"Street Life..."

".......You can run away from time..... "

There is lot to be said for the Greek way of doing things! .........They just do it!!

More than once locally and several times in Corfu Town we have seen amazing daredevil workmanship going on;

Workman removing window frames with a crowbar!

.....where men would stand over sheer drops and work without hats, nets or safety equipment of any kind,

Note the total lack of any safety equipment plank on plank,

a great balancing act!

and at the local petrol station, where it’s tradition to hang out with your mates, pull up a chair outside on the forecourt, have a frappe and of course a cigarette or two!! Back in the UK we seem to hold a healthy respect for our electricity supply, we treat it with care and teach our kids not to stick fingers in the sockets etc.. and we can’t even tinker with the electrics in our homes ourselves without being qualified to do so.

However, here in Corfu it doesn’t appear to hold the same mystique or fear factor, maybe its because the electric supply comes from the mainland (underground or underwater)
Nobody seems to have a problem propping a metal ladder against an electricity pole (no boots, helmet or mate to hold the ladder at the bottom) and connecting or disconnecting the supply at will!
This happened the other week when the truck that dumps seaweed up the hill from or house (see last years blog) managed to tangle a low hanging electric cable (that feeds our street lights), around the cab roof! He disengaged it and drove off but the cable was left hanging very low down across the road. He did this on a couple of occasions that day and on the third trip just revved the engine a bit more and pulled the cable from its socket on the pylon and drove off. On his way back down he stopped, picked up the cable from the middle of the road and dumped it in the hedgerow outside our house!!!!
Two days later a man from the electric company appeared, put his ladder up against the pole, picked up the discarded cable, climbed the ladder in shorts and sandals, then “taped” the cable back together, job done!!! a bit of gafer tape should do it!!!!

Today we woke up to no electricity (again!) In hot weather, this can happen as everyone switches on their air con and overloads the fragile system we have over here. So with no power we are sat on our balcony, the only sounds coming from the resort are the birds in the trees and motorbikes and one solitary generator somewhere in a taverna in town and that’s it,…. peaceful !!!
Suddenly we saw huge jets of water being sprayed in the air at the other side of the village for no apparent reason, then it moved to a point where we could see an orange coloured water tanker with a jet hose on top doing what at first appeared to be watering the large pineapple looking trees near one of the bigger hotels. It moved on and arrived at the Athina hotel where it was then obvious it was spraying the main electricity pylons and switch boxes that control the electricity supply into the village!!!! water cannon on electric cables .....priceless!
Having done this for several minutes they stopped and drove up and down the path to the poolside bar a couple of times and then stopped again.

electricity truck at the Athina pool

We thought they were going to move on and towards our house so we might get a decent photo of this bizarre event, but no, they stopped, and with the usual fuss , noise and gesturing proceeded to insert a large hose pipe into the Athina pool from the truck!!!! They had run out of water!!!!! filling up with water from the swimming pool, make sure you dont suck up any small children !!
So now they began to refill the truck with water from the swimming pool much to the amazement and horror of the people bathing in the pool and sunbathing around it, 10 minutes later with the truck full, off they go to water the rest of the electric pylons in the village!!!

By now we have been awake for over an hour and the need for a coffee is overwhelming, so I’m sent next door to the studio where we have a gas cooker, to warm up milk and the coffee jug and fairly predictably half way through the process the electric came back on.

Hey ho good old Greek infrastructure!!!

There is a tradition of street selling throughout this part of the world. Many products are hawked around the streets on trucks, carts and donkeys; we have seen vehicles overloaded with pots pans chairs and tables etc. and they advertise their wares over a load speaker.

this is a flat bed astra van, loaded 8 feet high with everything including the kitchen sink!!!

People sell fruit and veg, bread, fish and garden plants, in fact many of the restaurants buy their sundry items from these people, usually with much haggling and of course gesturing and brinkmanship.
We have been drawn into this world and over the past few weeks, sometimes with a bit of help from our Greek neighbours, we have bought an extra table and chairs for our patio, a huge string of garlic enough for the whole summer, some tomato, pepper and basil plants to grow and cultivate for our own consumption and cooking.

It is a fun way of doing things and you know it's local produce you're getting; and beats going to the supermarket.

"Street Life, But you better not get old

Street life Or you're gonna feel the cold"

"In The Avenues and Alleyways......."

“……….Go to the city

Stay through the daytime

safe in the sunshine

stay till the daytime

turns into night……..”

