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Greece: Kerkira

Introduction to the travel report

It all starts on September 19, 2003. We get up and prepare ourselves for a last day of work before the long expected vacation to Corfu. Eef discovers, that her wallet is missing from her purse. That causes a bit of stress, but no panic yet, because all her things are in there: identity card, drivers license, bankcard, SIS-card, … Almost everything important. She thinks the wallet will be on her desk at work, so there is no panic needed. At 08:00 we know the wallet is not there. Eef thinks, she knows who might have taken the wallet and opens this guy’s cabin, where he keeps his working clothes. She does not find her wallet, but the one from another girl, Leen Janssens?! Eef brings it to the police station of Mechelen (she is working with handicapped people in Mechelen at this point in time) and apparently the wallet she found was stolen about a month ago. At the station she receives a small paper that is replacing her identity card, but this is not valid outside of Belgium. Panic starts to grow and time is against us. Eef needs to go to Sint-Amands and there they can give her a new identity card and drivers license. Just before noon, just in time, she reaches Sint-Amands and she receives indeed without nay problems her new license. To get a new replacing identity card for a trip to Europe, she needs to go to Antwerp. She has an appointment there at 14:30. She does not know, the good way and she is completely stressed out, so Timo goes home early from work to help her getting to Antwerp. At 13:30 we drive to Antwerp and arrive there at 14:28 at the desk where we need to be for the ministry of Internal affairs, it is in the ‘Province house’ in Antwerp. Eef now has her identity card, valid until 19/11/2003. Very good!

Thanks to all the people in Sint-Amands, that made this possible!

We’re happy and can go home satisfied; we can leave for Greece tomorrow. We stop in Antwerp, because Timo did not have anything for lunch and when we’re back home the last preparations for departure tomorrow start. We called card stop, to make sure no one could get any money with the Eef’s card. Mike said he had no time to play squash today and in the end this was not a bad thing at all. We pass by Linda and make sure the plants have enough water and the car is in the garage. They are already in Greece. Then we pass by Maurits and Betty and in the evening we go to Roel. He had invited us for dinner. We eat, have a good bottle of wine with it and go to bed at 01:00. This is the end of 1 of the most stressful days of our lives.

Saturday September 20, 2003: Departure for Corfu

Today is the day we leave for Corfu (at least we hope so): we have a bit of a headache, because we drank too much wine and still a lot of things need to be done. Timo goes to Bornem to buy some last things: Belgian chocolates, dafalgan, touristil and some other stuff. When he returns home around 10:00 Eef has already packed all things. We clean everything up and make sure everything is in order. Around 13:00 we go to Betty to have lunch: vol-au-vent, nice but first we have soup. After lunch we take the car (Citroen Saxo) to Werner, because the car needs his maintenance. We clean the complete house, because we want to return from vacation in a clean house. It really is hot to work. We still have some time to relax, because at 16:00 we’re ready for Maurits and Betty to bring us to Brussels Airport. We teach them first how check-in works, boarding and things like that. Soon they will need to do this by themselves and they have not done a lot of flights. The usual shit at the airport, no one comments on the passport Eef has, so they must be used to it. We depart at 19:25 about 15 minutes late. Flight is OK and 2.5 hours later we land at Corfu Airport. We need to wait a very long time to get our luggage and an even longer time to get on the bus. Four people have lost heir luggage, so we need to wait for them. Eventually we leave and they bring us to our hotel. We’re lucky, cause our hotel is already the second stop. We check-in and go to the village for a bottle of retsina to make sure we have a good start of our vacation. We enjoy our first retsina in Corfu, unpack everything and want to go to bed. Then Eef pulls open a closet and two lizards crawl away. We hunt them for a few minutes, but this brings nothing and we think they will leave the room themselves, so we go to sleep. At least Timo does, Eef can’t go to sleep, because of the stress of yesterday and the thought that the lizards could still be there. Eventually she sleeps about half an hour. This is the end of a stressful and exhausting day. Let’s have a better start tomorrow.

