don't laugh.

corfu was our blind date.  after the ferry from greece and another 2 hour ferry, we landed tired with giddiness with absolutely no idea of what to expect. all we knew was that popi's sister's boyfriend's cousin's friend was letting us stay with him and we had only requested his facebook friendship to get a brief idea of what he looked like - youngish with a possible beard. we got off the ferry, possibly the most foreign, lost looking girls on the entire island, but with no one waving, no one holding up a sign or balloons, no one looking as lost or awkward as us. so we sat. and we waited. at least it was sunny and we were content. then arina gets a phone call from panos. not george/giorgos/your-goes who we had facebooked. he told her to take a taxi to the green room. ok. the taxi driver has no idea so panos gets on the phone with the taxi driver and we get dropped off for a hefty 10 euro at the grill room. still no one in sight, just a busy intersection with some cafes with men sitting outside and staring at us with our bags and tired peanut-eyes. eventually after a few phone calls and miss calls, panos shows up and he is actually popi's sister's boyfriend's friend's fourth-cousin. he is only 22 yet so mature and sweet and hospitable. he was so embarrassed about his cluttered sister's apt and said we were not allowed to go into the "forbidden room" and calling a sore throat a throat ache. he cooks us a huge heaping of spaghetti bolognese for our first lunch in greece and then takes us out on a sailboat with his friends.

it was a beautiful day on the sea and i think he fed us such a huge lunch so that arina and i could move from side to side on the boat depending on the waves and which way the sails were blowing. afterwards, he had to go study, so arina and i wandered around corfu town which was the sweetest little town, full of easter traditions, locals home for the holidays, tiny narrow streets winding up and down the hills with colorful houses and lots and lots of laundry hanging across, touristy stores selling bright orange kumquat liquor and florescent yellow limoncello bottles and sweets..it was fun to get lost. we sat under the purple lanterns (easter tradition) to drink greek coffee (don't mix with the sweet cherries) and metaxa (greek brandy) and local corfu beer. for dinner, panos and giorgos took us to a local greek restaurant and ordered for us then took us to some sketchy bar for lonely people...which really wasn't so bad!

 

we had delicious brown bread, fresh feta, honey, tahini, halvas and eggs for breakfast. we tried to rent scooters to explore the island, unsuccessfully without a permit. so, we wandered around corfu town again - happy not to have to travel - and saw the old fort, had a glass of wine, or two, and a cheese pie (above) in arina's favorite place called the venetian well. a drunk canadian came to talk to us for a while which was amusing to say the least. then had gyros and pita stuffed with french fries for dinner with some local greek liquor that panos' grandfather made. he and giorgos were hilarious and smart - making bad gay jokes to each other and talking about greek mothers and greek culture and education. oh, and the "don't laugh." they were so funny, but they kept telling us not to laugh. i think that they thought we were laughing at them and their english (which was perfect) rather than with them. it's a common greek saying, but i think it's lost in translation.

 

i really liked corfu town and was happy to walk around it, exploring with no plan, but it would have been nice to see the beaches. it wasn't quite the season, but i think i would like to go back in the future. the island was way bigger than i expected (apparently the south is filled with partying tourists) but the north part is supposed to be gorgeous.