I booked a hostel that had a great rating on Hostelworld, my go-to website for hostels, and was ready to go. Before my flight out of England, I hitched a ride with two of my favorite people, Jill and Sean. They were heading out on their own adventure. They were doing some exciting travel to France, Italy and Croatia. I'm sure they will have a fantastic time. Their flight was at 10:00AM and mine was at 5:30PM. We got to the airport at a little before 9:00AM, so I had some time to kill.
The thing was that the airport only allowed 30 minutes of free wifi. I used that up pretty early and quickly. I am amazed at how reliant I am on wifi now. I finished my book in no time either so I was stuck to wander the Bristol airport and people-watch for hours. I couldn't find the want to pay 10 pounds for three hours of wifi so I just hung out. I now know Bristol airport very well now, flying in and out of here four times now. It wasn't too bad. I was on the plane before I knew it.
I was getting into Corfu at a little past 11:00PM. I was told to call the hostel for a ride. I did so and the people at Sunrock Hostel were kind enough to oblige me with a ride. I only had to wait 20 minutes before, Spiros the owner, picked me up in the green hostel van. I sat up front with him and talked the whole time. He is a very nice man. I loved that he apologized to me for being a little late because he had just opened his beer. It was his first of the day and he is a busy man so I apologized to him for interrupting. I know the feeling.
When I arrived, the view from the hostel was outstanding! The night lights of the beach from up high were a beautiful sight. I sat down and Madalena, his wife, told me to sit down and relax. She asked me if I was hungry and I said yes. She brought out a basket of bread, a salad and a plate of pasta. If was very tasty. I was thirsty so I asked for a water. There was a very accessible fridge next to the bar which was stocked with water, beer and soda. I grabbed a water and asked how much I owed and Madalena said she would start a tab. Very cool! There is a notebook with every person's name on a sheet of paper with an itemized list of things from drinks to food. You just had to tally up your items and pay when you leave. Complete honor system. I loved it!
I was very tired but sat at the bar and talked to a few other hostellers and Alexia, Madalena's daughter. She spoke perfect English, amongst many other languages, and was very funny and a talented singer. We talked for a while before I headed to bed. I immediately loved the vibe of the place.
I had heard of mosquito problems in Greece but it wasn't bad at all in our room. I did bring 100 strength DEET but wanted to save that for India. I shared a room with three other people. I never met the two French guys in the room but I did meet Katarina. She was older woman that was a professor who was on holiday but "worked"on her holiday. She taught law of some sorts. She was nice and liked to talk. I was eager for the beach so after 20 minutes of chit-chat, I made my way to the hostel terrace. It was a nice, hot day with no clouds and the beach which was a stone's throw away. I ate my complimentary breakfast, which was my choice of Greek pancakes, French toast, omelet or scrambled eggs. I chose the Greek pancakes and coffee. They are like donut holes with cinnamon and syrup. I enjoyed them very much.
After breakfast, I walked down to the beach to explore. It wasn't a big beach but it wasn't tiny either. I walked the whole stretch of the beach in about 15-20 minutes. The sand was scorching hot so I walked along the shoreline. The temp was about 38C. I picked a spot and made beach camp. I got in the water and it was a perfect temperature for cooling down. Not too warm and not too cold. That's not a Goldilocks reference. I waded and swam in the water for a while. Fish were swimming very close to me. Small and big! The small ones scared me more because they would nibble on your feet. After I got used to it, I let them at it. If they wanted to clean my feet, go for it! People usually have to pay money for that. I have seen those people on my travels, sitting in the big store window for all passers by to see them have fish eat the dead skin off their feet. It's actually pretty funny to witness. Some people have the funniest expressions on their face.
Anyway, so after a nice swim, I laid out and got some sun. Afterwards, I went back to the hostel to wish my dad a happy birthday. It was a 10 hour difference so it had just become his birthday. Too bad my phone would't let me dial to the states and Skype didn't work well enough. Sorry, Pa... Right after that, I met Kate and Ellie. Two Australian girls. Poor Ellie was feeling sick to her stomach from the night before. Perhaps food poisoning. She slept and Kate and I talked to a few people who worked there. Kate, some other girl from the hostel who's name I forgot and I went back in the water. We didn't swim long. We went back to the hostel and got ready for dinner. The hostel makes a family meal for everyone. I love this place! After dinner, everyone just sits around and talks. I met some other Australians and two Dutch girls, Saphir and Nadia. Kate didn't look good after dinner so she called it a night early. I didn't stay up too much after that. Early night for me, midnight!
The next morning I saw Kate and Ellie. They were going into town to shop so I went back to the beach. I hung out and swam for a while and then on my way back to the hostel, I saw Stephen, an older Irishman staying at the hostel I had talked to the day before. He was at the beach with a French Canadian named Amelie. They were going to eat something at one of the restaurants on the beach. I wasn't hungry so I had a beer. The three of us talked and got to know each other. It was a pleasant conversation. The name of the restaurant was Andreas Zorbas. Amelie ordered the octopus. I tasted it and it was the best octopus I have ever tasted! Andreas goes fishing every day for his menu. The food was fabulous. After they ate, we went swimming. Amelie and I wanted to swim out to some rocks. Stephen wasn't keen on the idea. Amelie and I swam out and sat on the rocks and sat and talked. It was cool. After a while, we swam back to shore and laid on the sand. The three of us talked some more. I was in the sun for nine hours that day. Great day of just beaching it and meeting very cool people.
