Corfu - Day 4 10-06-24: We made a plan……now that’s a fact!

There’s only so much time you can spend lounging about on a sun-bed on the beach so today’s the day we’re going to do an activity. We hummed and hawed about what sort of activity we wanted to do and came up with a list…..a) did we want to hire a car and drive around the island? The answer was no, it was way too hot or b) did we want to hire a bicycle and cycle to the nature lagoon to see if there were any flamingos? The answer was no, it was far too dangerous on these roads, there was nowhere to hire a bicycle and the flamingo’s hadn’t arrived yet or c) shall we take the bus to Corfu Town and wander around the harbour/shops/old town. The answer was no, it was far too hot to be on a bus and go walking around the old town or d) should we walk up to the old town of Moriatika and find the restaurant we’re going to on Friday night then go and sit around the hotel pool in the afternoon. Yes, that’s definitely the best idea……so this is exactly what we planned to do on our non beach day.

The plan was to get up early, have breakfast at our usual time of 8am then go straight out to the bakery for our frappe and then walk up to the old town.  Apparently, according to everyone we’ve spoken to you have to walk up a very steep hill and it’ll take at least half an hour to walk up there. So, with the plan in place we made it to breakfast then went back to the room and that’s where the plan disintegrated as we got tied up with sorting out the blog and didn’t get to the bakery until 09.30am so we didn’t start walking up the hill to the village until 10.13am! You see, Brian’s wise words are ringing true. ‘There’s the plan’ (yes, we made a plan). ‘Then there’s the fact’ (the fact was that it didn’t go according to plan). ‘You have to accept that they are different’! (yes, we’ve accepted it because we’re M&A and we just go with the flow).

It took us ten minutes to walk up to the Village Taverna and what a lovely little traditional taverna it was too. It doesn’t open until 6pm in the evenings so there was no one around but now we’ve seen it we’re really looking forward to eating there. We wandered around the village which took all of ten minutes and came across another taverna, Tassos Village Grill. It was closed but as we poked our heads in to look at the menu Tassos poked his head out and said hello.  We said we were just looking at the menu but even though he was closed and doesn’t open until 6pm he invited us in for a drink.  This too was a lovely little taverna so we made a reservation for supper on Wednesday 12th.  That means we now have three things in our diaries…..we’re going to have to write these down otherwise we’re going to forget when and where we’re going and probably end up at the wrong one on the wrong day!

We walked round the village saying hello to the locals, explored the little narrow lanes and alleyways then walked back down to the main town and went on a mission to find Maice a face flannel. Despite looking in all the mini-markets and the local chemist we found nothing. De nada. Tipota. Zilch! The plan had failed!  The fact was there seemed to be no face flannels in Moriatika! Maybe on our next activity day on Thursday we’ll pop into the 3ks shopping centre…surely they’ll have them there!

So, on with the plan. We popped into the bakery to get something for lunch then popped into the mini-market at the bottom of our hill and purchased another six pack of water, wine and crisps and trudged up the hill back to the hotel. Before heading off to the pool we decided to have lunch on the balcony and play a few hands of Rummy.  The table was laid, the pastries were plated up, the wine was poured and then yuk…….I’d only gone and picked up a sweet bottle of village wine. You see, that’s what happens when you don’t put your glasses on! There was no way we could drink it so water it was…..probably the healthier option anyway!

After lunch we went to the pool, selected our sun-beds and sunbathed for a good 2.5 hours.  We were the only two there and it was like having our own private villa, it was lovely.  Continuing with the days plan we showered then tried to sort out the blogs.  Honestly, it wasn’t going well. Despite adding photos to the blog it just wouldn’t save them, we couldn’t group them like we used to, it was real tear-your-hair out exasperation stuff.  After almost three hours we managed to sort it and post it but it’s not quite the layout we wanted.  We’re definitely looking at changing our provider to one that’s simple, although they said Wix was supposed to be simple but for us that just isn’t the case! Unless it’s us……are we going wrong somewhere?

Just before getting ready to go out for supper we compared mosquito bites.  I’ve a few on the legs but nothing like Maice, poor soul who wins hands down in this area. She’s got eight down her right arm, numerous bites on other areas of the body and she was bitten on her cheek which made her face swell up and now it’s gone numb on one side.  Pesky mosquitos, can’t they go and pick on something their own size!

Today’s plan also involved having a cheap day and so far the plan in that respect was going well. For supper we went to ‘Enjoy’ for a vegetarian gyros which we really did enjoy. It was lovely and very tasty but unbeknownst to us the half kilo of wine we ordered was bordering on medium-sweet. Thankfully it was cold so we managed to drink it…..we didn’t want to waste more money on un-drinkable wine!!

We wandered down to the Coop to buy some dry village wine and some carrots for Χονδας the donkey. Χονδας is now the village mascot having been stolen by gypsies.  The villagers were outraged, the police were called and a search took place and they found him at the port ready to be taken who knew where and who knew what would happen to him. He now resides in a small field next to our hotel and if you go into any supermarket and ask for a carrot for Χονδας they will give you it for free.  Now isn’t that a heartwarming and good news story. We took him a carrot and he came bounding over braying all the way. What a sweetie.

We decided not to have ‘one for the road’ at the pool bar tonight as we’d already had a cocktail at Buddies bar on the main street.  Apparently they have an Ozzie Osbourne tribute night once a week for which Brian and Maureen advised us to make sure we’ve had a good few drinks beforehand to get through the singing….ha ha, fortunately we wasn’t singing tonight, obviously resting his voice!  Doubt we’ll be going to see him although we may go and see Elvis tomorrow night as he’s making his weekly appearance at a cocktail bar down at the beach.  Gosh, it’s all going on in Moriatika!

By the time we got back to our room we were tired……I think four days of intense 30 degree heat had started to take effect unless it was those two cocktails we had earlier.  Who can tell?

Before we sign off we must thank ‘Nicky A’ for telling us about the clove of garlic on the gate.

Apparently the garlic is a witches spell to ward off negative energies and to bring good luck and abundance. So now we know, and now you know. And on that note…..

Καληνύχτα…..

M&A xx