Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Corfu: Elegant, Scenic, and a bit Crazy

View from our hotel room balcony
The Greek island of Corfu sits in the Adriatic Sea on the Italian side of Greece, across from the heal of Italy. Unlike the dramatic starkness of Aegean islands like Santorini, et al, Corfu is lush and green with an Italian feel to it. Which is not surprising since Corfu was occupied by the Venetians for more than 400 years.

The Venetian Lion
Like many of these small islands, Corfu has been invaded over and over: by the Greeks, Romans, Sicilians, Venetians, French, and British. However, the Venetians left the most lasting impression, and the Venetian lion, symbol of the Republic, is carved on buildings throughout the capitol city of Corfu Town.

One of the gorgeous flowers
on this lush island
Our reason for coming here is to slow down and relax -- something a bit different for us. Visiting Corfu is all about balmy weather, sandy beaches, and swaying palm trees.  We rented a car and each day set out to explore a different part of the island. We were here in the off season (which still seemed pretty busy to us), but we lucked out with the weather, arriving during what one Corfiot shopkeeper called “a little summer, a miracle in October.”  Yes, the "Corfu-ian" people call themselves the "Corfiot".

Our one big disappointment was that we were unable to do a planned day trip to Albania. We had booked an excursion thru our hotel expecting to visit nearby Albania, a place we have never seen. This is not a country with lines of tourists trying to enter, so we would probably never get there any other way other than by happenstance.  The jaunt from Corfu for one day would have been perfect, but the evening before our trip, the front desk called us and told us that our trip was cancelled.  What?  Nasty storms were predicted for the day of our travel, and the tour company would not cross the channel with their Mickey Mouse ferries during a storm.

Nasty sea on the day we were scheduled to
ferry over to Albania
We had to agree with them, as we weren’t anxious to meet our demise somewhere in an unknown waterway between Corfu and Albania.  Of course, the day turned out to be beautifully sunny. Ironically, the stormy weather that caused our tour to be cancelled, was initially a non-event; thus, we had a real live SNAFU on CORFU!!  Heh, heh. But wait: we have to come clean and admit that the weather degraded as the day progressed, and we did get rain and extremely high winds on the day our tour would have gone. So it really was for the best.

Corfu Town with the New Fortress in the background

Corfu Town

Corfu Town is situated on the sea between two mighty fortresses simple known as The Old Fortress and the The New Fortress (relatively speaking as in 17th c.). 

Former palace in Corfu Town








This is definitely Anne’s kind of town. Lots of fun shopping, and buildings with the crumbling, faded elegance look she likes so well. The ambiance is definitely Italian, and we could easily imagine we were in Venice or Sicily.


Saint Spyridon church
A major sight in Corfu Town is the Saint Spyridon church, honoring the patron saint of Corfu. Saint Spyridon is quite venerated, and inside the church, there is always a line to see him. Anne joined the queue and noticed that as people walked up to view the casket, they leaned way over and seemed to be kissing it -- once at the bottom of the casket and once at the top. When she got closer, she saw that two sections of the casket were exposed beneath a sheet of clear glass. The lower section offered a view of the Saint’s little feet all donned up in fancy brightly-colored shoes. The upper section exposed the black, rotting face of the corpse with two gleaming teeth still hanging in his gaping mouth. It was all Anne could do not to gasp in horror. What she remembers are those teeth and the smudged glass where all those kisses were deposited.

Piperitsa pizzeria on Saint Spyridon Square
To celebrate the Italian side of this island, we ate lunch at a pizzeria called Piperitsa. The café was located on a sparkling square behind San Spyridon church. The food was great, and as we sat under the outdoor umbrellas, a choir of young people made some heavenly music, singing
"a cappella" in the square taking advantage of the fine acoustics provided by the towering stone buildings. One of those very special travel moments.

Bright orange kumquat liqueurs
We had another special moment when we met Aphrodite, a vendor with a shop where kumquats were sold. Kumquats are very popular on Corfu and eaten as snacks, as part of local dishes, and are even found in a bright, orange kumquat liqueur.


