Hitting Our Stride in Corfu

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  Corfu Town, Ionian Islands, Greece
Friday, April 18, 2008

Today we made port in Corfu Town, Corfu: rumored "party central" of the Ionians. And, despite it being the off season, it was quite large and bustling compared to our previous stops. We all woke up feeling great and ready to hit the town, but Patrick and I were a but slower getting up so we set off on our own. It was about a half-mile walk into town (Old Town, not the crappy new part) from the docks, so we stopped for a coffee along the way and consulted my guide book, which was chock-full of recommendations for this happenin' city - food, sites, map, the works. Our first stop was the New Fortress, built by the occupying Venetians in the late 1500s. Once you conquer a city, you don't want anyone else taking it away, right?? I must give Patrick points on this one; I was ready to skip it in favor of the Old Fortress across town, based on what my guide book had to say, but Patrick insisted we check it out first. And man was he right! For 3 euro each, we got to run around our own giant deserted castle!! It was huge, full of winding passages, dim drippy caverns, crenelated ramparts (best phrase ever), rickety iron ladders, and sweeping views of the city. Wowwie. We took tons of great pictures and could have explored for hours, and almost got lost a few times, especially since there was NO supervision or blocked off areas to speak of. Fun fun fun! But we had to tear ourselves away to see the rest of the city.
Off we headed to the Old Fortress, and conveniently ran into Nate, Val and fellow cruiser/adopted grampa Joel to schedule a lunch meet up. Sadly, the Old Fortress paled in comparison to the New one, being mostly a big, deteriorated hunk of stone buildings that you could climb to the top of (it was first started in the 600s). But it still had some great views, and was worth going up for comparison.
After all that walking, we were ready to meet up with the other kids for lunch on the waterfront, which was quite tasty and included more than a couple beers. *Fun Greek Factoid: The only beers you can get here are Amstel, Heineken and the "local verison" Mythos. They all taste exactly the same, and aren't much to write home about (well, other than to make fun of them like I'm doing now). However, the more Mythos I drank during the trip, the tastier it seemed to get..but that was probably just because I forgot what delicious NW microbrews tasted like. (Confirmed after the trip: that's exactly what happened)
After lunch, we all headed to the old town shopping district, bustling even in the off season. Blocks and blocks of little shops selling olive soap, cheesy souvenirs, olive wood products, lemonchello, jewelry, aaaaand repeat over and over every 3 shops. It was fun though, since we hadn't been in a town big enough to do the tourist shopping thing yet. Soon enough it was time to trek the mile back to the boat for afternoon siesta (well deserved after all the walking we did).
When evening fell, we headed out on a mission to a recommended Italian restaurant from my guidebook. The zigzagging Old Town streets soon got me disoriented, and the hard-to-find/read street signs didn't help. We wandered around quite a while, stumbled on a hip store opening street party w/ snacks and DJ, and were about to give up when a couple locals pointed us in the right direction (read: down the right tiny alley we'd never have thought to look down). And man, this restaurant was the place to be! The waiter took our name and said a spot should open up after 11 (ah, greece), so we headed to a little bar, grabbed a beverage and waited for about 45 minutes. Back to the restaurant, we had delightful pasta dinners all around, wandering home full and exhausted at 12:30. Go Corfu! If you ever happen to be in Greece or Italy (Maribel, I'm looking at you), definitely hop a ferry to Corfu Town for a weekend of beaches, partying and moped-ing around the island!

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