To get to Corfu we had to take a bus from Athens to a town on the west coast of Greece called Igoumenitsa. We nearly missed the bus, the tourist place gave us a handout saying it left at 10:30 am. We arrived a few minutes before 10am thinking we had lots of time. The handout was wrong and 10am was when it left. The bus was literally getting ready to pull out. We managed to get tickets for two of the three seats left on the bus. We couldn't sit together. Jack was in the very back and had no air conditioning there, so he was sweltering the whole trip. He was sitting with two Hell's Angels from England, they were not impressed to be sitting in the heat either. I got stuck next to a mother with her young child who sat in her lap. What fun, by the end of the 7 hour trip I had his dirty feet prints all over my pants and his gooey food covered hands all over me too. As well as his Batman figure using me like I was a building to climb. Then his mom took the child's gum out of his mouth and stuck it on the window sill of the bus. What a great thing to show him.
After 7 long hours on the bus we had come to the ferry terminal to cross over to Corfu. The ferries are pretty much the same as we remember them. Noisy, loud playing t.v's, smoke filled, although they do have a non-smoking area, but the smoke from the next room just billows in. There is no door to close between the two areas. The Greeks are very intense when they talk. Everywhere we go we think people are arguing, but they just talk loudly and are very passionate about what they say. There is still very little food available on the boats. We remembered this from last time and brought some of our own to snack on. We were surprised to see two young kids on the ferry with soothers. One of them had to be at least 4 and the other one looked even older. This seems to be common here as we saw many others during our stay in Greece.
Corfu is the 2nd largest Greek island. It has a population of about 115,000 thousand. It is also the greenest island with the nations highest rainfall. The landscape is full of cypress trees and olive groves. It is one of the major olive producers with over 4 million trees. Corfu town, population of 28,000, is situated between two fortresses on a peninsula. As we approached by ferry, it was an impressive site of the tall thin buildings along the shoreline. The towns architecture, culture and cuisine are a harmonious blend of Italian, French, and British with a contemporary Greek feel. It's very sophisticated and charming. The old Venetian mansions line the towns narrow alleyways. The Venetians left the most dominate cultural and architectural imprint on the island due to their long rule.
There is the Rue de Rivoli in a place called the Liston which is a line of old buildings with an arched arcade and promenade. It sits along an English style cricket ground. This is the area where the locals come out to watch and be watched. Starting at about 9pm every night, they get dressed to the nines to come and stroll the area. Even the little kids are smartly dressed. This town is as cosmopolitan as London, New York or any other trendy city of the like. We were amazed by the people here, it was almost like being dropped off in a town in the Twilight Zone. Everyone looked like models or movie stars. They seemed to be living a luxurious life with lots of money to have fancy cars and clothing. We are not sure how they get their money, there appeared to be very few places to work other than the shops and restaurants. Maybe they are all inherently wealthy. They must have great genetics to look so good as well. We read that the Greeks are just starting to grasp the concept of walking for pleasure, so exercise is not really popular.
As we were wandering around Corfu town we could hardly believe the amount of marble. It was used on everything, even sidewalks. The architecture of the buildings was spectacular. There were many chic boutiques, shops and restaurants. You had to really watch your pocket book here, your cash didn't go far. It felt more like Italy to us then Greece.
You really have to get used to the way of life in Greece. The locals don't start to eat their evening meal until at least 9pm, usually later, like 10 or even 11pm! If you try to eat out in a restaurant here earlier you may end up getting very indifferent service, or as we found they will tell you they are not serving food yet. We could hardly believe it when we would see old ladies that had to be pushing 80 out for dinner at 10 or 11pm with their families. At home most people this age have taken an exlax and gone to bed by 8pm. We got strange looks trying to eat at 7:30pm. The waiter asked if we would like to sit and enjoy some drinks first. We assumed the cook hadn't even shown up yet. They live a crazy lifestyle. We thought since they stay up so late, they must sleep in,but they don't. They start their day quite early. We were told the Greeks don't require much sleep. Probably due to the laid back way they conduct their lives. The motto of Greece is not to worry about work too much. A lot of businesses still close down in the middle of the day for Siesta. We noticed some places run an erratic schedule of opening and closing when ever they feel like it. Spending time with family and friends, great food and wine and enjoying life at a slow pace are what is important in Greece. They don't take life as seriously as we tend to do in North America.