Candied kumquats
Aphrodite was so friendly and a good salesperson too - we bought two containers of candied kumquats, one for now and one to take home for later. The kumquats are a delicious blend of sweet and sour, and the first bite is the best when the inner juices explode in your mouth.  Unfortunately, kumquats are quite sour on the vine and only edible when saturated with a sugary syrup. They are scrumptious, but not exactly a health food!

Sweet Aphrodite
The next day, we happened to eat dinner across the street from Aphrodite’s shop. We exchanged greetings with her, and then a few minutes later, she came back to give us a container of chocolate-covered kumquats! We couldn’t believe it and were very touched by her kindness. You’ve heard the sayings about “Greeks bearing gifts.” Well it is absolutely true, all throughout Greece. And Aphrodite’s unexpected gift to us is a good example.

The Old Fortress of Corfu Town
Old Fortress

Corfu Town’s Old Fortress stands overlooking the sea across a small bay from our hotel. The craggy fortress looks almost like a ship moored along the seaside. In the pictures, you can see the clock tower about half-way up and the cross-shaped antenna at the very top.

Climbing the Old Fortress
The hike up looked quite daunting, but we decided to enter the site just to hike up to the first level.

Clock Tower in the Old Fortress
Well once we got to the clock tower, we wanted to keep going all the way to the top.

Made it to the top of the Old Fortress!
The views at the top were fabulous with panoramic views of the town and across the sea to the Greek mainland and even north to Albania.










Achilleon Palace
Achilleon Palace

The first day we had a car, we headed south of Corfu Town to visit Achilleon Palace, the Corfu residence of Empress Elizabeth of Austria (aka "Sissy").

Sissy with her tiny 19-inch waist
"Sissy" was renowned for her beauty (particularly her 19-inch waist), and she was so popular, that much like Princess Diana, she was hounded by the press.






Statue of the lovely Sissy
Sissy hated the rigid life at the Austrian court, and she liked to travel by herself whenever she could. In one instance, she arrived in a new town, and the local officials wanted to give her a royal welcome. Sissy sent her hairdresser masquerading as the Empress herself. Meanwhile the real Sissy watched the proceedings from a nearby café where she ate ice cream incognito.

Frank admires one of the many Greek
statues on the terrace at Achilleon Palace
On one of her travels, she came to Corfu and was captivated by the island, Greek mythology, and the peaceful lifestyle. Her Palace reflects her unique style and her love of all things Greek. She had the Palace of Achillion built as one of her travel respites, and named it after Homer's Greek hero "Achilles"; she loved his beauty and his strength.  Sadly, Sissy was murdered by an anarchist in Geneva when she was 60 years old. 






At Paleokastritsa Beach
Paleokastritsa

Paleokastritsa is one of the most beautiful beaches on Corfu. The relatively small beach is surrounded by rugged cliffs and unusual rock formations. One thing we have noticed is that beaches on Corfu tend to be quite small and narrow, but it doesn’t seem to matter because people spend all their time in the gorgeous blue-green water.

Stunning view from the Paleokitstrikia Monastery
We drove up a steep and winding road to the Monastery of Paleokastritsa where we had even more dramatic views of the surroundings. Seems that most people who come to Corfu hole up in one of the many beach towns and spend their time enjoying the sea.

Beautiful little inlet at Kassiopi
Kassiopi

Kassiopi is a lively beach town in the stunning northeast part of the island. We followed the sea all along the eastern seaboard taking in fantastic scenery the whole way. Kassiopi is a lot like beach towns all over the world with plenty of shops selling chintzy souvenirs and flip-flops, but we loved the vibe here. And the small inlets along the northern shore looked so inviting, we wanted to dive in.

Inches count when driving on Corfu!
Local Life of the Corfiots

We had a car on Corfu for 4 days, but we never saw a police officer on the roads, not once.  We did see two cops down in Corfu Town giving out parking citations, but there were none around to issue moving violations. Seems like the cops here are glorified meter maids. Speaking of parking, we were told that you can park anywhere you can find a space, although we did see two cops deservedly giving a ticket to a car that was blatantly blocking somebody’s driveway.  But seriously, parking around Corfu Town is the biggest hodge-podge we’ve ever seen.  You can park in almost any place you can slide your vehicle into; the smaller your car, the better!  A motorcycle is certainly ideal. 

