Corfiot peculiarities

Corfu is obviously an island and it seems that people on islands develop peculiar habits - just think about the English and the Irish ;-)

First of all, every fourth man on the island is called Spiros, so there is a Spiros in every family. By the way, the female version is Spiridula! This is all due to their local saint who is called St. Spyridon!
Born in Cyprus, St Spyridon was the son of a poor family who was eventually ordained as Bishop of Trimythous. He lived and died in Cyprus, performing miracles all his life. When the Saracens invaded the island, the Cypriots opened his grave in order to move his bones to Constantinople; they found his body was still intact, while a scent of basil emanated from the tomb. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Corfiot priest Georgios Kalohairetis took Spyridon's remains to Corfu, bequeathing them to his children.


Okay, this is not peculiar, every country has its saint - but they carry his coffin round the town four times a year in a huge procession. This is definitely a bit strange, isn't it?

But there is something else about the name Spiros. We were told that there is no word for "waiter" in Greek. So just shout "Spiros" when you want something and you can be sure that one of the guys will turn round, for there is a chance of 99% that one of them is really called Spiros!

Let me tell you about another peculiarity. In Germany local busses are hardly on time, but they will stop when you give them a signal. On Corfu they just pass without stopping when the bus driver thinks that the bus is already too full. Annoying, I can tell you - but fortunately there might be another bus in half an hour, so just hope that there are not too many tourists wanting to go to Kékira!

Driving on Corfu is an experience, I can tell you. If you need a place to park your car - just use your warning lights and leave your car at the road site! We hired a car which was already a bit damaged: one of the flashing lights was broken, quite a few scratches and donts.... And here it is, our "Schnüffelchen":



Right, this is a silly name, but we watched a documentary about a couple who went round the world in their car - in the 60s in a Goggomobil! We were fascinated and therefore our Renault Clio was baptized "Schnüffelchen".

Next time I am going to tell you a bit about the places we were able to visit with the help of Schnüffelchen. Be prepared for a few "Sissy" (Queen Elisabeth of Austria/Hungary)stories, "just stones", monasteries, mountains and fascinating views!