This is our Photo Album from Kefallonia, an Ionian Island off the west coast of Greece, which we visited in May 1999. We stayed in Fiskardo, a fishing village in the far north of the island, and one of the few areas to have escaped the devastation of the 1953 earthquake. The pictures were all taken on a Fujifilm MX-700 digital camera at the lower 640x480 resolution setting to save memory, but are displayed here recoded to 320x240 or smaller jpegs to save bandwidth. A few have been cropped, rotated or corrected. Note that the transliteration of the Greek place names varies, so we have used the ones most commonly found in guide books or used locally.

Update 7. May 2001: in response to several requests for further information about Kefallonia, there is some additional material here!

Mont Blanc from the Air 2000 Boeing 757	Sign for our village
Mirtos Beach from the coast road	Around our village of Fiskardo
Venetian lighthouse on the point	Judy in the newly-finished pool
Our apartment (with the shutters)	Judy having breakfast on our terrace
Yoghourt and honey for breakfast, mmmmm!	Judy and a statue of Odysseus at Vathi, on Ithaca. We took a boat trip to the neighbouring island, legendary home of Odysseus
Steve at Vathi, on Ithaca	Judy at Vathi, on Ithaca
Judy in Vathi, on Ithaca	Church and more flowers at Kioni, On Ithaca
More flowers on Ithaca	Homer's "wine-dark sea"
Flotilla in the harbour at Fiskardo	Judy and fellow passengers on the ferry
Looking across to Ithaca from near Agia Evfimia	Steve by the sea
A towel by the sea...	...and Judy, reading "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" which is set here
"Our" cove	Judy at Sami, the former capital of Kefallonia
Melissani Cave: the sea enters a subterranean cave system near Argostoli and flows through these underground caverns on the opposite side of the island	Melissani Cave and our boatman
Judy at Assos	Assos on its isthmus (try saying that with a mouthful of baklava)
Steve on Mount Einos (1,628m)	The view from Mount Einos
Argostoli, capital of Kefallonia	Orthodox Church in Argostoli
The abandoned Sea Mills at Katovothres. This is where the sea pours into sink holes, crossing under the island to appear in the Melissani Caves and finally emerging near Sami on the east coast. The flow was much reduced after the 1953 earthquake.	Foki bay and a roadside shrine
Foki bay: the beach was disappointing	Judy in the sea at Mirtos beach
Steve & Judy in the taverna at Mirtos beach	Fiskardo by a full moon
Judy in Fiskardo	Fiskardo
Fiskardo: this fine old Venetian house is now a supermarket	Fiskardo
Judy on the steps to our apartment	Steve at the steps to our apartment

Our accommodation in Fiskardo was a small studio in the Karteri Apartments. It was excellent, and we rented it as a package through a UK firm, "Simply Ionian" who, I think, are now part of Thompson (they were independent when we booked).

Another firm we looked at were Tapestry, who have some lovely apartments in Fiskardo and a good reputation (and I think are still independent). Ours had a view over the harbour, but was just far away enough to be quiet. Although the apartment was set up for self-catering, we mainly ate out, as it doesn't cost much more than buying ingredients.

A very friendly chap called Dimitri runs a little travel agency in Fiskardo (upstairs, near the Captain's Table restaurant, IIRC) and can suggest outings. He trained as an accountant in the UK, but prefers the simple life. If you do meet him, please point him to our website (he has Internet access) and say hello from us! He's trying to build up a library so, if you can, donate a few English paperbacks for other visitors to borrow.

Some people have asked whether Fiskardo might be too quiet. That was part of its attraction for us, but it depends on what you're looking for. It's just a really relaxing place to spend a week, learn a little (more?) Greek, and immerse yourselves. It's quite fun to read "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and Homer's "Odyssey" in their natural context. "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" has now been filmed on the island, so expect a bit of extra tourism in 2001! A hire car helps you to get around the island, but in fact we didn't use ours much, and taxis are so cheap that I would just rely on them another time. The best bathing beaches we found were little coves down near Sami the east coast, or the long pebble strand at Mirtos on the west. Argostoli is nice, but only worth an hour or two. You can see some other attractions on our web page, and of course the guide books list everything. Ithaca is well worth a ferry trip; on Kefallonia itself, avoid the area near the airport like the plague!

Hope this helps someone, have a good trip.

Steve & Judy Pardoe

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