SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast, where I chat with expats about their favorite holiday destinations. Let's be honest, expats are some of the best travelers around, always planning the next adventure, exploring hidden gems, and finding the best spots wherever they go. So who better to ask for travel inspiration?

unknown 0:26

Welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Thank you. It feels more like I'm just catching up for a chat than getting onto a podcast. Oh good. Yeah. So let's get started. So let's hear a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Okay, myself. So as you mentioned, I was born in Zakintos. However, I was probably about three years old when we left. So I don't have any memories or didn't have any memories of the island. I just obviously had photos and what my family had told me because I'm the youngest of five children. So I was it was always at the back of my mind I wanted to go back because I wanted to feel a connection. When I say go back, my family moved to Australia. So I've always felt Australian because that's where I grew up, that's where I went to school, that's where all my, you know, childhood memories are. But as I got older, I started to think more about my Greek culture and really, really wanted to get back to my roots and see where I actually came from. So my very first time there, I was married with three children. So it did take me a long time to get there. Yeah, so we went as a family and I met lots of cousins that I didn't know I had. Went back to the original family home and saw all the olive groves that my father's family had and had been passed on for generations because Zacinthos is a big island and it's very, very green. It's on the Ionian side, so we call it the Italian side. So you can actually get a ferry from Zacinthos to Italy. Oh I'm not sure which part of Italy, though. Yeah. That's the only thing. So it's yeah, it's very green because then the the islands on the other side of the mainland are very rocky and not so green. So there's seven islands on the Ionian side, and then I think there's, oh god, 12 plus on the other side of the mainland. Yeah, so that was that was the first time back. I was disappointed because when I first got there, I actually didn't feel any connection. I didn't feel I didn't feel any different. I thought I would get this sense of, oh, you know, this is where I come from, but no, I didn't. So anyway, but it was still a great, a great holiday. We met all the family on that trip and we did some amazing things. It's actually an easy place to get to. So if you're going from Athens, it's you can either fly there, it's like less than an hour. If you're on the mainland, you can go from Patra, which is about two hours out of Athens, and you can catch a ferry, which is 45 minutes. So if you're already on the mainland and you're not in Athens, if you get yourself to Patra, it's only a 45 to an hour ferry ride to get there. So that that's really easy. It's got beautiful beaches, as you mentioned. It is unique in that it has what's called a shipwreck cove, and then it's got the the blue caves, and they're called the blue caves because they're actually what my kids called slushy blue. And if you're Australian, you know what a slushy is. So it's that bright blue, and we we just couldn't believe how blue it was. It was actually not that it hurt your eyes to look at it, but it was just amazing at the the depth of the colour. And we hired a boat with a captain and a crew because there were, you know, there's my family, and there were a few other people that we were with that travelled with us, and we spent a day out on the water going through the blue caves, and the captain was explaining to us it's because all of the limestone and it something about it reflects the sky, and that's why the water is so blue. And you can only get to Shipwreck Cove by boat. There's nothing there though, there's absolutely no amenities whatsoever at Shipwreck Cove. But it's got so many other beaches. What another beach that is quite unique to Zaginthos is a beach called Xigya Beach, and apparently it has minerals and collagen and so forth in there. Yes. So, and the funny thing is, I remember when we were there and we went into the water and we're like rubbing ourselves, oh, this is good for the skin, it's collagen, blah, blah, blah. I was wearing silver Tiffany jewelry and it all went brown. Oh my god. It's from the from all the minerals in the water. But I mean it it polishes off, but yeah, because it was so funny because we thought, is it just you know, they're just kind of saying that it's got all these minerals just to attract people here. But then when we noticed our silver jewelry had turned brown, we thought, oh no, there's minerals in it for sure.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

So if you were to hire a boat, you can snorkel around there. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Actually, I don't know if you'd snorkel, there's not much to see other than the rocks, to be honest. There's no vacation that it's not like no, it's no not like Thailand. No, no, I wouldn't snorkle there. They do have the turtle, what they call turtle island, so on the other side of the island. So the shipwreck caves are up the top of the island, and then the turtle island is down the bottom of the island, and they've got all these amazing. So you can go down to Turtle Island, and there's it's a breeding ground for these big turtles, and I think you can get in the water with the turtles. Oh uh, we didn't, but I'm pretty sure you can because they're just they're everywhere and they're really big.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

