Our night at sea and landfall in Corfu

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I had my first taste of being on the sea through the night when I went from Copenhagen to Oslo, and most recently with Marika Will and Kim last year in the Caribbean. I love it – really, really love it – the rolling black seas, wondering what swims beneath, glimpses of dark shapes in the distance that may or may not be land and twinkling lights from other ships. When I awoke in the middle of the night I spent a long time just standing and gazing out.

That made our 6:00 wake up even earlier. Quick change and munching bananas to a one we went out onto an upper deck to greet Corfu as we neared. At stern the Greek flag whipped in the sunrise. Marika and Will each spotted pairs of dolphins behind and Will pointed to a literal cloud of swifts. Building remnants loomed on hills – Corfu is impressive to approach by sea.

We found our way across the island to Agios Gordios. One of my very favourite series of book as a teen was the Gerald Durrell humorous and literate tales of collecting animals from different continents. His childhood tale, "My family and other animals", takes place on Corfu where he lived with his family (including his brother - author Lawrence Durrell). Their local advisor, assistant and guide was Spiros. We saw the name everywhere on all sorts of stores and trucks – apparently a substantial chunk of the islands male population is named after the Islands patron Saint Spiros, or Spyros.

The view of Agios Gordios coming down the mountain towards the beach was breathtaking – internet descriptions and photos did it no justice. Arriving at Sebastian’s tavern we were greeted by Sebastian – who used to go out with Kim’s sister Annetta many years back - she also has stayed here. He had come to Canada to visit and knew Kim well. It was as if their conversation picked up where it dropped off over 20 years ago. We hung out with Sebastian and his wife Teresa and their adorable and outgoing two year old son Anastasi (?sp). Further chats with Sebastian ranged from talks about his parents, and we had a long talk about the Greek economy and the challenges and enormous threats posed by the European Union, the IMF and the powers that be behind them and their very huge impact locally on communities like Agios Gordios. Fascinating conversation with this small community as a perfect illustration of the impact of these economic and political pressures on local communities and families. And, it took Will and Marika a nanosecond to befriend the taverna’s dog Moby.

We spent a long time on the lovely beach and then were shown to our amazing digs – it was where Sebastian and Teresa used to live and has been recently renovated – more about it all tomorrow – time to head for dinner….

Oh my heavens - Mama's homemade moussaka . mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

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Photos

First peek at our home village
We will spend the next six nights in Agios Gordios at Sebastian's family taverna and apartments