After our foggy day’s adventure with P&L to the Monastery, we decided to make full use of the hire car & sat nav, but in beautiful sunshine! We set off to explore the west coast of the island. We had already done the Afionas walk on our own but decided to give our visitors the “Greek village experience”

Liz and Loraine run the gauntlet past some villagers

Paddy and Lorraine were just as enchanted as we were by this beautiful village.

This time we got up close to the goats and goat herder, as we attempted to do the tricky coastal walk beyond Afionas village. We soon gave up the idea as the terrain proved to be tougher than we first thought and Lorraine had only flip flops on her feet so we abandoned the walk and got back into the car.

The next resort round the coast from Afionas is Agios George and we found a new route down to the beach via the house that Paul & family will rent in the summer!

We parked on the sea front and walked the length of the beach; the day was extremely hot so it was a treat to be up to our ankles in cool seawater. This resort is more of a cosmopolitan mix, as many German, Dutch, Russian & Italian tourists visit here each summer & many of the tavernas cater for a more Germanic taste, which seems to better quality than you often find in Corfu.

We had decided to eat lunch in a small taverna in Arillas (near to home) but thought, as it was still a bit too early we’d take the scenic route back to it!

View of Agios George and Arillas bays

So back into the car & out of the other end of the marvellous horseshoe shaped bay of Agios George, we followed the coastal road using the satnav towards a village called Pagni. We turned upwards in the direction of Paelokastritsa, zigzagging up a steep cliff face, as we climbed, the view below us became increasingly spectacular and near the crest of the hill we pulled over and took full advantage of the photo opportunity. Onwards and upwards we headed a bit deeper inland through an area where much farming was going on. One would think that crops would be better grown at sea level but up here fruit veg and wine crops seemed to be in every available plot of land.

There were road side sellers of local produce, mainly old people, who would leap out of their standard issue white plastic chairs and run into the road to flag us down (just like mad dogs chasing cars), Paddy managed to swerve around them and we carried on. Paddy used his satnav to mark points of interest to follow up later in the week, when he and Lorraine went out on their own in the car.

We eventually arrived back in Arillas 2 hours later & having detoured about 30 miles, to a superb mixture of local spinach pie, Squid, beer, local wine & Paddy had the chef’s salad, which seemed to increase in volume with every mouthful he consumed. The rest of the day was a mixture of poolside resting for Keith & Lorraine and Internet for Liz & Paddy, where a plan was hatched for them to hire scooters & blaze a trail across the island (another blog to follow on that).
Paddy & Lorraine had a couple of days exploring on their own in the car & found many hidden gems that we hadn’t discovered but we will visit in the coming weeks.

On Sunday Paddy had to give the car back, so they came with us for Keith’s nighttime gig in the 5 star hotel.

They booked into the very posh restaurant there and dined whilst Keith played & Liz glued her face to the restaurant window and watched their a-la-carte experience with great envy. Apparently the food was as good as Keith’s playing?!? Or maybe even better, they highly recommended it anyway (the food that is)

The view from the 5 star restaurant

As a final full day out for them, the five of us, including, Martina, (as Paddy calls her) as in (Sat-nav-all-over) set off for a Corfu town adventure. We parked close to the “Mon Repos” area and walked back into town via tree-lined streets & into the main town.

As it was close to midday the heat was intense, so we meandered through narrow shady lanes occasionally wandering into the air-conditioned shops. Whilst the girls browsed in a shoe shop, (Liz was trying to persuade Lorraine to buy some bright pink “fake” Crocs), the boys spotted a back street giros bar & promptly tucked into a beer & giros pitta fest!!!!

After this brief fuel stop we did some more sightseeing, up around the old fortress into the fish & fruit and veg market; and we went back into the narrow streets that lead to the main square. Corfu Town takes its siesta time seriously and even most of the churches had shut up shop for a sleep, but we managed to show P&L the inside of the St Spiridon Cathedral and as it was not the height of summer the air con wasn’t switched on, so it was no cooler in here than in the street.

Well nothing else to do but head for the Liston & another beer break (got to keep your fluid levels up in these temperatures). Liz introduced P&L to the delights of the wine meze; a delicious array of local things on sticks with chips and a glass of wine for 50 cents more than just a glass of wine! After this brief but very pleasant stop, only interrupted by the usual street seller of DVD’s and watches, we moved on past 5 star hotels & beautiful properties towards the car, which was now thankfully conveniently in the shade.

We used the satnav to find the end of the spur of land beyond Mon Repos at the end of the airport runway where “Mouse Island” and its monastery can be found.