It was time for another great Greek family meal. I met so many more people. Late in the evening a kiwi named Grant checked in and we talked. I met a French guy named Alexandre. He was ashamed of his English but he spoke it very well for not speaking it often. It was a wonderful round table discussion with people from all over the world. I also met another kiwi named Aimee. All of us just sat, drank and talked. I loved it! Before I went to bed, I spoke with Nadia and Saphir about renting scooters the next day. They said they were doing it and it sounded fun so I asked to join. They were happy to have me join. We talked until 3:30AM.
The next day, I woke up at 9:00AM to meet Nadia and Saphir for scooters that were supposed to arrive at 10:00AM. We waited and waited and they finally arrived at 11:30AM. We were all ready to go and then the lady with the scooters asked me for my license. I told her it was an American one. No good. She said unless I had an international or European one, I couldn't rent one. So much for that. Nadia didn't want to go anymore either so no scooters for anyone. I decided we needed to do something fun so looked into renting a motorboat. It was only 90 euros for two hours. People sounded interested so I booked it. We rallied a posse of me, Grant, Nadia, Saphir, Aimee, Claire (Aimee's friend from Oz who checked in that day) and Amelie who missed her ferry for Albania. Seven of us total. We took off at 4:00PM and made our way to some caves. It was a small boat with not much power so we putted along. We named her Yamas, which means cheers in Greek. We got to the caves and anchored. The first anchor job got caught in some rocks. I was able to get it unstuck somehow. I wasn't able to get a good anchor going but we managed. We all enjoyed the caves for a while and headed back. It was a ton of fun. Everyone seemed to enjoy the outing. It was nice to see.
Just to point out, I was only booked to stay at Sunrock for three nights. I extended my stay twice! A total of seven nights. I liked where I was too much.
Grant and I decided to go into Corfu town this day. It was a treacherous walk uphill for about 20-25 minutes in the heat. It was 40C that day and humid. We were dripping with sweat. We were almost to the top and a nice lady taxi driver offered us a free ride to the top. I love good deeds like that. I have had plenty during my trip. We catch the bus into town and walk a little and then stop for a beer and some lunch. We split a nice salad and some moussaka. It was very good. Grant and I exchanged some very good stories. We walked around some more and ducked into a couple places for a beer. The city centre was very nice. After walking around checking out the place, we caught one of the last buses back to the hostel. A Brazilian girl got on the bus asking about Sunrock and Grant let her know we were going to the same place. She was very nice. When we got off, we helped her with her luggage and got another good deed thrown our way by a guy in a truck. We all hopped in and made it back to the hostel in time for the sunset. The sunsets were gorgeous there. It is a must to see them every night. I played some poker with Alexia and my new Dutch roommate, Jan. I was winning but Alexia came roaring back to win.
With nothing to do the next day I decided to take a day trip to Albania. I had heard lots of people doing it since it is only an hour ferry ride away, plus it is another country to mark on the list. Amelie was staying there so I met up with her to go check out a place called The Blue Eye Lake. When I arrived, Amelie and I thought we could take a bus to the lake but we couldn't get any good information out of anyone. We were approached by a man at the bus stop who told us the bus didn't go there and we asked the bus driver to make sure and he confirmed it didn't. We negotiated a good price and took the taxi. The driver's name was Max. He was an interesting fella. He kept showing us random photos of places in Albania. The photos were of randoms that I think left the photos behind in his cab. He spoke decent English and kept asking us if we wanted to go to all sorts of places. We graciously declined every time but he kept asking. He was very persistent. Amelie and I kept laughing about it.
We get to the lake around 45 minutes later. It would have taken forever in a bus. When we arrive, I am trying to ask Max where to meet him since he agreed to wait two hours for us while we were at the lake. Again, he kept telling us to eat and drink at the restaurant there. We said we were not hungry about ten times. It got a little annoying. Finally, I said we would meet him at the other restaurant in two hours, hoping he understood. I didn't feel too confident that we were going to have a ride back since he asked a lady if she needed a taxi when we were still in the cab, about to get out. We took our chances.
The lake was very beautiful. It was a lot smaller than I thought. It only took about 20 minutes to see it all. It was clear water but it was freezing water. We were hoping to swim but I put my legs in up to my knees and immediately felt cold pain. The water was 5C! We would have to do with just admiring the lake and walk around. Unfortunately, Albania didn't seem like a clean place. There was a lot of litter there. It was sad to see. After observing some nature and brave people actually get in the water completely for only seconds long, it was time to meet back up with Max. He was still there and he took us back to Sarande. Amelia and I had some lunch and we ate tapas style. It was very tasty and cheap. I paid with a 20 euro bill and got 1500 Albanian lek back since they didn't have any euros. I thought I could just exchange it later. Wrong! I'll get into that later. I said bye to Amelie and caught the last ferry back to Corfu.
