By the time we got off the ferry and gone through Customs dawn had past and the morning light filled the sky. Birds were singing and the people of Corfu were starting to appear. The group of us that got off the ferry had dispersed and our ferry had already left for the mainland of Greece.
Our plans to meet A. we had set up many months before when he was getting ready to go on his first trip to Greece. He would check the ferries that came in each morning for a window of days to look out for our arrival. As we looked around where we figured we would see him we thought about how hungry we were and that we had no Greek currencies. The exchange office wasn't open yet so we couldn't buy any food. We found a place to sit and wait for A.
Our first image of A. coming towards us was who is this guy? He came walking in his determined saunter, with his hair flowing and combed back like Jesus, quite blonde, wearing cut off jean shorts, flip flops, and a gauzy shirt half unbuttoned. He was quite tan and talking in Greek to anybody that he saw and then we noticed they were talking to him back as though he lived here. My Love and I thought he looked like some Greek God the way he came towards us in slow motion for all to see. He came up to us very excited that we had made this ferry. A. didn't mess around with a long talk about what we had been doing since we came to Europe, he was ready to show us Kerkyra (Corfu).
So off we started walking towards the old town. He was talking the whole time of everything he had been doing since arriving in Corfu. We butted in that we were a tad hungry and could we find an exchange office to get some Greek currency. "No" and adamant no to the money. He would pay for everything we would need while we were here and that was that. This was our wedding gift from him. All during our walk as he talked he would be yelling out to people walking by "Kalimera!" which is Greek for "Good morning" and everyone would respond back to him the same way but with an addition of "Kalimera Andreas!". It felt like we were with a celebrity of sorts. We walked the quaint town streets till he stopped in front of a shop and started saying this place had the best yogurt. As you came inside there were a few tables with chairs and in the back a counter. All felt cool and clean inside. He started spouting out in Greek what he wanted which all sounded Greek to me. Quickly the man behind the counter brought out white bowls that had a pale layer which turned out to be honey on top. Carrying it to a table I noticed the bowls were warm. I had not eaten much yogurt in my life so I was thinking right off the bat I wasn't sure if this was my idea of breakfast but I was so hungry I figured it had to be better than nothing. That first bite sealed my love of fresh warm yogurt. I have never had it quite the same even when I made my own. Between the warmth and the flavorful honey it was the food of Greek Gods! He told us they also made really delicious rice pudding served warm and creamy as well. Now that I had food in my belly I could start to enjoy where we were. We left with him saying "Efharisto" which means "thank you".
Walking outside I looked around and noticed I couldn't read any of the signs. The Greek letters aren't like Spanish or Italian where you can maybe figure out the word because of similarity to some English words. He continued showing us around the town pointing out different places that had really good this and really good that all the while saying "Kalimera!" and talking to people he came across. We knew A. had taken Greek before he came but we couldn't believe how he seemed so fluent in it. He had picked up the street Greek while on mainland Greece with friends he had made on his travels. The locals really liked this crazy American who spoke like they did. It felt like the whole town new him.
He attempted to teach me some Greek words to use while we were here and my Love and he laughed about it all knowing how shy I was. Me speaking Greek to a Greek. So there was "Yasa" for "hello", "Andio" for "goodbye", "Ne" for "yes" and "Ohi" for "no". I felt so silly but enlightened to a new culture with my celebrity brother in law to show us around his new island.
*I wish I could take credit for this photo but I don't have many photos from Corfu. So thanks to a travel site where I saw this of Corfu