Sunday September 21, 2003: Kerkira city

At 08:00 the alarm clock wakes us up. We’re both awfully tired; off course, we almost did not sleep tonight. We can’t really enjoy breakfast, because we’re too tired. So we decide to do everything at ease. We walk around the centre of Gouvia first, buy a bikini for Eef and drink something and look at what the possibilities are to do today. We hire a car at Trust Car for tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and for Wednesday. We can visit Friday, Saturday or Sunday the islands of Paxos and Anti-Paxos and then there are still some days left to go to Kerkira. It is still rather early to already lay to rest our tired bodies, so we take the bus on the big road 200 meters direction Kerkira. The ride costs 0.85 Euro for the 9 kilometer. The last stop is the old port, where we get out and go into town. There are a lot of streets and restaurants with a pleasant atmosphere. We walk around in the city and start to get a bit hungry. We look for a tavern and eat: Timo has calamari and Eef has spinach pie. After lunch we’re exhausted and go back to Gouvia by bus. In the hotel we lie down for about 2 hours and enjoy sleeping. That’s nice! Around 17:00 we go for a swim in the swimming pool, but then the sun disappears behind the clouds and we leave too. We get dressed for dinner and go to restaurant Aries. We have a Greek salad, swordfish (Timo) and lamb chops (Eef) and of course drink retsina with it and ‘neró’ (water). This is an animated restaurant: two young Greek men dance sirtaki and are involved in other Greek folklore. After dinner we buy some cigars and a bottle of water. Back at the hotel, we enjoy the cigars and some wine. We discuss what we would try to do tomorrow: the north part of the island. We have two beds in the room and Timo finds the perfect way to close the gap between both of them. He rolls up a blanket and pushes it between the two beds. Rather early we can go to bed. It’s only 22:30. Goodnight.

Monday September 22, 2003: The north part of Corfu

Rise and shine at 08:00. We start feeling a lot better, than we did yesterday, off course it couldn’t get much worse. Today we will visit the north of the island. We also go to Vasso to bring the chocolates. First breakfast, fast, only half an hour, because it is always the same. After that we prepare ourselves for a trip through Corfu. We pick up the car, they give us a map of Corfu and we drive away with the mega-Marbella. The first stop is Paleokastritsa. There we visit a beautiful monastery: very pretty, but very busy as well, because just at the same moment 6 buses arrived. Then we go back a bit via Lakones and Krini to Angelokastro. There is a Venetian castle on the top of a mountain. We walk up and indeed: everything is beautiful, especially the view. Back direction Krini and from there to Makrades and then we stop a moment to taste and buy the very good ‘family wine’ (not far from Vistonas). Next drive is to Prinilas and Pagi and then we arrive in Agios Georgios Pagum and then we take the coastal road. For a minute we don’t know, where we are but find our way to Sidari. From Sidari we take the scenery route along the coast to Acharavi. A quick stop at the church of Agion Ioannis, but it’s closed; we can’t get in. after half an hour we arrive in Acharavi. We need to locate the Maestro Bar and find Vasso. At 13:30 we find the bar, but can’t find Vasso; she will only be back at 16:00. We eat Moussakas (Timo) and stuffed dishes (Eef). We leave here around 14:00 and promise to come back later on, when Vasso is there also. Then it is the ideal moment to reach the highest point of Corfu, Pantokrator and monastery Moni Pantokratoras. The road to the top is magnificent. We pass along little villages like Lavki, Trimodi, Eriva, Petralia and Strinilas and finally arrive at the top. On the top there is a fabulous view, but some electric posts ruin the view a bit, but we do manage to see Albania from here. The monastery is very beautiful from the inside. Then we drive back to Acharavi, but take a different route pass through Spourades, Amali, Episkepi, Lazaratika and Agios Panteleimonas. At 15:30 we already arrive in Acharavi. We take a quick stroll on the beach and rest at the maestro bar with half a liter of retsina. We give the chocolates to Vasso with regards from Linda from Belgium. She is very happy with the gift and says she will enjoy it. Just like we’re enjoying our stay here. Vasso offers us a free drink and around 17:30 – we drank a little bit too much – we get back into the car. From Acharavi through Sfakares, Platoinas, Chorepiskopi, Troubettas and Skipero back to Gouvia. We arrive at the centre of Gouvia at 18:15 and Eef immediately goes to the company where we rented the car. She left her sunglasses there this morning and now she has them back. Then quickly back to the room and to the toilet. It’s urgent for Eef. We go for a quick dive in the pool; it is quick, but refreshing. We take a shower and go out by car to get some retsina and an insect repellent; we can really use it here. We take the car to the other direction than the center, but can’t find anything that we like. We drop the car off at the hotel and go to the centre of Gouvia. Today we eat at Kariatides. Timo has gyros and Eef too with prior to that a Greek salad and garlic bread. And again water and retsina. A little bit tired we go back to the hotel and buy some retsina and water along the way. We smoke a cigar, drink retsina, write the diary and go to sleep at 22:30. Goodnight!

