Turtle Mail: Corfu

Arriving at Corfu Island (Greece) on May 29th at 19:00, we anchored in Garitsa Bay (N39°36.926' E019°55.405') overlooked by an impressive old fort. We waved hello to 2 Canadian boats as we came in. They were both registered in Montreal. Always nice to see your countrymen.

Venetian Old Fortress

Corfu

The next morning, we dinghied ashore to check into port and at the same time, check out of Greece as this would be out last day and anchorage in that country. The check in was a snap but the country check out was different.

It took time for the office to process our official Transit Log for it to be retired then they sent us to an obscure office to hand it in to Customs and then get our passports stamped with an exit stamp. When we finally found the offices, the 2 women at Customs very lackadaisically replied We are on strike, come back tomorrow.

What! We declared that all we needed to do was turn in our Transit Log and couldn't come back tomorrow as we had to leave very early due to weather. There was predicted only a slight breeze on the nose. But we didn't tell them that much.

They looked at each other and said Okay, just leave it then. Phew. The woman in the next office stamped our passports and we were done. Our Schengen clock then stopped ticking. By then, we had used up about 40 days of our 90 allowed in the Schengen Group of countries which is most of the EU countries,

Unfortunately, Customs wasn't the only place on strike. Garbage collectors had been on strike for about a week and it would probably continue all summer. Garbage piled in huge stacks. We would hate to be here in a couple of months with the smell and the rats that are sure to appear. The larger problem was Corfu had run out of landfill facilities. Apparently the EU had funded Greece to provide improved facilities but the monies evaporated before anything got done.

Rotting refuse

We walked through narrow alleys and streets of the charming Old Town, situated between what they termed the Old Fort and the New Fort. The Old Town is still alive with shops serving tourists as well as locals and everyday needs.

Bustling about