Through a maze of one-way streets, and past some amazing old Roman ruins we arrived at a parking place overlooking Mouse Island where 2 tavernas have possibly the best views of this much photographed Greek icon!

But we decided to get a better look having spotted a parking area below. It took another 20 minutes of driving back around & through the one-way system to finally arrive on the quay side .. perfect!!!

Although as we pulled away from the top area Liz had to negotiate her way through and past two coaches that were discharging their passengers!!! Yep busloads of Japanese tourists, milling everywhere, and in the time it took us to drive around the streets to reach the foot of the cliff, they had climbed down the steps from the taverna and were moving on mass toward the little island, which was our destination!!!

We waited till most had been there, bought the postcard, taken the pictures, and departed before we dared to explore.

There is a single track causeway that runs across the end of the runway linking this part of Corfu Town to the southern part of the island, just wide enough for pedestrians and of course scooters.

Keith & Paddy went to have a look with the hope that a plane might land or take off, while they were out there!

It was only when they had got back to near the car that a Lear jet landed and some reasonable photos were gained.

We set off back home stopping off at the great bakery we patronise on every trip to & from Corfu Town and several kilos of baklava & ice creams later we made our way home with the satnav twittering away about our destination.

We have had a great 10 days with Paddy and Loraine. It’s fab having people over because it makes us change our routine and do more ‘touristy’ stuff. (Cos most of the time we are locals you know!!)

“…….Dream till the sunrise

creeps into your eyes

Dream till the sunrise

Turns on the day……..”

Follow this link to see Paddy's photo slide show!!

http://s544.photobucket.com/albums/hh354/phdaniels/Corfu%2009/?action=view&current=35c3eb0c.pbr

"We're on the road to nowhere......."

Have you heard the one about a bloke called Paddy who finds a bargain upgrade for his Satnav on ebay, which gives him a detailed road map of all of Europe including Corfu, and then spends £300 flying out to Corfu to try it out?

Yep our 1st visitors arrived on Tuesday; Paddy and Lorraine are here for 10 days! They are staying with us in our studio annex, and one of the first things Paddy did was hire a car for a week so he can explore the island and use his satnav!!

Unfortunately, we woke up on Wednesday morning to some “changeable “ weather (it was peeing down) but we thought, head out for the monastery on the highest part of the island, do some exploring then lunch in a taverna which is a particular family favourite under an old elm tree in a village called Strinilas.

Paddy set the Satnav for the nearest point to the monastery we could find and off we went. It took us through some interesting local villages, past Sidari and on to Roda village. By the time we reached Roda we were in the middle of a torrential downpour, the sky was black, so the headlights and wipers were full on; it was like being in a tropical storm!

We carried on towards Acharavi; Keith was sat in the front with a map as well as watching the Satnav to see which way it was going to take us! This is a route that we have used several times, so we were surprised when the voice on the device said turn right!! But we had all agreed that it would be interesting to follow ‘her’ no matter what; just to see how accurate ‘she’ was and if there were some hidden gems that we had not yet discovered!

This “road” we’d turned into looked at first like an entrance to a quarry but turned out to be a narrow road, but within a few hundred metres it soon became a dirt track, we carried on as it seemed OK and could have been a link to the main road we wanted to join, just up ahead. But that main road didn’t materialise for several miles, and in the meantime we meandered through an olive grove or two and up and down a very picturesque hillside. Whilst the driving was very ‘challenging’ for Paddy, being a passenger was quite a ‘fairground ride’.

After 20 minutes or so we emerged out of the undergrowth onto a minor road and carried on towards our destination. We had another couple of minor detours where ‘she’ couldn’t tell the difference between a tarmac or concrete road or a farm track and a couple of times we all got out and let Paddy drive the car to a safe place to turn around, as the track we found ourselves on had become just two tyre tracks with a large ridge in the middle and the grass growing on it was dusting the exhaust and the underside of the car.

The Satnav called all roads “Road” …..pretty much in the same way that all bar owners here are called “Spiros”.

We finally found a road we recognised and with the weather and clouds closing in we decided to drive up the mountain to the monastery! Most of the next 5 or 6 miles we drove in thick cloud with minimum visibility and we were so grateful for the Satnav as she told us where the bends were and hairpins.

We arrived at the top of the mountain to see a sight which resembled a “Hammer” horror film, with 2 ornate gates half open at the entrance of a Gothic building which loomed in the fog and cloud

…….but no sign of Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee,

just a solitary monk and some very energetic German cyclists who had climbed nearly a 1000 metres on their bikes in virtual zero visibility. And it was absolutely freezing!