Tuesday September 23, 2003: The south of Corfu

This is our second day we have a car. We go out today to visit the south of the island. It looks like it’s going to be a good day: it’s warm and the sun is shining. First stop is the “Achillion” and then to the most southern cape of the island. After breakfast we leave the hotel, along the red road through Kerkira and then further to Gastouri and Achillion. There is the palace of Sissi and later from Emperor Wilhelm II. Magnificent. Inside it has beautiful wall paintings and very luxurious furniture. Also the garden is beautiful, with splendor and with big statues. There is one statue of more than 5 meters high. And then there is the magnificent garden with a stunning view. We walk around in the garden and in the palace and then move on to Benitses. There we visit the Sea Shell Museum – a large collection of shells and fishes (dried ones). We walk along the beach, where an old couple of fisherman is cleaning, what they’ve caught. They have octopus, calamari, sea-eel, gurnard and a lot of small fishes and lobsters and crabs. Eef holds the octopus for a minute. It feels greasy and also Timo needs to touch the animal. We walk a bit further along the water and we check out the shops, if we see a big beautiful beach towel for Timo, because he’s still using an old, small one. We drive on to the south of the island passing through Moraitiki and Messonghi. There we follow a small sign to Moni Pantokratoras, but it seems, that we’re looking for the wrong monastery; this is too far away. So we take a turn and go back direction Lefkimi, Linia, Argirades, Marathias and Perivoli. We take our lunch here. In the meantime it is already 13:00. We choose the one (and only) tavern here along the canal Chimaros. There are a lot of fishes in the canal, some boats and even a kingfisher is flying around. We eat in peace and quietness a Greek salad and make contact with the locals: an elder Greek woman, who is degusted by the British people here in the neighborhood. She’s a nice person, only understands Greek, but we still managed to talk a little bit. Cool! From there we follow a paved road to the mouth of the canal in the sea: an oasis of rest with beautiful wetlands and a magnificent beach. Again there are three kingfishers. This makes Timo’s day. We don’t take the road to Kavos (all the British people are there), but return to Gouvia with on the way a few stops. We follow the red road to the north. When we arrive in Massonghi we take a small road to ‘Limni Korission’. The surroundings are most splendid; we have seen a lot of beautiful things today. Next to the road we follow, we visit a fortress from the era of Byzantium in the 13th century in Gardiki. This is about what we wanted to do today (it’s already 16:30) and we decide to go back. We stop underway to buy some fruits and water and make another stop for a view on the Mouse Island (Pontikonissi) and then race through the center of Kerkira to our hotel in Gouvia. Timo suddenly sees the Pantokrator with his masts; you can even spot him from this far without binoculars. At the hotel we take a cool swim and lie in the sun to relax a bit. It’s 17:30 now and still warm. Then we take from the bar 2 ouzo and drink them on our terrace and enjoy every moment. We then dress up to go for dinner in Kerkira. We take the car and drive on to the old harbor. There we park the mega-Marbella for free and walk around on the esplanade to the sea, to the fortress and then back to the centre, away from the noise of the common swift and of the people. In one of the small side streets we suddenly see a nice restaurant on a square. This will be the place to dine. We sit down and order ‘nero mikro’, retsina, tzatziki, calamari and bourdetto. Bourdetto or dogfish, a fish family of the shark in a red hot tomato sauce. Unbelievably delicious! The fresh taste of the garlic with the hot spicy taste of the sauce together with the fish. It was spicy indeed. After dinner we go back to the car and go back to the hotel. We enjoy the ‘King Edwards’ (cigars) and retsina. It’s nice to end a day like this!

