A Trip To Argostoli

When there's an opportunity to explore the capital of Kefalonia, Argostoli with "Unexplored" .......

..... it would just look plain rude not to get ourselves booked in .......

..... particularly when given a 90% guarantee of seeing real life, turtles in their natural habitat. 

It was an absolute no brainer and pleasure to board one of Unexplored's very lovely, air conditioned mini buses ........

..... especially when within a few minutes of our arrival as we were rewarded with not one, but three said ninja turtles (that were probably more than teenagers, but definitely not mutant), if only fleetingly .......

..... as they swam off, once they'd had their fill of entrails, thrown into the water from the fishing boats, as their catch was prepared to be sold.

It was all very romantic and emotional!

From there, we moved to the main part of town where we visited it's two churches, which again, did not disappoint.

They were both very beautiful, one of which was the only Catholic church in the area, which was very interesting ........

......... and where we were able to light candles in memory of every one of our loved ones, who we are no longer able to send a postcard or take a fridge magnet back home for.

Fortunately, Darrell had had the foresight to put aside all our loose euro coins specifically for such a purpose, so no one was missed out.

Again, it was an emotional experience ........

....... as we really do, very much, love a Greek church and as such, visiting has always been an obligatory and traditional part of all our oddities. 

And then, just after we left and walked a little way, we stumbled upon something we'd have never ever dreamed of finding .......

We're not sure what it's actually called, (Mr D?), but it's a special shop that sells everything you could ever want for "decorating", if that's the right word, a loved ones grave .......

..... from icons, statues, artificial flowers, lamps, candles and vases, you name it.  It was like a religious Aladdin's cave, of which we were totally enthralled and in awe, but of a very respectful and contained type nature.

We don't really do this sort of thing back home, but perhaps our own affinity shows with such things is reflected, perhaps, in the lanterns we always light and leave out over Christmas.  

I suppose it goes without saying that we did make a purchase or two. Darrell bought himself a small, glow in the dark Virgin Mary (to go with his Mary collection) and a pomegranate shaped tea light holder and I bought a Mary charm to hang up somewhere at home, to be decided, but what an incredible discovery!

Then it was back into the glorious, bright sunshine to peruse some of the more traditional holiday souvenirs ......

.... although on this occasion, a cow bell didn't make the cut, even though it said Iris on the label!

 It was all very, beautiful ......

..... but soon it was time to get back into our bus to pay our respects at the Memorial Acqui Division, again more time for thought, which made us regret that we hadn't found time to visit the town's museum to find out more.

Memorial Acqui Division Kefalonia - Argostoli - TracesOfWar.com

Our final port of call was the Lefkada Lighthouse ........

....... where the setting was truly stunning.......

....... and afforded us a little time for companionable, silent reflection ......

...... before heading back to Skala.

It had been quite a day .......

...... with sooooooooooo many memories made ....... 

....... including a visit a traditional bakery, where our substantial purchases didn't last long enough for us to record them, so fabulously nomtastic were they. 

What are we like? If not always very appreciative of any sort of exotic baked item, happy days!