So, how big is the island then?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Is it a big island? Yeah, it is a big island. Uh, you need a car. Oh, no, three times as big as Singapore. Oh, okay. No, it's big, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you definitely need a car. That's the other thing I should mention. Yeah. Because so you've got the option to stay in town. The town is beautiful, it's right by the port. A lot of ocean liners come to Zakinthos and a lot of private cruise ships that, you know, like the rich people that go from Monte Carlo and just island hop, they they're all you see, all these amazing boats or ships in the harbor. But to get to the beaches, you need to drive away from the town because that's just the port. People do there are some beaches close to the port, but they're not really yeah. I mean, if you want your typical Greek island beach with your, you know, your chair and your umbrella and your tavern and your food and your cocktails and your music and everything. There's so many, you know, re and there's resorts kind of built along those beaches. So the most popular beaches, banana beach being one of them. I know it's a weird name. I don't know why it's called Banana Beach, but that that we found we actually went to that a few times because we liked the tavern, we liked the music. You could actually lie on a beach chair with your umbrella or beach lounge or day bed, and you press the button and they come and take your order for drinks and things. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, so that was good.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Just it just back, you mentioned that you had to hire a car. Would you hire a car from mainland and catch and take the ferry over with it? Yeah, yeah, or on the island.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Yeah, look, what a lot of people do is they they'll get to Athens and they'll get a car at the airport. Okay, and then they might do a bit of the the mainland, yeah, and then they'll drive to the port where the ferry is uh it's called Kilini, the actual port that goes to Zakintos. Drive your car onto the ferry, an hour later, 45 minutes to an hour later, you're in Zakintos. You jump in your car and you drive to your accommodation, and then you've got the car because there's just a lot to discover. There's also a place called Bochaly, and it's kind of it's up on a mountainside, it's a village with shops and mainly restaurants and things, but the view from there is unbelievable. So it's beautiful during the daytime, but at night it's absolutely breathtaking because you look down at the town and the port, and it's all lit up, and it's just it's just breathtaking. It's really, really nice, and there's some really nice restaurants and things up there. We actually stayed at a hotel up there, yeah. So that was really nice.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

And um, the type of traveler that would end up like what kind of visitors end up there besides the cruise ship you you mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Yeah, look, there's a lot of tourists, it's um a lot of people from the UK because there's probably three flights a day from Gatwick. A lot of them actually have holiday homes on the island. In fact, you know, cool story. My mum's family home was sold to a British family that holidays been holidaying there for the last 10-15 years. Yeah. Yeah, and they bought because we actually, when I went to I wanted to go to, you know, where my mother grew up. Yes, where I was born was where my dad grew up. So all the all the cousins and everybody, they're your neighbours. So you know, they all like a like a compound almost. So I wanted to see where mum came from because mum was from another village or town, I guess. Same island, yeah, same island, but probably, I don't know, 20 minutes away from where my dad was born. Yeah, so we went and um, and obviously, you know, everybody knows everybody's business on the island. So they said, well, you know, they sold it to British people because no one's left in my mother's family apart from cousins and that. They all scattered to Athens and and different parts of Greece and the world. And they said, you know, it was bought by British people, but they're really nice. If you go knock on the door, they'll let you in and have a look. So we did go, but they weren't there. They hadn't they'd either left for the summer or hadn't arrived yet, I'm not sure. But yeah, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

And so what does um what does if if you were to mention an itinerary, what does a a day look like on the island?

