Corfu, Greece

Somehow, without our biggest crew members, we’ve made it to the top of Greece! (Well, there is actually one more island to "swing by" on the way to Italy)

Corfu is a very cool island and is hugely influenced by Venetian architecture and parks, narrow streets, and more cafes than you can throw a Gyro at. It actually belonged to Italy up until 60 years ago or so, so it’s a bit surprising Italy wanted to give up this gorgeous little nugget. It is the most visited Greek island, and with the maze of streets and shops and very unique flavor, it’s easy to see why. The beauty of living on a sailboat is we can take the dinghy (our car) into town, hang out and experience the island, the excitement of downtown, hike a castle, or whatever, then retreat to the boat anchored out in the harbor and sit in the cockpit and see it from a very quiet distance.  In some ways it’s the best of both worlds, that is unless there are heaps of ferries making wakes. Although room service once in  while would be pretty welcome.

It’s pretty obvious how strategic this island is because there are two ancient forts protecting it and the canal between Greece and Albania. One very old and one “new” (only 600 years old) I’m sure that fact that is such a link between continents and the Mediterranean sea, explains why it has been so fought over and under Venetian rule, French rule, British rule, and more recently Italian and now Greek.

That’s one thing that’s been strange about seeing so much history over the past few years, is how quickly countries and regions seem to change. I mean, even during my lifetime, communist Russia and East Germany; actually all of Eastern Europe goes through a massive transformation during the fall of communism. And more recently Yugoslavia being dismantled and replaced by 4 other countries. Now we're watching the middle east undergo a massive transformation. We think everything stays the same, but actually the only that seems constant IS change. Wow, enough philosophizing! Must be too much ancient Greek philosophers rubbing off!

Anyway, photos are tough because of the size to upload, but we’re working on it!

Love you all!

~Hems