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| ussie on the HOHO bus in Corfu |
The third port of call on the cruise was Corfu, Greece. The island is off the northwest coast of Greece. We decided to mess around Corfu Town on our own rather than go on a tour off the ship. Did we make the right choice? I'll let you know at the end of this post.
First off, the port is kind of far away from the cruise terminal, so the port has busses to take you from the ship to the terminal. Second, the bus pickup area was kind of haphazard so we spent some time running back and forth from where we thought we would get on the bus to where the bus actually stopped, which was different for each bus. It was odd. Third, there were three or four ships in the port that day, so there were hundreds of people trying to get on these busses. Then, when we were able to get on a bus, the cruise terminal was packed. Old Town Corfu isn't that far from the terminal, maybe a 30 minute walk, but it was already blisteringly hot - that Greek sun is no joke - so most people were trying to get tickets for the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus or getting a taxi. We actually got both. MT stood in the line to get the HOHO tickets, then the line for the bus was so long that he got fed up with the whole thing and paid a taxi to drive us five minutes to the Old Town. It wasn't a great start to our time on the island.
Once we got into the town, it was cute and reminded me a bit of Chania, Crete with all the flowering trees and tiny streets and colorful old buildings.
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| T and MT in Corfu Town |
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| tiny little street |
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| the church tower reminds me of Chania |
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| a street in Corfu Town |
There didn't seem like much to see of historical interest. We did go to the main church, which was quite small compared to the churches we'd seen in Italy. I was hoping to get some Greek food, so we ate at a little place that had covered outdoor seating off the street. The server must have thought I was going to pass out from the heat because he sat us directly in the path of a couple of fans so we had some air flow around us. The food was good. You can't beat souvlaki and fries in Greece. Without a doubt, some of the best fries I've ever had have been in Greece.
After lunch we were going to go see the old or the new fort - there are two big forts and they both look old. There was one close to the old town, but when I put in the directions, it had us going the opposite way, so we decided to get on the HOHO to take us back to the ship. When we got on the bus, though, we decided to just take a ride all around, but no hopping off.
The bus took us past some buildings and a beach with an airstrip. It took us past both forts.
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| New Fortress (opened in 1572) |
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| Old Fortress (opened in 1545) |
From where we were in Old Town, it really would not have been a long walk to the Old Fortress, and even closer to the New Fortress, although there is a steep hill to go to that one. We were kind of disappointed that we didn't just wait for the HOHO in the morning because we definitely would have gone to one of these fortresses.
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| view of Corfu Town from the cruise terminal |
Probably the best thing we could have done was to take a beach day on Corfu. It was so bloody hot, and the beaches looked so wonderful. Missed opportunity. Certainly not the first or the last mistake of this trip. Still, I enjoyed being in Corfu Town, having Greek food, and wandering around the little streets.
Next time I will write about our day in Kotor, Montenegro. It was definitely a highlight of the cruise! Until then, I'll leave you with this pretty sunset pic I took from the balcony of my stateroom.
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| sunset off the coast of Albania |
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