swim safely there but we admired the water from our sun lounges. The scenery while we were driving around was very pretty. We stopped at a roadside stall and picked up local olive oil, olives and honey with thyme and pine. We watched sunset at a bar (also a paragliding launch pad) nearby and had dinner at a great local tavern.

Phenomenal colours

All that blue

Port Katsiki

We bought honey, olives and olive oil from this man's farm

The next day we went to the less windy side of the island to Desimi Bay, a very pretty place. We had lunch and stayed for the afternoon. It turned out we had a perfect view of the sun setting from the balcony of our place so we watched it there. In the village was a little truck parked up by the side of the road with a grill next to it. A local couple barbeque souvlaki there for dinner each night. It was proper street food, very simple and we loved it.

Desimi Bay

lunch time

Food truck for dinner

What a dinner!

In the morning we stopped in at the fishing village of Agios Nikitas for a coffee and breakfast before heading back to Kefalonia on the ferry. Three nights wasn’t really long enough to see much of the island but I liked what I saw so would definitely go back there.

Agios Nikitas

Morning freddo cappucino

View from the ferry

Lunch on the ferry - spinach & feta pies

Driving down from the mountain

Lefkada view

Dave's party guests congregated around Lourdata in the south west of the island. So for our second week were based a short drive away in a villa in Trapezaki Beach with Melbourne-based friends Pauline and Stephen. It was lovely having our own big place with a pool and a great view plus the chance to spend some quality time together.

Much of the week was spent having long lunches with friends followed by long dinners. We had Dave’s birthday dinner with 30 people, a pool party at his villa the next day, and then a day on out on a boat with everyone. It was a lot of fun. In between we were swimming and lounging at our pool and at Trapezaki Beach.

We're here!

Lourdata Beach

Jaimee, me, Laura at the pool party

Stephen, Pauline, Ollie & I

The pool party

The gang

Me & Ollie

Sunset at the villa

More sunset action

View from the villa

At Trapezaki Beach with Jaimee, Laura & Pauline

Me & Ollie going to dinner

Jaimee's birthday lunch at Trapezaki Beach

Dave & Piero, me & Ollie, Pauline & Stephen

Stephen & Ollie at lunch, Taverna Denis at Trapezaki Beach

Jumped off the boat into this stunning water

Ollie & I at the villa

Ollie and I stayed on for the last weekend when most of our friends had left so we had the last two days to really relax.

It was a great two weeks. I managed to properly unwind, got a tan, read a book, ate A LOT of grilled fresh fish, stuffed vine leaves and calamari, and drank my fair share of the local white wine and loved catching up with friends outside of London.

Loving long lunches

Lunch under the grape vines

The restaurant veggie garden goes right down to the sea

We found espresso martinis at Hemingway's Bar at Lourdata Beach

Trapezaki Beach

Trapezaki Beach

Ollie at lunch

So many views like this driving around - olive trees and ocean

Last breakfast

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