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Okay, well, it depends what you want to do. If you wanted to do some sightseeing, you know, you'd obviously head off in the morning. It does get hot, so you would start in the morning if you wanted. I mean, there's things like that, it's kind of become very touristy in that there's like a water park and a theme park. Oh, isn't there? Yeah, yeah. There's a big water park theme park thing there, like really big. Then you've got the turtle cove, you've got the the blue caves, a shipwreck, shipwreck cove. And there's just like lots of areas to discover because although there's lots of beaches around the island, they're all kind of different. Yeah, they're not, you know, different in in how they're set up, I guess. The water's the same, it's beautiful, yeah. But yeah, they're just set up differently. So you would do, you know, maybe spend the morning sightseeing and doing some touristy things, grabbing some lunch, and then maybe the afternoon you'd go and sit by a beach or you know, find a beach. Is that is the beaches rocky? Sandy? They're they've got both. We went to the sand. I think we liked Banana Beach because it had sand. Okay. There is pebble beaches as well, but the pebbles again are different on this side of Greece to the Mykonos side of Greece. Yeah, the pebbles are a lot smaller and softer, they're not as hard on your feet. Yeah, because they can be dangerous. Yeah, they're they're quite it's almost like grainy sand, like they're so little the pebbles. Yeah. Yeah, so that's the difference. Yeah, but there it's funny how you know how different one side of Greece is to the other side. Yeah, that that's what I found really interesting. Because I'd been I actually had been to Mykonos before I'd been to Zakinthos, don't tell my parents. But yeah, and and you know, my brothers used to say, oh no, Zakintos is really green, and and the Mykonos side, I forget the the sea on that side, the Aegean. The Aegean sea. Yeah, that side gets really, really windy in summer. It can get very windy. Yeah, it can get very windy, so it's hard to stay on the beach when it's really windy. But on the Ionian side, which is where Zakinthos is, and Zakinthos is near Corfu, Kefalonia, Leftaba. So they're the four, there's seven islands, but they're the four big ones, and then you've got Ifaki.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

How far is it from like can you catch a uh ferry besides on mainline main island? Yeah, can you catch a ferry from there to what's the closest island? Kephalonia, yes. Okay, yeah, and is that better?

SPEAKER_01 13:27

No, it's the same. It's got apparently it's got better beaches than Zakinthos. I don't know. I'm actually going there this year to Kifalana. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

To come back and tell us, yeah, I have a and how can you do a day trip then?

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You could you could do a day trip because it's only like half an hour the ferry ride, half an hour, maybe 40 minutes at the most. They're very close. My dad told us he used to swim there. I don't know whether I mean you can see when you go to the the top point of the island, the very northern, I guess, north southern, because I think kefalonia's south, just I can those you can, if you look across the water, you can see Kefalonia, the other islands. So I don't I don't know how far that is, but if you can see I mean when I say you can see it, you can see it quite clearly.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Okay. Yeah, sorry now. I still wouldn't want to swim over there. Much out of reconciliation used to walk to school with no shoes, and one day Tommy walked in the snow. I was like, it doesn't snow down there in Italy. That's true. Tall stories. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So so what do you think the standout moment was for you the first time you or even you know when you visited?

SPEAKER_01 14:40

I think I was because I had done the uh the Aegean Islands, I'd been there. I was I just thought all Greek islands were white. Uh that's what the pictures are like. Yeah, they're all white buildings, white sand, white rocks, not a lot of greenery, and then the blue of the of the water.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

I was just surprised at how especially we went, we went by ferry because we drove from Athens to the port, and then we got on the ferry. And as we were coming into the port, I actually remember for me seeing because it's got a famous saint. Oh, this is another story, actually, I should tell you. So it's got this the patron saint of Zakinthos, and his name was Dionysus. Okay. And apparently that he became sainted because he was very kind, he was a very kind man. And when the Greeks were under the Turkish rule for 400 years, he saved a Turkish man's life, and they were considered the enemy. And he said, you know, he's a human being, everybody's a human. Anyway, and he was sainted. But what's really, really weird, so it's a beautiful church, and you see it as you're coming into port, that's the first thing you see. And I remember I kind of felt very touched, and I'm not really, I'm not very religious, but because I'd heard the stories and everything, and then I I looked him up, I Googled him. I was really touched when I saw the church. And one thing you have to do, you have to go to the church, and they have so apparently they have him in a casket embalmed, and they open the casket every so often, and you see him. But you go into the church, and apparently you can write a wish and you can put it in there and sort of kind of pray for that it comes true to for to help you, like you know. When I say a wish, not I want a million dollars, but you know, to help the lottery numbers, yeah, like you know, someone's ill or or something like that. And the the story goes that apparently he gets up at night and walks around and they change his snippers. He he wears these cloth slippers in this in this casket that he's in, and that the slippers wear out, and they have to make new ones, and then from the slippers they cut the little fabrics and they make little oh god, what would you call it? Like a good luck charm. Oh, and you carry that with you and it kind of yeah, looks after you or something. Yeah, I don't know. I don't like I find it hard to believe that it gets up and walks around. No, but it's a nice thing to believe, right? Yeah, but it's interesting because you know it's another that's the cultural thing you would do on the island because it's it's a very, you know, that's that's what it's known for. And it's also known, so the guy that wrote the Greek national anthem was from Zakinthos also.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Ah, that's your claim to fame.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

