I WAS NEARING THE END of my time studying abroad. I’d broken the t-minus two week countdown until the day I was to return, May 16th. I couldn’t believe how fast it seemed everything was going.
I’d had one last weekend to travel before I spent my last weekend in Rome to study for finals. Figured I’d take advantage with a weekend getaway to Corfu, Greece, with one of my roommates and a buddy from Italian class.
WE’D HAD an evening flight, and this was my first time flying RyanAir, the low fare airline that allows travelers to get around Europe not only easily, but at a cheap cost. They don’t make their money in the amount that they charge per flight, no, instead they come up with creative ways to nickel and dime their consumers. They charge you if your bag is too big, if you forgot to print your own boarding pass, for all food on the plane, etc. Fortunately, being that I’ve become a much more seasoned traveler in my time over here, I wasn’t nickled nor dimed by any of these gimmicks.
It was dark by the time we landed. We were flying right next to some mountains, and were all of the sudden really close to the ground, but I couldn’t see a runway, just water. Then, THUD. We had a bumpy landing, but it was a landing nonetheless. I wasn’t able to see the runway before we’d landed because of how small it was. I breathed a sigh of relief, when, over the intercom came the sound of triumphant trumpets. A woman on a recording read: “That’s another on time flight for RyanAir... Over 90 percent of RyanAir flights land on time... Beats every airline in Europe!” A quick note on this, RyanAir lists departure time as to when the plane will actually be taking off. However, it lists the arrival time as about 40 minutes longer than the flight will actually be. So 90 percent of their flights landing on time is a somewhat bogus statistic. What she should’ve been saying was 90 percent of our flights are pretty close to on time.
We had a driver take a group of us to our hotel, where we had an included sandwich for dinner. A relatively early night for us, we went to bed soon after arrival.
The next day, after a pretty decent inclusive breakfast, we went to the beach. Our hotel was about a 15 minute walk down to the beach, but it was worth the walk because of how secluded the beach was. There were just a few other people in site. We decided to shell out the 15 euros to rent kayaks for the day. We paddled about a mile in the ocean, which was calm that day, to a larger rock next to the island that jutted out of the sea. There were no people within a half a mile of us when we finally arrived. Serene and peaceful might be proper words to describe the environment out there, but those don’t capture how quiet it was. We could only hear the faint sounding of a bird off in the distance, and the swishing of the small waves against the rocks. The weather was perfect, 80, sunny, barely any clouds. It was so relaxing that I put my paddle up on the shore, and just laid in my kayak for awhile (even fell asleep for a little bit, but it was okay! Didn’t even drift too far out). We paddled back along the coast of the island, checked out a few caves, then made our way back to return the kayaks. A quick stop for lunch (two Greek pitas, ate them at a beach side restaurant, fantastic!) was followed by another included dinner at the hotel. I stayed up a little later that night, but had a big day planned for tomorrow.
For some reason, my time abroad seems to be the semester of impeccable timing. The theme continued this week, as it turned out to be the celebration of Greek Easter in Greece. There were two big ceremonies set that day for the celebration in downtown Corfu, and the first began at 11 A.M.
It was the annual smashing of pots ceremony, which when we heard that, didn’t really know what to think. We’d figured, a few kids throwing down some small little clay trinkets, maybe they’d make a popping sound or something, but nothing extravagant. We got to downtown Corfu at about 9:30, walked around for a bit, then gathered in the square at 10:50 for this ceremony.
YOU COULD TELL by the way people were acting that something big was about to happen. Thousands had gathered in the main square, and everyone was staring up at people on balconies, who held medium to large sized clay pots. We were in the first row of spectators, and I kept thinking to myself that it didn’t feel safe. I thought a flying piece of clay pottery could easily hit somebody. So I got out of the first row and waited under the tent of a restaurant, checking my phone frequently so I’d be ready by the time this thing got started.
The clocks struck 11, and BOOM! The folks started throwing the clay pots into the street. It started as just a few, pop, pop, pop. But then they were thrown more frequently, and harder! Smash, bang, BANG! Most were maybe 18 inches in height, and they just kept coming, it was raining clay pots in Greece. But those were just warm ups, you see, they held the best stuff for last. The second round of pots were so big (four feet high or so) that it needed several people to push them over the balcony’s edge! Boom, BOOM! The amount of debris on the ground made it look like you’d just survived WWIII. The pot throwers embellished in their moment to shine. They would start a countdown and get the whole crowd chanting in Greek, then the pots would fall, and the crowds would go crazy! Boom, BOOM, BOOM! “YEEEAHHH!!!” they would cheer. It was a helluva celebration.
And just when you thought it was over, the last remaining pots would be thrown. You could imagine the people on the balconies, scrambling through their apartments for one last thing they could throw out there. These were the ones that caught you off guard, because you thought the show was over. But nope, pop, pop, SMASH! The whole show lasted about 10 minutes, and there were so many broken pots everywhere. The little children scrambled to grab a piece of one for a souvenir. While it was mostly a fun event, some folks got hit in the line of fire. I saw two women with severe gashes on their heads. They held cloths to their heads as blood ran down their faces. They would definitely need stitches. I breathed a sigh of relief as I walked away unscathed, and glad that I’d moved under a tent.
We went back to the hotel, grabbed our beach gear, and ate lunch beach side, (another Greek pita) then chilled for awhile before our next event in downtown Corfu. Another included dinner, then we were off to see some fireworks!
Once again, there were thousands of folks gathered. They’d had a brief religious ceremony, then a 10 minute or so fireworks show. It was spectacular. We went back to our hotel, and I spent a decent portion of the night on the beach, staring up at the star covered sky.
We had an early flight today, landed about 9:30. There were the trumpets again, celebrating another “on time” flight for RyanAir! Yipee.
My travels are done. I just need to get through finals, then hop on a plane for the 4,372 mile journey home.
More updates to come.
JC
