Corfu & Albania

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Our trip around Greece has finally come to an end. We managed to get to Corfu with some difficulty, having to go over to the mainland and then a 2hr boat ride from Igounomitsa. We arrived at Corfu town late, and our choice of where we were going to go on the island was pretty much made up for us as there was only one bus after 5pm and that was to Sidari. We did have vague notions of getting jobs here, but to be honest we had some real problems with our accommodation - they thought we wanted to stay 3 nights, we only wanted one (was an awful place!) and so effectively, we got chucked out. Decided therefore to go somewhere a bit quieter, and ended up at Cassiopi on the northern tip of Corfu overlooking Albania. It was a really pretty harbour town, with enough nightlife to keep us going (although pretty confined to karaoke bars and places that refuse to play a record made after 1980).

We weren't sure how long to stay in Corfu as the weather wasn't great and so there wasn't a whole lot to do! But we ended up staying quite a while as we wanted to do two excursions. The first was to..... Aqua Land the waterpark. Not very traveller-esque, but we wanted some fun and we got it! Along with some sunburn.

The other thing we did which was really interesting, was to go to Albania for the day. We went to the town of St. Saranda which we could see from Cassiopi. It was really interesting to go to a 'proper' Eastern European country, i.e. one not quite as dependent on tourism as somewhere like Greece. It was a town of contrasts - the promenade was really nice, with smart bars and cafes. The back streets were much more what you'd expect from an ex-communist country, a bit delapidated and full of tower blocks. We did see some pretty cool stuff, including a bustling market, complete with buy your own live chickens to kill yourself, some guy diving for seafood and also some Albanian dancing in a bar (private party so we couldn't join in!) We also had a great lunch for the wonderful price of 2 pounds a pizza and 75p a pint. We both felt surprised at the place, in that it was much more cosmopolitan than we were expecting. It's not really got any tourism so we had the fun job of doing things like pointing and waving, and deciphering menus! Almost like what Greece must have been before tourism took over.

We have left Greece now, after doing 8 of the major islands and day trips to 2 more as well as the mainland. It's been fun, but we were ready to leave. We're in Italy now (after a full 24 hours travelling including 8 on an overnight boat that we nearly weren't allowed on!) and are in the Puglia region in a town called Vieste. We'll write more on that when we're not so tired and have actually done something!

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