Wednesday September 24, 2003: The center and coastline of Corfu

This morning it is the same as the previous days: wake up around 08:00, prepare ourselves for the day, breakfast, not that good, only bread and cheese. We leave early today. The first drive goes to Pelekas; there is the emperor’s throne. A rock, where Wilhelm II came to watch the sun go down. Those rich people really could pick their places; the palace of Sissi also had that beautiful surroundings. We drive up, park our mega-Marbella and go further on foot. A bus of elder people is doing the climb as well. The view up on the rock is beautiful. In some areas of the valley there still is a lot of fog. Only the bus of old Germans is a little bit annoying, but then again. Really worth the detour. Here we take the road to the north and want to reach that way the eastern coastal road. We leave in Kokkinopia on an orange road, we take a shortcut by Dourades, there we take a red road to Roda. There we suddenly decide to go back south to Sidari. We passed by some beautiful villages like Troumbettas, Chorepiskopi, Agia Douli, Chatades, Platonas and Sfakera. In Roda we take another drive of about 8 minutes to reach the ‘Canal’Amour’. We find it in the neighborhood of Melitsa, but not without efforts. It is a stunning piece of nature. The sea has formed special forms in the rocks, very pretty. We stay a while there to enjoy the view and then we take the trip all the way to Kassiopi. We stay a bit longer there. A little village and a harbor, where we drink a cola and ouzo. There is also a fortress, actually a pile of stones with a great view on the harbor. In the center there is another strange building: a church with a house on top. Strange! Here we buy some bread, sandals for Eef and some other stuff. After about one hour we’re gone from the village. We start feeling hungry and look out for a nice pick nick spot. We find that beside the road in Vigla. There is a small tunnel under the pavement; there are some tables and it looks really cozy. There we eat (bread with prunes and peaches from yesterday) and enjoy the rest. Although we’re sitting next to a busy road, it’s rather quiet. We drive on, cause we’re looking for a quiet piece of beach where we can relax and swim. We find this in the smallest village/harbor of Corfu. Kouloura has a harbor, 1 taverna and there is also one house. We go along the beach over a small hill to another bay, beautiful. We enjoy the sun, the sea, the beach, snorkeling: we have it all here. We stay there for about two hours and then need to leave, cause it’s already 18:00. We drive directly back to the hotel, drink some ouzo and dress up for dinner. Before dinner we go and return the car we rented and find a travel agency, where we can book a trip to Paxos, Antipaxos and the caves: that is for Friday. Also today we go to our restaurant Aries with the dancers. The waiters regularly dance sirtaki here. We order half a liter retsina, water, fried peppers, dolmades, fried sardines and a Greek salad. It tastes very, very good, we eat all the plates together and that gives a special taste. After dinner we look for retsina and water; apparently it is not that easy to find retsina in Gouvia, but in the end we succeed. We write our diary and our cards, drink some retsina and smoke a cigar under the protection from a Cobra Spiral (against mosquitoes.

