Oopaaa!

When Adam asked me what I wanted to do for my 30th birthday, I told him I wanted him to take me somewhere special.  So he went to work researching.  I had personally thought the spa in Bath followed by a nice dinner would have been a lovely day.  Adam, the man of extremes, came back with two options.  1 – a four day weekend on a house boat in Stockholm or 2 – a week at a resort on the Mediterranean Greek island of Corfu.   After a long deliberation in my head (that lasted about 45 seconds) I chose Greece.  Seriously, cold, dark boat or sun & sand.  He had to know what I was going to choose.  I waited until after he booked it to tell him that I would have also been perfectly happy with a day in Bath, to which he rolled his eyes – if only he’d known earlier!

There is one direct flight a week from Bristol to Corfu, so it pretty much dictated our itinerary.  In the final approach to airport, the pilot came on the address system and gave us the time and temperature in Corfu then added this reassuring comment, 'the landing and approach into Corfu here in a minute might not be the smoothest you've ever experienced; this doesn't have much to do with my or my co-pilot's skills, but rather the condition of the runway.  You see, the pavement out here is a bit like a north Yorkshire road.'  Apparently north Yorkshire has notoriously bad roads as the entire plane erupted in laughter.  (The landing wasn't that bad either -- just a bit wavy)

When traveling within the EU, EU citizens do not have to be stamped through immigration, so despite being the third couple off the airplane, we were immediately sent to the time-out, naughty American’s corner to wait for the rest of the plane to debark and clear immigration before we could be stamped into the country.  Needless to say we were about 20 minutes behind the rest of the planeload of people trying to get taxis and transport to the resorts.  When we did make it to our hotel, we were amused to notice that 3 other couples from our flight were checking in as well.

Adam also sneakily upgraded us to a seaview room, so upon waking up the next morning this greeted me:

The room was beautiful; near the top of the resort so that we could see the activities below, but set back enough that it was quiet and (other than ‘Greek Night’) we couldn’t hear the music from the bars below.

The weather was also absolutely perfect during the week.  Overnight the lows would dip to the mid 50’s (that’s 12C depending on which continent you’re reading this from) so we were able to sleep with our patio doors open most evenings.  But during the day, highs were in the upper 70s/low 80s (25C) and absolutely perfect for enjoying the beaches & pools (with SPF 50 on – don’t worry Dad & Grandpa P!).

I even managed to do a bit of light reading while on vacation…

We also went for a swim in the Ionian Sea a couple of times.  It was absolutely the saltiest water I’ve ever been in.  I don’t know how anyone sinks in it – I couldn’t even manage to push myself down to swim.  One afternoon, I was sitting in my lounge chair when I noticed that Adam kept bobbing up and down then staring into the water below.  When he came back to land later, he said that there was a school fish that came up to where he was floating and kept nipping at his toes.  I guess it’s a new take on fish pedicures!

The food was great.  We ate more olives, cheese, yogurt, pita bread, pasta and gyros than we should have.  And I knew this place was made for Adam when I read the lunch menu the first day.

A special hamburger.  What he’s always needed!

On Monday evening, my birthday, it was Greek Night at the resort.  The daily info sheet at the hotel which lists out the activities for the day said that dinner would be entirely Greek food and we could learn Ai Georgis dancing.  We quickly Googled Ai Georgis only to learn that it is a Corfu style of traditional Greek dancing.  To be honest, we didn’t really notice much of a difference in the dinner options – unless you count the large Greek flags hanging from the walls.  But we had a good time, and it was my birthday, so how could I not enjoy it.

We walked out to the dance performance area to find the dancing in full swing.  There were six dancers in traditional costumes who performed a series of very flowing line dance style dance.  Then they started the audience participation portion of the evening.  Somehow Adam managed to get us selected from the crowd (he might tell you a slightly different version of the story, but as the official blog writer, my account is the one that will go down in the history books).  Next thing I knew, the moves were not so flowing as we showed the rest of the resort exactly how many left feet I have.  Thank goodness there is no video footage of this experience!

When we arrived back in our room that evening, the hotel had left a little treat for me.

Adam swears he didn’t request it and the card said that it was a gift from guest relations, so the only thing we can think of is that they had our birthdate information from our original booking (as our flights were part of the package), so we’re in their database now.  No matter how they did it, it was a nice surprise.

I know it’s hard to believe, but about midway through the week, I started to get a bit stir crazy with sitting on a beach for 13 hours a day, eating for 4-5 hours a day and napping for the other 7.  So, one day we took the bus into Corfu Town.  Every passing (and conquering) empire from the Corinthians to the Romans, Byzantines, Russians, French and English have had claim to the island.  However, there were never, as we were told several times, the Turks.  The most influential invaders both strategically and architecturally were the Venetians who built much of old town Corfu including the all important Old Fortress (which kept the Ottoman Empire off the island).  The town is a maze of narrow streets dominated by the 16th century fortress. Around every corner can you can find a chapel, old mansion or secret garden square as well as small shops of every commercial nature willing to sell just about anything to those visiting for the day from the various resorts or off the cruise liners in port for the afternoon – especially their prized Limoncello and Kumquatcello.  Adam & I, however, had brought our sack lunches prepared by the hotel and drank our juice boxes instead.

We had also wanted to go to the Bank Note museum on the island.  Yes, I do realize how much of a nerd I am.  It’s okay, I’ve come to terms with it.  But seriously, the museum discussed the history of the Drachma which besides being a cool named currency, might come back into existence as legal tender any day now.  So we set out in search of the museum.  You know before when I mentioned the maze of streets. Yeah, we got lost.  Like really lost.  Like I had to start keeping track of how many times we’d passed a sleeping dog to figure out which way to turn the next time.  After about 45 minutes, we found it.

We haven’t figured out what any of these words are, but as the doors were locked shut, we assume something on this sign say that’s it’s closed on Tuesdays.

Oh well, guess we’ll just have to sit on the beach some more.

Our final night on the island, Adam made reservations at the upscale restaurant.  We got a little dressed up – you know, didn’t wear sandals – and ate dinner overlooking the sea.  A wonderful way to end a relaxing vacation!