| Erin's Corfu Journals 4-30-02 Our arrival in Igoumenitsa at 7am was preceded by really early wakeup calls by the crew. I had intended to sleep through Igoumenitsa and wake around 8am for a 9am arrival in Corfu, but was awakened by the heat in our berth and the loud wakeup calls & immediate cleaning activities of the crew, so I slipped upstairs to see the port and ended up getting a beautiful sunrise view for my first sight of Greece. The mountains seemed to rise straight out of the sea, and the dawn was a gorgeous hue in pink & baby blue. I even went down and woke Glenn to come and see it. We said goodbye to Nick & Laura, who were getting off there to take a bus to Athens that morning, then went back downstairs for another hour of sleep before departing the boat at Corfu. Caroline met us as we were getting ready to leave the boat, and was staying at the same place, so we chatted and sat together. We were met by a bus from the Pink Palace, which took us to the other side of the island to the hotel. Corfu is absolutely gorgeous, and even before arriving, I was happy to be there. The Pink Palace was such a welcome change from all the hostels and 1 star hotels that I was practically splitting my face open from grinning so hard! We had an awesome view from our room, and the room itself was luxurious in comparison, with its private bath and shower with real water pressure and hot water, as well as a shower door to keep the water from wetting the entire bathroom each time we bathed! What luxury! We quickly changed into beach clothes and headed down the hill to the shore to explore. The beach was perfect, with lots of nice soft sand to lie on and gorgeous clear water (although cold). There was also a beach volleyball tournament going on, so we got to watch some good playing and Glenn even got to join in on a pick-up game in the afternoon. His favorite sport! We stayed down on the beach most of the afternoon, joined by Caroline and our two other new friends whom we'd met on the bus from the port, Corella and Angie. After going back uphill and cleaning up, we all joined up again in the dining room for the buffet dinner, which was huge and very good. After dinner, we sat around in the dining area chatting with other guests, admiring the island and the place. All of us were wishing we could stay indefinitely, and some of us were seriously considering taking a job there, as most of the staff was comprised of English-speaking travelers who'd come and found they couldn't bear to leave. Finally around midnight, we said goodbye to Caroline, who was leaving early the next morning to fly to Athens and then on to Switzerland. We fell asleep smoky but happy. |
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| My jealous-making pictures: here's the view from our room! |
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| Glenn serves up a great game, impressing the tournament players! |