Corfu's alluring scenery can be a distraction on the roads 
The rules for drivers on Corfu seem to be non-existent too; you basically do what you want.  Yes, the basics are there.  You drive on the right, you stop at stop signs, you obey traffic lights (if they are working!), and please don’t run any of the multitude of pedestrians down.  If the traffic lights worked, we could probably obey them, but in many cases, the lights weren’t operating at all!  Very disconcerting. It was a free-for-all at many 4-way intersections with the boldest drivers getting thru first, while the timid remained stuck with a slew of pissed off horn-honking drivers behind them. 

Another issue is the one-way streets.  Many times they are not marked at all – how would you know? We found out the hard way when a waiter at an outdoor café blocked our passage and waved us off as we started to enter an unmarked one-wayer. Even when they are marked, they may not be truly one way. You will be driving down a one-way street with the road entirely to yourself, and here comes Joe the ass right at you.  Now, the street was marked one way for a reason – because two vehicles are unable to fit.  But Joe the ass is here now, and you gotta deal with that. You need to navigate around him, unless of course you know fluent Greek, and are able to get out and chew him out for his less that acceptable driving skills.  But you can’t even do that, because next time you might be Joe the ass who took a wrong turn up a one-way street, and now you are the one on the hot seat for the same faux pas. 


Cemetery along the winding coastal road to Kassiopi
Driving outside of the city was tricky too. The plethora of mountain switchbacks along the coastal highways were sometimes treacherous and made for slow-going.  We wondered how many over-zealous drivers have plunged over the cliffs there. We had many impatient local drivers glue themselves to our bumper in an intimidating style, and then pass us on blind turns, or whenever the tiniest opportunity presented itself.   But also, the scenery is so beautifully seducing, if you are not careful, you can find yourself drifting into an on-coming lane or towards the cliff side of the road.

Grilled octopus, our new food fave!
Food on Corfu was a real delight. The food here is fabulous, so fresh with lots of unusual local dishes to try. We ate things like Rabbit Stifado (rabbit served in a delicious sauce with the sweetest onions), super tender Lamb Kleftiko, and Pastisada (made with an unusual spicy pasta sauce). But our favorite dish was grilled octopus. Yes, seriously! We had always wanted to try this very Greek dish but were put off by the thought of tentacles and little sucker cups. However whether grilled (the best) or marinated in vinegar, octopus is a surprisingly delicious delicacy! Once we wrapped our tentacles around octopus as a food for us humans, we ate it every chance we got.
At first, Frank really wasn't sure about
trying octopus 


Anne goes for her first
taste of octopus

We also enjoyed lots of live music. Our hotel, the Mon Repos Palace, put on a live show of great music every night. Wow, the assortment of eclectic singers was excellent and kept us entertained for the duration of our stay.  One gal that goes by the name of Ionna, sang a variety of traditional Greek songs on several evenings. She was a big draw for us, the other hotel stayers, and for local folks as well. We met a couple from Scotland named John and Mary who were celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary, and we got together nightly to sit out on the large veranda and share in the music.


More pics from Corfu, including what we like to call “Ode to a Greek Salad:”

Gorgeous beach at our Mon Repos Hotel

The moat at the Old Fortress is now a parking space for
fishing boats
From the Old Fortress


Elegant architecture of Corfu Town

Anne loved these arcaded streets in Corfu Town
(supposed to be like rue de Rivoli in Paris)

Who's that Corfu Town photo bomber???

Shopping in Corfu Town

Anne playing around in the gardens at
Achilleon Palace

Flowering shrub in the Achilleion Palace Gardens

Stunning scenery at Paleokitstrikia Beach

Cute taverna in the village of
Doukades in the Corfu countryside

Frank got in the habit of eating a big, beautiful
Greek salad almost every day and loved
taking pictures of these masterpieces of Greek cuisine


Nothing like a big block of fresh feta cheese!

Greek salad goes down best with a
good Red Corfu Beer 

Speaking of beer, Frank's all-time favorite
Greek beer was Mythos

Yammos!!!
(cheers)




No comments:

Post a Comment