The world from my window

We've got a table reserved for four and we're in poll position. Once we've feasted we'll be out of the starting blocks and sitting on the wall overlooking the beach. We're in Paleokastritsa in north west Corfu and we're getting ready for the Varkarola. I've blogged about it before and all the background you need to know is right here . I am a sucker for ancient mythology and the story of Odysseus is one of my favourites Tonight, it's a re-telling of one of the hero's many adventures on his ten-year journey from Troy to the kingdom of Ithaca. In the bay at Paleokastritsa, to the soundtrack of 1492: Conquest of Paradise by Vangelis, he has a massive fight with Poseidon, the god of the ocean, played by a diver who pops up from nowhere out of the sea and then sets Odysseus' raft alight. Odysseus is shipwrecked and surprises the Phaeacian princess, Nausikka, who had been playing on the shoreline with her handmaidens after doing their washin...

It's a story I know so well. Odysseus, shipwrecked after battling with Poseidon who is angry at the hero for blinding his son, the cyclops Polyphemus, lands, naked and exhausted, on the shores of Scheria, the home of the Phaeacians. He surprises the young princess, Nausikaa, who is taking a break from doing her washing on the shore and is playing ball with her handmaidens. It's a dangerous place, the water's edge, for ancient Greek maidens. It's where they get ravished by gods and demi-gods. Look what happened to Europa . Anyway, Nausikaa takes Odysseus home to meet the parents, the gentle King Alcinous and Queen Arete. In this video, they make their way along the shore to the palace. And then, Odysseus tells the story of the things that have happened to him since leaving Troy ten years earlier. The Phaeacians provide him with a boat so he can sail back to his kingdom of Ithaca and his patient wife, Penelope, who has been waiting for him for twenty years. ...