Day 10: Corfu, Greece

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Port: Corfu, Greece

Ahhh....Corfu. Corfu Island, an area approximately 18 miles wide and 36 miles long, is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and with 150,000 inhabitants, it is the most densely populated. Situated in the north Ionian Sea, it is both the most northerly and most westerly point of Greece. We could see Albania off in the distance to the east. The greenest of the Greek Islands with lush vegetation, it is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful.

Over four million olive trees grow on the slopes of the semi-mountainous terrain, and olive oil exportation is one of the Island's largest industries.

We arrived in Corfu at 7:00 am – out of bed by 7:15 – showered and dressed and went to the Concierge Lounge for breakfast, where I met up with Jackie & Mark. We are touring with them today, so this worked out well. Corfu is actually an hour ahead of the ship – so our tour was set up for 9:00 am CORFU time, which meant we needed to get off the boat at 8:00 am – be aware of this if you make tour arrangements!

Today was another "Wash & Fold" laundry day - which meant we could stuff a plastic bag (provided by Alston) with as much laundry as we could fit - for $25.00. Yay - more clean underwear! This would be the LAST Wash & Fold special offered on this cruise - for a total of three.

The weather today was perfect – in the upper 70’s, low 80’s – a little haze in the morning, but burned off by afternoon.

It is a pretty long walk from the ship to the end of the pier, but the ship offers a free shuttle bus. The four of us hopped on to the shuttle and rode the 2 minutes to the terminal building. I didn’t see anyone holding a sign with my name, so we kept on walking. Uh oh. Right outside the terminal building, there were some taxi drivers hanging out, and they asked if we needed a taxi. I replied, “No, we’re supposed to have a tour with Dimitrius.” They turned and hollered, “Hey! Dimitrius!” and a tall, red-haired gentleman walked up. Dimitrius was here – yay! His sign was back at his taxi – I don’t know how I missed seeing him, as he had said to look for red hair. Oh well.

He apologized and said he never got the message that there would be four of us – and so he has a rather small car. He explains that we can wait while he goes back and switches to a bigger car, but we say no, we’re fine – we can squeeze in. Mark gets in front with Dimitrius, and Jackie, myself and Hubby climb into the back. I was a Greek sandwich for this tour – I’m in the middle and it WAS tight – but we did fine. I guess a Greek sandwich is better than being a Greek salad.

We got into his small taxi and the fun began.

We visited small villages and larger villages up high and down low. At one point, we passed old women carrying bread; Dimitrius stopped & rolled down his window and the next thing – women are breaking off hunks of bread for us. The bread was delicious – very soft and very sweet; today is the 2nd day of St John’s Festival and this bread is only for the festival – it cannot be bought in the stores. Darn. I would have loved to have taken me home some of this bread.

We visited a barber shop where the man had his entire life displayed on the walls; he sits us down and pretends to do our hair for us. The man was so sweet and so nice; he let us browse through his shop, looking at the history on the walls.

The outside of the Barber Shop was once featured on a postcard sold in Greece. From this photo, with Dimitrius in front, you can see why.

We stopped for some quick refreshments where we sampled the baklava – oh my God. Baklava is a very sweet phyllo pastry filled with walnut and honey. Baklava in the States has NOTHING on baklava made in Greece. Go figure.

We visited the famous Tripa Tavern, where Aristotle Onassis liked to hang out – the celebrity photos on the walls had Jane Fonda, Jimmy Carter, and others.
The décor in the tavern was unique – there were hundreds and hundreds of bottles lining the walls, covered with layers of cobwebs – looked a little “Munster-ish.” Charming.

We visited an olive press museum to find out how to make olive oil. Turns out to be quite a process.

We visited George’s store – where we sampled olives (delicious) and kumquat candy and local wine – all very good. George is an old friend of Dimitrius’s and the hospitality from him and his wife was excellent.

We visited a small house where we found three women inside weaving three giant carpets – all by hand. It appeared to be backbreaking, tedious labor – but the women all made it seem so easy. I was impressed. And thankful it wasn’t me. One of the ladies had been working on her carpet for over a year. Yikes.

Dimitrius is a photographer’s dream – he always knew where the perfect spot was to capture the photo. He gave us lessons and tips the entire tour – “No ZOOM!” was something we frequently heard. He also said no pictures of all the churches because Corfu has over 800 churches on the island – he actually held up his hand once to block a photo. I cracked up. This was the one church he "allowed" us to take a photo of - even lining up the shot for us.

He was very funny, telling us stories and jokes and information about his own life and the life of the villagers and the towns around us.

