Well, the Easter celebrations are over and done with for another year, and it is time for everyone to get ready for the summer tourist season. It begins the first week in May, then peters out slowly, beginning in mid September.
Sitting on our balcony this morning , overlooking our traditional village main street, I realised how far we had come since we moved to Corfu thirteen years ago.
We arrived with our car and caravan, loaded up to the windows with our personal possessions, a few household items and our beloved pet cat, in October 1994.
We stayed in a huge holiday villa for the first winter, in Dassia. It was rented to us cheaply by the owner, as it was off season.
It had no heating of any kind, and by the second week in December we thought we were going to die of exposure. We even moved a blanket off the bed to underneath the bed, to stop the damp and cold from rising upwards when we were sleeping.
By the time the Christmas celebrations started, we had moved out of the villa, to smaller, but heated, accomodation. For the first couple of years we couldn't afford to furnish the house well, so we managed with a plastic table and chairs, and garden furniture as armchairs.
But we loved those first years in Corfu, even though we were struggling to settle in and get established. We moved a total of five times, before finally finding a house we both liked and could afford to buy , in Sinarades.
So that is how I came to be sitting on my balcony now, looking down at the coach loads of German and Dutch tourists who are having a guided walking tour around the village's historic houses.
Many of them waved and shouted Kalimera, good morning, in Greek to me. I felt pleased as they stopped to admire the potted flowers and strawberry plants I had just placed on the balcony and the ledge outside our house.
I felt proud to be part of this traditional village, and to be able to welcome them to Sinarades, and to Corfu.
Welcome, and come back soon to see us again!
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