Thursday September 25, 2005: A day of rest

Today is the credo: everything at ease. It starts with the breakfast: a sandwich with cheese and ham and strawberry-jam and an egg. We enjoy it and almost stay an hour at the breakfast table. We’re not too keen on activities this morning, so we go to the swimming pool and lie down in the sun. We’re already there at 11:00 and this is really early for us. We work out tan, swim, in the sun, in the water and so on and we dot his for about two hours. Then we’ve had it for today, or what were you thinking. We go back to the room and pack our backpack and go to the bus stop to go to Corfu city. At the stop there is a small truck with turkeys on it. The animals are having a lot of trouble with the heat. The bus reaches the stop immediately and we get off at the old harbor. From the harbor we go to the new fortress and to the weekly market and from there to the departure of the tour described in our guide. We start the tour at the “Platina San Rocco”, a square where a lot of buses arrive and leave. We buy 2 sandwiches and eat them there and then go out for the new fortress. We pay 2 Euro to enter; because it should really be worth he money. We climb up to the top of the fortress and it is indeed worth the money, good architecture and a great view. We can spot from here the electric posts of the Pantokrator, the island Vidos just in front of the city and have a great view on the city itself. We need a little bit of time to find the highest point of the fortress, but in the end manage to locate it and also have a great view on the harbor here. From the fortress we follow the guided tour out of the booklet we have and end up at the Byzantine Museum (which is closed) and then at the new fortress. On this stroll we stop a few minutes to buy a drink cola and sprite and a bottle of Vikos water. And then we rest, we were doing everything at easy today, remember? With the last couple of Euros we pay the entrance fee to the fortress. This is also a very beautiful one: 2 churches, 1 temple and a lighthouse and again here a magnificent view. We enjoy the sight and then go back to find some food for now and tomorrow. We take cash from the bank, buy some water, Babybel and chips with oregano. Then we go out to find restaurant Kokkaria, but it only opens its doors at 18:30 and we don’t want to wait that long. So we go back to restaurant Spiros, where we had lunch a few days before. We order 2 ouzo, calamari, spinach pie, and a special salad. It is delicious as always in Greece. The special salad is tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, salad, onion, bacon, paprika and a special sauce with garlic. Everything is delicious and this with a bit retsina is the best one can get. Then Timo has a Greek coffee with Metaxa and another glass of retsina. The people are great and the food is good. Then we start to go back to the bus station at the old harbor. We wait for a little time and there seem to be coming a lot more people all the time. After 45 minutes it looks like there will no longer be a bus today. We take a cab together with a mum and daughter from Norway, who also stays in Gouvia: this way we only pay 3 Euro per person. We buy another 3 postal cards (we had 3 too few), return to the hotel and start to write our diary. Small anecdote: when we entered our hotel room, we saw a small lizard crawl away, Timo caught it using his shoes. We were even able to take a picture of it, but that was completely black. He released the lizard in the hotel garden. We enjoyed the rest of the evening on our terrace and went to bed quite early. For a day of rest we still did a lot of things. Kalinichta!

Friday September 26, 2003: Paxos, Antipaxos and the caves

This morning we need to get up really early: at around 07:00, because today we go out with the boat. There is no time for breakfast. We can have breakfast from 07:30, but we need to be at the main road at 07:40, so no time. At around 07:25 we leave our room and go to the main road. We bought some cheese and sandwiches yesterday, so we can have a small breakfast, when we’re on the boat. There are already a lot of people on the bus, when she stops in Gouvia. We then drive on to Kerkira, Benitses, Messonghi, Agirades and at last arrive at Lefkimi. There is a boat waiting for us with a lot of people and it takes some time before we find a good spot on the boat. We take out all we have with us to start our breakfast and enjoy the ride. The boat leaves exactly at 10:00. After a while Eef sees a better place on the boat and we move to that bench. After an hour we arrive at the caves of Paxos, very beautiful. First we go inside the cave of Ipapinti with the boat, really cool how nature created all this. We follow the coastline, the see is a bit rough, there are already some people, who are seasick. We move along to the cave of Petriti, this one is even more beautiful than the previous one. Then Eef gets a bit sick, not seasick, but a heavy headache. After a while Timo is able to convince her, that it’s better to go inside the boat and get a bit of rest before we move on. At this point we only sail through Antipaxos, so there’s not much we miss now. Off course he stays with her, when she’s sleeping. The boat stops at Vriki Beach and some people dive into the water and this for about 45 minutes. In itself this is a waste of time, but due to the circumstances this is still convenient (headache of Eef). When we leave the beachside it is almost noon and Eef starts to feel better. Very good. At 13:00 we arrive at Paxos and look immediately for a restaurant to eat cause we’re hungry: spaghetti and pizza. Now we have about 2 hours left to walk around Paxos. We walk around in the streets away from the taverns with all the fuzz and rest a bit at a remote side of the harbor. We watch some small fish in the water and enjoy the peace and quietness of the day. At 15:00 we need to get back to the boat, too soon! We hope the sea will be a lot calmer by now and it really seems to be that way now. We sit at a nice place at the side of the boat and enjoy the trip. Sun, sea and water, that splashes against our feet, nice, nice, nice! After 1.5 hours we arrive at Kavos, and there already a group of people get out, but we need to stay until Lefkimi. We arrive there at 17:00 and need to wait for a few minutes for the bus to arrive. We leave and need to pass along al the hotels to drop off all of the tourists. At 18:30 we arrive in Gouvia, go to the hotel and take some refreshments (shower and ouzo). We’re ready at 20:00 to go out to eat. We take a stroll in the town and make sure the last of the postal cards can be sent. Because most of the taverns are tainted Dutch or British, we choose to eat again at Aries’. We order fried octopus, cabbage salad, lamb chops and souvlaki, off course together with ‘neró’ and retsina. It tastes very, very good, also the little ouzo we drink afterwards. At around 21:30 we go back to the hotel and enjoy the good weather on our terrace with a cigar and retsina and write the diary and go to bed at 23:00