We stopped for lunch at a delightful tavern, "Avra," owned by Spyro, who Dimitrius went to school with. We ate family style – allowing us to sample many things - including octopus soaked in vinegar (yum); fried cheese; pasta; Greek salad with feta cheese; and some other delicacies that I had no idea what were but were all very good. Dimitrius would not let us try the Ouzo, darn it.

The tavern had a beautiful view of the Ionian Sea and Mouse Island.

We drove around some more, admiring the scenery, snapping photos – and then Dimitrius dropped us off in Corfu Town around 3:00 pm and we walked around and shopped on our own until 4:00 pm.

Dimitrius said every tour is different – he will never repeat a tour – and he also doesn’t want too many of the secrets told – other drivers are trying to copy his tour and he doesn’t want them to know what he does. I hope I haven’t given too much of it away here.

At 4:00 pm, Dimitrius picked us back up and drove the mile or two back to the terminal building at 4:30. This was ship time – it was 5:30 pm Corfu time. We technically had 2 more hours before we had to be back onboard, but I think we were all tired and were anxious to get back and relax. We paid Dimitrius $90E for each person - which for a seven-hour 5-Star tour, was quite the bargain!!!! Needless to say, he got a big tip from all of us.

After getting back on board, I headed to the Concierge Lounge to use the Internet for a few minutes. Then, back to the room to relax and clean up. Then, back to Concierge for drinks and appetizers. You’re noticing a pattern here, huh?

Our usual table at the usual time with the usual people for dinner. I had the Tuscany White Bean Soup as an appetizer – very good! For my entrée, I had ravioli in white cream sauce – it was pretty good. For dessert – some sort of orange cream brulee which was just so-so. Dejan then explained that although Thursday would be our last formal night – no lobster – he said that the cost for the one lobster night was more than all of the other nights combined. A guest has the record on Brilliance of 26 lobster tails – and Dejan said the chef really got mad about that! Also – gala buffet was cut as well due to costs – lately, more crew than guests were attending, and most of the food went to waste.

After dinner, I brought Ian up to our cabin to show him my “zoo” – had a new one now – a bunny rabbit. We now have four animals – so Ian got a deck of cards from his room next door, and we set up a poker party with the animals. This will surely get a laugh out of Alston, our cabin attendant!

At 8:30 pm, we went up to Starquest Disco for the Suites Cocktail Party – had a beautiful display of ice carvings food carvings, appetizers and alcohol…and four guests. The crew outnumbered the guests – which was rather sad. I talked with Roger – head bartender from Grenada – who said that this is something new (in the last 2 months) where they are trying to do something special for the suite guests. Problem – we’ve just finished eating so we aren’t hungry at 8:30 – and the 2nd seating is getting ready for dinner –so they don’t want to ruin their appeties. Not good timing for this event at all. Roger insisted that we sample some of the beautiful food – and because I was still so full from dinner – it was all I could do to swallow a canapé. After staying a few minutes, we needed to make a break for our next activity, which had also begun at 8:30 pm.

We rushed down to the Centrum for the second and final Make-A-Wish Foundation charity auction. We WON the bridge tour for $660 – and the engine room tour went for $525 after I bid the other guy up – I wanted someone to have to pay good money for it!!! Kieron, the Cruise Director, said our cruise had raised a little over $5000 for the charity. Not bad.

After the auction we went down to the Pacifica Theater – where the Eastcoast Boys were singing the music of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons. The first show had been at 7:15 pm; this show was at 9:00 pm. The show seemed terrible to us, so we left. However, we later heard from others that they thought the show was pretty good – so it’s a matter of individual taste. We ran into Dave & Kerry by the shops and talked for awhile; then ran into Chris & Laura and talked some more. We made our way to the Photo Gallery to finally track down our photos…we were not impressed. In most pictures, we looked very tired – this cruise was just so port-intensive that everyone looked pretty exhausted. Oh well.

After that we came back to room and pooped out – we ended up watching “House Bunny” on TV and then fell asleep. (Here we are, in Greece - and they're showing "House Bunny" on TV. Couldn't they have picked a better movie to show???!! Something that would showcase Greece, perhaps??!!)

We missed the 10:45 pm Love & Marriage Game Show, but it was re-ran on the ship’s TV system the next few days, so we were able to watch what we had missed. Not much, really. I don't think any of the 3 couples picked had really outgoing personalities - so it was one of the more "dud" Love & Marriage Shows I've seen. Again - just my humble opinion. I call them as I see them.

There was a Greek Toga Party at 11:00 pm by the Pool – but we didn’t go – as again, we were zonked. I think this means we’re getting old!

Tomorrow: At Sea - again!