General Chat

Met up with my disabled friend this evening, with one of her lovely daughters - we went to an evening with two mediums at the local Spiritualist church as we are both interested in hearing mediums.
One was The Laughing Postmen Geoff Phillips from London - he was a real character, and delivered his very good readings with great humour. The other was Grace Gray from Canvey Island and she was good too.
So something good about the holiday apart from the change of scenery, warmth, and interesting places to see etc was that I have made a new friend, one who I hope will be in my life for some time to come. Despite her ill health she is a lovely person and so is her partner and daughter, and we had a real laugh tonight.

Funnily enough I was in touch with someone before I went away who might buy a mirror from me, and when I mailed her to say I was back from Corfu, she told me her sister lives there in Kassiopi, lucky woman. That was one of the nicer places we went altho I am sure there are more, we didn't do many trips.

Lizx

Liz
Oh dear... cant get any worse than that surley ...what a horrible thing to do to a passenger.
I hope she gets something in the way of compensation ...!!

Deffo put me off Corfu....big time ..!!

Marilyn x

So sorry your trip was spoit by the travel arrangements.It was nothing like that when I went in the 80's,but then again it wasn't as popular as it is now.
It's a shame when they get so commercial but haven't the facilities to cope.
hope Kefalonia is better next year.We went to Crete about 6 years ago and I found it far too busy for my liking,but we did go on a lot of trips to Knossos etc and saw some of it's history.

Brenda x

Marilyn, our friend who is disabled was very badly treated at the airport, despite her husband telling the rep several times she couldn't continue to stand in the queue (she has chronic arthritis and uses a crutch) the rep just kept saying Oh it won't be much longer, and when she finally got into the airport she collapsed. A different rep told her she should have come straight in regardless of instructions and asked to be given priority treatment, but she told them she had already paid for that and told the rep outside to no avail. Of course, there were lots of apologies altho the original rep tried to lie and say no one had spoken to her, T. had gone to her three times for assistance and she kept fobbing him off. L. was quite poorly and stressed and it spoiled the end of their trip too. They are in the process of complaining.

When I spoke to our travel agent she said it was common knowledge in the business that Corfu and other airports don't keep their scales accurately balanced so are often already registering a couple of kilos over before the luggage gets weighed, what a con that is!

Lizx

Oh what a carry on at the airport LIz !!

Its enough to put you off that airport.......written that on in my diary ..don't ever fly to Corfu ..LOL

Its looks like its got much busier than when I was there many years ago.


Try Cyprus next time Liz....I go every January.less hassle..

Marilyn x

Strugggled to get up that last morning, showered and dressed and put last things in my case, ate a little breakfast and had a cuppa and took some hardboiled eggs and bananas with us and bottles of water, and off we went with our cases to the top of the cement roadway to wait for the coach. It was so sad to say goodbye to Elena, and her husband and father, and her daughter aged 5 called to ask me to read her a story, I wished I could have rather than leave!
We travelled to the airport in bright sunshine, taking in all the last views of the island and after a couple of hours, picking up others going home from their various locations, we arrived at the airport. To our horror, we weren't allowed in but sent to an area across the road from the building, with our luggage, and had to queue in a snake-like line under metal supports with canvas covering, some of it torn away, and just a few seats in the middle of the area. There was a snack bar to one side, very lucrative I expect but we were glad we had our snacks and drinks with us. It seems Corfu airport is too small to allow everyone in at once so just twenty folk were led across every so often and that didn't start happening for half an hour, we stood there in all around an hour, in bright sunshine, with no suncream on as we hadn't been told we would be outside at all. What utter chaos, I and others were suffering from having to stand so long, there were young people sitting on the seats who had no intention of giving them up and even had their luggage on the seat next to them,selfish behaviour. As we moved along the queue our luggage was collecting damp sand from the ground as it had rained in the night so there were puddles in places and it was all just sand and some grass. We finally got to check in and lo and behold, our cases were over the weight limit still even tho we had used things we had taken and left stuff like shampoo etc behind for the cleaner. We had bought nothing more than about 1 kilo worth of souveniers so were very annoyed to have to pay the charge for being over the weight limit and then were overcharged which is something I am in the process of be taking up with Thos Cook, it was supposed to be £10 a kilo and I was charged £12 a kilo but as I paid in euros I didn't realise till I saw my bank account. I wanted to pay by card but their machine was out of action so I had to draw out cash getting a further charge, and then pay at the office there. By this time we didn't have much longer till we boarded so o.h. went to get a pint !!!!!! while I used the ladies loo, and then we got on the plane. It was not a pleasant way to spend our last hour or so in Corfu and considering the amount of flights to the island, they should sort out the airport soon. It certainly put us off going again, as did the mossies and wasps, but I don't think it has put o.h. off altogether so was a good move persuading him to try flying again. Now I have to persuade him to renew his passport by next March or he won't be able to use it, it runs out in August next year and you have to have six months left on it to be able to travel.