Saturday September 27, 2003: The city of Kerkira

The same ritual as the whole week, yes indeed today we’re here a complete week. Breakfast, prepare all to take the bus to Kerkira. The bus is loaded and we’re the last persons that can drive along. We race to the center to the San Rocco square. We quickly check at what time the bus returns this afternoon (14, 15, 16, 18 o’clock). We walk to the semi island Analipsi and we will walk around here all day. We visit everything on foot today. That’s a good way for our workout and we can have a better impression of everything around us. We walk on the ‘Avenue Aleksandros’ towards the sea and follow the shore to the end of the bay. There is a small church: Agios Lason Ke Sossipatros. It is a classical Byzantine church with a roof in the form of a cross, a nice building from the outside with a lot of wall paintings and icons. We walk through the streets and meet real Greek life this way. Our next stop is the monastery Agios Efthimias. All is very quiet there. We only can look inside the church; we can’t enter, because they are cleaning the church at this moment. It is very calm here and all nuns are very friendly. On the other side of the street is the Paleopolis Basilisk or at least the ruins of it. Right next to it there is the domain ‘Mon Repos’: a park with a lot of lizards, beautiful flowers, and off course squirrels and birds. We walk round in the park and visit the palace of ‘Mon Repos’; we check out the temple of Hera and Kardaki. After an hour we’ve spent enough time here to see everything and go out of the park, because there are a lot of mosquitoes and this is not funny for neither of us. We follow the road to the southern point of the island and keep a high pace for about half an hour. There we have a magnificent view on the monastery of Vlacherna and Pontikonissi (island of mice). We go down to the church and the little monastery. It is very pretty from the inside as well. The bay offers food for crabs, herons, little fish and we enjoy sitting there and watching. In the meantime it is already 13:30 and we’re starting to get hungry. We quickly return to the other side of the bay and sit down at restaurant ‘O Dimitris’. We have Greek salad, souvlaki, and tzatziki. We enjoy lunch with a small bottle of retsina and with a perfect view at the old fortress and the bay of Kerkira. An hour later we go back to the bus station the same way we came and we already see the bunch of people waiting for the bus. In a bus completely full we return to Gouvia to our hotel. At the pool it is not so quiet any longer, because of plane full of Dutch people landed and they are very noisy. Timo still finds a quiet place around the pool and we go for a swim and rest a bit. After an hour and a half we’ve had it and leave the pool and take some time to have a shower and an aperitif. It’s only 18:30 but we feel like it so there is nothing pointing us not to do it. We go out for dinner pretty early and stay a while, but eat little, because we had big portions this afternoon. We end the day with a classical cigar and retsina on our terrace.

