Cruising the Three Seas, part 3

Corfu & Kotor, Montenegro

I wasn't sure what to expect of Corfu. I had a preconception of package holiday hotels and concrete beaches. I was not expecting it to be so green and relatively unspoiled. 

Our excursion for the day was "Caves, cliffs and culture" which started with a boat trip from Paleokastritsa, a sheltered cove with glorious white beaches and azure water. 

The boat trip took us to visit three sea caves, including one that included the "blue eye", an effect caused by sunlight going through an underwater rock arch. 

Rock "face" next to St Nicholas's Cave

The blue eye

The local shop had some amusing products on sale. I was tempted to buy some and plant them in my brother's case to see what happened at the airport. 

Our coach then took us up to a restaurant overlooking Paleokastrita. They are big on kumquats on Corfu and we shared a piece of kumquat cake. 

Niamh, the staff member who hosted the introduction to Cymraeg session on our sea day was on our excursion so I asked her if we could take a selfie.

Cymro a Cymraes yn Corfu

The coach wound it's way onward up some very narrow lanes. One village was entirely traffic light controlled, which meant we had a long wait outside. But that was just as well because our bus literally had a few centimetres clearance on either side as we crept through the tight streets. 

We stopped at an Orthodox church that was part of a convent. It was a shrine for healing with it's own well with magical healing properties. However, we were also advised not to drink the water.

The magic healing well - don't drink the water!

The shrine with healing requests

Our guide gave us a brief explanation of the Great Schism between the Roman and Eastern churches. I then had a chat with her about the Cappadocian Fathers, the great saints of the Eastern Church, that I studied back in university. I don't think many tourists name drop St Gregory of Nazianzus while on these tours as she seemed a bit surprised,. 

The gift shop was full of icons. Sarah bought some candied kumquats instead. They have a very strong and lasting bitter orange flavour. It's not unpleasant, but it is persistent. 

Our final stop for the day was Corfu old town. We found a bakery selling amazing doughnuts.

Doughnuts!

There is an impressive solid stump of a castle built by the Venetians when they controlled Corfu. It's another solid-looking fortress. 

Corfu old town is a mix of Venetian, French and Victorian British architecture. Which is why they had a bandstand that reminded me of Grange Gardens!

We didn't have too long in Corfu old town and soon had to head back to our boat, which was now sharing a jetty with three other liners!

Our boat was the small one!

Back on the boat, the evening entertainment was a show called "Forever Country", a medley mix of country songs. I enjoyed it so much I went to watch both showings! (And sang along!)

Our final full day of the cruise was in Kotor, Montenegro. We got up early as we were told that the sail in to Kotor was worth watching. It was impressive as we headed up a very narrow inlet towards the port (it's actually a flooded river valley rather than a true glacier-carved fjord). However, we were up an hour earlier than we needed to be because the ship was delayed after a passenger had to be evacuated to hospital in Albania during the night. (There had been some rough swell at about 2am - it transpired that was the patient transfer.)

Sunrise over Montenegro

Cold enough for a coat!

The delayed arrival meant our boat had been overtaken by another cruise ship that had nicked our anchoring point so we had to anchor further out. This meant the small boat transfer to Kotor was longer than expected, but only a few minutes longer. All the people going on excursions waited in the show lounge auditorium until we were dispatched coachload by coachload. 

Our excursion started at the very new and shiny cable car that goes up over 1,300 metres into Lovcen National Park. 

And in the far distance, our boat!

At the top, Sarah and I rode the alpine coaster, which is like a mini bobsled that swings you over some significant drops. It was great fun.

Victorious alpine coaster riders

We didn't have very long at the top of the mountain before we had to catch the cable car back down. 

The cable car is emblematic of a country that is rapidly modernising. We passed the shiniest petrol station I have ever seen, complete with gleaming banks of post lockers outside. It felt like Kotor Old Town has had some subtle facelift work done too. It was an incredible jumble of buildings and narrow alleys, with history steeped into its stones. But it felt like the patina had been washed off recently giving it a film set feel. I loved it, but I can imagine a few years ago it would have been more grimy and weathered. 

