Corfu Day Two

 I woke up to a text from Beth and Brian enticing me with the proposal of checking out a nearby town with a car. I haven’t been in an automobile for some time and there’s plenty of island left to see. I woke up slow, the heater seems to be broken (or I don’t speak enough Greek to make it work) and that makes mornings hard. As a Californian, it doesn’t help when I know that there will probably be rain outside. 

I went to a local cafe to meet up with the two of them. They had no luck with getting a car, most of the spots that rent do so during the high season only. We resolved the issue by having a coffee and looking at the old fort. This became increasingly difficult due to some absurdly gusty wind. Steel ashtrays were being whipped off of the patio furniture and the sun shade was making some awfully threatening noises. We paid and decided the best way to flee the incoming storm was a bus ride.

A day pass on the island is about five bucks. Alarmingly this is how much the same would cost in Los Angeles. That’s for two reasons. Public transit in LA is shockingly cheap and everything on an island is shockingly expensive. We rolled around for a couple hours watching the sights go by. The waves coming up along the coast were dramatic. I was quite content to be in a nice warm bus yapping away.

The storm died down around the same time the bus deposited us in the city center. Coincidentally, that was also lunchtime. Beth and Brian had spotted a butcher and we made a meal around that. Pork cutlet and chicken nuggets from the butcher. And I mean a real butcher. There was a rail with meat hooks leading from the freezer to the butcher blocks in the front. Bread and cookies from the bakery. Cheese, veggies, and beer from the market. Olives from a vendor across the street from their apartment.

Brian is a fantastic cook. I asked what I could do to help “Stay the fuck out of the way.” As my ex housemates can attest, I’m more or less the same way. The veggies and cheese were assembled into a beautiful salad while Beth and I snacked on more cheese, bread, and olives. The cookies made for a fine desert. We chatted about the struggles of traveling and one issue we share is how difficult it can be to find a supply of English books on the road. Since I’ve been sticking to major cities I’ve had a relatively easy time, even Corfu has a bookshop with some English books. Brian just came from Albania where any book is hard to come by. The scars of dictatorship run deep. He’s gifted me a book on life in Albania which cost him an arm and a leg to obtain out there. Regrettably, I gave my inventory away to the nearest bookshop days ago. Lesson learned, hold on to them for longer.

Lunch and good company

After naptime I did some planning. My stay here is over on Sunday and I have nothing booked after that. There are other islands I’d like to see. The next link in the chain is Paxos, population 2500. It is remote enough that I can’t even get a direct ferry inbound from Corfu to Paxos on the day of my choosing even through they’re right next to each other. They only run twice a week and not on Sundays. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out how I was going to get from Paxos to Kefalonia or Ithaca. There have been ferries but they must be seasonal, I can’t book a ticket. All of a sudden, I remembered that airplanes exist. To get from Paxos to Kefalonia…

Make sure it is Wednesday

Ferry from Paxos to the south of Corfu

Bus from the ferry terminal to the airport

Fly to Kefalonia

The ferry comes sparingly and so do the planes.

Tonight’s beer was at The Bristol, a bar I am thankful for since I don’t feel out of place speaking English there. The DJ is spinning records and doing a great job. He’s talented but most importantly, tonight is not serious. It’s a 50/50 chance that he will either miss a transition to smoke or deliver something creative and difficult. My decks are packed away and I’m wishing I was able to spin a bit. It’ll be a while.