We had quite an easy hop from Lefkada to Monodendri with only a petrol stop on the way. It's interesting at petrol stations here as, even in the bigger chain ones like BP etc, they have an attendant who comes out to do the work. We are so used to jumping out of the car to fill it up ourselves but here you wait and they do it for you - I guess it was like that in Australia back in the day but now driveway service places at home are few and far between......Here it is the norm. In general Greece seems more service orientated, not necessarily in a "have a nice day" friendly customer service way really......more of the "sit, relax and wait and someone will come to you eventually to take your order, bring your bill etc variety". The morning we left Lefkada we had what we wanted to be a quick breakfast on the waterfront as we were leaving town. I asked for the bill as soon as we'd eaten and the girls had left the table (to pat a dog incidentally) and the waiter asked me in a forthright but genuinely puzzled tone "What is your hurry?".....When we are in a rush our adopted method of trying to attract enough attention to get the bill brought out is for two of our party to leave the table. This is a handy hint also if you have eaten fit to burst because more likely than not after you have received the bill they will bring a gift of cake or something else sweet to eat before you leave......a couple of times it's been some sort of honey soaked orange cake and one night it was thin slices of green apple drizzled with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon.....they are always delicious but yes sometimes you just can't fit them in! And of course inevitably it extends dinner time so we have had to try and change our "last mouthful swallowed now get up from the table mentality" and consciously slow down. We remind each other of this regularly by quoting "slow, slow" to each other, a tip from the lovely Aris in Dimitsana and of course our very favourite "we wait together" from the pregnant girlfriend of the errant George. Very occasionally one of us will want to hurry one another along which is when we bring in the big guns...."no photo!" we cry out......we're developing quite our own trip language! As we headed inland towards Monodendri the cameras really started clicking as we saw bald topped and barren mountain ranges of jaw dropping beauty yet below the trees with their autumn leaves shouldered the road and were dotted, along with pine trees on the lower folds of the mountains. As we try to encourage Liane not to look too much at the view, (or at all really especially on the roads on cliff edges!) whilst she is driving someone has to take the "on the road" shots.....if only for her to enjoy later so with the exception of when Gwendols wrests it from my grip, I have been having fun with Liane's Nikon. I have to say Gwendoline and I have really enjoyed using it, and both of us think that the combination of the hand turned lens to focus and the satisfying shutter clicks it makes, make one feel quite the professional! Though I must say thank goodness for the digital age as, especially from a moving car, for every one good shot there are multiple blurry guard rails and trees! We are constantly swapping cameras to take shots of each other etc when walking about villages, up mountains and all the rest and then of course all claim the great photos as our own and deny any connection to the blurry ones! We arrived in Monodendri on a public holiday so had pre booked our room, one of the few occasions on this trip we had done that. As we entered the village there was a veritable procession of cars on the road so we were congratulating ourselves on that decision. It was even more amazing once we parked and walked up to the town square as it was bursting at the seams with people....they were all Greek; families with children and large parties all being extremely happy and vocal as they enjoyed lunches at tables under the tree in front of the tavernas. It was a very Greek and very charming sight and really not one we had come across before.....at Dimitsana we had seen the bustling people at market so "at work", or as at work as it gets anyway, but this was very much at play.....and it was a great atmosphere to be part of so we stopped for lunch there to eat before we explored further to find our accommodation; we had yet another fabulous meal there.....yum, yum! We then got back in the car and drove up a different road to the one we'd chosen before as GJ used the free un-passworded wifi from a nearby hotel to google map search the exact location which was great......reminds me though of Mum's story when people did that at the motel in Longreach but hey needs must when the devil drives or however that saying goes! When we arrived at the hotel it was completely closed up so, after trying every door we could find, we asked in a shop/taverna next door but they weren't remotely helpful.... We then asked in an unusual little shop the size of a lotto booth that sold souvenirs but was also obviously the corner store local as a woman came in and bought milk, medicine of some description (looked like packet of pain tablets maybe) and a packet of cigarettes.....I also noticed they sold grog.....amazingly all fitted into this tiny little area! Anyway the girl in there was very helpful and made a couple of phone calls for us.....she said "Marianna" and then something fast and furious in Greek then smiled at us and said "now open"... So we headed to our hotel and got to book in......

