"We're gonna destroy Corfu!"

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-more like it destroyed us.


Now where was I?

The four of us parted ways as Steve, Sas and I planned our Greek Island adventures, with Steve heading towards the Cyclades in the Aegean and Sas and myself heading for Corfu in the Pleiades which was on the way to Italy. Our decision saved me from a night camping on the beach near the port in Athens, but as far as I know, Steve still did it on his own.

We packed up, ate a tasty spaghetti dinner which Seb cooked up, picked up our giant backpacks and headed towards the Athens metro - without any Greek translators this time. We had to make our way to the Hostel Aphrodite to meet the Pink Palace Express bus which would bring us across the country and directly to our hostel, and included a night's stay once there. We found the hostel without too much incident and with the friendly aid of the neighborhood perripteros before we figured out how to read the street signs. Reception informed us that there would only be four of us making the trip, and since it was overnight, we should head to the supermarket and pick up some food supplies for dinner on the bus. This was the beginning of our downfall.

We went to the grocery store, picked up the necessities: water, beer, bread, cheese and meat - the latter with a little bit of difficulty at the deli counter, and headed back to wait for the bus anticipating the tasty sandwiches we would be eating in the comfort of an empty greyhound, and hoping to share our six-pack with the other passengers thus igniting lasting friendships. We met the other two passengers: two girls from B.C. Hilary and Marit, who seemed a little tired so we left them alone, and proceeded towards the bus. We were thinking we lucked out huge since we'd have the whole bus to ourselves and might be allowed to bring our packs onboard, but upon meeting the bus, the surly driver immediately ordered us to stow everything in the luggage hold - including our beloved sandwich ingredients 😞

Ever the optimists we complied and managed to smuggle some powerbars onboard and settled into the last rows of the bus for the night journey. A little drive through the outskirts of Athens and we were headed cross-country. We didn't really mix with the girls, they did look tired, so we just chatted and napped. At some point in the night we passed by this beautiful bridge lit up in blue and white and to our surprise the bus drove onto a ferry. We were very confused because we were nowhere near the port of Igoumenitsa which would lead us to Corfu, and even more confused when we realized the bus could have taken the bridge, but took the ferry to avoid a bridge toll. It's odd how taking a boat across water can be more economical than driving ACROSS A BRIDGE! Makes no sense, but then again, you just shrug your shoulders and go on.

We reached the Igoumenitsa port around 3am, too early to take the ferry, so the driver shut everything down and we sat until he got up thirty minutes later and shooed us off the bus. He gave each of us a ticket and we warily boarded this ferry while hoping he wasn't going to drive away with our packs.

Having woken up a bit, Hilary and Marit talked to us and we told each other the gist of our respective journeys and decided to stick together, and after a little bit of talk, passed out cold on the lounge banquettes. Two hours flew by and I woke up to Marit telling me she couldn't wake up Sasan but the ferry was docking so I should take care of it. I have to say, all it took was a little tapping of the shoulder and he got up, but in hindsight, waking up Sas might merit a swift spin-kick to the face :P Anyways we made our way back to the bus and got on and, knowing our everlasting journey was almost over, tried to sleep a little bit.

Upon arriving at the Pink Palace at 6am we all groggily made our way to the lobby only to be greeted with "HEYYYYY CANADIANS!!!" and a little swarm of strange-looking people came up and started asking us what part of the country we were from and all kinds of other strange questions. We sat down at a table as the bartender came to take care of us, and we realized the group were the remains of the night before's toga party. People in pink togas, some apparently legendary little asian guy, the weirdest-looking silent guy you've ever seen who turned out to be the cook and some random Canadians. Someone insisted we drink our complimentary pink ouzos immediately and we got a little orientation session after downing one of my most hated of drinks: Ouzo! Reception finally woke up and checked us in around 7am and we decided to skip the complimentary breakfast in favour of sleep. Having arrived in Corfu during the dark hours of the night, we really didn't know whether it would be good or not, but as the american-drawling reception girl led us out back towards our room punctuating every second word with a "y'all," we got the most breathtaking view of the mountain valley and we headed towards our quite nice hostel room. It was really almost like a hotel, but yes, sleep was the first thing on the agenda. Waking up, we decided to make a meal of the night before's bread, meat and cheese. Innocently. Not a wise decision because I'm pretty sure we gave ourselves mild food poisoning. Anyways we ate on our private balcony overlooking this lush green mountain valley and the ocean.

We were anxious to explore so we hit the beach, and the water was freezing but we decided to walk down and take it all in. Sas boldly went into the water whereas I had to warm up to it, but it was a beautiful bit of water, all marble pebbles and multicoloured stones leading to sandy seabed. After a while I noticed a tiny footpath leading into the forested end of the beach which ended in rocky cliffs, so we decided to explore and I must say, that decision redeemed our other bad decision as after a little trek in our bathing suits and flip flops through a rocky forested cliffside we were treated to an incredible view from say... 80 feet high? Beautiful! We tried following it to its end, but it got all choked up with spiny greenery so we headed back. Then we walked back and jumped into the huge waves playing in front of the hostel property.

After a shower and another little meal of the rest of the bread cheese and meat, (stupid, stupid, stupid!!) we headed to dinner which was served at 8:45pm and fed the whole of the hostel clientele, which they put at 60 people as it was the low season although during high season (July-August), capacity is something like 1800. The Pink Palace has been described as summer camp for adults - alcohol, debauchery, all the good stuff, and it most definitely fits that description. They have moped and ATV rentals, sea kayaks, beach volleyball, table tennis, a booze cruise, toga parties, and a big disco that they were renovating for high season. We sat at dinner with the B.C. girls at a round table and the workers served us our meals. None of us were very keen on drinking that night and for some reason I couldn't shake this chilled feeling. I chalked it up to fatigue, and was sorry I was being sucky and sent Sas to make friends at the bar after dinner.

