|
  | |  |
Under the weather
Entry 13 of 27 | show all | print this entry |
|
Loving Corfu, despite still feeling sick.
Yesterday, we decided to go to the beach. We missed the bus from the hotel by about a minute, so we took a cab into town. After a quick bite of lunch, we caught the "green bus" to the beach. This as opposed to the "blue bus" which runs from the hotel. Public transit in Greece is certainly an experience. Everything runs on "ish-time", so you never really know when a bus is going to show. And none of the stations or stops are clearly marked. Anyway, we finally made it to Glyfada Beach, only about three hours after leaving the hotel, but wow was it ever worth it! Soft white sand, clear blue water, a nice breeze to mitigate the heat... actually, it was a bit more than a breeze - the wind was so strong at some points, it kept knocking the sun umbrellas over.
Last night, we had one of the most fun optionals so far on the tour - dinner and Greek dancing. The dinner wasn't great but the dancing was fun. One dance was in a ring of fire with throwing plates and everything. We did some line dancing and there was a potato one where the couple that went the longest without dropping the potato from between their foreheads won. A lot of the dancing reminded me of the hora - very inclusive. There was a photographer snapping pictures and selling them back to us for outrageous prices, but I got one anyway.
Today I woke up in pain, with what I am fairly certain is an ear infection. I found out, though, that prescription drugs are available over the counter in Greece. It was weird. Elie and I caught a cab ride into town to find a pharmacy. We got a friendly cabbie, who chatted with us about the time he'd lived in Canada and the U.S. and he drove around looking for an open pharmacy for us, going out of his way to help. It's really nice meeting someone extra friendly and helpful when you need them. Anyway, we found a pharmacy and I just pointed to the antibiotics with the same name as what I would get at home for an ear infection, and the pharmacist just sold them to me. Just like that. It felt a little strange, but I don't have access to a doctor and I've had enough ear infections to know what they feel like, so here's hoping this will do the trick.
Otherwise, today was fairly uneventful. Almost everyone went on the caique cruise optional (aka "George's Boat") but I didn't feel up to it so I slept in instead. I spent a couple of hours wandering around town. From the stories I heard about the cruise, I'm sorry I missed it, but I needed to relax and recover today.
A few observations about Greece so far:
-The mosquitoes are everywhere. Last night alone I got over a dozen bites. They itch like crazy.
-"Ish" time makes planning a schedule very challenging, to say the least.
-Toilets you can't throw toilet paper into are everywhere in the country. Something to do with how the plumbing system was constructed.
-The people are very friendly and laid-back.
-The moped seems to be the favoured mode of transportation. A few people from our tour rented them today to go exploring, despite warnings about how dangerous they are. Hell, driving a car around here doesn't seem to be that much safer to me.
-This is the first country we've been to that not only has a different language, but an entirely different alphabet. I can't even sound out the letters! Luckily, most places, people speak English. It feels like cheating to not even try to speak the local language, but I'm at a total loss when I can't sound things out.
I'm still feeling pretty sick so I'm off to sleep. Hope that this update finds all of you well, and that my next update will find me feeling better.
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by segacs, from Greece or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