Sunday September 28, 2003: Museum and take it easy

We don’t need to do anything special today, so we stay in bed a bit longer, than usual (08:45). Have breakfast and prepare our bag pack for a long walk. We go to Kerkira on foot today, otherwise we need to wait for the bus for more than an hour. We first buy a bottle of water and then move on. It’s about 9 kilometer, so it needs to be possible within 1.5 hours, if we keep the pace. It works out OK and after 1 hour and 20 minutes we can rest with our feet in the water. This feels right. Eef had some trouble, because yesterday a strange animal has bitten her in the foot. It was now swollen and was more than 3 centimeter now and 1 cm thick. It really was bothering her. After a short break we walk to the old harbor and to the Byzantine museum, that is located in an old privat church, Panagia Antivouniotissa. There are more than 100 icons and this is really something for Timo. After this visit we go further to look for the Kremasti fountain. We find it after a 20 minutes walk but can’t take a picture, because there is a wedding going on and all the people are around the fountain. Our next step is the Archeological Museum, always worth a visit, we know from experience. We reach the museum by following the esplanade; it’s a small museum, but there are some funds, that are worth the visit. Before we go to Spiros to eat we check out the departure time of the buses: no prob, we can return every half hour. Then on to the restaurant of Spiros. We order fried anchovy, greek salad, specialty with aubergines, retsina and water. It is delicious, again. We enjoy our meal very, very much. We also brought the chocolates, because they were very friendly and they have served us very good. So we give them our third box. You should have seen their face: Spiros and his waitress. We also talk a while to another Belgian couple (from Leuven). The we go back to the San Rocco square and take the bus back to Gouvia. We rest a bit by the pool: swim a bit and work our tan, we even fall asleep. Around 18:00 we’re ready to make a walk around the town and along the beach and already at 19:00 we’re at Aries. Eef takes swordfish and Timo mixed grill and half a liter of local wine. On our way back to the hotel we buy some cola, water and ouzo. We talk a bit with a cigar and ouzo and go to bed around 23:00.

Monday September 29, 2003: Do nothing, buy souvenirs and eat

The weather does not look OK at this moment of the day (08:30), a lot of clouds and not really high temperatures. Let’s hope it’ll get better during the day. We do everything at a very slow speed and enjoy our last day on Kerkira. Tomorrow before noon we leave, so we can’t count that day as our last then. After breakfast we take the bus to go to Kerkira for shopping. We buy a Belgian newspaper (Het Nieuwsblad) from Saturday and make ourselves comfortable on a terrace with coffee. We enjoy the coffee, the sun and after about half an hour we walk away. We walk along the shops and buy a necklace for Timo and some small bottles of oil for our mams and for ourselves. We also walk a bit along the sea and have a good view over the harbor on the left and over the old fortress on the right and immediately in front of us we see some small islands in the Ionic Sea. There we sit reading our newspaper for about an hour and then we moe again to be able to enjoy the sun. by this time we start to be a little hungry and go to the restaurant of Spiros. There we have retsina, cabbage salad, soutzoukakia (meatballs with spaghetti and spicy tomato sauce), stuffed peppers and tomatoes. It is delicious and ask for another bottle of retsina. Exactly when we want to pay it starts to rain, so we’re boliged to have another drink (without to pay – from ze houws). When the rains stops we go the bus station and take the bus back to the hotel. It is 16:30 in the meantime, so we were at the table for more than 2 hours???? At he busstop there are a lot of people waiting, they all want to go on the first bus – like sardines. We wait for about 2 minutes and there already is another bus with a lot of space as only about 10 person are on it. When we arrive at the hotel, it starts to rain again. We go out to the swimming pool, in the rain, cool, we have the complete pool for ourselves. The rest if the guests is sitting in their room, while we’re having a lot of fun. We take a shower and then go to the shop on the corner and buy some peppers for Roel and some retsina for us later. We’re still enjoying every moment we are here. At 20:00 we eat at Aries: mixed grill and grilled chicken filet and again it was delicious. We return to the hotel, talk a bit and go to sleep at 23:30. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Tuesday September 30, 2003: Back home

08:00 Get up

08:25 Breakfast, shower, prepare the handluggage

09:00 We’re ready at the entrance of the hotel, a bus picks us up.

09:30 Arrival at the airport, check-in and write the diary to kill time

10:30 Customs clearance and wait for departure.

We leave on time (this means 15 minutes late). We enjoy the flight back and only arrive 5 minutes late. Nobody can call this a delay. It was a good flight and had something to eat.

14:30 Back home. With a lot of good memories and a nice vacation. In the evening we continue our vacation as we eat at the restaurant ‘Den Amandus’.