We wandered around, in our flipflops and kagools, giggling about the conditions and took loads of pictures and took shelter in the chapel

We were hoping the cloud would clear and we would have unrivalled views of the island above the clouds!!

But the weather was not clearing so back in the car and lunch!! When we got to Strinilas it was still chilly and instead of dining under the elm tree in the village the owners had opened the indoor bit to the taverna. So we ate indoors and drank the local wine, which clearly would not travel well or very far, probably not even out of the village! Paddy and Lorraine bought some local olive oil to take home and by the time we’d eaten the weather had cleared quite a bit and we enjoyed a scenic drive home, this time sticking to the main roads.
The jury is still out on how accurate the Satnav is. If it looks like a dirt track when ‘she’ says turn right it probably is just a dirt track!! And there were times when we drove on perfectly good roads and she had no record of them!!

“………we know where we're goin'
but we don't know where we've been.
And we know what we're knowing'
but we can't say what we've seen……..”


Paddy’s Response…..

“From my perspective: The booking of the visit and the purchase of the mapping for the Satnav were the opposite way round. The Satnav worked but did need to be over-ruled regularly. We did see some new and interesting places but following it slavishly would have got you in some serious trouble. Over the last four days Lorraine and I have covered about 350 kms North, South East and West and seen some beautiful places. The next few days are to relax and enjoy the weather and the relaxed atmosphere.

It has been really nice returning for the fourth time and being recognised and treated very well by all the locals. It has been especially nice spending time with Liz and Keith and watching our shares on the internet as they went up 20% in one day.

Apart from that one day of overcast and rainy weather it has been lovely, I would heartily recommend June (as Martin & Helen had recommended it to us). Now the weather for us is perfect Tee-shirt and shorts during the day and long trousers and sleeves in the evening.”

"One of those days in England......"

…....with the country goin' broke......."

A day out in Corfu Town

On Saturday we had a rare ‘gig free’ day off, so we decided to have a day out and explore Corfu Town, not the tourist spots but the bits that we have glimpsed on route to and from the airport run.
As usual we didn’t get an early start and once we’d stopped for pastries at the excellent bakery on the main road just on the outskirts of Corfu town, (2 spinach pies later) it was midday; Oops! We parked at the old harbour and took the short cut through the town and across the “Liston”

This is a beautiful tree lined square with a large grassy area, which in the height of summer is packed with cars, motorbikes, horse drawn carriages and tourists. It was so quiet and deserted! We carried on past the fort and onto the road that runs alongside the sea front.

We have often driven past this area and it always looks interesting. So we set off walking and discovered streets with beautiful roof top gardens and tavernas that seemed to cater for the locals rather than the tourist trade. The whole area was quite run down with many derelict buildings

and overgrown boulevards

but it was really charming too and retained a character that has been lost in some other parts of the town. There were signs for European funding projects taking place to revitalise the area and there was evidence of these old buildings being restored and brought back to life.

We walked to an area known as Mon Repos. (named after a 2 Ronnie’s sketch?).

“The tumbledown structure of the basilica, built by bishop Iovian in the V century, is located across the road of the entrance into the park. The park is filled with various vegetation and refreshing coolness, especially urgent during hot day. The monastery of Saint Euphemia hid behind the hedge. A little further, along the path there is the small palace Mon Repos. Formerly it was a summer residence of Greek kings, now here is the museum, where the archaeological finds, assembled from the adjacent places are collected. Further the path leads to the heap of the stone blocks, partly stowed, partly scattered. This is the temple of Hera (Heraeum) of VII - IV century B.C. Still further there are the ruins of the Doric temple of Artemis.”

This quote above is from a great blog by a Russian tourist, see link below
http://www.eikones.zoxt.net/en/ker3.html

They were charging 2 euros to enter the gardens and jump off the pier into the sea so we decided to give it a miss! The café’s here were characterless, purely tourist rip off places and they even have a little motorised “train” to carry people to this part of town from the Liston and conveniently bypass the run down areas we had just walked through.

It was boiling hot and although we had brought bottles of water with us we were both feeling the effects of the midday sun, so on our way back to the car we detoured down tree lined avenues which led to the main square in the town past some incredibly beautiful villas and apartments.

It was just after 2pm when we walked through the town and through the marbled streets back to the Liston. It was so quiet in town, people had probably gone for their siestas, and it was great to see the streets so empty.

