I took a picture of the gorgeous harbor here in Corfu from the deck of the Eurodam and sent it to my granddaughter.
May 1 is a special day on Corfu. To celebrate the end of
winter, people gather flowers and put them on the front of their vehicles. Our
tour guide gathered some flowers and put them under the windshield wipers of
the bus. As we were getting on the bus,
small swallows were flying around. Mary said it is considered good luck to be
defiled by the birds. You are supposed to buy a small lottery ticket when that
happens.
I would have suspected that anyone else was putting us on,
but Mary is the soul of sweetness. We passed a reserve for donkeys on the way
up the hill and she spoke at length about people visiting the donkeys.
There is
also a reserve for the small Skyrian horses that are found on the island. She
said they are all cinnamon colored with gentle natures. They are the perfect
size and temperament for children.
(I found the picture below on horsetalk.co.nz.)
Mary told us about a book called “My Family and Other
Animals”, which is set in Corfu. It is a story about living closely with
animals. She said that the main character might open a matchbox and find a
lizard or a spider with its children living in the box. This illustrates a main difference between my
culture and hers. I don’t think kindly about spiders having families in my
stuff but she does.
The Castle of the Angels which was built in the 14th
century is visible on the way up to the top of the hill. She said that about
1000 people were saved once when they were being attacked because they were
able to make it into the castle. That’s how it was named. She talked at length
about Greek mythology and also the history of the island starting about the
time of the Peloponnesian War.
Bill was really excited about the Ionian Sea because we read the Patrick O'Brian books about sailing here.
The drive was harrowing for some of the passengers because
of the narrow roads. We came within a foot of houses on both sides. The roads
were laid out to be wide enough for a donkey carrying a bundle of olives on
each side of his back. The wider streets were big enough for two carriages to
pass. The real driving problems occur when the olive trees drop their fruit in
November. The roads become very slick at that time.
We stopped at the small town of Lakona to buy souvenirs and
take pictures. I bought some lavender soap made with olive oil. Mary talked
about education on the way down. She said there are many accountants, lawyers
and doctors whose education goes to waste unless they leave Greece. She talked
about the economic downturn in 2008. She said Greeks are suffering but not as
much as the immigrant population from Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan and other
countries who came to make a fresh start in Greece.
Mary told us the people on Corfu all celebrate the Greek
Orthodox Easter next Sunday because there are mostly Greeks on the island. She
said she is married to a Roman Catholic and that is a common situation.
We were on a second cruise that included Corfu in 2015. The weather was better and we took some great pictures of the scenery.
