Albania... Albania... You Border on the Adriatic.

Friday, May 31, 2013
Corfu Town, Ionian Islands, Greece
I went back and forth a bit on the title of this entry but in the end, Cheers! won out over the Tina Fey-as-Sarah Palin-influenced  "I can see Albania from my boat."

May 31
Sivota to Corfu Town
 
Much like Lost Animal Farm Island we decided pretty quickly that there would be no second night in Sivota. At noon we untied from the quay and began the 20 mile journey to Corfu.  



About an hour into the trip Erika brought out some biscuits. I know, you're wondering why I felt the need to mention something as mundane as biscuits, right? Well, these are the biscuits. Um, what?


 

 












With Albania visible in the distance, much to Erika's dismay, I introduced Francis to the Albania song from Cheers! The next few hours (well, few days actually) would feature randomly interspersed singing about the country's mountainous landscape and chief export (Coach tells us it's chrome). And hence was born the Alpha fine system: sing the song - owe an Alpha. Uh-oh.

 

 












 















The giant Palaio Frourio, the Old Fortress, signaled our approach to Corfu Town. Rather than tie up on the quay at the north side of the fortress we anchored in a bay to the south - and joined two more boats that had wintered in Sicily.
 
After a quick swim in the crystal clear water we all got together on the Danish boat to catch up how everyone had fared during the crossing from Italy. Turns out much of the group that spent winter at the Sicilian marina is now in Greece and will likely be meeting up at various spots through the islands before settling down this winter at a marina in Turkey. 
 
We said our goodbyes around 10:00 PM and as we were rowing back towards our boat heard a band playing somewhere in the direction of the park near the Old Fortress. The fact that they were playing Toto (really?) should have discouraged us, right? Well, unfortunately it only intrigued us more. 
 
And this, sadly... comically... unceremoniously... is where my four-year streak of not falling off a dinghy ended.
 
With Dodger already in the boat waiting, Francis up near the bow and Erika below deck, I decided to get in the dinghy and wait. 

One epic misstep later, disoriented and flailing around in the dark cold sea, it appears I chose very poorly. 

What couldn't have been more than five seconds felt like.... well, a lot more than five seconds until I got my bearings - and my head above the surface - somehow without losing my glasses.  

The only witness to the fiasco? Dodger. And sadly there's not a bit of Lassie in the pooch. No barking to signal trouble. No jumping out of the dinghy to dog-paddle rescue me. Nothing. Although, I'm going to assume the excessive tail-wagging was in celebration of my safe escape and not because he thought he was going for a walk. There was a bright side, though. No bad cover band in the park for us. 

June 1
Corfu Town

If we thought we had experienced tourist overload in Sivota and Gaios, we were in for a rude awakening upon the arrival of two cruise ships in Corfu Town.
 
The narrow cobblestone streets were basically an extension of the giant boats. Streams of passengers packed the Old Town and shop-keepers were at it full-throttle trying to lure people into buying any and everything from the standard "I Love Corfu" t-shirts to "traditional" Corfu rubber chickens. But the big attraction was kumquats. Candied kumquats. Jellied kumquats. Kumquat liqueur in bottles of all shapes and sizes. 

There were escapes from the crowds, though. 
 
The grounds of the Palace of St. Michael and St. George, which I inexplicably first read as the Palace of George Michael, were nearly deserted and provided views of the Old Fort, sea and yes... across the sea, Albania. Which of course resulted in more singing. 
 
The Palace was at the north end of the Spianada, a gorgeous park and square that includes a cricket green and sits between the Old Fort and Liston arcade. 

Then there was the not so well guarded Naval Base. 
 

 
The siesta came at a perfect time and we ventured to the outskirts of town. Between the airport and the bay we found the Kerkyra National Football Stadium, which despite this sign doesn't seem to have hosted any matches during the Athens Olympics. 



 












 









 





The park across from the anchorage is home to a make-shift Petanque set-up where dozens of men gather daily for hours of matches. The game, pronounced "pay-tonk" is sort of a French version of bocce with a little bit of horseshoes mixed in. The rather unique seating area is made up of pretty much whatever chairs could be dragged through the grass. The one with wheels was clearly the way to go. And I wouldn't call the games friendly, exactly. In fact, things get pretty heated - as we saw when a screaming match broke out. After a solid few minutes of yelling, two of the men huffed off in protest while the others taunted them until they were out of sight.


 
Earlier, we had seen a sign for some sort of festival at the park near the Old Fort so after dinner, figuring that's where the music was coming from the night before, we checked it out. There was a table with a woman selling books, some carts with grilled corn (Hey! It's a NYC street fair!), a guy sitting at a table with a single interrogation-style light bulb hanging over his head selling cans of not very good (of course we tried it) beer for a Euro and even worse music than the night before. Looking back... it might have been better if I fell off the dinghy again. The highlight of the night was two little kids playing a crazy-competitive game of chess on the big board...
successful moves followed by trash-talk and dancing.


 





























 



And with some good timing for once, we made it back to the boat just minutes before a torrential downpour that lasted through the night.


 

 

 

 

Comments

Trae-Glo
2013-06-04

I totally remember that episode of Cheers. Well done... too funny.

Froman, keep rockin' this trip... that's for keeping us in the loop.

Tracy

Jenn
2013-06-05

Eventually you are just going to buy your own boat and sail away I am starting think :) Sounds like a great trip!

fro-trip
2013-06-05

It's the first thing that pops into my head anytime I hear anything about Albania. I hope Coach was right about the chrome!

2025-02-08

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