Caught out in Corfu
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On my first visit to Greece I wanted to try very hard to speak the language so for days I had been greeting the locals with 'kalimari' (sounds like 'kalimaree') instead of 'kalimera' (sounds like 'kalimeara'). Little did I know that I was greeting them with 'squid' instead of 'hello'.
The local bus driver and conductor always laughed, I did wonder what the joke was. ME! Having said that, on the same trip I got into a short conversation with a Greek lady who wanted to travel to England saying that English husbands seemed so kind, unlike Greek men, who were SO SHELLFISH! I had to smile. : )
While paying the bill in a restaurant in Corfu, before leaving I tried to say " (ev-ha-rees-toh poh-lee)" which means "thank you very much" but I said "(ev-ha-rees-toh poo-lee)" which means "thank you bird".
The man, a large burly Greek gave me a very strange look. I departed quickly.
In Skiathos at a periptero (kiosk) I purchased a box of matches...I wanted to ask, "how much are they?" but instead asked, "how old are they?" to much amusement!
I once called a Greek priest patata (potato) by mistake instead of Patera (Father).
Preciously hilarious, good morning, my (little) squid! Hheeeeeheeee!
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I was in Athens and I showed a Greek man a photo of the Acropolis. He said something that sounded like, 'och aye' and moved his head up and over his shoulder, then he walked down the street in front of me and my family. Thinking he knew how to get there we started to follow him and he started to jog. We jogged after him, he started to run, we started to run, he ran up alleyways, we followed. Then he disappeared. My wife shouted at me to give her the phrasebook. 'Och aye' in Greek means 'no' (Όχι).
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