relaxing in Greece

Greece was lovely.  Lots of pretty vistas and the hotel was in a great spot.  We stayed in Corfu for three nights, which makes it our longest stopover of the trip.  The first night there most of the group went to an organized dinner but Claire, Katie, and I snuck off on our own to find a fun little restaurant.  This is how we met Nona (our new grandma).  Nona's restaurant was hidden behind some greenery and down a river bank.  We sat outside on the balcony which was covered in vines and really pretty.   We had traditional Greek food for dinner and then I requested Baklava to share for desert.  When Nona stopped making fun of us for getting fat if we ate Baklava she went back into the kitchen...or so she wanted us to think...we saw her sneak across the road to a bakery and then she came back with a little borwn bag behind her back...we pretended not to notice.  The Baklava was very good.  Poor Nona.  Funny lady, we like her.  Another character we met in Greece was Harris.  Harris is a very good looking 40 year old bartender who works 7 days a week for 7 months of the year and just lazes around in the off season.  He winks constantly and makes up really fun cocktails.  You can't actually ask for a type of drink, only the choice of fruity or creamy.  He then proceeds to pour about 6 different liqours and 3 juices into a blender and it becomes the best thing you have ever tasted. He tops it off with all sorts of  pretty\sparkly  decorations - even the boys get flowers in their drinks. We all spent some quality time with Harris.

The next day we went on "George's Boat" - like a big ferry.  It took us to an island where there were loads of waterspots.  Parasailing, fly fishing, extreme tubing contraptions and so forth.  I attempted to build a drip castle but the sand was really rocky and didn't work all the well.  There are pictures though to show my attempts.  After lunch we piled back in George's boat and toured around until we came to a lagoon.  Everyone jumped off, swam for a bit, and climbed back on.  Our final stop of the day was at  "skinny dip island".  I'm pretty sure they just pick a random semi-desserted island and pretend call it skinny dip island.  This didn't seem to bother most people as they swam nude - not me though, I was on to their little trick.

The third day we were on our own to do what we'd like.  A lot of people rented cars and drove to beaches but I decided to hike around the island on foot.  It was about a 40 minute walk into town, most of which was along the waterfront.  I walked all around for a few hours and then found the perfect little cafe for an afternoon tea and more baklava.  I wrote in my paper journal for a while and then set off exploring again.  It was a perfect day.  And!  I made it back to the hotel about 5 mintues before the storm rolled in.  The clowds made for some good pictures along the waterfront.

The fourth day was up in the air.  We weren't sure until late on the thrid night whether we'd be leaving for the slower ferry at 4:30 am or the "superfast" ferry at 1pm.  Thankfully we caught the superfast ferry (superfast is actually the name of the ferry company and all the workers have name tags that read: Superfast Dave).  First it was a ghetto ferry into mainland Greece where we caught the overnight ferry.  It was no ferry at all - it was a full fledged cruise ship.  No sea sickness this time and I had a great sleep just rocking in the ocean. 

That's all for Greece.  More time in Italy to come!  Chio,

Laura