Greece - Ouzo, garlic, olives, more ouzo and loads more garlic !

After a 2.5 hour flight to London Gatwick we have to collect our luggage then recheck onto our next flight to Corfu, Greece. We are overnighting on the flights and we manage to sleep between Portugal and London then again on our flight to Greece we get a few good hours sleep. We arrive in Corfu at around 9am and when as we gret off the plane we can feel the warmth in the air again - ahhhhh brilliant sunshine. We have been so lucky and have not had a day on this trip without sun. Glen is a bit burnt though and has been peeling like an orange for the last few days teehee.

the airport is tiny and there is only one caousel for luggage. We go through customs into the main arrivals area and we see a Greek gentelman holding a sign with "Macpherson" on it. He is our rental car rep and he takes our luggage cart and leads us out to our rental car. We sign the paperwork and load up the "tiny" car - not a Fiat this time its a CHEVY !!! A tiny Chevrolet MAtiz - looks like a smart car almost and our luggage fills the back seat. OH SHIT !!!! We turn on our GPS and realize we do not have Greece programmed into it - we cant use GPS - we have a paper road map of the island thank goodness but the road network looks like spaghetti - roads everywhere. Jeesh. Its about 30km through the mountains to our resort but to be safe we decide it would be easier to take the coast road so we dont get lost.

We figure if we keep the oceanin view on our right then we eventually will have to arrive in Sidari on the north end of the island. We drive out of the aiport into Corfu TOwn. A huge Greek City and the buildings look ancient - way older than what we have seen elsewhere. We see a massive castle out in the bay protecting the town years ago. There are tourist buses everywhere as people visit the castle and the old town. We carry on driving as we will plan a day to explore the city later in the week. WE have to stop to get gas and pull over at a gas station where we fill up and have to pay $2.50 a litre - bloody hell !! The traffic goes really fast here and evryone honks at each other for going slow or to tell someone to pull over to let them pass. It is quite annoying as we are driving "tourist" speed so we can look at the sights and we are constantly being honked at for going too slow grrrrr. Oh well no problem they can just honk away.

WE follow the coast road as planned - the ocean is sooo clear and blue. The roacks and cliffs against the ocean are pure white and the mountains behind are green and forested. COrfu is very pretty. We drive through dozens of small villages where every village no matter how small has a church. SOme of the tiny villages that have only 3 or 4 houses even have a tiny chapel that would only fit one person inside and everything is decorated so nice. After we reach the north coast of the island we pull into a town called KAssiopi for a break and an explore. We park and walk down the main street towards the harbour. There are many tourist shops and bars and we go into a baker shop - wowwww - they sure know how to bake here and it smells amazing. Glen sees a fresh spinach and feta pie come out of the oven and he buys a slice to try. We walk down the street and we DEVOUR the slice of pie - it is soooo tasty mmmm. At the pretty little harbour we find a little restaurant and sit at a table overlooking the ocean. We are served imediatly and we order "local beer". LEts see what the greek beer is like we think. The beer comes in frosty mus and is ice cold - yummy it tastes great and its only $1.30 for a big pint glass - we will be fine here teeheehee. We order a plate of tzatziki with some garlic bread to dip. When that arrives we can smell the garlic immediatly. We dip a peice of bread each and have a bite - oh my god the garlic is insane - it is so strong it burns the tongue - AWESOME !!!! We head back to the car and continue our drive along the coast and after another 30 minutes we arrive in Sidari. We have to try and now locate the KAtsaros Apartments where we are staying. Sidari is a large sprawling tourist village which caters 95% to the brits. There are dozens and dozens of bars lining the main street here and most of them advertise draft british beers and things like steak and kidney pie or fish and chips - come on people why go on holiday to eat and drink the stuff you have at home - definitely not our cup of tea. Anyway we soon get completely lost so we have to stop at a bar to ask directions. GLen says it is rude to just ask the way and not have a drink so we orer another Greek beer lol. The bar owner gives us directions to find our hotel.

10 minutes of winding through the streets later and passing another hundred bars we find KAtsaros. Our place is on the edge of town at the bottom of a pretty palm tree filled hillside. We go in and see we have a beautiful swimming pool and a nice pool bar. We go to our roo which is excellent - spotlessly clean and we have a huge kitchen, a dining room, 2 bedrooms a massive bathroom and a veranda through french doors which overlook the town - this place is awesome and our suite is huge. We quickly unpack then we head downstairs to talk to the owner. He is called FOtis and he gives us lots of information on where to visit on the island. He marks things down on our map and he also recommends some traditional greek tavernas in nearby villages for us to try (they dont serve steak and kidney pie !teeheehee). We jump in the car and head out for dinner to the Sunrise taverna which he recommends.

IT is a short 10 minute drive and we find it sat on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Its a very traditional building which is decorated with Greek antiques. We sit at a table with a great view and we order some Greek dishes. The food is awesome and tastes very fresh and herby and everything is laced with garlic of course. The restaurant grows its own grapes on the hillside below and when we ask for a wine list the owner tells us "no list - I make wine". Oh oh - we order a jusg of homemade red wine. She brings the jug and pours us a glass each - we toast and take a sip - wow surprisingly its very good wine and it washes down the meal very nicely. We go inside to pay the bill and the owners mother is sat there - an old greek lady dressed in black, no teeth, and she is smiling when we say hello to her.

The owner asks if we will have an after dinner drink on the house (this is a very greek tradition and is the owners way to say thank you for your business) we say ok and she pours us a shot galss each filled with a clear alcohol (homemade of course) made from the grape vines. We take a sip and again it is very nice - it tastes like sambuca and has that licourice taste behind it. "Yamas" we  say ("cheers") we are learning the esentials of the greek language teeheee! We head outside and on the way back to Sidari we see the sunset over the ocean - lovely views here. Back at the hotel the owner, FOtis, insists we have a night cap on him. OK we relucatantly (yeah right) have a drink with him. Then its off to bed in our huge suite. TOmorrow we can start exploring the island. YAMAS.