We were hungry and used our tracking skills to follow the trail of people who appeared with large slices of pizza. It turned out there was a little hole in the wall place doing a bustling trade. 

Our return trip to the Marella Explorer 2 was on one of the ship's lifeboats that had been put into service as a shuttle boat. I suppose lifeboats need to be tested occasionally, so it made sense to use them for this purpose. It was another unusual experience to add to an epic day. 

And so that evening we set sail and headed back to where our adventure started, Dubrovnik!

My 39th birthday - Ward Thomas in concert in Cardiff

In January I got some health news that I wasn't expecting and the medical staff were a bit concerned about how bad it could be because I was "on the cusp of being young." Yeah, baby! Still on the cusp! It was the best bit of news I got during the whole encounter.

But anyway, I'm definitely on the cusp now as I turned 39 yesterday. I had a great day overall (more details on that soon) and to top it off I went to see Ward Thomas play The Globe in Cardiff.

This was a great combination of my favourite music venue in Cardiff and one of my favourite bands at the moment. I first heard Ward Thomas' single 'Push for the Stride' on Radio 2 last year (forget what I said about being on the cusp of being young; yes, I quite like Radio 2), came home and listened to it several times on YouTube. I bought the album when it came out. And I was very excited last December to find they were playing in Cardiff on my birthday. We booked the tickets straight away.

I also persuaded a motley crew of friends to come with me, but they aren't in this photo of me with Ward Thomas that I got after the show!

They were really lovely to talk to. It's always nice when people you admire turn out to be nice people. It was the last show in the tour, they'd just played a great set, they had talked to a huge queue of people, but they couldn't have been more genuine or friendly.

Thank you Ward Thomas, you made the last birthday of my thirties really memorable.

My top 5 bands I want to see live

There’s always time to kill at gigs while you wait for bands, so on Saturday night, as we sat in the floor of the CIA and waited for Counting Crows to come out, Cath and I discussed the best gigs we’ve been to, and then our ‘ultimate gigs’ – the bands we want to see one day.

So, here’s my top-5 wishlist of bands I want to see.

1) The Tragically Hip. They’ve got a new album out – woohoo! I’m so excited. I’ve ordered mine to be flown over from the States. (You too can share the experience – as you can listen to three tracks from it on the website.) The album tour incidentally is only in the US and Canada. Boo.
2) The Killers – as a headline act. I saw them support U2 on the Vertigo tour when they only had songs off Hot Fuss to play. And they were hampered by the fact they were the support act and support acts have to put up with a confined space and a second rate light show.
3) All American Rejects. Because they’re awe-some!
4) The Dixie Chicks. Bit of an odd choice this one, but I kinda like them and I do have a thang for country music.
5) Green Day. I still maintain that American Idiot is a contender for Best Album of the 21st Century (so far). I would love to see them live, although I don’t really fancy the mega-rock arena experience.

One thing I've noticed is that none of them are British. For the record, I think Cath would substitute the Hip for Gin Blossoms, and possibly one of the others for Ben Folds. I may be wrong. I was too busy thinking of mine to pay much attention.

Country Music Wisdom #1

You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em
Know when to walk away and know when to run
You never count your money when you’re sitting at the table
There’ll be time enough for counting when the dealing’s done

~ The Gambler, Kenny Rogers

Ten guilty pleasures

I caught that TV show 'Guilty Pleasures' on a digital channel the other night. Now before you think it's something very dodgy, possibly involving naked people and soft focus camera work, it's a show where various celebrities list the things they like, but feel they shouldn't. So, for example, Stephen Fry revealed his love for Abba, and Georgette Heyer novels.

It got me thinking, if I had to list my guilty pleasures, what would they be. Here are ten.

1) Country music. I don't know if it's the twang of the gee-tarr, or the cowboy hats, but I really like country music. Today I bought The Best Country Album...Ever! in the Zavvi clear out, and I'm amazed how many of the songs I know. Now I own them. I'm so happy.

2) Potatoes. I don't care how they come. Baked, mashed, chipped, fried, roasted, in potato salad, as crisps, whatever. I love potatoes. I would like to reincarnate as a potato weevil and just eat potatoes all day. (I'm sure not coming back as a human, with my karma.)