The morning after a rough night's sleep, where even Sas didn't stay out to make friends, we slept through breakfast and then some again. The bread, meat and cheese was long gone but its effects would reverberate throughout the rest of our stay in Corfu. Nonetheless, we had planned to take out ATVs into the mountains with the girls from B.C. and after finding them, went through the motions of renting and learning to use the 4-wheelers. We went up through the olive groves into the hills and it was a lot of fun. We'd go up fun little rugged lanes and stop at scenic spots. We saw of note, a snake, an old lady and a donkey, clouds crossing our mountain path and lots of flowers and olives, among the different views of beaches, coves, valleys and villages. Twas pretty. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Aerosomething and were sad to find out that our appetites were dead. It had a nice view though. Back to the hostel for a long sleep before dinner and a hopeful attempt at making friends at the bar that night was killed after dinner because there was just no energy and our bodies were angry at us.

The next morning, things were looking a tiny bit better, we had planned to take out a sea kayak but as it was too choppy out, so we opted to just veg at the beach. The beach was nice, we met up with the B.C. girls who were leaving that night, and had lunch on the beach. A new group of people had arrived that morning and we sat with some of them at dinner, but were lacking in sociability, but determined to make the most of our stay, we both made it up past 9:30pm and went out looking for a wireless internet connection. We didn't find that, but what we did find was, again, breathtaking, as fireflies flitted around the grecian villas. Remembering this bit from the early-morning orientation, we ditched the laptop and headed to the beach with the camera to photograph all these fireflies. However you can't photograph fireflies so we just sat on the beachfront patio and made the best of our last night on the Greek Island of Corfu. We even had this one six-pack of Amstel beers that just wouldn't go away: we couldn't drink it, and we couldn't give them away and they made the trip to Brindisi with us, and then to Firenze with Sas.

Check-out time at the Pink Palace is 9am so after packing and checking out, we left our packs in their luggage room and headed for the beach again. We spent a few hours sleeping on the lounge chairs before giving in to the incredible sunshine and heat and changed into bathing suits for some fun in the sun! Too bad sunscreen didn't make it out of the packs too, but my sunburn faded to a nice tan, so I can't complain too much. We did end up spending about six hours in the sun on the beach before heading into town for a last couple of gyros and a plate of tzatziki and then catching the local bus to the main port town of Kerkyra.

We had met a couple of guys from B.C. while checking out in the morning, Max and Geoff, and found out that they were making the same ferry journey as us overnight to Italy. We ended up meeting them again at the port in Kerkyra and spent the whole 5 hours killing time with them while waiting for the ferry to come in. We played this cool drawing game and they were very excited when I produced coloured markers to add to the monotony of the black pen they were using. They also watched our packs as Sas and I headed for one last gyros dinner in Greece (gyros snacks don't count). I spent a bunch of time wasting the minutes on the Greek phone card I had bought that afternoon on the payphone talking to anyone who was awake in Toronto, and then we just waited for the shuttle that was to take us to the new port and our ferry. It came a good 45 minutes late, but as the ferry was late too, it was ok, and in the meantime, we made friends with an Aussie girl named Anne and an American man. The six of us then stuck together until Brindisi.

We slept in the cafeteria lounge of the ferry on the cushioned banquettes as all the others on the ship were in use by various truckers and such. The journey was to last from 1am to about 6am and some of us chose to sleep in shifts to watch the packs. It got freezing cold overnight and by morning we were all bleary-eyed, chilled and more than a little tired. Alas the Amstels which we had planned to drink, yet again, stayed in their package and weighed us down a little longer yet.

Morning in Italy: We rushed to get on the shuttle from the port to.. somewhere else and then walked all the way to the train station that would take Sas to Firenze, Max, Geoff and Anne to Napoli, and myself to Reggio Emilia. The American Man went back to his hotel in Brindisi. The next few hours consisted of a bit of confusion regarding what trajectory to take, sleeping on the train station benches, being irked by the schoolkids and being confronted for our passports by the Carabinieri which was my first instance of having my last name recognized!! - in a good way. 😊 Sas and I ended up taking the train together most of the way, but we mostly slept. It was relatively scenic as the train's route hugged the Adriatic Coastline. We racked up a bit of a delay so Sas missed his train connection but we hurriedly said ciao in Bologna and went our separate ways.

After utterly failing at making outbound calls on my cellphone on the train, and missing several phone calls, a little bit of panic started to tug at me, but as a last resort I text messaged an italian number from which I had missed a call with my train info and my cousin Annarita called me back to my extreme relief! My dad and uncle picked me up at the station in Reggio Emilia and whisked me to my aunt's house where my cousin met us and I was regaled with an amazing dinner, beer, wine, and my uncle's vow to pretty much cure my cough with Sambuca. I can't get away from it now, I have to take a shot before bed and upon awakening. It's gross! It's my new most hated drink! Anyways, sleeping in my own room on a queen-sized bed with every little thing I could want taken care of was an amaaaaazing difference from the night before's sucky ferry sleep and attempt at sleeping on the train. Italy's pretty cool, though Brindisi was only ok. I just keep saying that I'm from the North and I'm sure it's much more beautiful there. I have high expectations.

Next Part: Italian Adventures!
Ciao!

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Photos

agios gordios beach
from the end

barrel
it was just lying up in the hills and looked all artsy..