Corfu here we come...

...and we're off!
Our taxi arrived and we headed for Gatwick...2 airports within less than 2 weeks, not bad going!

Check in...
All was smooth sailing...well until we hit the check in desk...firstly we weren’t allowed to have a handbag as well as hand luggage (that’s no frills airlines for you) regardless of how small the handbag was, and the hand luggage was only allowed to weigh 5 kgs! After a quick reshuffle, the main luggage was fine and well within the 20 kg limit, yet for some reason the lady was still fussing about our hand luggage. She then decided to create more havoc for us (seeing my mom’s dreaded green book (AKA South African passport) and searching for the Schengen visa) she dropped the bomb of my mom needing to provide her medical insurance papers...which of course she didn’t have on her, as she had been under the impression that these were only needed in order to obtain the visa (which she now had). But since the check in lady wasn’t sure, instead of just making a quick phone call straight away to make certain, she carried on about it for what felt like an age. After going through the logistics with her, that my mom now had the visa already and as such would have already had to provide the health insurance paper proof she finally picked up the phone to check! Unsurprisingly...they weren’t needed!

Security...
So off we went to the security check in, waiting our turn in the queue and getting a bit annoyed with those in front for taking so long, as they hadn’t taken something off that was needed, whether it be a belt or shoes or put their liquids in the little plastic bags provided etc etc. Having verbalised my irritation to my mom, you can imagine my surprise when we eventually did go through, when her bag was taken for a closer inspection. Although not quite realising what was happening, my mom very nicely asked the ‘second phase security’ for her bag back, to which she was told to come to one side and answer some questions. To cut a long story short...my mom hadn’t quite realised that a little mini bottle of water (aka bigger than 100ml) would cause such a fuss! Needless to say she insisted on drinking it there and then, so she could take the bottle with her (which I can report was not used again in Greece!)

All this accomplished there was no time to wander through the duty free shops and we made a run for our gate, as the flight was showing as boarding! Those that have travelled with me, know this sets alarm bells off in my head...as I seem to have the need to be at the airport, nevermind the boarding gate well in advance. Anyway we got there in good time, to find ourselves still waiting another 30 min or so before we actually did board.

Greece...
We arrived in Greece safe and sound and after organising our transfer we were off on the windy roads of Corfu, on which our bus driver raced around the corners as if he were driving a McClaren F1 car. First stop was our hotel...which wasn’t too shabby looking from the outside and as promised in the description we were right on the beach! Awesome! We were greeted by the friendly receptionist Jacqueline, before settling ourselves in our room (with a side sea facing view). The room was minimalistic...and the bed incredibly hard...but that didn’t bother us, as we were here on our first European holiday together and in much need of some relaxation and sunshine!

The hotel was all inclusive, but unfortunately we had missed lunch, so we headed out to explore, before dinner was served, not knowing what was in store for us food wise when we got back in time for dinner. The area we were in, in Corfu was called Agious Ioannis and the town was quite cute! Again minimalistic, but central to Corfu Town, the shopping hub and other shopping areas.

Dinner was served...interesting...that is about all I could say and we hoped that they may just be having an off night. Turns out they weren’t! After being spoilt for choice with the ‘all inclusive’ array in the Maldives, nothing was quite going to compare! Each day it got more and more ‘interesting’! In all seriousness the highlight was the chunks of Watermelon after dinner! The hotel did however make up for their ‘interesting food’ with some amusing evening entertainment, from music competitions, Greek Dancing, water aerobics and even a disco!

Time to chill...
We spent the first day on the beach and in the pool relaxing! Bliss! It felt very overdue!
The next day we ventured a little further from our hotel, and found a sandy beach. The entry to the sea was off a kind of jetty and once in you pretty much had to tread water to stay afloat. The sea was as calm as a cucumber, albeit a tad cold! After a quick swim, we lazed around on the beach loungers, sunning ourselves and after awhile decided to go for a walk along the beach for as far as we could go. We came across a lady selling boat trip excursions to the mainland and the Blue Lagoon and even a night shopping trip to Corfu town. We made a note to come back the next day to book our trips. When we couldn’t go any further on the sand, we made our way up to road to see what was round the next corner. And as I mentioned before the roads were quite windy, so every corner we passed, we thought we should try one more and then one more corner. There was however no pavement to walk on and the drivers were quite crazy in that the liked to overtake on these windy corners...eventually we just didn’t feel safe anymore and decided to make our way back (having walked quite far anyway). En route back we came across a big dog that looked as if it had been locked out of its garden, which was sitting at the end of a very long driveway, which was right on the edge of the road. We felt quite sorry for it -always far too big a soft spot for animals, even the feral ones - that is until it charged at me, barking and looking quite vicious...I promptly screamed and swung my beach bag at it and thankfully that seemed to do the trick in chasing it away.

