First Day In Corfu

Today has been a long day and we have packed a lot into it. It is times like this when you realise what a big country Australia is, and what a small continent Europe is with so many countries in it.....

This morning we were up and getting ready in our hotel room in Rome at just after 3am. We checked out, and picked up the breakfast boxes from reception that the hotel had kindly put together for us, and we made our way to the bus airport transfer stop about 10 minutes away.

Let me tell you Rome does not look its best at 4am around the Rail Station.....lots of homeless people asleep on and under cardboard, prostitutes either trying to pick up or in the process of conducting business, drunks making their way home or to the next bar, and the constant smell of urine through the streets..the highlight was walking past what appeared to be an mostly male filled night club with the Village People's YMCA blasting out.....hmmm, Police Academy and The Blue Oyster Bar comes to mind.

Within a few minutes we were on the bus. Half an hour later we were at Ciampino Airport checking in. Our flight left at 6:30am and just under one and a half hours we were in Corfu...gees for that flying time back home I would still be on the plane flying from Melbourne to Brisbane.

One problem...when we got to the airport our prepaid ride to the apartments was not there. After a few phone calls and about an hour later (after everyone else had left the airport) we were eventually picked up by our organised driver to take us to the apartments in Perama. Wow, somebody got out of bed on the wrong side, he obviously did not want to be driving anybody anywhere...he soon decided he did not know where to take us so he was on the phone to head office abusing them. So we jumped into the mini bus and headed off in the direction of Perama, within 15 minutes we were driving past our apartment...STOP...he looked bewildered as we explained that we had just passed our destination. No reversing back or turning around for this guy, he just got out opened the door for us and put our bags on the roadside....now that's what I call service...lol....it was just as well that he only overshot the apartment by about 30 metres.

Where we are staying has the most amazing views. Our window looks across to a little island called Mouse Island, and further across the Ionian Sea to the mainland of Greece, quite stunning. Now you may have heard the expression "In life it is give and take" well, we understand that meaning staying here.....we have got the most amazing views, but.........Mouse Island is under the flight path for the airport (forget Train Spotting, one could spend a great day here Plane Spotting) and we face one onto the main road for north south traffic and that noise is constant.....hmmmm, Tranquility vs Noise....The great thing is we have access to the whole area across the road, the cafe, the hotel, the pool, the beach (of sorts, lots of pebbles and a concrete platform) etc. and it is quite a bit quieter over there, and we will be using it a lot.

The View To Mouse Island

View Over To XXX and.....The Runway!!

SPEAK UP I CANNOT HEAR YOU.......

What We would Call A Concrete Slab, They Call A Beach

Another plus we have is that we have a great little cafe/bar across the road that sells really great food, also the staff are very friendly which adds to the whole experience of eating there. So we had lunch and dinner there....we will go exploring tomorrow and see what else is on offer in the area.

Cafe Pontikonisi

No Street Noise Here

Now That's A Cold Beer

I think that we overdid dinner, we ordered a Variety Platter for two, what a great selection of really tasty Greek foods, it was like a big plate of Greek Tapas...yum! However there was one problem with it....it was just too much we could not get through it all.

A Great Selection Of Greek Foods

Then about 8pm all of the power went out in the area, we decided to stay in the bar until it came back on as what is the point of sitting in a dark apartment. Just after 9pm we were just too tired so we went back to our dark apartment...10 minutes later the power was back..oh, well time to sleep anyway.

My highlight of the day was when I took a walk down to the nearest grocery store to buy some fresh fruit and water. It took 10 minutes to get to this little store that had a good selection of goods for its size, the best thing was the freshness of all of the fruit and vegetables. Anyway I picked up a big shopping bag of fruit and six large bottles of sparkling water, when I paid the friendly old man who owned the store looked very concerned when he gave me the change...he asked me how far I had to go carrying all of this? I told him it was a short 10 minute walk away, no problems at all. Well, he obviously felt it was too far and insisted he give me a ride back to the apartment on the back of the scooter.....ahh what the heck!! So with the water bottles at his feet, me on the back with the bag of shopping, no helmets, off we went .... In hindsight I don't think our travel insurance would have actually covered me if anything had happened though!!!

10 minutes There, 1 minute Back

Footnote: We woke up Monday morning after a difficult night sleep...what with the road noise and the concrete slab that they call a mattress...to find that there was no electricity..again!! We went across to reception to find that the electricity will be out until midday, we hope!

So here we are in Perama on Corfu, where the majority of locals are very nice and friendly, the weather is just right (low 30's), the views are incredible, the food is very tasty, the beer is lovely and cold, the beds are rock hard, and peace and quiet is non-existent!

 

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