Greece
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2005
1
14
16
Trip End
May 24, 2006
Corfu,
Greece
Monday, May 22, 2006
Greece
Finally I got my courage back and decided to travel down from Bulgaria and into Greece. What an amazing, beautiful place. It was about 12 hours from Sofia to Athens, and every hour I could see the plants changing from continental European forest to Mediterranean scrub, palm trees, and even to desert plants sometimes. Athens is a crazy place. The bus dropped us off at this random lot between city buildings somewhere in what looked like a downtown area. Hmmm... what should I do? I had an address for some hotel but no idea how to get there. I asked somebody from the bus company in mixed Bulgarian/English if they knew where the street was but they just told me to take a taxi. I hopped in a taxi and asked how much he would charge for my luggage and pickup etc. but he just told me to get in
that happened?
. Well about 4 minutes later we were on the right street, I saw the hotel, we stopped with the meter reading 1 euro 75 cents. He hit this magical button and the meter read 3 euro 50 and then he tells me that will be 6 euros, you know, luggage charge. Ok... so I show him my wallet and tell him I have just enough cash for my hotel room and then just a bunch of change to give him for the taxi ride. He says how much, I say here's 3.20 in change he says whatever. Cheats.One day was plenty for me in Athens. I saw the Acropolis, ate some souvlaki (a gyro), wandered this really nice, lush park, saw the original Olympic stadium, and went down to the beach. Enough... then I raced back to my hotel, picked up my luggage, ran down the streets of Athens looking for some other hostel from which a bus was leaving at 8 pm for the island of Corfu. Every block I walked the people looked darker and scarier. Glad I didn't stay in that hostel. Well I was late for the bus but they called the driver and he and the 20 other kids waited for me. I think I actually enjoy being late for some reason.
6 am after a long tiring bus ride, a surreal and dark ferry ride, and a dawn trip through the mountains and forests of Corfu we arrive at the Pink Palace, this hostel hotel thing in the middle of nowhere. I swear it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The weather was perfect and everyone is there just to have fun. Not to show off their money or fancy clothes, but just to have fun. When they checked us into the hotel at 7 am of course all we wanted to do was sleep but instead they hand out a cup full of ouzo to everyone. Though drinking was the last thing on my mind since I felt so crappy from the bus ride it actually hit the spot
toga party at the pink palace
. The Pink Palace is mostly full of Americans doing study abroad programs in Europe, and also Canadian young people doing their summer traveling. I met this guy from New Zealand named Chris and we wandered around chatting to people a lot. They had this toga party that night and I remember seeing girls crying because no guys were talking to them... there were these hired Greek guys in costume doing traditional dances and breaking plates on peoples' heads. That was really cool and the music was really cool with some stringed instrument playing really loud on the speakers.
Chris and I hired some four wheelers to cruise the island on which was really cool. These quads were street legal so we checked out beaches and lakes and mountains and stopped at this restaurant with only one woman working in it and only one thing on the menu (souvlaki). It was really good and we got stuffed on lamb and sauce and salad while the lady drank her coffee at the next table.
The island of Corfu is like 30 miles long and about 7 or 8 wide and is up near the border between Greece and Albania. I remember looking across the little bay that separates Corfu from the mainland and seeing some high snow-capped plateaus
View out the window on Corfu
. This is while it is 85 or 90 degrees down on the seacoast. There were actually some waves on the Pink Palace side (west side) of the island, enough to body surf. The water is a perfect blue, and there's lots of coves, rocks, and cliffs to explore. The first day Chris and I went out with kayaks and wiped ourselves out by plowing straight into the wind. I found a little cave to take my kayak into which was cool.Corfu is a really nice place and the Pink Palace is a really good place to go for a couple of days.
