The Adriatical Sea - Thursday, October 2
Today was Chris’ and my last day in Lefkada, so we decided to spend the day driving around the island. We had yet to visit the Adriatical Sea or to see anything but Nydri, surrounding islands, or the grocery stores of Lefkada City. (Kennedy, the driver who took us to Cape Sounion, charmingly referred to the Adriatic as the “Adriatical,” and this habit stuck with us.)
It rained on and off all day, too, which made watersports unappealing.
We started by heading west into the interior of the island.
Our initial goal was the town of Karya. Karya is famous for its embroidery in a style invented by a woman with just one arm, and that one arm disabled. The local shops stock lots of tablecloths and runners made by local women. (They also stock a bunch of junk machine-made in China; check the goods carefully before buying, and expect to pay a substantial price for hand-made textiles.) We bought a few tablecloths from an old man who didn’t really know how to use the credit card reader. Even after he called in his wife, he could only ring up transactions worth 90 euros. His solution was to simply charge us 90 euros three times, and then ask Chris for the last 10 euros in cash.
From Karyda, we drove north to Tsoukalades and thence to the Adriatic side of the island.
We then headed to the Porto Katsiki, the most beautiful beach in the world. On the way, we bought a jar of local thyme honey from an old lady at a roadside stand; true thyme honey is reportedly very blond in color.
The winding road down to Porto Katsiki is getting broken on the edges, no doubt due to the place’s outsize popularity and small capacity. We parked above the beach, paying the requisite five euros.
We started walking down toward the beach to get a better view than we had from the parking lot, but then the storm blew in. And it blew in hard!
Chris had seen enough. Instead of waiting for the storm to pass (they do pass quickly) so we could walk down the many steps to the beach, we just ran back to the car and drove away.
Next stop was Akrotiri Doutari, the southwest tip of Lefkada and home to a lighthouse that’s a great spot to watch sunsets. Legend has it that the poet Sappho leapt to her death from the cliffs here; suicide in that manner would certainly be possible, but that would’ve been a heck of a long way from Lesbos.
We drove home by way of Vassiliki, a pretty town in southern Lefkada that is known for windsurfing. We were back to Villa Lemoni by 5:00, having covered the entire island from stem to stern. Lefkada really isn’t that big.
The rest of the gang had spent most of the day at home, discouraged from any ambitious outings by the rain that had fallen steadily there all day, while it came in stormy fits and starts on the west side of the island. On our way in, we met Ryan and Henry heading out to the grocery store. They returned with another feast of meats, which they managed to grill despite the persistent drizzle and damp charcoal.
Clouds and sundown over the mainland.
That night over dinner, we learned that mules have been recorded reproducing!