Author Topic: Whats happenin'  (Read 1376096 times)

Offline Karen

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1905 on: July 11, 2019, 02:21:32 PM »
Very pleased to report that a spectacular thunder and lightning show is now passing over the village at midnight. It's been brewing for a while but it  is now letting rip. Wow :-)
We watched it brewing up over the sea, whilst at the Nafsica, the lightening was spectacular. Got back to Condor, one almighty crack, out went the lights and down came the rain! But it was short and sharp and yes it is much fresher today, but quite windy :)

Offline Jimbo

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1906 on: July 11, 2019, 03:34:31 PM »
On the trivia side of things, Spiros and I had a long discussion on Facebook about the spelling of the name. Many sites will show you that the princess (daughter of king Alkinous) who clothed Ulysses when he was shipwrecked on an island which may or may not have been Kerkyra on a beach which may or may not have been Agios Stefanos, was called Nausicca. Not the best name for a taverna, since it sounds a bit like chucking up.

But - the problem arises from the Romans. The Greeks didn't actually have a C and the Romans didn't have a K - the Romans, and later scholars, consequently used a couple of Cs to make it a hard K sound. After a bit of research I established that Homer actually spelled it Nafsika. Amazingly enough, O Spiros accepted this - those who know him will understand what I mean!

Offline gillie

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1907 on: July 11, 2019, 04:21:33 PM »
Yes, Roman letters Nau... doesn't sound great in English for food! Helped a lot when I was learning some Greek to know that what looks like "au" to us is sounded as "af" or sometimes "av" in Greek.  Helps with a lopt of other Greek words when you know that! Can't wait to get there! Not long now.

Offline BarbaraG

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1908 on: July 11, 2019, 09:06:58 PM »
Fascinating Jimbo. As a keen Agatha Christie fan, I have often wondered about the story of Nausicca, as a clay model of her head features in “The Hollow “.

Offline Jimbo

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1909 on: July 12, 2019, 01:19:14 AM »
I was brought up in church - literally, my father was a preacher - and I well remember St Paul droning on about Epidaurus, pronounced epeedorruss. Many years later I went to the wonderful theatre there and learned it was epeedavros. We seem to pronounce most ancient Greek names incorrectly. Try mentioning a Greek hero to Dimitris in Little Prince and he will soon wince and tell you how to say it.Still - we're not quite as bad in this respect as the Americans, who systematically (and sometime dogmatically) mispronounce just about everything. The reason why Spiros at the aforementioned Nafsika often changes the spelling of his name to Speros is because he was educated in New York, and they insisted on pronouncing his name Sp-eye-ross!

All those years I talked about Hades (Hell - the god of the underworld) only to find out it was not Hay-dees, but Ee-ar-theys.

Offline Jimbo

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1910 on: July 12, 2019, 01:59:06 AM »
Barbara - it's a lovely story up to a point. Odysseos was shipwrecked in what, from other evidence, was certainly one of the northern Ionian islands. Naked on the shore, Odysseos sees some rather lovely women bathing in a river. One of them is the king's daughter, Nafsika. She gives Odysseos something to cover his nakedness, and takes him to her father, who welcomes him. He lives there for several years - the implication being that he and Nafsika became lovers. But eventually he sailed back to Ithaka, and his patient wife Penelope, who, to resist suitors, had been weaving a shroud for Odysseos' father Laertes and unpicking it by night, because she'd told them she'd only take another husband when she'd finished the shroud.

A good question is why Odysessos took so long to go home. It was twenty years since he left for Troy. Slightly too long even to blame airport delays. So maybe he was having a good time with Nafsika until he decided he'd better go back to his own kingdom. He's a bit morally suspect, whichever way you look at it. But then Greek heroes don't have a very enlightened attitude to women. Remember, Ariadne gave Theseus the golden thread that helped him navigate the labyrinth and slay the Minotaur; he became her lover, and then eventually ditched her on a beach on Naxos.

One thing's for sure. Kerkyra was a major stopping place for ships sailing from Greece to Italy. Much later, Cicero escaped to the island when Julius Caesar made his military coup. It's all so rich, and looking out at the deceptive seas, we can be certain that the ancients sailed those waters.

I love these stories.

Offline Karen

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1911 on: July 12, 2019, 01:49:06 PM »
Thanks Jim, very interesting.

Offline Karen

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1912 on: July 12, 2019, 01:55:52 PM »
Last night was very windy so we didn't walk to Nafsika, popped over to yiannis grill, nice simple little meal. Lively in Condor, soul night, everyone up dancing! The village does now seem busier. Said goodbye to some dear friends last night and a few tears :( Some more friends leaving today, big changeover day. Beautiful fresh day today, gentle breeze and the sea is a lovely turquoise colour. The locals tell me it is going to remain a bit fresher :)

Offline WINKIE

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1913 on: July 12, 2019, 06:44:03 PM »
Thanks for the updates Karen, enjoy catching up with the latest happenings in the village. Ah, Yannis, so much better now it has moved across the street, spotlessly clean and made very welcome every time we visit, great wee people watching spot too lol. Love a gyro and a cold beer there.
If its not one thing,its your mother.

Offline maggiesaes

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1914 on: July 13, 2019, 01:42:53 AM »
Oh yes he is always pleased to see you and it’s a great little place-everyone goes there at some stage in their holiday I am sure.

Offline Karen

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1915 on: July 13, 2019, 01:24:47 PM »
Yes Winkie and Maggie, it is so much better now it's over the road. When we're sitting on the veranda at Silver Moon, he has a constant stream of customers :)
So yesterday a big changeover day, so a little quieter in the evening. Bar 38 busy, with some live music on. Condor had the usual karaoke singers :) Another great meal at Nafsica, Spiros kindly gave us a lift back to main strip, as it was drizzly rain and he knew I was concerned about getting my hair wet!! ;D

Offline maggiesaes

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1916 on: July 13, 2019, 10:18:07 PM »
A girl can’t be too careful about her hair on holiday ;D
Schools break up here Friday so things should liven up then I suppose.
We only ever go when the schools are not on holiday.

Offline Karen

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1917 on: July 14, 2019, 02:33:35 PM »
A girl can’t be too careful about her hair on holiday ;D
Schools break up here Friday so things should liven up then I suppose.
We only ever go when the schools are not on holiday.

You know what I'm talking about Maggie ;D

Yes, noticed a few little ones around the village yesterday, we too tend to a avoid school holidays :)

Offline Karen

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1918 on: July 14, 2019, 02:53:24 PM »
Ok, so to repeat myself, another beautiful and fresher day yesterday....until about 9pm...we had planned to walk to the Nafsica, as usual, the skies were becoming darker and darker, we got as far as 2stars restaurant, felt a few spits of rain, so decided to nip in there. We could see the lightening across the sea and the thunder was moving closer and down it came, the rain was bouncing off the road and it lasted about an hour, at least! We ran the few steps into the Condor, where Stefano and Spiros welcomed us with paper towels to dry ourselves off ;D So then we had Robbie Williams/George Michael tribute act...not very good, in my opinion. :)

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Re: Whats happenin'
« Reply #1919 on: July 14, 2019, 04:12:32 PM »
When we used to go late June we'd be coming home around now.
There used to be a very strange week....prices dropped and it was dead quiet

Glenn used to say that there was always a very quiet 10 days end June/beginning of July

Get ready for the invasion of the Italians and the kids!

 

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