"Wild Night"

................................................. Thelma & Louise

“The Wild night is calling
All the girls walk by, dressed up for each other
And the boys do the boogie woogie, on the corner of the street
And the people passing by just stare in wild wonder, yeah
And inside the jukebox roars just like thunder”


August is so different here compared to the rest of the season. It’s Hot, hot, hot, too hot! The island is in a blaze of heat and sunshine, and whilst the sea breeze is soothing on the beaches, it can feel a bit like a fan-assisted oven sometimes! The temperature has really changed, the days are hotter but shorter and the evenings are really warm and sticky. The landscape is not as green, there are a lot less flowers, and everywhere has become dustier.

And busy, busy, busy….. This is the 4th month of the tourist season and the bar and restaurant owners have become frazzled. The atmosphere generally is not as chilled as the rest of the season. Usually everyone is frazzled due to overwork and too many late nights, but this year it’s been compounded by the lack of tourists, lack of spending and the lack of any real income from the season! Traditionally the bars have dropped the live music in their bars in August because the punters are coming in anyway but not this season. They are all being so affected by the current economic climate. Therefore Keith is still doing 6 gigs a week (so we are getting frazzled too!!)

the empty beach early in the season

The beaches are a lot more crowded, including more Greek families. We often sit on our fold away chairs on the beach; watching the world go by and the Greek families usually provide us with great entertainment. The way they park on the beach is hilarious, double parking is almost compulsory and they bring everything but the kitchen sink with them; all shapes and sizes of sun beds and elaborate parasols and tents, radios, cool boxes and the all essential bat and ball games! They are masters of outdoor living!

The same view of our beach in August
The roads are full of transfer coaches, hired cars and scooters and Italians!! They come to Corfu in August in their 100’s. And the visitors in our annex apartment were no exception! Eleonora (Keith’s niece) and her friend Venessa (aka Thelma & Louise); arrived in Corfu on the Venice ferry for a 2 week vacation/road trip! Their little ford fiesta was loaded to the gills with supplies of food and clothes and of course lots of shoes!! If all the Italian tourists arrive here as well stocked up as this, it’s no wonder the locals class them as ‘poor spenders’, cos you name it…. they had it, food, drinks, toilet rolls and lots and lots and lots of pasta!!!!!!

They soon settled in and from a quiet beginning of just going down to the beach,

..............in a beach taverna

and having dinner on the balcony and sometimes coming to Keith’s gigs they soon spread their wings and ventured into the night in Sidari. They explored the clubs and bars arriving home just before dawn like vampires, having left a trail of lovesick puppies in their wake!!!

It was the same when they had a day out in Paleo (with Liz as chaperone.)

the harbour in paleo

Paleokastritsa is a traditional Italian holiday destination on Corfu and full of beautiful people. So Liz was dispatched to a beach side taverna to spend a couple of hours, drinking frappe and people watching from afar, whilst the girls sunbathed on the beach and swatted off the speedo clad masses with supreme ease.

It was astonishing to watch the young Greek/ Italian and English boys fall over themselves just to take a second look, on the beach, in the street and in the bars, it was always the same!! But the girls didn’t seem to notice; they were more interested in buying shoes or sampling elaborate cocktails.

a lunch in corfu town

Over the years we have met lots of people who have told us about mishaps they have had with hired cars on the island, mainly burst tyres or going off the road or hitting potholes but we must say this has never happened to us (yet!) So as part of our induction to the island we warned Thelma & Louise about potholes in the road, oncoming coaches and motor bikes. But what we didn’t say was don’t run over the edge of pavements in Sidari!! So guess what? They accidently ran over a pavement, and got a puncture right in the middle of the main Sidari strip of bars @ 2am in the morning!!!
So being the enterprising, good looking, Italian girls that they are, they got a local man and his son to change the wheel for them! He was out picking up his teenage daughters from the nightclub opposite, so when the daughters noticed the girls’ plight, they persuaded their dad to help change the wheel and the local girls disappeared back into the nightclub! Much to the irritation of their dad who’d had a struggle getting them out of there in the first place!!!!

With the wheel fixed they made their way back to base and the following day we arranged for the tyre to be changed at a local garage. And with a smile and a wink from the girls the price was dropped from 80 euros to 20! It was a bit like a scene from one of those ZZ top videos in the 90’s (Legs!)
On the middle Sunday of their stay a beach party was advertised for our beach in San Stef. Live bands & a DJ, starting at 6pm sounded a good idea and although Keith was working we said we would get back to see the end of it. On the day not much seemed to be happening, they’d organised the bar and oil barrels as tables but no sign of a stage or electrics etc.
Then at 7pm using the local speedboat and JCB, a spare pontoon was dragged from the corner of the beach to become the stage

The stage arrives

and in ‘Greek time’, a generator, lights, band gear and BBQ all arrived and were set up. It all started close to midnight and at 1am when we returned a local trash metal band was in full flow playing Pink Floyd covers and some original material (quite well as it turned out). At 1.30am the DJ took over to play dance music and bass and drum stuff, we left about 2.30am and went to be bed but the party continued till 5.30am with our windows rattling away from the bass sound ½ mile away!

the band on the beach

The 2 weeks rapidly drew to a close and we got up at 4.30am to accompany Thelma & Louise to the ferry port for their return trip. The night before Keith had played locally at the Athens bar, we escaped there at about 1.30am and with the ferry due out at 7am we left home at 5am to get to the port on time, but as we passed the Athens bar, it was packed and still going strong with drinkers, tourist & locals alike.
We waited till the girls drove onto the ferry before returning home. It was so nice to drive through Corfu town at that time of the day with the sun coming up and the town just starting to come alive without all the noise and ‘caffuffel’ of the usual daily routine.

on their last day soaking up the sun
“…..And everything looks so complete,
when you’re walkin down on the streets
And the wind catches your feet, sets you flyin', cryin'…..”

.........they are missed so much, someone has built a memorial to them on the spot where they sunbathed everyday!