(L) On the road again.. only a short leg. As Deb said I'm quite comfortable driving here in Greece now although I do prefer the back roads and windy mountain tracks to driving through the big towns.. I guess that's because I'm not much of a city driver even at home, too many cars and especially over here as although there are great road signs and Jane is an excellent navigator the road line marking leaves a lot to be desired so you're never quite sure where the lanes are supposed to be.... not that it matters that much here cos no-one really takes any notice of lanes anyway!!! We haven't seen much of a police presence either, one car in Dimitsana with the policeman hanging over the balcony chatting, one guy in Monemavasia that was chatting to someone stopped in the middle of the street and then just after we crossed the Rio Antirrio Bridge all the cars that had been speeding along like mad things all came to a very sedate pace and a nice straight lane, we were commenting how strange this behaviour was when we came around a corner to find about 3 or 4 police cars and policemen on the other side of the road with several cars pulled up, not sure if it was maybe a random breath test type thing or just checking licences etc but I was pleased to not have had to stop for them!! As we didn't want to face the hotel breakfast again we headed down to the waterfront and settled on Ikaros Cafe ( which incidentally is where Deb and I had the alcohol free cocktails ). Whilst we were sitting waiting for our breakfast we heard a whistle blast and down the road strides a police officer (what was that I was saying about not seeing any?), we weren't sure if he was maybe just a traffic cop cos he just popped a ticket on the front of a car which resulted in the cafe owner racing out and after a few heated sentences he jumped one of the parked cars and tore off around the block... was so funny cos everyone just seems to park anywhere and this is the only evidence we've seen of any form of law enforcement.... back to breakfast which was a hurried affair much to the disgust of the cafe owner "what's your hurry"?? LOL but we had places to go.. we left Nidri at 9.45am and had a great run to Monodendri (now that we're putting all our faith in Jane there's no side excursions) and arrived with only the one quick petrol, toilet stop in exactly 3 hours. As we were leaving Lefkada we were lucky enough to have a yacht waiting to get out past the bridge so the bridge had to be opened and spun sideways to give it enough room... quite fascinating to watch. Lunch in Monodendri was absolutely gorgeous, some sort of cheese pie but the "pastry" tasted a little like Yorkshire Pudding, the obligitory Greek Salad, Tzatziki and of course just a little wine, total cost with tip EU 35. Checked into the hotel around 3ish, this was the only place in Greece besides our last few nights in Athens that we had prebooked accommodation, the only reason we did is because today 28th October is a National Holiday celebrating the countries refusal to side with the Axis powers... in World War 2. We decided to take a drive to the Oxia lookout which was just a few minutes up the road... along the way we stopped at the Stone Forest which was absolutely gorgeous and Deb and I thought was a bit "Picnic at Hanging Rock" ish.. to that Gwendols commented "is that a movie".. yes we're definitely showing our age! On to the lookout which thankfully was only a quick walk down from the carpark but wow what an amazing sight, I can't really describe it but there will be lots of photos.. at the end of the path there's a little lookout with a wall and just past that a tiny ledge like track that winds around the mountain, as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to walk up there and both Deb and Gwendols were saying in mumlike voices " Liane, be careful, come back, are you crazy"?? It was a little scary but I walked very carefully and didn't look down or at the view unless I was completely stopped.. I'm sure Deb got some pics. Once back at the hotel GJ wanted to stay in the room resting for a while so Deb and I went for a walk into town, there are little cobbled laneways crisscrossing the village everywhere and neither one of us seems to have the built in compass that GJ has so we "went the scenic route" back to the main square where we needed a much deserved refreshment.. Deb had her first Retsina of the trip, she's been wanting to have one since the day we arrived, and I had a red wine... of course!! Along with our drinks came a plate of giant beans in tomato sauce ( not like our tomato sauce but a homemade gravy kind of sauce ) and some tiny meatballs, which Deb assures me were divine.... that was our little gift I guess, can't say I've noticed you get stuff like that with a drink in Australia but then maybe in the cities you do?? We managed to find a more direct route "home" and once freshened up we all made our way down stairs to dinner in the Hotel dining room, which is also a Taverna by night as there were other people coming and going that weren't staying there. Unfortunately there was one man sitting inside that was chain smoking so we all felt we had smoked a packet of cigarettes by the time we'd finished our meal. Deb ordered a Lemon Lamb dish which looked pretty revolting but she said was amazing, Gwendols had Mousaka, which she said was just ok and I ordered Veg soup and stuffed Tomato and Peppers to share. The soup came out looking lovely but one taste and I was sure it was made with meat stock so had to ask Marios (our host), his English is pretty good but took a little bit to get him to understand what I was getting at but yes sure enough the "liquid" is made from lamb... ugh, omg yuk... I could actually taste the fatty lamb but he very quickly whisked it away for me so I ended up just eating the tomato and peppers which were lovely but I was really incredibly tired so ate quickly and left the others to finish up whilst I went straight to bed... I think it was only just after 8 but I obviously needed an early night!!