Achilleion Palace

Full-sized beds in an air conditioned, 5-star hotel after two weeks of sleeping on a twin in an un-air conditioned apartment are probably the most comfortable place ever.  When my alarm went off this morning, the last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed, but I was excited for the day.  And after the amazing dinner last night, I was also excited to check out the breakfast buffet.  Spoken like a true fat kid.  I was, however, slightly disappointed.  There was no milk (I can't tell you the last time I had breakfast without milk), the scrambled eggs were weird looking and mushy, and the bacon was more like undercooked ham.  I also had pancakes, sunny-side-up eggs, and some breakfast muffin/cake things that were all delicious, so I suppose it made up for it.

10am was time to load up the bus and get going, which is always an adventure with 50 plus people.  Apparently some students thought the trip was optional and chose not to come, which I think a mistake.  The day consisted of a tour of Achilleion, which is a palace built in Corfu by Empress of Austria Elisabeth of Bavaria, also known as  Empress Sisi.  According to our itinerary, "Elisabeth was a woman obsessed with beauty, and very powerful, but tragically vulnerable since the loss of her only son.  A year later in 1890, she built a summer palace in the region of Gastouri (Γαστούρι), now the municipality of Achilleion, about ten kilometres to the south of the city of Corfu.  The palace was designed with the mythical hero Achilles as its central theme.  Elisabeth spoke Greek better than any of the Greek queens that were her contemporaries and she expressed a desire to further immerse herself in the Greek culture”.  Her obsession with beauty was definitely visible throughout the grounds.

We started on the inside of the palace and worked our way to the gardens in the back.  There is no way to fully express the beauty of this place, even the pictures don't do it justice.  If I had to try, I would say that the place was full of incredible artwork, priceless statues, intricate details, amazing architecture, luscious greens, and some serious views.  I really tried to pay attention to our tour guide, but I kept getting distracted and staring at something else that was unbelievably gorgeous.  I took quite a few pictures today, but these are just a few of my favorites.

We got done with our tour of the palace around 1pm, and then headed downtown for a tour of the city center.  Our guide gave us some background on the buildings and the history of the town, most of which I wasn't paying attention to because I thought I was going to melt it was so hot.  We then went to a traditional Greek Orthodox church.  Because almost all of the girls were wearing shorts and tanks, things which aren't allowed and actually considered offensive in churches here, we had to enter through the back and weren't allowed to look at all of the rooms.  There was so much silver hanging from the ceilings, the entire ceiling was covered in frescoes depicting the miracles Jesus performed, and the architecture was beyond intricate; it was so beautiful it was almost gaudy.  We had a few minutes of free time to grab some lunch before our bus headed back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, I had planned to take a short nap before heading down to relax by the pool and hang out by the beach.  That being said, my nap somehow turned into almost 4 hours.  No idea how I was that exhausted, but I woke up feeling great.  By that time, I had to get ready so we could head downstairs for dinner.  A few different options at the buffet this time, all of it still fantastic.  Same as last night, 9pm meant time to load up the bus to head downtown for a night out.  We all went souvenir shopping for about two hours when we met back up to gather for drinks.  It was a short walk over to this place called Amaze where we hung out literally right by where the tide was washing up on the shore.  The place was awesome, but being so close to the sea was not good for my hair haha.

Stop #2 was a place on the other side of the island called Au Bar.  The locals said it was the best club on the island, but our group was pretty much the only one there at the time.  It was 3am before any locals showed up!  We danced the night away and had a blast.  So fun, yet so exhausting.  This American girl just can't keep up.

So many pictures today :) Heading back "home" to Thessaloniki tomorrow!