Day 7 Manchester to Kefalonia

5am is an unruly time to awake. But as is always with me the fear of oversleeping keeps my subconscious on Defcon4. My body refuses to rest. My mind refuses to stop and all my stresses and strains spin around my head my head like New Zealand’s commonwealth team at the velodrome. 2.30… 3am… 3.20…

Finally I arise at 4.10, and 5am now feels like an enticing lie in. I head to the bathroom, pack up the last of my gear and shortly after 5amwe’re speeding toward Manchester Airport.

28^oCin Kefalonia. What a beautiful temperature. Cheryl’s booked a coach trip to get us to the village where we are staying. There has been much mocking, that we’ll be on a crowded, stuffy bus for hours longer than we need.

We are all pleasantly surprised that not only do we have the coach to ourselves but its air-conditioned and rather roomy too.

My Dad is waiting for us at the villa. He’s in the pool, very happy to see us all. The afternoon is “wasted away” by drinks and ice-cream at the poolside, lots of splashing and laughing in the water. It really is good to see everyone together.

Dad and Jeannette have been here for a few times before and they are becoming familiar with a few of the locals… plus this is the start of their third week here.

We are introduced to “Bettie” (Interesting point to note from Cheryl here is that Bettie thought she was MY daughter! Ouch!). She is about 20 and serves the drinks and ice-cream at Nemesis Bar and Restaurant.

Its clear by the familiar conversation that the family’s story of a reunion has been shared and has been greatly anticipated. She’s introduced and tries to remember our names. She’s grown up on the island but she is no local, she moved from Albania with her parents and has lived here for some 16 years. I can totally understand why her family stopped here, on the tip of the EU, its remote and quaint but well resourced and modern in its amenities.

What a beautiful part of the world. The style and age of the villas along with the travernas right on the waterfront is straight out of my imaginings of World War Two Mediterranean Sea. In fact, I’ve heard that its somewhere around here where Nicholas Cage stayed while on location to film “Captain Corelli’s mandolin”. Now that would be worth exploring.