Honeymoon Part 3 ~ Corfu ~

  For the rest of the day A. gave us a sightseeing trip around the old part of town.   What stands out in my memory is the church Agios Spyridon which has the relics of St. Spyridon their patron saint inside in a silver casket that we could walk right up to.  Looking at photos of it online now I can't say I remember it the same way.  To me it was very dark inside, like so many of the churches we had seen throughout  Italy and Spain.   Those faithful to this saint leave notes that they try to stuff into the casket of their prayers to hopefully be answered.  The casket is in a chapel off from to the side of the main alter where there are silver chandeliers, candelabras and incense burners.   Four times of the year the casket is paraded through the town with the mummified saint's face exposed.  It is to commemorate the four occasions when he saved the island from disaster, famine, twice from plague and once from Turkish invasion.  

       After A. led us around giving us the guided tour of the town, somewhere along the way we ate and my Love and I were ready for a cozy bed since we hadn't had a bed to sleep in for several nights.  You can only do so much sightseeing when you are bone tired.  A. said he had found a place for us to spend the night before we would leave to go to the fantastic beach he had found.  I thought we would be at some sort of pension, like where we had been staying all during this trip except for the times we did camp.  We walked to a building, up a flight of stairs and A. knocked on the door.  Strange to have to knock on the door of a pension I thought.  The door opened to a room where many people were smoking and sitting around.  A. was talking a mile a minute in Greek to someone while we stood there with our backpacks feeling  quite awkward. 

     Someone asked to look at our passports.  A. translated that we were told we could not have a room together as they didn't believe we were really married since my passport had my maiden name on it and not my new married name.  It was clear this was not a pension but their family home.  I don't know where A. was going to sleep as he left once he had set us up  for the night.   I was not happy at being separated from my Love.  I thought maybe I would  have my own room, though that was wishful thinking.  I was led to a room with several cots and a single bed.  It was clear I was to have roommates.  One was a very old lady and the other a middle age woman, none of which spoke any English.  They would look at me and say things but I didn't know what to say.  I decided I would just fake falling asleep even though it wasn't that late.  I found the bathroom, brushed my teeth and then settled on the cot, curling myself away from their eyes.  It felt like they talked forever.  I fell asleep wondering where my Love was and what situation he had.    

     What I found out from him the next day was that he was in a room with some other men who chain smoked  and talked for a long time as well.   My Love does not smoke nor does he like being around those who smoke.  I felt awful that he had to endure that evening in his room away from me breathing in all that foul  second hand smoke.

     The next morning I woke up and quietly left the room to shower.  I must say I thought I had seen most types of bathroom arrangements but this one did confuse me.  Even though I had used the bathroom the previous night I never paid much attention to the shower set up.  The room was square with the toilet near the sink in one corner, a drain in the middle of the slightly sloped tile floor.  In the opposite corner from the sink I saw the  wall mounted shower knobs and then a hand holding shower head.  No shower curtain anywhere.  Okay so I hope I don't splash all over this room.  I quickly did my showering  and felt odd leaving the bathroom floor wet.  Thankfully when I came out my Love was in the common room of the apartment.  Smiling and feeling better upon seeing him we were ready to head out to see the beach A. had been telling us so much about.  He did his cleanup and we bid a goodbye and out into the sunny morning we went.  We came upon A. in the area near where the Yogurt shop was and once again had that delicious warm yogurt with honey for our morning breakfast.