We decided to have a drink and a ‘meze’ in one of our favourite bars on the Liston; (basically you can have a glass of wine for 2.5 euros or wine with a meze for 3 euros, which is a small plate of local meats, cheeses, olives, chips and bread! Bargain!)
As we were being served, we noticed several men wearing cricket whites. Our waiter explained, that every year, on this UK Bank holiday weekend, a cricket team from England is invited to take on a Greek side as part of a traditional 3-day annual event! We watched them warm up and then commence play as if it was a Sunday afternoon on a village green somewhere in the English countryside. The only difference being, it was 30 degrees in the shade and not raining! The Liston is probably half the size of a cricket pitch and they were using proper cork balls!!!! Cars were still parked nearby and any boundaries scored went under, over or into the cars or 30 feet in the other direction, so the ball could land amongst all the high-class bars and tavernas, which surrounded the area! It was a bit biazzar to say the least. But stuff that legends are made of. We have often heard of this cricket match-taking place but could never have imagined how they played on such a small pitch or that we would ever see it happen! They even had their Cricketers WAGS quaffing champers and eating clubs sandwiches. Shouting “jolly good show what”!!!!!

We had a fascinating few hours watching this spectacle (and 3 wine mezes) before returning through the deserted streets to our car and back home.

"One of those days in England..... chompin' baked beans in my coat

Tell me when it matters, love, I might just wanna get out of bed to see"

(by Roy Harper.......for those of you who care!)

"We are the Village Green Preservation Society"...

The view from Afianos village overlooking Arillas & the San Stefanos headland where we live

This year we have decided to have some days out walking instead of just exploring out and about in the car. Also May is cooler so it’s a good opportunity to don our groovy walking sandals and climb some hills.

Lemon Trees & Olive Groves
We had already done the cliff top walk from our house in San Stefanos (NW) across to Arillas village, so today we decided to venture further and walk over to the lovely old village of Afianos; which is perched high on the headland looking down on Agios Georgios Bay to the south and the open Ionian Sea to the north. A view from a cliff top Taverna

Afianos is where Paul and Milena have booked to stay in August, and where we briefly visited them when they stayed there for our wedding holiday. More panoramic views of the Arillas bay
From Arillas we walked up the very hilly and winding road and through the olive groves to Afianos. As soon as we got to the edge of the village we saw an old Greek woman shearing her sheep! V exciting, Liz has become obsessed with spotting little old greek ladies over the last 3 years?? "God save mrs. mopp and good old mother riley..."

Anyway, we asked her in our best Greek if it was ok to take a photo. She was very sweet and obligingly posed with her sheep. Then she proudly asked us to feel the sheepskin that was on the ground in front of her; which we did and it was grim, it was oily and very smelly; but we told her it was very beautiful.

One sheared sheep minus its coat which is on the floor in front of sheep n owner

Not much further up the road we saw another Greek woman, this time in traditional dress, she had dragged a hosepipe across the road from her house to water her veg patch, whilst her frail looking husband sat in the garden shouting instructions to her and she was muttering away back to him. Little ol' lady carrying the regulation blue plastic bag; ...over the years, everywhere we go in Corfu we have constantly seen ‘little old Greek ladies’ walking up hills with their blue carrier bag. We have a theory that they are on their way back from the local ‘dealers’ house and the bags are full of ‘grass’ & “E’s” for the “liddle ol’ lady” raves they have once the tourist bus has past. lol. As we got further into the village we kept seeing donkeys tied up in every field, old & very smelly! Then right on cue a woman came walking down the road leading her heavily ladened donkey, for another touristy photo op. carry that load!
This started to feel like we were on the set of a Film featuring ‘traditional life in a Greek village’; or something the local tourist board had arranged for the tourist season. A sort of “Beamish-os” or Jorvik-eos does my ass look big etc........
All the gardens had chickens in, vegetables growing and the most fantastic flowers, it just got more beautiful the further into the village we walked.
You have to walk through very pretty narrow winding streets where no cars or bikes can go; to get to the top of the village, which takes you out onto a hill overlooking both the Agios George Bay and the Arillas Bay.

The intrepid Liz power walking through the village

a view through a garden gate

Millstones various sizes!!!!

And here we saw a Greek woman bringing her goats in for milking and another old lady was hammering wooden stakes into the ground for her vegetables.

Panoramic view of Agios Georgios

One of our favourite days out so far.....

"Preserving the old ways from being abused;

Protecting the new ways for me and for you

What more can we do......"

More soon.......L&K