Trip to Greece 18.8. to 22.9. 2003 - Corfu

: no camera on this trip

To be honest I was yellow before starting this journey. My parents had told me
that in Greece packs of feral dogs are running free trying to kill and eat lonesome
travellers. Besides that horror-story I was simply afraid that something would go
wrong, I could get robbed or put to jail for no reason by a crooked cop...

Well, none of that became true. "When it's on it's on" that's what 2Pac raps in "Hold On Be Strong" and I think it's true. Once you start a trip you swim in a stream of events (or you surf it, if you are a cool guy ;) that lasts until you are home again, like it or not.

Now this trip is 3 years ago, but still I feel like writing down some of the impressions I had. All in all it was a wonderful thing and I'm happy I did it.

Tue. 19. 8. 2003, 1st day
I started the trip yesterday quarter to twelve in Graz. In the train I had met Bernhard and Bernhard, two students who were going to Spain and Portugal, it was nice to talk to them. It's strange, but back in 2003 I didn't try much to get in contact with other people. If I would go on a trip now I probably tried to find temporary travel-pals to go some of the way together.

At 9 o'clock I was in Venice - finding the ferry was rather easy: Just walk out of the train station and turn left, use to first bridge to cross the Canale Grande and walk to the Piazzale Roma. From there cross the Canale S. Chiara to get to the Statzione Marittima, were the big ferry boats leave. I was going with Minoan Lines which is nowadays about 70 Euros one way and takes about a day, I started at 15:00 and arrived at Corfu at 14:30 next day.

I had actually booked to cheapest ticket for the ferry, which meant a place on deck. The whole ship was vibrating hard, I was surprised that the engine technology was still so primitive!!! Beeing on deck was damn hot even in the shadow. When I went to the shower I had to walk through an air-conditioned room which contained "ABC"-seats. Well, half of them were emtpy and no one complained about my little "upgrade" to the airconditioned place.

In the evening I was talking to a man from Bulgaria, I forgot his name. The way he spoke, what he was talking about, his style and the overall impression really made me think that he was a small-time criminal.

Wed. 20.8.2003, 2nd day

Yeah, I was on the island of Corfu, the place to train my motorcycle-riding skills, it's been such a long time since I made that damn license! Well, I borrowed a 80cm Suzuki, a bloody old piece, but it was one of the few that had a manual gear shift. Raiding the motorcycle was fun! I started from Kerkyra (Corfu City) and went to the north on the coast road.. But I had a price to pay for taking that old piece of junk of a bike, the bloody chain kept jumping of the toothed wheel. So I rode more careful, I didn't feel like having an accident caused by a jamming chain. I rode on feeling happy until suddenly the bike started to stutter, sometimes it jumped a bit. After some time I couldn't start it any more. Shit! These motorcycle-renter gave me shit! So I had to push the damn thing to the next village, which was Roda, already in the north of the island, Corfu is small.

It was getting dark and I was angry. I called the renter and told him that the bike was broken and that he should come here to get it and also get me or give me a new one! He refused. I didn't really know what to do. It was already dark. There was also a motorcycle-rent in Roda, thay were just about to close for that day. I talked to this one pudgy guy about my problem. I had a look at the bike. Then he looked at me with a grin. "It's empty!" he said. And then he came closer "You know, it's the same with car, scooter, boat.. no gas no go!!!" Shitshit! It was just empty.. And I just was really angry on the phone with this renter in Corfu-City...damn. The other problem was that the gas-station was already closed, I was stranded. But the round one was nice. He took some gasoline out of one of his bikes and put it in mine for some bugs, so I was mobile again. I rode to the next campsite which was a quiet place and the owner was a really nice elderly guy who gave me a good price, it was already late season.

: ferry in Venice

21.8.2003, 3rd day
Well, the chain of the motorcycle jumped off 12(!) times and also the clutch was breaking down, it didn't detach the engine from the gearbox any more, meaning that the bike would really stop when it should...