That's our claim to fame, exactly. Yeah, so there's that.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

So is there a standout dish that we have to try?

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Okay, these what is your favorite? It's not my favorite, but there's two things that you'll only find in Zykinthos, and they're both desserts.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Oh, okay, that's it. You're right up my three there.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

I mean, look, they do like most Greek islands, they have beautiful seafood, very fresh, because it's all caught right there, and then straight to table, and and veget they have beautiful vegetables as well because they because it's a green island, they grow everything. So nothing, not much comes via boat or whatever. But the two things that are only you find in Zakim Thor's, two well, one's a dessert, and the other one's so it's called fiduciary, and it's a semolina-based dessert with syrup and cinnamon, and they bake it and they sell it by the port. They've got like little, you know, street food type stands, and they just sell fidura and the cues are down, yeah. And my brother loves it. And one year when we were there together, he's like, Oh, you've got to try it, you've got to try it anyway. And I was really excited, thinking, Oh, this is amazing. I mean, it was okay. You got the syrup, you got the cinnamon, you know, like it wasn't, it is really basic, really basic. And then the other thing is it's a type of nougah, but it's really you put it in the fridge and it becomes really, really hard, and it's got like almonds and hazelnuts in it, I think. And then it almost becomes rock hard, and you bite into it and it kind of crackles. Oh, but it's sweet, it's sweet. That's my favorite thing. Like whenever any of the family goes to Greece, they have to bring me or just have to bring that back for me. It's called mandolato.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Okay. Well, I'll put it in the show notes and and people can then have a look what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah. Uh, so what kind of traveler do you think you are?

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Definitely a relaxation. When I because as you know, we travel a lot, and people assume when you travel that you're on holidays. A lot of the times we're not. So when I do travel for holidays, it's you just want to relax. I want to relax, but I do like a little bit of culture thrown in. So, you know, you can only relax so much. Like so, my husband and I, Andrew, when we travel together, we always he's into his history and everything. So we always try to find something, you know, to to go and see or to to learn about the place we're going to, because every place has a story. Yeah. You know, like there's always something to learn. But, you know, I'd say when we holiday, we predominantly it's more about relaxing, not having to, not being on the clock. That's my thing. It's like not having to be. For me, a holiday is not having to be anywhere. So no lunch plans, no dinner plans. You eat when you're hungry.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

You go to dinner when everybody's had their afternoon nap after being at the beach all day or whatever. But yeah, that's so I that's a that's my type of holiday. Having said that, we have I have done trips where we've just gone and go onto different, you know, because you go to a specific you go to a place, I believe, like when we did when we went to Italy and we went to the lost city of Pompeii, for instance, that was all, you know, like that took a day to go through the city and and to see the history. So when we do Italy, or when we have done Italy, we've always just gone to all the cultural and you know, like my husband was so enamored with the uh Colosseum.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Just loved it.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Yeah, those Italians, they've got some culture.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Yeah, so between Greece and Italy, I think you've got the history covered. Yeah, yeah. But you know, like I but I think yeah, it when you say travel, it's not because we travel so much, yeah, it's hard to to peg us into one slot of what you know, like what sort of traveler we are. But if I holiday travel, it's definitely to relax.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Did you have any? I guess you're from there, but it did you have any cultural experiences or interactions with locals? Only my only the relatives, really.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

