"The Day we caught the train....."

"I never saw it as the start its more a change of heart
Rapping on the windows, whistling down the chimney pot
blowing off the dust in the room where I forgot I laid my plans in solid rock
Stepping through the door like a troubadour whiling just an hour away,
looking at the trees on the roadside feeling its a holiday.
You and I should ride the coast and wind up in our favourite coats just miles away......."

We are now getting into our usual routine over here:- with a late-ish start to the day; a bit of beach time; some great food, usually home cooking; then out to play some guitar; home at 1am; watch the ferries go by from the balcony; then sleep!

Our first friends to arrive this year were Ian and Rachel, (Ian worked with us in the UK in the winter time).

We knew they were coming over for a holiday but didn’t really know if we would meet up. They arrived on Friday for a 1 week stay in Arillas, the village over the hill from us. Keith had been out and about touting for work the week before, and had agreed to play at a new venue in Arillas (called Kaloudis Village); so imagine our surprise, when we walked in and the 1st people we saw were… Ian and Rachel, who were staying on the complex, and had seen the posters for the gig, but Keith couldn’t convince them he had laid it on especially for them!

When we arrived, the owner Vasillis, (who calls himself Billy) insisted we had dinner on the house before the gig! (We now have 3 venues a week that feed us for free before each gig ;O))
The gig was great, lots of banter with the audience. By the end of the night it was agreed that this would be a regular booking for the summer and each week the gig and the food have got better and better.
All the gigs so far have been fantastic, I don’t know if its Keith’s playing, or the new format of handing out the song lists, or that the venues and the people in them are just right for what Keith does, but the feedback at the end of each night has been amazing.

As Ian and Rachel had never been to Corfu before, we arranged to take them out and about one day, to show them some of the local sights, followed by lunch in a fish taverna. When we collected them the weather was a bit overcast with the threat of a bit of rain, so we did a quick trip up to Afianos, (regular guests will be familiar with this excursion into Lizzy’s little old lady paradise) Liz is still looking for that elusive ‘perfect little old lady’ picture.

And Keith for his perfect vehicle!

Next we set off to the deserted village of Ano Perithia, via some picturesque villages like Magoulades, with a World War 2 torpedo in the village square!

We chased a rain cloud all the way along the north coast until we turned inland and climbed up towards Ano Perithia, where we found sunny skies and of course great views up the mountain and down across the channel towards Albania.

During the 14th century, there were many attacks and pirate raids on Corfu. And the settlements and homes that had been established in the foothills of the mountains were vulnerable. So families sought refuge higher up and built second homes and communities, Ano Perithia became the perfect location for a ‘hidden’ village where you could see….but not be seen. The village has Venetian architecture and is surrounded by 8 churches. But by the 1940’s as these threats subsided, and many Greeks went to America, the village had gradually become more and more deserted and now no longer has any inhabitants. It does however have several tavernas for the tourists.

As it is early in the season it was very very quiet up in the village which made it even more charming and curious, all those empty houses, over grown and lost in the foliage, it was so beautiful and full of spring flowers, all of these disappear as the temperature increases leaving a hot dusty landscape during the summer months.

We managed to resist, sitting down in a village taverna for some local made walnut cake and headed for a sea food lunch. Ian & Rachel had not eaten much sea food on this holiday and they were keen to sample the local cuisine; so where better to take them than the 3 brothers in Astrakari, another of Lizzy’s favorite haunts for all sorts of reasons.
We were greeted handsomely by George and his family, we got the best table in the house (as we were the only ones there it was easy to do) although it started raining just as we sat down and Keith found the perfect position for the rain to drip down his neck through a small hole in the awning over the taverna.

As Ian & Rachel, but particularly Ian, had limited experience of eating sea food they were keen to try, so asked for our recommendations, they didn’t want fish! So we suggested a meze of cuttlefish and octopus in a spicy red sauce, calamari, and courgette and feta balls deep fried, they though it sounded great, although Ian sounded a bit wary but thought ‘what the heck I’m on holiday lets give it a try’. The food arrived and as we have eaten there many times before we knew what we were getting, it is beautiful food though it is served in a very rustic way, so calamari is not those homogenized battered rubber rings you get in restaurants in the uk, this is the real deal straight out of the sea lightly dipped in flour and deep fried, beautiful! The same with the octopus and cuttlefish it’s in a tomato and onion sauce quite spicy and very oily, and although the octopus legs taste like chicken (doesn’t everything) the suckers are still on so you know you are eating octopus.

To put it politely Ian was way out of his comfort zone, but to be fair he tried everything, even though before each mouthful he said “I am out of my comfort zone doing this”. We believe they enjoyed the experience, they both definitely loved the courgette balls and were pleased they’d tried the food; But maybe they were being polite?
As we took them back to their lovely resort of Arillas we drove through the main street of Sidari to show them what they ‘could have had’!!