Corfu is often the first entry point for travelers into Greece, as it is the northernmost island that is closest to Italy. It is a long and painful ferry ride over from Brindisi or Bari (Brindisi, in my case).
The Pink Palace had a van pick you (and invariably other travelers) getting off the ferry to take you to what turns out to be the other side of the island. The island of Corfu is very big, and would take more than a few hours to drive around the perimeter.
The Pink Place at first glance is a very very nice hostel. It would better be termed a hotel or even a resort, as the rooms are just like any decent hotel. The Pink Palace is huge, and can accommodate something like 800 guests at peak season in August.
I arrived at the PP and went to the dinner that is provided every night (The fee for the palace is 25 euro per night but includes breakfast and dinner-a bargain, you might say, but you've never tasted dinners like this.). I met the Australian guy (Simon) that I had hung out with in Lisbon and Barcelona, and then Rome (funny how you run into the same people in different countries) and he was with another Australian guy, Tim, that he had met in Rome and a couple from Canada that they had also met. They were all beyond nuts! I have never met people that party as hard as they do.
The Pink Palace is run by unsavory characters, the owner is rumored to have been a member of the mafia in Greece. I kept my complaints to a minimum. They hire basically slave labor by paying their employees (mostly travelers who love the PP or who run out of money in Corfu) only 11 euro a day, and withhold their wages for 3 weeks before they are paid. They can pay illegally because, all their employees are of course illegal. Anyway, it's a pretty shady operation. They also have some confusing rule where you have to check out the previous night between like 5 and 8 pm or you have to stay for another night. This makes it so many people are staying a day longer than they would have liked.
Despite all these shortcomings, PP really draws in the crowd because it is the party destination on Corfu. Every night they have a happy hour and after that their dining hall turns into a dance club. This is really the only place to be since there is a real lack of nightlife on Corfu. They have Toga parties every Saturday night, something I missed since I wasn't there on Saturday, but heard there was a lot of wild fun that night.
Anyway, every night at the Pink Palace always degenerated into drinking games and then hard-core partying. After the Pink Palace club closed at 3 or so, the partying continued with the austrialians I was rooming with, Simon and Tim, and the two canadians as well. These guys were absolutely nuts. They did shots of sanbuca (a local liquor) that they lighted in their mouths before swallowing. They shaved off all their body hair in a drunken state. They drank so much that they would be drunk (not hungover, but DRUNK) at 10 am breakfast (brekkie in aussie). These things are just the tip of the iceberg. This is a family website, so these are the unedited activities. Ask me later for the juicy stuff!
Anyway, after a couple of days of this I needed to get out. They were fun, but nuts for me at 30 years old (acutally, probably anytime in my life). I decided to go to Athens on the night bus that the Pink Palace advertised, "Only direct route to Athens!, "Don't take a ferry, take the Bus!". The "Direct route" turned out to be 3 separate bus legs with 2 ferry rides in between. Gotta love that Pink Palace.