The magnificent Greek holiday Οχι Day is celebrated every year in Greece on October 28th  and mostly remembered for general Ioannis Metaxas’ strong reply of ‘oxi’ (no) to Mussolini’s request to allow Italian troops to come into Greece at the beginning of WW II.

In Corfu they celebreate Οχι day by having a parade. The volunteers got to finish work early and we got to the bus stop only to find that the bus schedule is not the same on Οχι day. Finally we managed to get a cab, but the driver would only take six of us and we had seven. Luckily at that moment Captain George (An amazing Greek man that runs a restaurant/bar right next to the Silva Estate) drove by on his scooter and offered to take one of us into town with him. I figured it would be a fun experience so I volunteered to go.



Driving in a car in Greece is a rather terrifying experience. Normal road rules are not followed….at all. Riding on a scooter takes driving in Greece to a whole new terrifying level. Add the fact that it is a National Holiday, everyone on the island is trying to get to the same place, and you are riding behind a man named Captain George… We weaved around and inbetween cars going in both directions, drove on both sides of the road, on the sidewalks, down steps, between tables in an outdoor cafe, and whipped closely by people in the back alleys. I am happy to report that I survived my first scooter trip and can’t wait to experience another one.

The actual parade was not at all what I expected it to be. They started with a band (There are 28 large bands on this island, apparently they like music here.)

Then children started marching past (not playing any instruments, not in floats, not throwing candy, just marching in school uniforms) after inquiring about what was going on we were told that these were the elementary children from each school and that following this would be the middle school children, high school children, and college students.

After over fifty different groups of kids and a couple more bands, the navy paraded by:


The police followed them and the fireman officially ended the parade.

We finished off our Οχι Day in Greece by eating Gyros (a word I still cannot pronounce correctly in Greek) and visited the old fortress which was built in the 15th century.