And look, I I thought actually, no, that's not true because even the people that hotel and and the people in the shops that we're at. So we did like when I told them obviously I would speak Greek to them because I can speak Greek and then they got really they get really excited because apparently I speak Greek with an accent with an Australian accent. I didn't know that but I soon found out so they're really excited that you know you live in Australia but you've kept your Greek you know heritage and so on. But then when I tell them that I was actually born on the island then they want my family tree and I'm not kidding probably 50% of the strangers that I spoke to knew my family. Yes. So that was interesting that I guess that was a a cultural awakening but everybody because it's a you know they live by tourism they're just really lovely like they can't do enough for you in the hotel like nothing's a bother the other thing that I really find amazing is when you sit down to at a restaurant to order food they automatically will bring you water and then they'll bring you something to nibble on. And then when you finish and you want you ask for the bill they'll bring you something like watermelon or whatever cake they've made free of charge and you're like no no no and they don't no no we want to offer this to you in appreciation for you you know coming to our restaurant. So you don't get that in a lot of places no it's not but they appreciate it. It's not expected yeah but I think most people do tip because they're just really nice like yeah they become your friends while you're sitting there you know they'll come and chat to you I don't know maybe for me it was different because you know we spoke the language and I'm from there so it opened up but even other people that have been there have said they found it very friendly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Is it seasonal?

SPEAKER_01 24:02

I'm guessing it would be on an I it would be yeah it would be and I guess the season in Sykinthor starts in about May and goes through to about October and then it actually gets cold. It doesn't snow but yeah winter is cold and rainy can rain and whatever but it's not as hot as the Aegean side and I think that's because it's green. Yeah. So you've got the trees and shade and then just a bit more whereas the Aegean side because it's all white the sun reflects off the rocks and it just makes it and off the buildings and everything I mean there's white buildings in Zacembus as well but there's a lot of greenery and olive groves and so on. So it doesn't it's not as stark white so it doesn't feel as hot.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Yeah no that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

There's always a surprise when you go on a holiday or to a new destination what do you think the surprise was for you like was there anything I think just the contrast between the Aegean islands to the Ionian the the fact that I mean it it's not your normal postcard looking Greek island because all the ones that you see are Santorini and Mikkonath you said the white buildings the blue roofs the blue water and Bougainvalia it's not like that. It's green there's olive growth it's probably more like Italy like more like Tuscany in a in a way but an island if I was if I don't make sense yeah I know because I I felt the same way about Crete. Yes yeah Crete is probably three times the size of Zarkinfos I mean it's huge yeah Crete is huge yeah I was actually surprised at how big is it the biggest island yes yeah yes it is what's one thing you wish you had known before you went maybe probably to allow more time okay because I think we get we had six days there and I think you could spend more I think a week or even a bit more if you wanted to do it's kind of every yeah yeah if you wanted to to do most things. Can you hike? Is there mountains? Not really I mean it's mountainous but I I don't know that you would hike okay no I don't think so no I'd say I'd I'll say no to that because I'm just picturing it in my head and I yeah no. Are there wineries?

SPEAKER_00 26:33

No not really no not really no but there's lots of olives lots of olive groves yeah did you get did you do the uh olive the olive oil yeah olive olive oil tasting and stuff yeah yeah the olives are yeah really amazing yeah so if you could give one tip or advice to somebody going to that to the destination what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 26:57

To allow at least five days have a car yeah and then I would probably stay in town because you if you've got a car then you can drive to all the different places you want to go to but then when you want to have a night out or whatever you know you you'd go to the town and it's got a huge town square where there's no cars go on then there's all restaurants and everything on this town square and people are just strolling and you know having a drink and it's by the port so you've got the the water glistening and all the ferry lights and everything. So and it's just it's prettier yeah I mean we didn't stay in town yeah we stayed at a resort kind of up from town it was maybe a 10 minute drive up from the town like it was kind of that's where the view was and everything but I think next time I'd go I would stay in town because I didn't actually spend enough time exploring the town yeah yeah we explored the island yeah and that's why I think you know like if you're in town you could do stuff during the day and then I could around yeah so we didn't really do that.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Okay that's good advice thank you that's Bill Way thank you for that thank you for having me oh well thank you for coming on so join us again next week on Truly Expat Travel Podcast where I have another exciting destination in a world that's too big to be left unexplored. Chaffanet