We sailed south 7 miles over to the small town of Nidri on Lefkada Island. For being only 6-7 miles away from Lefkas, it was a totally different experience. It certainly feels like a small world when witnessing the life of a sailor, every corner we turned Vince & Barbie “The Captain” & “The Admiral” ran into fellow sailors/friends from around the world. I could have listened to the locals and fellow sailors for hours about the history and culture of Europe, every person we ran into had amazing pieces of history and stories to share, it truly is incredible. I will share a few of the stories I loved listening to while exploring Nidri today, enjoy 🙂 We saw this ruin on the way from Lefkas to Nidri and I spent hours researching the internet to find out what it was and within minutes of running into Roger from Britain while at dinner he was able to tell me what it was! It was part of St Georges Castle, the Lefkas Venetians built it to guard the south end of Lefkada Island.
Dinner was fantastic! I ate liver (taste buds satisfied, mentally it was awful! 🙂 ), lamb, FETA!, pork and cheese pie and it was INCREDIBLE!!! My main dish was Kleftiko. What I thought was just an ordinary local dish of lamb, turned into this amazing story from history told by Tracy & Tony currently living on the island but originally from Britain. This dish came about in WWII. Greeks would have to hide their live stock from the Germans and Italians. They would dig a hole deep in the ground with hot coal and place a pot filled with lamb, carrots, potatoes, and anything else they had so no one could smell it from above. They would take it out days later and they would have this AMAZING stew.
I just loved how these beautiful mountains are filled with civilization built right into them.
Trying not to get hit by cars and mopeds we explored the local culture walking 1.5 miles from Vhilo to Nidri. I thought it was beautiful cultural practice to personalize the resting place instead of just a gravestone and flowers for use of remembrance of their time on earth.
The wildflowers were absolutely beautiful tucked in the most unusual places…Walking the narrow streets with stone and gravel then a sudden burst of colorful flowers on the side of the street or in walkways to homes broke up the hardness of the town.
Ahhhh the FOOD! Again with the food, but too great not to share. We went to this restaurant for lunch and met this little guy. Seairra and I freaked a little but our waitress came up and grabbed it for us. Such a cutie, loved her facial expression. After he left I had my first ever Greek Salad in Greece and it was amazing.
Meet Aristotle Onassis! He married Jackie Kennedy, the widow of John Kennedy. He gave a lot to the Greeks, putting a lot of people to work etc and he owned one of the islands, Scorpios. When he passed he would give the island to Greeks if the family couldn’t afford to keep it. Instead his granddaughter leased it to the Russians for 100 years for 100 million dollars, so today Russians are still on it.
A final thought and a few more images before we set sail 60 miles away to Ithaki. Although a little more quant then Lefkada meeting all the people from Britain, friends of Vince and Barbie made this adventure the best so far. Especially meeting Jan and John, the accents and personality of these two was fabulous. We shared a ton of laughs and they shared a lot of history as well. I was never into history growing up but now as an adult I cannot get enough and I cannot wait to explore what’s around the bend!
My home for 16 Days!
NIDRI
Thank you for visiting! I would love to hear from you. What interesting story from history peaks your interest? I would love to research it!
xo
cylinda B
Cylinda B Photography 