That night, I met some more awesome people at dinner. I met Jesse and Josefine from New York. Josefine is originally from Sweden. After dinner, they insist on playing some drinking games. So, Jesse, Josefine, Grant, Alexia and I played along. It was a ton of fun. Grant was mostly the unlucky one who had to drink the most. He did have a brilliant recovery strategy. He called it power hydration. He somehow shoves a small bottle of water in his mouth with one crush of the bottle. It impressed us all. He did it a few times and sprinkled a Red Bull in there. We played until 4:30AM. Good times!
I slept in until 1:00PM the next day. It was my last day in Corfu. I was okay with just relaxing all day. I went swimming with Sarah, an Aussie I met a few days earlier, but I only lasted about 45 minutes. The fish were nibbling at me quite fierce that day. Not only on my feet but my knees! Later that evening we ate dinner and some people were going to a bar on the beach to listen to a DJ. I was pretty tired but decided to join for a little bit. Claire, Aimee and I left around 11:30PM and when we got there, there was no music and a lot of drunk people. The music ended at 11:00. So the three of decided to just lounge on some chairs and look at the stars and talk. It was nice and chill. After our chat we went back to the hostel and I went to bed. It was a travel day the next day.
My last day in Corfu. What a sad day. I was off to Athens for two days. Amelie was headed there too so we met up in Corfu town. Spiros took Kay, one of the staff workers from Sunrock, and I into town. Kay is a good dude. He is from Cali and he was headed out to the U.K. It was nice meeting him. When we drop him off, we were trying to leave the airport and the traffic was stopped. Cars were lined up and not moving. Spiros got out to check it out. When he got back, he said it there were some protestors blocking the way. We somehow were able to go around. There were about 100 of them. Not sure what they were protesting. I was going into town to meet Amelie and hoped it wouldn't affect our airport trip.
I met with Amelie and I told her about the protestors. We had about four hours until our flight but we wanted to play it safe and get to the airport as soon as we could. We asked five people how to take the bus to the airport and got five different answers. Luckily, the airport was close so we took a taxi. By the time we got there, there were no protestors. They cleared them out pretty quickly. Plenty of time to relax at the airport.
The flight to Athens was a quick 50 minutes. We took a bus and the subway to the hostel. I had already booked my reservation but Amelie didn't. There were no vacancies at my building but their other building, two minutes away, did. We get settled in and walk Athens at night. The Acropolis looked spectacular at night. Didn't do anything the first night since we were both tired so we called it a night.
The next day, Amelie went shopping and I went to the Acropolis. I find it funny how when you take money out of the ATM anywhere in Greece, it only gives out 50 euro bills, yet no one has change for a 50. I got some attitude at the Acropolis ticket counter for trying to use a 50, and they don't take card. It was only 12 euros! Luckily I had smaller bills. The place was very interesting. It took me about three hours to see everything. I almost slipped and fell ten times because a lot of the ground was made of marble and I was wearing flip flops. It is up on a hill so there were some spectacular views. It was hot and I was getting tired. I went back for a nap. After my nap, I met with Amelie to eat and walk around Athens. Amelie had been there before so she was the tour guide. We walked through the National Garden on our way to Lycabettus. Lycabettus is a church on a mountain. It was a very steep climb. We did it semi-easily. Amelie more than me, I think. The view was even better here. You could see all of Athens, 360 degree view. Waited for sunset and walked home. I'm sure there was more to do in Athens but that's all I did. It was a quick two days.
Amelie was interested in Istanbul. She decided to join me. Gotta love spontaneous travel! She booked a flight the day before we left, so she thought...
We check out of our hostels, get on a bus to the airport and go to check in and Amelie doesn't have a flight confirmation number in her confirmation email. I thought she was screwed but she kept insisting everything was fine. She was having trouble finding a ticket on my flight through some websites and applications so I thought it was sold out. We go to the ticket booth and she was able to buy a ticket without a problem for the same price as the one she thought she had booked the day before. Things seem to work out somehow.
Side note: I tried to get rid of my Albanian lek at three different places in Greece and no one would take it. Not sure why. I guess I have souvenir money!
My time in Greece had come to an end. I didn't see enough of this country. I guess it is hard to see everything when world travel is your plan. I hope to return to visit many more islands that had been recommended. The people were great, the food was delicious and the scenery is wonderful. Thank you Sunrock for being one of the best hostels I have stayed in. It allowed me to meet so many terrific people. Yamas!!!
Stay tuned for my Istanbul excerpt.
P.S. I tried to get rid of my lek here in Istanbul too. Nothing doing. Oh well...
P.P.S. Tried to upload photos but slow Internet in Istanbul is not permitting it for the time being. They will be up soon.
Be well!