Life is still simplistic here. There are no huge grocery stores, they are just starting to show up in the larger cities. Most places you still go to the morning market to get your fresh produce, the local bakery for your bread and to the fish market for your fish. The little business still exists, it hasn't been squashed by big box stores. We enjoyed seeing the bustle of the local market each morning. The farmers come in from the rural areas with the back of their trucks loaded with fresh fruits and veggies.
There are not a lot of options in Corfu town for accommodation. The few hotels available are 4 and 5 star. People tend not to stay in Corfu town and head straight for one of the beach resort areas. We managed to find one of the only low budget options. The building was quite old, but clean, and the owner was very pleasant. It was a bit warm at night as it had no air conditioning. We had great entertainment in the morning and evening. The man staying in the room next to us had the most incredible voice. We would start and end our day to his singing.
There is a well known place of accommodation on Corfu called the Pink Palace. It can hold over 1000 people at a time and is non-stop partying around the clock. Apparently even die hard partiers will have had enough of the place after a few days. The island is a popular spot for British tourists. It is a close escape for them to come to during their cold weather. You will see many of the resort areas catering to them with signs advertising English breakfast.
The prices to eat at the restaurants were a bit steep here so we opted to have what we thought would be a cheap meal at McDonald's one day. Even the McDonald's was a chic upscale establishment. It was in a beautiful Venetian building, the fanciest McDonald's we have ever seen. They had two floors, it was not very well designed. The top floor was non smoking, but it was open to the bottom floor so all the smoke floated upwards. For 2 regular fries and 2 Fillet O'fish, and no drinks, it came to $14 Canadian, ouch!
We decided to check out another part of what is deemed to be one of the most beautiful Greek islands. We had so many choices, there are dozens of beach areas to choose from. We picked a spot at the northwest end of the island. The island is not that big, you can easily take a day trip to any spot and be there by bus within an hour or two at the most. After passing by scenic views of cliff and ocean we arrived at the beach. We took a 1/2 hour boat ride out to see some of the nearby coves. This section of the island alone has over 15 beaches to choose from. We went past some spectacular rock formations as well. The water was so blue it didn't seem real. One rock formation has an area in front of it where light comes up from beneath. There is a circle of turquoise water that seems to be glowing. They call it the Blue Eye.
We had a nice dinner at a beach side restaurant. We had fresh grilled swordfish and Greek salad. Then it was time to take the bus back to Corfu town. We needed to book the ferry to Italy. We had a brochure of one of the ferry lines. You have 3 options for booking the boat. Deck class, which we found out that it means you literally stay out on the deck, you sleep there as well. Nothing is provided for you to sleep on. If you don't have anything you just lay on the deck surface. The next choice are seats, they are kind of like airline seats in rows in a small room. For the 3rd option you can shell out big bucks to have a cabin like on a cruise ship. We decided to book the airline seats. After the agent booked the tickets we felt something was not right. The price seemed less than we had been originally told. We went back to her and questioned the tickets. It's a good thing we did, she had sold us the deck class. We would not have been happy. We had no mats or blankets to sleep with. The boat was like a cruise ship. It had 2 restaurants, a casino, internet cafe, and a couple of small shops on board. Our sleep was interesting. People were trying to get comfortable in all kinds of positions in the airline chairs. A lot of them including us, ended up on the floor. We had some small travel pillows and used our towels and fuzzy jackets for blankets. Some people came well prepared, they had fold out cot beds and blankets. One couple was quite comfy in their full queen size blow up bed.
There was a second room with the airline seats. Thank goodness we weren't in there. It was like a college frat room, full of teenagers. We had to pass through it to get to our room. It had a horrible smell to it. It looked like a bomb went off in there due to the mess. In the morning it was full of passed out bodies all over the seats and floors, a lot of drinking went on during the night.
See you in Venice!
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