The Island of Corfu

Although 9am is a little early after a night out on the town, everyone was excited for our trip to the island of Corfu!  The second largest and the greenest Ionian island, the island of Corfu is located just off the West coast of Greece.  It was Homer’s “beautiful and rich land”, and Odysseus’ last stop on his journey home to Ithaki.

We made a quick pit stop around 10:30am for a bathroom break and a chance for everyone to get some food.  I got a chocolate muffin to eat there, and a ham, cheese, and tomato sauce pastry for later.  To get there, all 50 of us plus chaperones/ program leaders piled onto a giant charter bus and set out for the 4 hour trek through the mountains.  Literally though, we drove through the mountains, as in we went through tunnels inside the mountains.  I've never seen anything like it before.  Although I slept through most of it, I was awake enough to catch a glimpse of the incredible views and to read some (I've started reading "The Help").

Once we arrived at the port of Igoumenitsa, we then had another 1 1/2 ferry ride to get to the island.  I've never been on a ferry before, so that was another new experience for me.  The bus drove onto the back of the ferry, and the gates closed and we immediately took off.  I stayed on top of the boat the entire time and enjoyed the perfect weather and even more perfect views.

At around 3:30pm, we had finally arrived on Corfu!  It took a while for this massive bus to navigate through the tiny streets; there were some times I was convinced there was no way we would make it around such a sharp corner.  The hotel we stayed at was called "Corfu Holiday Palace" and was 5 stars!  It was nice to be pampered in such a nice place, even if it was just for the weekend. 

We somehow ended up a bit ahead of schedule, so there was some time to go to the beach before dinner.  From our hotel, you took the elevator down to -2 floor (SO weird that they do that here!) which was by the pool, and from there you had to take another elevator down the side of a mountain to get to the beach.  It was super tiny so it was a little scary, but still cool.  Unlike the beach at Halkidiki, this beach did have some real sand, but in the sand were much bigger rocks, making it painful to walk on.  We laid our towels out and jumped in; the water was cold and felt amazing on my sweaty, hot skin.  Just like last time, no sea creatures here!  Only lots of sea weed and a few schools of teeny-tiny fish.  Jade and I only swam around for a few minutes before we went back to lay out and I kept reading.  It was such a relaxing evening.  I went back inside a little early so I would have enough time to shower and get ready before dinner.
Dinner was served on the -1 floor on the hotel, and was a buffet style meal.  There was a salad/cheese/deli meat bar, a main course area, and a desserts area; I usually filled up one plate from each area so I could try a little bit of everything.  Because Corfu is in between Greece and Italy, it has a lot of Italian influence, which means there was lots of yummy pasta (something that is not very prevalent in the traditional Greek meal).

9pm meant it was time to load up on the bus to take us all downtown to shop and explore.  We were in such a quaint little town and it was so cute all lit up at night.  I believe the town was called Corfu Town, but I'm not positive.  We shopped around for a few hours before the whole group met up at a cafe/ bar for drinks.  A few of us wanted to stay out even later, so we went to this club called Drops that was right on the port and had a great view at night.  (If you haven't noticed a common theme, you can get a great view almost anywhere in Greece!)  It was super packed but a lot of fun.
Lots of educational adventures on the schedule for tomorrow!