It's all Greek to me!
One week into my adventure and I’m loving life in Greece. As an active holiday destination, Vassiliki Bay on the island of Lefkada is paradise. Not only is it a windsurfing mecca, the beautiful mountains that envelope the bay make it a popular destination for mountain biking too. Famous for it’s strong cross-shore winds every afternoon, it also boasts a lighter onshore wind in the morning that is perfect for beginner windsurfers. This incredible weather pattern (along with the beautiful scenery) led a whole bunch of hotels that specialise in windsurf holidays - like Club Vass where I’m based for my 6 week course - to spring up in the late 80s.
Last year I spent six weeks here completing a dinghy instructor’s course at Wildwind sailing club next door so I knew what to expect from the lifestyle, the people, the cuisine and the experience before I arrived this year. That has not stopped me from feeling incredibly grateful to be here and experience this paradise a second time.
It was great walking round the harbour on my first day and being greeted by so many locals who remembered me from last year. They have been giving me ridiculous discounts left, right and centre and it’s absolutely no wonder there is such a crisis in Greece at the moment. I don’t think I’ve paid full price for anything apart from in the supermarket. As a foreign tourist, I had been warned/scared into taking heaps of cash with me to last the length of the trip for fear the cash machines were all dry. When I arrived here to find that everything seems to be running as usual in this idyllic bubble that is packed full of privileged Northern European holiday-makers, I realised I had fallen victim to the media’s scare-mongering. Granted, there is rarely any money in the cash machine in the village, but that is no different to how it was when I was here last year and is nothing to do with the current crisis - more to its isolated island status, I imagine. I use the word ‘isolated’ loosely, however - Lefkada is officially an island, not quite attached to the mainland, though it is pretty much close enough to jump across. Apparently, Greek rules mean that any land attached to the mainland with a bridge is not considered an island and would therefore be exempt from the benefits of Greek tax laws that favour islands. Therefore, you can only get to the ‘island’ of Lefkada by ‘boat’. You must drive across this boat as though it were a bridge, but still… it is a boat, meaning Lefkada can be classified as an island and benefit from the tax laws. The boat moves twice per day to prove it is not a permanent fixture…. Ahhh, the Greeks!
I’ve truly enjoyed speaking to the locals about their thoughts on the crisis… The girl in the bakery who I used to have lovely chats with last year was very keen to hear from me what the British public think of their prime minister Tsipras and how the Greek government is being portrayed by our media. She was so angry on Tuesday morning because, even though the Greek population voted a loud NO for austerity measures in last week’s referendum, Tsipras still signed off on the very same with European leaders in Brussels on Monday. Then there’s Simos, a 45 year old Greek windsurf instructor who has travelled down in his van to spend the week in Vassiliki doing a SUP instructor course (the very same I did last year). This guy is such a character and a joy to have around the dinner table with us. He told me that the crisis is completely fake and made up by politicians for various reasons. ‘Gary’, the owner of the best gyros joint in town, tells me, like many of the other restauranteurs in Vassiliki, that business has never been better and he gets busier and busier each year. Nikos who rented me a bicycle for my 6 weeks here (for an amazing 40€) says that as long as everyone pays him in cash, everything will be fine… Hmmm, I wonder why. Cash is king here and it is impossible to pay for anything by card. Again, this is nothing new and, for as long as I’ve been visiting Greece, I’ve found the same.
I’ve been starting the mornings early (7.30/8am) with either yoga, run circuits through the olive groves, stand-up paddle boarding (SUP) or SUP-yoga. My windsurf lessons (both theoretical and practical) have started at 10 and lasted until 5pm with an hour or two off for lunch. This, coupled with sharing a huge old Greek house in the village with around 30 others who are either completing a sailing/windsurfing/SUP/diving course or working as an instructor somewhere up the beach, has led to a very fun first week. On our one day off this week, 13 of us from the house rented a variety of vehicles (our quest for three cars ended up with us taking whatever we could get: a car, a jeep, a moped and a quad) and went on a fantastic road trip to explore this beautiful island.
Right now, I’m feeling incredibly grateful to be here, as you can no doubt imagine. I am truly loving this lifestyle. I’m writing this having just left the huge dining table outside where my housemates remain drinking beer, chatting and singing along as one of them plays the guitar. I feel so privileged to have met Phil from Lewisham who was here to do his SUP instructor course. In 2006 after two tours in Iraq with the British army and during his second tour in Afghanistan was blown up by a roadside bomb. He spent three years in hospital learning how to walk again and use his bodily functions. The same age as me, Phil has experienced so much, is incredibly well read, knowledgeable and philosophical about life and speaks regularly and very humbly of his gratitude for being alive. Since the accident he has become a dive instructor, a kite surfing instructor, a BASE jumper, a regular skydiver, and now a SUP instructor and is looking forward to volunteering for Wave, a charity that works to introduce watersports to disadvantaged youth in the UK, when he returns home. Yesterday, he, Rob (another incredible windsurfing buddy I’ve made) and I were standing chest deep in the sea (right there in front of the cliff in the picture that I took from above afterwards). Clutching a beer and walking farther out, he burst into a simple song/chant...
“Grateful for this life, grateful for this love, grateful I can spend this moment with you…"
He repeated it over and over and had us join him. We sang it again and again at the top of our lungs and… well... it was one of those moments :)
Nidri Waterfalls