Greece - The Old Fortress & Corfu Township

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We struggled to get up and had to rush down to the bus stop at the far end of the shops. Thankfully the bus was also on Island time and arrived about 15 minutes late. We jumped on headed into Corfu Township on the east coast of the Island.

We had a walk along the waterfront and found a nearby café for brunch.
We wandered through the township and weaved our way through the narrow roads and alley ways between the tall, but very old buildings.

There were definitely resemblances between the old Corfu Township, and the old township on the hill that we had visited on Tuesday evening, but on a much glandular scale. There was such a sense of history in a place where pathways are still paved with stone and building look like they are older than quite possibly my country.

We made our way back to the waterfront and went to the Old Fortress on the eastern coastline.

This place was amazing. In the 14th Century the peninsula was converted into a fortress, which was occupied by the Venetians between 1386 and 1797.
During the 16th Century the peninsula was converted into an island by constructing a huge moat between the fortress and the main Island, unbelievable! The fortress was decommissioned in 1864, (while New Zealand was busy celebrating its 24th Birthday - inconsequently I’m 24 now!).

The top of the fortress provides really good views of Corfu Township and along the coastline, even across to mainland Greece. Needless to say, many photos were taken!

We had another wander back through the township, getting some postcards, a Greek CD, some lunch and a Greek flag to start my collection. I took the opportunity at lunch to write post cards back home.

Before we knew it, it was 3pm already and time to head back to the bus stop. We eventually found the post office and dropped off the postcards and headed back to the bus station. We were just in time catch the bus at 3.30pm, which was already pretty full.

We had a much deserved swim in the hotel pool for a while.
After a nice shower, we headed down to the shops about 8.30pm and had dinner at a nice Italian pizza restaurant over looking the water’s edge.

We went for a wander down to the far end of the shops and found an internet café so I could check out what is happening to my money transfer from New Zealand. We headed back to the hotel at 11pm and undertook our nightly routine of diary updating and book readying before going to bed at 12.30am.

The next day we treated ourselves to a nice sleep in till lunch time, apart from the rude awakening of the cleaning lady at 10.40am.

We had a dip in the pool to wake up, and made our way down to the beach. We decided to fork out for a 6EU beach umbrella to dry and give us some much needed shade and headed down the beach.

The ocean was still warm and clear, and well, salty. We sat in the water for quite a while before noticing two figures walking down the beach which we soon realised to be Kate and John. While they went off and had lunch, Leo and I indulged ourselves in the warming sunshine and inviting water.

After and hour or two, Kate and John meet us back at the beach and we all set off to our hotel in search for some decent shade and the chance to swim.

Before we knew it, it was 8.15pm, everyone else had vacated and the pool staff were waiting for us to leave (considering the pool was meant to close at 7.30).We retreated to our respective hotel rooms and made a rendezvous at a bar for 9pm.

After a quick get-ready we set off down to the main street to meet them. We wandered along looking for somewhere that would full all of our taste bud requirements, and found a nice little restaurant called Dimitri’s. Once again we were the last to leave.

We set off in search for a cocktail bar when we stumbled across ‘Al Pacino’s Cocktail Bar’.

It was quite a lively looking place that was largely open-air, set amongst large palm trees as an intermittent roof. We had some dazzling looking cocktails and enjoyed the atmosphere and tunes, thanks to the resident DJ.

We headed off down the road to try out the next cocktail bar. We found our selves in a place called Almyera that had a terraced type deck over looking the beach. After a while the waitress came and took our order and we treated ourselves to some warm chocolate brownies with ice-cream. YUM!

We noticed large flashes in the distance of the ocean. At first we thought it was someone’s camera flash, but the next time it happened we noticed it lit up the whole sky. Before long it started spitting and the large ‘camera flashes’ turn in to a beautiful show of lighting. We finished our drinks and headed to Stamatis to have our favourite cocktail and continued to watch the electrical storm. Before we knew it, it was 3am and decided to call it a night and head back to our hotel before the rain got heavy.

We had just got to bed before a series of loud thunder clamps came right over us. It was incredibly loud. Eventually everything calmed down and we got to sleep around 4am.

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Photos

Hanz - The Old Fortress
Built during the 14th Century!

Corfu Township
An openning between the narrow pathways and tall buildings

Corfu Township
with the 'new fortress' in the distance' (middle left edge)

Corfu Waterfront
not quite the 'City of Sail's'

Al' Pacino's Cocktail Bar
Leo, Hanz, Kate, John