Half day in Corfu
Starting a trip in Albania >>>
I don't know how it happened, but finally we ended up in a country that has open borders with Greece. We were ready like never before. We have biometric passports, we have a PLF-form permit, we have digital covid certificates with a full vaccination course that ended 20 days ago. Greece, welcome us! The border officer carefully studied everything and said that now we can go through and pass an express test at the expense of Greece, just to be sure! As luck would have it, we were coughing all morning when we woke up.
The test here is done by arriving selectively. We were among those lucky ones. After 3 minutes we were told that we can go through the border control and that's all, we are in Greece! How long have we wanted to discover this country for ourselves! We congratulated each other on the first Greek step! But why is it so green here? It always seemed to me that these should be cities with a large number of world heritage ruins, there should be corrugated white columns everywhere, girls should walk along the streets holding their hands at a strict 90-degree angle, and on their heads vases with the famous oil, yes And why don't they ride chariots here?
Greece is not at all what I imagined as a child! I hope there's at least some Greek salad here? Fortunately, from all of the above, it is the Greek salad that is here, and in all restaurants. Phew, you can breathe. If the absence of columns and jugs on their heads can still be forgiven, then the absence of Greek salad would be a strong blow.
I still remember the shock when I found out that they don't serve the Prague cake that I love so much in Prague. An interesting fact is that in a Greek salad, cheese is put in one large piece or divided into four large pieces, although at home we are used to adding diced feta.
I was also very pleased with the moussaka, it was made so standard that I never ordered moussaka anywhere else, so that this one would always remain so perfect in my memory, it also could not do without a delicious fish and a jug of local wine.
As a gift from the restaurant, they brought us local sweets, the girl said that her mother cooks them. How good it is to travel to tasty countries and how good it is that there are many more tasty countries than tasteless ones. Although it seems to me that in any country we will find a corner of gastronomic paradise for ourselves.
Now about Corfu itself, we had about five hours to walk around the main city of Corfu. The city came to me so much that I put it on a par with Barcelona. I know that slippers from travelers who have already been to Barcelona will fly at me now, but I discovered many similar places and a more pronounced atmosphere for myself.
Of course, there are no creations of Gaudi here, but the narrow streets themselves, the tables of summer restaurants located on them, churches and even the fortress seemed to bring me back in a walk through the cultural capital of Spain. On the map in advance, of course, we put down stars for ourselves, but when the old city swallowed us up, we no longer needed any stars, we just wanted to wander around here all five hours.
And even when we went to climb the fortress, which, by the way, is very chic here, I already missed diving into the heart of the old city of Kerkyra again and not climbing out. The city did not want to let me go in the literal sense, they sold my weakness - frozen yogurt.
In general, what I want to say. Traveling to Ksamil without visiting Kerkyra is like a wedding without a bride. And vice versa, if you flew to Corfu, then skipping Ksamil is like visiting the Maldives, but without the sea.
Return to Albania: (
Five hours flew by faster than five minutes. Time to go back to Albania! By the way, for some reason, for some reason, I couldn’t remember all the time that we were traveling in Albania, and every time Albania was mentioned, I tried to guess what kind of country it was, such beauty with Albania did not fit in my head. The evening was rather cool, fortunately, there was a closed cabin on the ship, where everyone immediately moved. I took a comfortable seat and dozed off. How could everything go smoothly if I wrote further that I woke up already in Albania. But I woke up just like the protagonist of the movie “Life of Pi” from the fact that the ship somehow swayed strongly. I looked at my watch, we've only been sailing for an hour, so there's still an hour ahead. It rocked harder and harder. At first, I was even glad how the body calmly endures such pitching. But that was only the beginning. The ship began to really heel and align. Health began to fail collectively. Not far from us, a group of Poles laughed out loud at what was happening, but in reality it was no longer a laughing matter. The overloads that the body began to experience I did not experience on any roller coaster. People started getting sick. Oddly enough, but everyone had packages in stock.
I decided to run out of the cabin for some fresh air, as I am very sensitive to smells. I began to run along the swaying cabin and even miraculously managed to stay on my feet. Outside, massive waves mercilessly enveloped the ship, anyone who tried to pass along the outer paths was thrown from side to side. I grabbed the side railing with my hands and tried to assess the depth of the trap in which we fell into what would need to be done if the ship lost in the battle with the sea. And the main thing above us is a clear sky, where do such waves come from ? ! I hope this story doesn't end like the character from the aforementioned movie. I understood that I just needed to survive this hour. It was bad for everyone. Even those cheerful Poles drooped at some point. I understood one thing, in any case, they don’t die from pitching, you just need to survive this moment. The main thing in case of a crash is to grab Dasha and drag as many people as possible to the shore. Although with such waves, I was horrified at how to do it. But I am a good swimmer, water is my second home.
When we finally sailed, I went back to the cabin where everyone was sitting when I left. It seems that everyone looks alive, but they look literally killed, someone is sitting with such a face that he will obviously not start smiling soon, someone is just lying, not showing any signs of life, either in a faint or in a dream . With an uncertain step, we went with Dasha to the shore. I remember very much the torn-off toilet door, past which we passed through the ship. It seemed that everything was behind us and we could relax. But, unfortunately, my body is not very friendly with such overloads. As we drove to the hotel, patterns began to appear in the eyes. This type of pattern is familiar to me since childhood. If the patterns have straight or sharp corners, expect trouble in the form of a severe migraine in 30 minutes. If the pattern has round edges, it can carry over if you throw your head back. Unfortunately, these were sharp patterns. First, peripheral vision disappeared, this is when you see a person completely, but individual elements, such as a face, do not converge in one picture. And then that legendary migraine hit. It didn't seem like much.
Why am I describing all this. My friend a couple of years ago got into a completely identical situation on the same route, on the same ship. I remember very well how she described all these horrors. Before sailing to Greece, make a good assessment of the calmness of the sea, the forecast of wind strength and, if possible, pay more, but sail on a “dolphin”, and not an ordinary ship. He also walks here and has his own schedule. Don't repeat our mistake. Do not return delicious Greek food back to the sea)