3) Blogging in work time. Not that I ever do this, ever! But if I did, I know I'd love it...

4) Games Workshop. One day, when I've made a mint and I have enough time to properly learn how to paint models, I'm going to buy the mother of all 40K armies and create beautiful mayhem. I'm thinking of going Tau.

5) Failblog. I shouldn't laugh at the failures of others, and yet I do. Frequently. The same is true of Cake Wrecks. The writing on the CW site is comedy of the highest order.

6) Playing Guitar Hero... alone. I'm too cool to rock out properly when other people are watching. But when I'm alone I swing that axe as if I was a rock god.

7) Verbal doodling. I've written a game-by-game history of an imaginary football team covering the last 25 years. And it's all for me. I know it's nerdy and unproductive, but hey, it's my time and I can waste it if I want.

8) Cherry tomatoes. Sure, they're healthy, but in the summer I was buying them in 5kg boxes from the organic veg providers at the end of my street. And we ate them all.

9) Other people cancelling. You know when you've got something on which you don't really want to go to, but you feel you ought to, and then someone cancels and you're suddenly free and it's not your fault. Best feeling ever. Closely followed by when someone asks you to do something then tells you that you don't have to do it after all. That's about as close as I get to job satisfaction.

10) Trips to the toy shop. I love wondering round toy shops, looking at all the lovely things, maybe buying some....Yeah, I play with my Star Wars figures. Why else would I have so many?

Covers

You know sometimes how you hear a song covered and you think – actually that’s pretty good. Then you hear Girl’s Aloud doing Tiffany and (worrisome mental image aside) you think – ‘No, covers should be banned’.

Somewhere along the line a line has to be drawn between good covers and bad covers. On the bad side there’s anything by Westlife, ‘Tragedy’ by Steps (never has a song been worthier of its title) and every reality TV star who tries to step into pop stardom. Oh, and Marilyn Manson, who was annoying before he started strangling classics like Personal Jesus. And on the good side? Well, here are 7 examples of times when covering a song actually works.

#1 Terrorvision – The Passenger
The ‘Vision went through a phase of doing covers as b-sides to their singles. This doesn’t actually add much to the Iggy Pop original, but somehow sounds better.

#2 Garth Brooks – Shameless
The king of country music took Billy Joel’s album filler track and made it his own.

#3 Dandy Warhols – Hell’s Bells
This is on the b-side of the Vodafone ad song ‘Bohemian Like You’. By slowing down AC/DC’s rock track and pitching it to a creepy baseline they turned this into a genuinely dark track.

#4 Counting Crows – Friend of the Devil
Included on their ‘best of’, even though it’s a cover of a Grateful Dead song that was never released on an album. One of a large number of songs I like with the word ‘devil’ in the title. Others include ‘Devil’ by the Stereophonics and ‘Runnin’ with the Devil’ by Van Halen.

#5 Van Halen – Dancing in the Street
Speaking of Van Halen, in the early days when they were producing albums in rapid succession they included a whole host of covers, including ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘You Really Got Me’. This funked-up classic is the stand out one, though.

#6 either Rufus Wainwright or k.d.lang – Hallelujah
Rufus Wainwright covered this Leonard Cohen song for Shrek for the scene where Shrek and Princess Fiona go their separate ways – probably the most moving scene in an animated film. Then k.d.lang covered it on her album of Canadian songs and did it equal justice.

#7 Semisonic – The Air That I Breathe
A b-side to ‘Closing Time’ I think, but I’m not sure. Beautiful though, whichever single it was on.

And for the hard core fans of covers, a couple of bonus tracks...
Bonus track 1: Bowling for Soup – Summer of ‘69
It’s hard to take the Soup seriously, but then they don’t. A fun cover.
Bonus track 2: REM – The Lion Sleeps Tonight
So they released a single called The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite and some bright spark thought ‘let’s cover that Lion Sleeps Tonight’ song as a b-side’. Bizarre, but true, and incredibly funny to listen to. Michael Stipe at his warbley finest.