It was lovely to visit another Greek Island and the people were so friendly but I wasn't that impressed with the island itself, Kefalonia had better beaches and cleaner water and maybe that will be our destination next year.

Lizxx

Marilyn, glad your son was ok, and it's funny how you remember dodgy things from way back lol There are few pavements on country roads in Corfu and those in built up areas are treacherous, as in many countries in Europe etc. As always o.h. was horrified to see electricity cables from lights etc just taped together and open to the elements - no health and safety in those places - I don't know how they get away with it. Many countries that belong to the European Union don't stick to the rules, to my way of thinking if they are going to make rules about straight bananas (now changed thank goodness) they should be making sure rules on safety issues are adhered to.
Lots of bodged up things all over the island, thank heavens for travel insurance lol

Lizx

Hi Liz .

Although you had a good holiday...........with many known ups & downs in your story....................Think I'll stick to the USA .....LOL


I went to Corfu many years ago, and I remember my son had to jump in a ditch to avoid a coach.......he was 10yrs old and was ahead of us.we had to pull him out from the ditch......he's 40yrs now and still remembers that coach !!

I am so glad we didn't have to go through all that palaver!

On our last day, Sunday, we did most of our packing and then went out to walk along the beach and take some final photographs. We had to take shelter as the rain came down so we went into one of our favourite restaurants, and ate pizza while chatting with the newly wed wife of the owner, and looked at her album of wedding proofs. I think she said there were 600 photos and she had to narrow them down to a more affordable amount! Bless her.
We then went along to a smaller area of beach, just little areas of sand and shrubbery and grasses away from the loungers and bars and took more photos and watched people go by, paddled in the sea and were generally lazy until 6pm when we went back to the apartment to get ready for the evening outing to the village and tavernas. We ended up at yet another favourite restaurant eating Kleftiko and after a final walk round we ended up at a bar with a Freddie Mercury lookalike performing, he was quite entertaining and we spent half an hour there keeping another guest from our complex company, before we went back to the cpmplex bar for a nightcap or two and our final chat with Kostas the barman. I really could have done with going to bed when we got back but somehow we ended up chatting with Kostas and the chap we had seen earlier watching F. Mercury and then it was time for bed knowing I had to be up and out of the apartment by 9.45am!
The holiday was almost over!

Lizx

After the day out in Kassiopi we had a couple of hot days where we were lazy, I lounged on the balcony reading and dressed in very little to up my Vit d levels and o.h. was up by the pool before we did our wander into the village later on for dinner and a drink or natter with people we had got to know there. We met a lovely couple from Devon, they had no children but had run a building firm until the chap Graham had a stroke. He had made a very good recovery and Wendy his wife said they were now determined to enjoy life as much as possible so were off on a cruise a few weeks after their time in Corfu and had also booked other trips away. I admired them for their determination. Wendy got talking to me at a restaurant and we would bump into them most nights either at a restaurant or bar, after their meal. Graham was a real gentleman with a dry sense of humour, his speech was a little affected by the stroke but not enough to matter and they were typical of the friendly people we met up with.

We decided not to visit Corfu town, we hadn't decided when to go - I preferred the day time so we could look at the architecture but o.h. said he wasn't bothered whether we went or not, so in the end we didn't book a trip.

