Its all Greek to me
My Greek is starting to come on now, I am trying to learn a new phrase every day. “Can I have the bill please”, “How much is that?” “see you tomorrow”, “what time is it?”, “how are you?” I can count to twenty, say the days of the week and I have been trying to learn how to tell the time
Signs outside bars and restaurants!
Signs outside bars and restaurants!
An example of Greek Humour
As we travel around the island we get great amusement from some of the signs advertising goods in shops & dishes in tavernas, I wonder if it’s just English they get wrong or do they do pidgin German as well as English, often it’s just slightly wrong with the odd letter out but sometimes it completely changes the meaning of the word.
As we travel around the island we get great amusement from some of the signs advertising goods in shops & dishes in tavernas, I wonder if it’s just English they get wrong or do they do pidgin German as well as English, often it’s just slightly wrong with the odd letter out but sometimes it completely changes the meaning of the word.
Whilst driving around passing through the small mountain villages, you often see very elderly looking Greeks sat beside the road with a table full of Olive Oil, Honey, herbs and home made wine for sale. They wave at you to try and get you stop. Liz kept pestering me to stop but I think it was more to do with the fact that when we stopped and bought some honey last year the old Greek guy grabbed her bum.
Think we'll pass on Granmother's fishFire in them there hills
Whilst visiting the town of Kassiopi we noticed an unusual amount of small planes about (you may see 1 or 2 light aircraft on a daily basis) but there seemed to be a constant noise of planes flying over- head. Heading back to home we saw a fire in the undergrowth covering a large area of the hillside. The planes we had heard earlier were a form of seaplane, landing on the sea just long enough to fill up the floatation tank with water then flying over the fire & depositing huge volumes of water at low level then returning to the sea for another load.
Whilst visiting the town of Kassiopi we noticed an unusual amount of small planes about (you may see 1 or 2 light aircraft on a daily basis) but there seemed to be a constant noise of planes flying over- head. Heading back to home we saw a fire in the undergrowth covering a large area of the hillside. The planes we had heard earlier were a form of seaplane, landing on the sea just long enough to fill up the floatation tank with water then flying over the fire & depositing huge volumes of water at low level then returning to the sea for another load.
Sea Plane carrying water to Fire
Hitting the target
New Greek Laws
Many things have changed over here, even in the 6 years we have been coming here, modern cars & scooters are everywhere, large modern villas by the coast, mountain villages are deserted except for very old local people.
All Greek drivers have mobile phones, usually attached to their ears whilst driving @ 20 miles per hour! But on the 1st of June 2007 a new law came out for motorists, they have to wear seat belts, no mobile phones, & motor bikers must wear a helmet, which they do, on their arms usually. This has led to a noticeable increase in the number of police you see on the roads. In previous years, on a 2 week holiday we would have seen maybe 1 police vehicle usually in Corfu town, but this year they are everywhere, even setting up road blocks to spot check for documents & seatbelts, this is causing some concern to locals as they can get an instant fine of 350€ & even lose their license for 10 days.
But generally they are still managing to resist these new laws, driving over-here is still just as crazy as it always was! Everyman, his wife, & his dog on the scooter plus shopping, etc. the other day we even saw someone carrying a huge tree home from a garden centre on his scooter.
Traffic is much slower moving, I don’t think we’ve done more then 45mph all the time we’ve been here, rarely used 5th gear, but if you saw the road surface you’d know why, although people do tend to slow down to about 20mph about 1 mile before their turn off or parking spot.
Pedestrian crossings (or should I say fancy yellow road decorations) were painted on in June, everyone ignored them then & now 2 months on, they have worn away so it’s just a place to cross where it may be less dangerous than elsewhere! One way traffic does work unless you are on a pushbike or an old guy on a scooter then you ignore it & everyone double-parks, even on road junctions & nobody seems to get upset by it, very much like Italy but without the horns blaring away.
Rush hour Greek style
It still beats driving or should I say queuing on the UK roads!
Many things have changed over here, even in the 6 years we have been coming here, modern cars & scooters are everywhere, large modern villas by the coast, mountain villages are deserted except for very old local people.
All Greek drivers have mobile phones, usually attached to their ears whilst driving @ 20 miles per hour! But on the 1st of June 2007 a new law came out for motorists, they have to wear seat belts, no mobile phones, & motor bikers must wear a helmet, which they do, on their arms usually. This has led to a noticeable increase in the number of police you see on the roads. In previous years, on a 2 week holiday we would have seen maybe 1 police vehicle usually in Corfu town, but this year they are everywhere, even setting up road blocks to spot check for documents & seatbelts, this is causing some concern to locals as they can get an instant fine of 350€ & even lose their license for 10 days.
But generally they are still managing to resist these new laws, driving over-here is still just as crazy as it always was! Everyman, his wife, & his dog on the scooter plus shopping, etc. the other day we even saw someone carrying a huge tree home from a garden centre on his scooter.
Traffic is much slower moving, I don’t think we’ve done more then 45mph all the time we’ve been here, rarely used 5th gear, but if you saw the road surface you’d know why, although people do tend to slow down to about 20mph about 1 mile before their turn off or parking spot.
Pedestrian crossings (or should I say fancy yellow road decorations) were painted on in June, everyone ignored them then & now 2 months on, they have worn away so it’s just a place to cross where it may be less dangerous than elsewhere! One way traffic does work unless you are on a pushbike or an old guy on a scooter then you ignore it & everyone double-parks, even on road junctions & nobody seems to get upset by it, very much like Italy but without the horns blaring away.
Rush hour Greek styleIt still beats driving or should I say queuing on the UK roads!
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