Corfu Historic Centre

See video on Corfu Old Town, on John's Corfu World

Imany

Last night I was introduced to a new artist with a compelling and soulful voice; I was delighted to be given a CD by Imany.

Here is the official clip for her first single, You will never know

Noise and Silence in Greece

This time I decided to take the cheaper, slightly slower “open ferry” from Corfu to Igoumenitsa.

The Greeks call it the “pantofla” (the slipper), because the car deck is open to the elements.

The covered area where the passengers sit for the two hour crossing can get very crowded, and it was my luck that the 9am ferry was the same one that five or six coach drivers had also chosen to transport about 500 teenage Corfiot schoolchildren, on their annual school excursions, this year to Metsovo and Ioannina; some were in the last year of middle school, some were in high school. The combined volume of their unrestrained voices, shrieks of laughter and hysterical games was utterly deafening. Even headphones failed to block out the sound.

This came after the usual high-stress rigmarole of reversing the car into an impossibly tight space. For as long as I can remember, a dictatorial crewman has taken a sadistic delight in making drivers reverse without daring to sneak a look behind to see where they are going. They are commanded to look only at him, as he shouts, “Right, Left, Turn the wheel, Look at Me, Right, Left, Oooopa!” Once parked, it is almost impossible to open the driver’s door more than a few inches.

An hour and a half later, high up in one of the Zagori villages, the only sound to be heard is that of the soothing songs of the nightingales.

In some melodious plot

Of beechen green...

Darkling I listen.


(John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale)

Paschalia (wisteria), quince, walnut

London Olympics, First Torchbearer with Corfu Connections

Spyros  - of course!

Spyros Gianniotis, the first Olympic Torchbearer.

Live coverage

Bittersweet moment for many Greeks (Kathimerini)

and the marbles? (Athens News)

More about "Dorset Voices", Roving Press anthology of Dorset writing

Some Bridport contributors.

Reviews on Amazon:

"Gives a real sense of the county, past and present. Just the right mix of fiction, memoir, verse and pictures, written by exceptionally good writers who know and understand the area. Definitely take a look at this if you're interested in Dorset or just want a good read."

"A great read of an anthology of Dorset memories, tourism, fiction, sci-fi, ghost stories, poems and photographs. A must have for anyone interested in the lives of people from Dorset."
See these two Amazon Customer Reviews

Also available from Waterstones

Local media (View Online)

Oliver Goldsmith on the Modern Greeks (1453-1774; from History of Greece)

Excerpts from Dr. Goldsmith's concluding paragraph to "The History of Greece, From the Earliest State to the Death of Alexander the Great, To Which is Added A Summary Account of the Affairs of Greece, from That Period to the Sacking of Constantinople by the Othomans":

"The modern Greeks, without the least political importance...retain but little of their original character...
Simplicity, modesty, temperance, sincerity, and good faith, fled first...
Still, however, the ardent temper of the Greeks burst forth on various occasions; still they were distinguished by a quick sensibility to benefits and to injuries, hasty resolutions, and hasty repentance...
A quickness of invention, an acuteness of judgement, a subtlety in argumentation, have survived the extinction of virtue, and a characteristical hastiness of temper. These are still to be found in the disputations of the schools, and the profound, though dishonourable, artifices of the Grecian merchants."

My leather-bound edition (the fourteenth) is dated London, 1823. The quotation is from vol. 2, Chapter XXI, pages 324-325. 

First edition, as Grecian History, 1774.


Google Books has the 1825 edition online


Goldsmith's biased assessment and largely negative opinions of the character of the Greeks following the Fall of Constantinople are typical of their time (the book was written before the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence) and have been proved erroneous, even though Byron also shared some of these ambivalent views. Fortunately, other writers, like Laurence Binyon, have set the record straight. This is his 1940 poem, "The Lamp of Greece"

“Truth incorruptible lives on, though sight

Cloud, and the heart flinch, and the mind askance

Reject. Because she sought that radiance,

Unweariable lover of the light!

History’s marvel, Hellas in despite

Of time and interposing circumstance

Still stands above the siege of ignorance,

Serene before the armies of the night”.