We just made the most of the last few days which became more overcast and a little rain altho nothing as bad as the storms of the previous week. I found something on a site the other night about the problems with a flight from Norwich to Corfu and the reason o.h.'s sister's flight was so late arriving to take her and her hubby home.

This is what was said:
We were picked up from our accommodation in Paleo. at 02.40am on Sat. 3rd Oct. Storm had been very intense for hours. Gatwick Mon5983 due out of Corfu at 6am was delayed, it had landed in Brindisi Italy for a refuel, after several hours delay we boarded the plane, only to be then told that the crew were running out of flying hours and we would land at Geneva to change crews. We were in a transit lounge (not the main airport) for over 3 hrs. new crew arrived and we took off and arrived in Gatwick approx. 4pm, we were originally due to arrive at 7am!! Never mind everyone was safe, and surely that is the most important thing. And we had a brilliant holiday.
and a second post said:


hi
We departed from Norwich two hours delayed,at 18.00 on fri 2nd Oct, the flight was fine until about half an hour from landing at Corfu,The light show from the storm from where I was sat was quite somthing. 17 minutes from landing we were told by the pilot that the storm was too bad to land & we would have to circle for a while until the storm moved on, 45 minutes later the pilot informed us that he had taken the decision th turn back & land at Brindesi airport at 11.30, we landed & sat on the tarmac for three & a half hours untill the captain informed us thet the crew were now out of flying time, we were offloaded with our luggage & moved out in relays on two coaches to a hotel somwhere in the country, forty minutes later it was raining & blowing a hooly, we all had to queue up in the rain outside as there wasnt enough room in the reception for all of us, it got to the last twenty people & we were told there were no more rooms now cold wet & very tired we were told by the manager we were being moved to another hotel in the managers car we drove another half hour to a tiny horrid little hotel. we were allocated a room at 6am sunday morning the window was stuck open freezing cold & the bed damp we asked what time breakfast was ....to be told 7am ....we tried to sleep for a couple of hours the joined fellow travellers downstairs for a cake & coffee breakfast ewwww.THe manager from the first hotel picked us up at 11.30 & took us back to the first hotel where we sat outside on a terrace till 13.00 we were then invited to a very nice dining room & given a lovely hot lunch with plenty of wine, this made everyone feel much better, at this stage we were given a letter saying that we were being picked up later that evening & taken to the airport for our flight.
We were picked up at 5.30 by caoch & taken back to Brindesi airport checked in & told our flight was at 20.00 we eventually took off at 21.00 to be told by the captain that there were 39 passengers on the flight that has missed their cruise ship in Corfu.....& we were flying to Crete for them to meet their boat....we landed on Crete at about 23.30 & the 39 passenegers were offloaded with their luggage, we refuelled & took off for Corfu & landed an hour later safe & well but very very tired.
The hire car man was waiting for us but we had taken the decision that we couldnt drive to Avlaki so we requested the car be delivered the following day.We took a taxi to Avlaki & finally arrived at the apartment at 3.30 Sunday morning we fell into bed & slept till about 8.30 my husband pulled back the shutters & we knew why we had come to Avlaki the view was stunning!!! ....OUR Holiday began yayy!!!

Amanda, sounds like the road we walked on lol Most people were considerate and swerved out a bit but the coaches were the worst, one chap who stayed at the same apartments did have to jump out the way one evening and ended up in a ditch. Luckily only his pride was hurt. It amazed me the way people went out all in black tho so they were almost invisible when the sun went down.

Have enjoyed reading your holiday diary ,takes me back to when we walked along the unlit road in Corfu ,we were watching the fire flies ,little flashes of light in the dark ,we used to take a little torch and flash it about when we heard traffic coming ,it was the mopeds that you had to watch out for ,you could hear them coming but they had small lights and they had a job seeing you !! some had no lights at all!!

I remember having to hold the torch when hubby wanted a wee on the way home ,he was in full flow when we heard a moped coming ,didn't know whether to flash to let them know we were there or hold it so hubby could see what he was doing lol

We got friendly with one of the waiters in a restaurant ,he was a waiter in the evenings and worked on a building site during the day ,one day we saw him on his bike ,he was going to work on the site wearing Flip Flops !!

