Greece is the Word

After waiting for the winds and high waves to calm down a little, we headed to Greece. The trip across the open waters turned out to be uneventful. The water for the most part was smooth as glass and the wind only helped us for part of the way across until it dropped off to a whisper. We headed to Corfu, one of the bigger islands of the Ionian Sea.

Corfu, Kepkypa, Kerkyra, it’s all Greek to me
One of the first things you notice about Greek is you can’t figure out the name of anything. Even the Greeks can’t figure out the name of anything. First there is the Greek itself, which looks like fraternities gone wild. Just the Greek alphabet, which doesn’t resemble anything you are familiar with. You could be looking at the sign for Athens and have no idea what it is saying. On the maps and some street signage, there is a western alphabet spelling of the name. The trouble is, there is typically two or three different western spellings for the same name. Hence, Corfu is also Kepkypa, and also Kerkyra depending on what book you are reading, or what map you have or what some Greek chooses to call it. The old town is very charming with the ubiquitous tourist shops sprinkled with a few nice clothing stores and great restaurants. We ate at a bakery serving freshly made Greek dishes still warm from the oven. A couple of Euro will get you a great lunch. The town has not one castle but two, complete with mote and imposing towers. One is called the new castle because it dates back only to the 15th century. The old castle is a mix of crumbling impressive structures with some relative new university buildings thrown in. I wonder if they offer storming castle walls and archery as PE classes. The second day we rented a car and drove to a blue lagoon Brooks Shields would have been jealous over. Sheer cliffs that young guys could not resist plunging off of into crystal clear blue water that you can see forever in. We snorkeled and relaxed in the island sun. There are some places on this earth that seem to be carved out in the most breathtaking way. This was one of them. When the afternoon sun was more than enough for us, we went to another beach and rented kayaks and explored some deserted beaches and small caves. It does get hot here, but is usually remedied by a plunge into the ocean. We drove up to a near by town high on the hill. They would build up high to protect themselves from pirates in days gone by. This place does not get many visitors, and I am sure they looked at us in puzzlement as we digitized every falling down door and window in the village. We had our first authentic Greek dinner at a family restaurant. Mom and sister waited on us while dad cooked our meal. We felt more like we were invited into their home than their restaurant. It was incredible. I am already in love with Greek cuisine. We bought fresh produce with the locals off a truck and headed back to the boat. We stayed for three days.