Misha Fitt

I recently flew to New York City with British Airways and it gave me the idea to review the different planes and journey’s I’ve taken as there have been a few now and many more to come. We picked BA as the price to fly over Easter break was pretty competitive and BA, we thought, were quite reputable. It is after all the UK’s national airline. Now, the issues we had with this particular flight, both in and out, are quite nit-picky, some may say. But as a 100% advocate of impeccable customer service BA really need to up their game. We logged on to their website to check in online. We did this at exactly 24 hours to the second before the flight, as advised. There was only a few seats available and only one row with three together. Given we were travelling with a nervous teenager we had to take the tree together, which unfortunately was the very last row in between the toilets. As it turns out most people pay the extra £30 each to pre-book their seats (an option familiar for low-r...

Our final full day saw us return to a place we loved in 2015, Sami. It is a lovely fishing port on the other side of the Island from Svoronata. We thought we remembered how to get there but nearly ended up taking the same route we took last year, which was a long and winding journey that took us over an hour. We eventually found the quicker way, which, in Kefalonia, is still a long and winding journey. As with everywhere, pretty much everything was closed. We anticipated that the place we dined at in 2015 would be open, and hurrah! it was. Faros Restaurant is the oldest eating facility in Sami. Last year we dined on swordfish and our mouths were watering at the thought of more. Sadly. they had virtually nothing available. The only fish option was Gavros which are fried anchovies. not the best fish dish but it was ok. After out let down at lunch we went for a walk along the seafront admiring the ferries and fishing boats that are full of colour. We saw on our trusty road map tha...

After a leisurely morning swim (yes it was freezing but I have to swim!) we set off to a part of the Island we were yet to explore – Lixouri. The drive took about an hour and through a few small villages and around long winding roads. We got to Lixouri just in time for lunch and, like Argostoli, the square was alive and thriving with activity. We chose a place on the square called V+S Corner and dined on fried calamari and grilled prawns. After lunch we went for a drive trying to find the village of Havdata where we saw a house for sale online. We found the village, not the house and ended up at a Monastery overlooking the water. We made it back to Lixouri in time to take the car ferry back to Argostoli. This was only €4.80 per car and took about 20mins compared to the mega trek that the drive over took. We decided to take a drive back past our favourite restaurant from the previous year (and the main reason we wanted to go back!) – Koutapas Paradise. We had driven by th...

I first visited Kefalonia with my husband in 2015. We stayed for a week and fell in love with the more laid back approach to Greek Island life. Almost a year to the day later we returned. We stayed at Olive Grove Studios Svoronata, the same place we had previously stayed, mainly because of the awesome staff and proximity to the airport. Kefalonia is beautiful and big and not possible to do in a long weekend (which was all we had). We arrived on the Saturday afternoon and quickly realised that even less was open this year, despite being the same time of April we had visited in 2015. We quickly realised that the ‘on season’ is tied to Greek Orthodox Easter, which I never knew was different to the Easter I celebrate. So if visiting Greece around March/April I would recommend making sure you know when Easter is being held and plan your trip around that. Regardless of religious holidays there was still plenty to do in Argostoli, the Island’s capital. We dined that evening at ‘Pan ...

Our final day was a bit disjointed as our flight back home was not until 10:30 pm and we had to check out of the hotel by late morning. They kindly minded our bags for us while we decided to use the final part of our Gray Line ticket – the ferry trip to Lady Liberty. We caught the downtown bus, yet again, although given the rain was sticking around, we just sat in the downstairs area and rode it as a normal bus, given we already knew all the facts by now having been on this loop so much! When we got down to the Pier area we had just missed the ferry. The next one was n half an hour so we went and grabbed a coffee on Wall Street. The ferry was not very busy and we braved the rain and wind and went on the top floor – open air. I love boats and water and was very happy. It was nice to see Manhattan from the water. Seeing the Statue of Liberty up close was amazing. She was beautiful, but still not as big as I expected. We didn’t stop to get out at Liberty Island but got a...

Day 3 was Easter Sunday so we set out early after a rather modest breakfast at 810 Deli on 7th Avenue. This is a less busy, less pricey Deli but amazing food. Today we were riding the Uptown Tour and planned to walk back through Central Park.  The tour started up near the Time Warner Buildings and proceeded up Central Park West via the National History Museum, recognisable from the ‘Night at the Museum’ Films with Ben Stiller. We went through the beautiful campus of Columbia University and had a great view of New Jersey across the water. The tour proceeded on through Harlem and this was really cool as it was Easter Sunday Morning and lots of folk were out at Church. The tour went back down the other side of Central Park and we got off at the MET because I wanted to see where Blair Waldorf ate her lunch. We walked slowly back through Central Park, taking it all in. Central Park is absolutely beautiful and my favourite thing about NYC. All I wanted to do was spend a...

My husband and I are a fan of the Gray Line ‘City Sightseeing’ buses and have used them in many cities around the world (when the more personal tuk-tuks are not available). So after another hearty breakfast, we tracked down a red-sweatered rep (not hard to find) and bought our tickets to ride. There are a few different tour routes available: Downtown, Brooklyn, Uptown, Bronx and the Night tour. We decided to do the Downtown tour first and this took us through times square and then through Greenwich Village (One thing missing from the commentary was ‘Waverly Place’ which was exciting for me -a self-confessed Selena Gomez fan – to see. The bus was a nice relaxing way to experience most of Downtown and after going through NYU Campus, SoHo and Chinatown we ended up near the World Trade Center memorial.  We didn’t actually go into the memorial but did view the new additions to the site which was pretty impressive. It was very eerie to be there and to imagine what it must have...

It’s no secret that I’ve always been obsessed with America. I am not sure why it took me nearly 33 years to get there but I suppose spending most of my life in Australia is a pretty good reason – It’s just so far away! But my lovely husband surprised me this year with an Easter/Birthday weekend trip to NYC. A place so familiar to me it was like walking on to the set of a TV show or movie. (Although it seems everything is ACTUALLY filmed in Canada these days). We arrived into NYC late at night after a pretty lousy 7hr flight via British Airways* and after a very lengthy exit out of the airport got into our very first yellow cab. A very touristy thing to do but hey. I didn’t feel like I was in the USA yet. Not even driving into the city. It wasn’t until we got into our hotel room and I looked out the window and was surrounded by skyscrapers and the streets were filled with taxis and Times Square was a flashy horizon that I truly felt like I had arrived. After a very yummy but ...