Marilyn, now I really am the bag lady lol Used to get some odd looks from those people plodding along on the wrong side of the road! (I only did it in the dark!)

I am feeling a bit better and my eye is ok now. Funny how you take your bits for granted till they hurt and then you are so conscious of sight, or feeling.

More later on the last days of the holiday, it feels an age away already tho sadly

Lizx

HI Liz ,

I'm still following your holiday .....clever thing about the carrier bag !!

How are you feeling?

Marilyn x

On the Monday we had a very lazy day, I lounged around on the balcony most of the time, reading my book and writing postcards, o.h. was up by the pool/bar and we went out to the village for dinner as usual.
The next day we went to Kassiopi on the coach, it was a beautiful place and I met some nice people on the same trip who came from Wales. O.h. and I clambered up a difficult pathway to a ruin of a Byzantine fortress. It was a very hot day but the views were worth the climb. You can see up to Mount Pantokrator and over the bay, which is full of boats as it is still a working fishing village. There is a church in Kassiopi which stands on what is said to be the site of a temple of Zeus, it was built in 1590 and apparently has a picture inside of a boy who was blinded as punishment for stealing wheat with two friends. He took refuge in the church and realised his sight had been restored after he noticed a candle go out. Unfortunately it wasn't open so we couldn't go in and look.
There is a lovely shop in Kassiopi run by Agathi, a very busy lady who makes lace, crochets and embroiders, her daughter in law weaves rugs and her son makes olive wood items, they work on them all winter to sell next summer but she told me that this year things have been so bad she still has lots of stock left over which is usually unheard of. When I went in on the way down to the harbour she was crocheting a little baby's jacket, when I went in again on the way back, to buy a couple of things, she showed me that she had finished it. She spoke good English and told me she had gone to boarding school on another island or the mainland of Greece, I can't recall which, to learn all the handicrafts and has made her living at it ever since. I got a little crocheted angel for the Christmas tree and a couple of little lace mats, to help her out and to remind me of the lacemakers who used to be in my family in the 1800s.
One of the restaurants near the harbour used to be the German's ammunition store during World War 2.
From much of the coast from where we stayed round to Kassiopi and further, you can see the coast of Albania in the distance - there is so much to see whereever you are and I love the mountains - coming from flat Norfolk it was so different.
We had something to eat and then wandered up the hill around to the beaches proper, altho there was lots of seating areas round the harbour we wanted to see what the rest of Kassiopi was like. There were little bays but mainly rocky, we were able to go to these bays and o.h. swam for a little while as I waded out to see the fish. Had we had more time we would have walked further and gone to the bigger bays and beaches but it was soon time to go back to the coach where we made sure we got on the right one, it was the same driver we had inconvenienced the trip before lol but he was ok with us.
Back to the apartment for a rest and then walked to the village for dinner.
Have I mentioned that after the first few days the walk through the field to the village was blocked off? No one really knew why but some said the little bit of rain we had had made the path muddy, I couldn't see that but we had to walk down the road from then on, and with no pavement and several bends it was a bit scary as there were ditches and hedges each side so we couldn't jump clear easily if the traffic was a bit close. Several people we saw coming in the opposite direction obviously didn't know their country code and were walking along, lots dressed all in dark clothing, so that the traffic would come up behind them. We made sure we walked on the opposite side of the road to the traffic so we would be shown up and see their headlights but I took to carrying a large white plastic carrier bag which I would hold so it flapped about and could catch the lights from the traffic and reflect showing we were there. I folded it up at the end of the road ready for the next time, coming back was always harder as it was uphill and I was usually full with dinner and wine lol but luckily we had no mishaps!

LIzx

Oh Huia, sorry if I breathed too hard on the computer! Hope you feel better soon. I now have a stye on my eyelid, haven't had one for years and years, can't remember the last time but my eye has been sore for a couple of days, I should have put a hot compress on the area sooner as now it has come to a head. Am bathing it with hot compresses now and will call at the chemist later for some golden eye ointment or whatever they recommend these days. Must show I am a bit low so the infection set in, it is a natural bacteria we have on our skins and not usually a problem unless it gets into a hair (eyelash) follicle apparently.