But all that didn't keep me from riding on the highest "Mountain" of the island, the 914m (~3000ft) high Pantokrator. There is an orthdox monastery at the top, which dates back to the year 1689. Inside many icons are kept, richly decorated with silver. Religious people come there to kiss the metal. On the one hand that seemed to be bizzare to me, on the other hand unhygienic ;) but I liked the old church. A lot of wood, full of icons and an aura of many years of worshiping and praying. There is an awesome view from the summit of the Pantokrator, you can see the whole island as well as the mainland of Albania. Later I brought back the motorcycle, it was about to completely break down.

22.8.2003, 4th day
This day was grrreat!!! I rode to a little mountain village called Pelekas. It was so nice that I decided to stay there for one night. The room was �20 - quite a lot for my small budget. But I was so lucky! On that special day there was a orthodox procession in compliment to Martyr Agathonikos & Companions as well as Martyr Anthuse!!! I tried to act like a local and took part in it. It started right in front of the guesthouse I was staying in. The procession started with young boys holding emblems and candles. Next were man with huge flags and between them little girls. Woman in traditional clothes. They had red or black embroidered jackets, all of them wearing black shoes with heels. Each of them was wearing an aigrette made out of flowers, with a embroidered, white, long, partly transparent cloth over their shoulders and back. There was a music-band, a male choir, another music-band, a 1,5m high cross, symbols made out of metal worn on wooden sticks...

But the most important thing was a sedan decorated with flowers. It was carried by four young man and held an holy icon. They carried four white columns next to it. Each column had a metal crown which held a ribbon. On top of was a candle. The procession was going from the village church up to a viewpoint located nearby. I was already dark, but I had visited that viewpoint earlier that day, it was called "Kaiser's throne", because Kaiser Wilhelm II liked that spot. The road had many serpentaines, therefore it was possible to see what was going on in front and behind in the procession. There was a young man going backwards in front of the sedan. He was burning incense and he was using *a lot* of it. The fumes smelt good and also they had a lulling effect on me... (what was in that lamp that boy was swinging ?!?) Every five minutes the four man carrying the sedan stopped for 30 seconds to lift it. Somehow all that made taking part in the procession a bemusing thing.

They were playing and singing. At the top of the hill the women had to stand offside :( and the monks were singing a doxology, praying and talking.
Later all the items were brought back to the church with constant ringing of a bell. After that it all transformed to a village f�te with fire-eater and beautiful dancing girls. And: I had been in the sea for the first time!! Near the monastery of "The Blessed Virgin at Paleokastritsa" This abbey was kinda strict, everybody had to wear cloth given by the monks to avoid exposing too much skin. Like on the Pantokrator there were a lot of icons in the church, decorated with silver, bracelets and even a watch was attached to it. I thought that was childish. There was a special icon that was referring to a wonder: there had been an explosion that killed a nurse... but the baby survived!! I thought that wonder was half-hearted.

23.8.2003, 5th day
Today I rode *ai lot*, my back already started to hurt! I went to the south of the island. I saw the ruin of the Byzantine castle Gardiki from the 13th century and rode through the wonderful smelling flowers nurseries of the south. Finally I came to a sand-beach near the Korission-lake. There was hardly anybody on the beach, just miles of sand. I went into the sea and observed the local ants ;) huge monsters that ran damn fast. I found out that my gas cooker was able to boil rice. Later I went to Corfu-city, the biggest town of the island (population ~38.000)
One street had almost exclusively jewellery shops. I was somehow puzzled: Jewellery shop next to jewellery shop next to jewellery shop. I imagined how this street would look like in high season and all the people that would buy all the jewellery. But hey, on the other hand: If I would have had a beautiful girlfriend with me I would have also felt like buying one of those lovely silver bracelets for her.
Yip, I felt like I trained enough with this old, small engine motorcycle and that it was time to leave Corfu to go to the Peloponnes.

When I gave back the bike next morning, they charged me 15 Euros more as agreed upon (or as I understood it). Grrrr, I was angry! What a bloody bike rent, letting broken bikes for rip-off prices! It's a pity that I don't remember the name of the bike-rent, otherwise I could warn you! Nevertheless it was a bike rent near the harbour. But I learned my lesson.

: view from the Pantokrator,

: Pantokrator Monastery

: Pelekas

: Kaiser's throne

: Kaiser's throne

: beach

: Corfu

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