Today we had an Island tour, this time in a comfortable bus with a guide who could tell us more about the culture and history of Zakynthos. We stopped at a few local villages, where we were offered drinks and some of the local snacks. After the first stop we visited the olive factory and the oldest olive tree of the Island, which is around 2000 years old, and which is actually just a really ugly tree. Fun fact too, you have to risk your life to take a picture of the creature because you have to stand on the road, and I can tell you... the locals driving there won't mind a tourist less. We again visited a vineyard and did a tasting. We were told the whole progress from plant to wine. The highlight of the day for me was the little pupper at the vineyard. It was sooo cute and energised! We again visited the shipwreck, this time only to watch other people do very dangerous stuff for a selfie #priorities #sheeple. We ended the tour at the 'Balcony of Zakynthos' where you could see across the whole city, but the view of 'Best Panoramic View of Zakynthos' was surprisingly better indeed. We stopped for the last time in Laganas to have dinner together and to lay on the beach one more time. We said our goodbye's to our favourite restaurants, bars and blue sea to watch the Zoo for a little. Not an actual Zoo, but one which consists of hardly dresses, mainly English, tourists in their natural and entertaining habitat, which literally goes on 24/7. You can also find them in their underwear in a ditch. With filled stomaches we walked back through the ocean towards our hotel, to be exactly 7h later on the airport... on our way back home... But... my travelling will be continued!
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A jeepsafari sounds fun, until you're on a bumpy road with a turned stomach and no clue if you're gonna live or not. But.. we did see some amazing spots. And again, it was worth it in the end. The first stop was a vineyard, where could taste the home-made wines and... we could join a lottery to win one of the wines, and guess what... I've something to take home! Afterwards we continued to the oldest village in Zakynthos, with about 25 inhabitants. There we enjoyed a coffee with a perfect view across the village. The third stop was the highest point of the island, which you could only reach by going off-road #yaymorebumps. We were able to take some pictures and recover from the ride, before you had to gather all your strength and will to live to climb up in the jeep again. We drove to the Galaxy Taverna for a lunchbreak, where that was... I have no clue because by now my directional sense was completely gone. Anyways, we continued our journey to the famous shipwreck. We could view the tiny beach from above, what sounds very easy but you first had to wait in the dying heat. If you managed not to burn until this point, you would now. For our last stop took the driver us to a tiny beach, some cooling sounded very appealing. But first you had to pass the lava pebbles in order to surround yourself with ice water. Okay, to be very honest. This day was the day I was looking forward to since we arrived. Scuba diving. I love swimming and I created an affection for snorkeling to due to this vacation and I had never did any scuba diving before. To be fair, I wanted to get my documents to be a scuba diving instructor this year, what do you mean by dream big? So, I could say I was a little, read a hell of a fucking lot, excited for this day. We were picked up with a jeep including a man and a woman, who took us to our diving place which was a 30 min drive. We were going to dive in a restricted area, no motorboats nor other activities but swimming was allowed to save the ecology system. Whilst being in the car I kinda got a little bit nervous, but the good kind of nervous. The basic principles of diving where explained and we could only go up for 4m because we didn't have and experience. We practiced a little bit and breathing solely through mouth is something I definitely have to get used to. I had some problems with my diving glasses and my weight vest, which were solved later. We didn't see that much of fishes and we didn't see any turtles but the whole experience was worth it. I am definitely going to scuba dive a lot more. Getting in and out of the suit is a sport on itself, but we made it. We were brought back to our hotel, where we rested and continued our day to the beach. We had a well deserved cocktail and went for some more snorkeling, which is actually a lot easier because you can breathe through your nose as well. But surprisingly, there weren't fishes to see. Guess they were taking a day off. Today we had our boat tour. We started off with some turtle spotting in the bay, where we didn't actually spot any turtles. We were lucky we already saw them whilst snorkeling. We continued along the shore to the Keri Caves. Where we stopped for a 40 min swim. Brian and I got our snorkeling gear to swim through the dark caves. The water was crystal clear and swimming actually through the caves was amazing. It was quite dark when you're swimming through them, which makes it a bit scary but very cool! After some time in the water we were pulled out for lunch, which was quite terrible but.... whatever the view was worth it. And... they had an oreo cookie ice cream! OMG! We continued to uninhabited island for a 1h swim. Again we could swim through caves and whilst snorkeling we saw a lot of fishes... and we spotted another turtle which made me very enthusiastic. We saw with it for a bit until our arms and legs were tired of all the swimming. It took us about half a day/ 5h on the boat before we returned to the Laganas bay. There we decided to eat at one of the many restaurants. All the food is delicious and we enjoyed the sun going down at the sea. Secretly I was getting more and more excited about the next day... scuba diving. Because our first trip was cancelled due to a lack of visitors we had the day off, so we rented a quad to discover the island by ourselves. We first had some problems with the quad we got so we were given the chance to switch to a 300cc. We decided to drive to Zakynthos city but first we had to find a place to fuel up, which was a challenge itself. When we arrived we first went for a swim close to the bay. We couldn't spot any turtles but we did see some different fishes. Because they still have siesta at the city there were very little shops opened. We walked through the shopping street and stopped for ice cream. After our stop at Zakynthos city we drove randomly to the other side of the Island. We drove on very poor streets and ended following signs of the 'Best view of the Island, Panoramic view'. When we got to the place we had to pay 3 euro entrance, but the sign didn't lie. It actually was the best view of the Island. And what should you drink at such a place? Orange Juice of course... orange juice with a view. After a day of touring we decided to turn back to Agios Sostis for an evening meal and we brought back the quad. We enjoyed our meal at a restaurant at the beach. Although we saw a lot and the fact that we were almost all the time hitting the road, it felt like a relaxing day. This month's second destination was a lot sunnier then Porto, my boyfriend and I booked a tour trip to Zakynthos. Where I saw the most blue water I've ever seen in my life.
We stayed in Studio Helena in a village called Agios Sostis. It was a perfect place, close by the boulevard and you could walk to Laganas, where more restaurants are located. Also, Laganas is the 'party street' of the Island, but really.. you don't want to be there... On our first day we had to meet up with an representive of the travel agency (Corendon) where we booked our trip. She gave us some information about the available tours and trips and offered us some extra's. We decided we wanted to do scuba diving too, along that we also booked a boat trip to the Keri Caves, a Jeepsafari and a Island Tour (Past & Present). After discussing the dates, we got our tickets and we had the whole day left so we decided to settle in our little studio and afterwards we went to the beach. Were we drank our first cocktail at a Beach Bar. We brought our snorkeling gear, which has multiple benefits because if you decide just to go swimming without anything to cover your eyes... you're gladly welcomed to hell because of the salt water. We swam far away from the shore and spotted our first turtles! We were both very excited to see them swim. We went back to dry up and enjoy some more cocktails. Later in the evening we chose a Greek restaurant to fill up our empty stomaches. Afterwards we discovered an amazing cocktailbar called Kui. From that day we visited the cocktailbar every evening... #sayyestoalcohol. |
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