We did both notice that the Greeks don't have lots of vegetables with their meals, had to ask for them sometimes - sure bet we didn't get our five a day while there so maybe that hasn't helped and I need to eat lots of fruit and veg now, which I have been trying to do since I got back.

Catch you all later, glad you are enjoying the 'holiday' Marilyn,


Lizxx

Marilyn, what Liz has is catching, or else she has managed to give to me. I just want to lie on the settee all day sleeping.

Huia. (Off to bed soon anyway).

Very interesting Liz,
I feel that I have been on your holiday !

Hope you are feeling a little bit better.


Marilyn x

Our first Sunday in Corfu was spent visiting Paleokastristsa, which is the island's celebrated beauty spot on the west coast. It comprises six bays and can be seen well from a place called Bella Vista, but of course that vantage point is commercialised by a cafe and shops etc - the coach takes you there at the end of the trip the bays. We visited the monastry which was pretty and interesting but there wasn't much time to see it all, dread to think what it is like during the height of the tourist season as it was pretty hectic and busy while we went. There were lots of cats and kittens on little roof tops of porches, eating cat biscuits poured into the guttering, one poor white cat had lots of sores on its face and ears, presumably skin cancer which white cats often suffer with, poor thing.
We had some time to sit on the beach and swim if we wanted - I did see one quaint idea on a few beaches, little wooden huts with a couple of cubicles with half doors - modesty doors - where you could go to change into swim wear etc. Very practical and better than struggling under a towel lol
When we were picked up by the coach around 10 am we saw the couple from Norwich who were staying at the complex and who are both disabled, and we got talking to them on the journey. A few miles on we had to change coaches and get on a different one to continue to Paleo and so on the way home when the coach we were on with the same driver who first picked us up, stopped and he gabbled something in broken English the disabled man said Oh that's us, we have to change again. Now that driver knew he had collected us from our complex cos he came up especially for us, with the couple being disabled and not wanting to walk to the usual pick up point so you would have thought he realised we should not be moving coaches. Anyway we got on the other coach and continued our conversation and then I realised we were going to places I hadn't seen before. After the last couple got off, leaving us four sitting there the puzzled driver who was the one who took us on the second leg of our trip, asked where we were staying. He was quite dismayed when we said Roda, I don't go to Roda he said, you shouldn't have changed onto this coach! Oh dear, no wonder those villages didn't look familiar!
Luckily he was ok about driving us back to our apartments, but we made sure we gave him an extra big tip!!!

That evening K texted his sister and she was amazed to find we were up the road from her and her husband. They had arrived a few days before us and stayed about 7 miles away in Sidari. As they had hired a car, they came and picked us up and we went to a restaurant in Roda and then went for a drink afterwards before they dropped us back at our apartments. We did think we would meet up again but they were handing back the car the next day and the local buses weren't very reliable after 5pm so we didn't get round to it. Wish we had made contact sooner as b.i.l. was very competent driving on the 'wrong' side of the road and they had visited lots of little villages in the mountains which would have been interesting.
When they went back on the Friday, s.i.l's 50th birthday, their plane was delayed, as the pilot bringing the plane from Newcastle was ill and a replacement had to be found so they got home much later than expected just as we had had the reverse problem getting to Corfu.


Lizx

Marilyn, I got some luggage scales for £4.49 from an oldfashioned hardware shop in Norwich, been there for years, they look the same as the ones on T.J.H. online shop and they are charging £4.99
We did use them before we went so knew we were over the limit but when we weighed our cases on return before unpacking as we couldn't understand how we could be so much over with buying nothing and using things, they stuck when re reweighed the second case, on 24kg. Can't free them so taking them back this week for another set.

I don't think I have a cold or such, I have caught throat viruses before from air conditioning on planes, but it's just this general lethargy. Have an apptmt with my doctor next Monday. She is now doing an evening surgery on that night instead of the afternoon, otherwise she does mornings, so have to be there for 6.50pm which means I probably won't see her till 7.30pm as she always runs late. Such a silly time but apparently it's a new rule that there have to be some evening surgeries, just like the old days I seem to remember.

Lizx