...Gerald Durrell
The next day we tried our luck at booking the boat excursions, but the lady wasn’t there...so we headed off into Corfu town instead, to go shopping.
It was a long day out, which just shows that I am no longer in the shape that I used to, when I could shop for hours on end...this time we shopped and I literally dropped. We arrived at the bus station after about a 20-30 min trip from our little village and the rain decided to absolutely bucket down...which of course was very unusual weather for Corfu considering the time of year (just my kind of luck). Nevertheless we set off in search of the main shopping district (if you could call it that) and I bought an umbrella en route...which broke the first time I put it down to go into a shop. Another one of our purposes of going into Corfu town was to find the Gerald Durrell bookshop for my mom. The hotel receptionist had asked her friend, who had asked another...as you do...about where this shop could be. Unfortunately it was just a normal bookshop and they only had one Gerald Durrell book on sale – which my mom thankfully hadn’t read as yet, so she bought it. Much shopping, multiple purchase and even more getting lost...we headed back for the bus station to make our way back to our hotel.

The next day we made a trip to Mouse Island, which is in Perama (another Gerald Durrell hotspot). The Island has a little Monastery on it, and that is about it – very quaint. Later that day we booked our trip to the Blue Lagoon – which we were to do on the Thursday. And when Thursday came we were in luck - the weather was on our side when we set off for the all day boat trip. We stopped at various places en route, saw the mainland and of course swam at the blue lagoon. At the blue lagoon I made an ever so graceful entrance into the water...feeling brave...and jumped off from the side of the boat. When we were swimming along with a lovely British couple (who were also staying at our hotel), the boat crew thought it would be hilarious to throw bread into the water (or should I say at us) so that we were surrounded by these massive fish...all coming in to feed. Between the laughter and the squeals...I’m surprise I didn’t scare them off, but they just kept coming (good thing Pirahna 3D hadn’t come out yet). After the Blue Lagoon we stopped off at a sandbank for yet more swimming, and then a cute little village for lunch and some shopping (which had no water, so none of the toilets were working) and then another little place just for ice-cream.

We had a lovely day out on the boat...when we weren’t off swimming or taking in the sights they kept us entertained with ABBA (from the Mamma Mia movie) and Zorba the Greek and other songs with a lot of ‘Oppa’s. When the trip came to an end, instead of getting a lift back to the hotel, we decided to walk back to our hotel and stop off and do yet some more shopping along the way. On the way back we found a ‘Taverna’ that was showing the football on Sky TV...so the commentators spoke in English! Up till now we had watched one of the SA games and an English Game at a Taverna near to our hotel and the commentary had been in Greek or the TV on mute...which made for an interesting viewing experience and to add to it both times we were the only ones there!

The next day we decided to relax and sun ourselves a bit before making an impromptu bus trip to yet another Gerald Durrell location. We headed off on another bus trip in search of Gerald Durrell’s ‘White House’ which is in a place called Kalami. The scenery from the bus was beautiful, and should we make another trip to Corfu I would definitely stay in this town. We got to the spot where were needed to get off and checked with the bus conducter what time they would be coming back (their return on the round trip journey)...after a lot of shaking of heads we discovered we had 30 min if we were going to make it back in time to get the bus, which in turn would get us back to our hotel, to get changed and back in time to get the boat to Corfu Town for the ‘Night boat ride and shopping experience’ which we had already booked and paid for. So we started off down the hill, running...if you can believe...what had to be the longest and windiest road. We could see the White House when we were about half way down the road, but still had very far to go to actually getting there. Nevertheless we made it, took some pictures of it when we got there, had a toilet break, before running back...this time Up Hill!! Some strange looks from the locals and tourists, and many a thought of ‘hitchhiking’ back up the hill, we carried on going...if you can picture a 60 year old and a 29 year old running up the hill... it must have been quite a sight. I got to the top extremely out of breath and very low on water...and thankfully no bus was insight (although at the time we weren’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing). My mom soon caught up and it turns out we had about 5 min to catch our breath before we saw the bus coming round the corner. The faces of the bus driver and his conductor were priceless! They could not believe that we had made it there and back in time! The journey back was lovely and relaxing after the most exercise I have had in months. Thankfully we made it in good time to catch our boat into Corfu Town for the night shopping experience. The Greeks, like the Spanish keep funny hours, so their shops open in the morning and then close in the afternoon and then re-open again in the evenings. This time we knew where we were going...thank goodness...as we would hate to have missed the boat back should we have gotten lost. We headed straight for the shopping district...and after much deliberation we bought some beautiful bangles, some kumquats and a few other bits and pieces and before we knew it, it was time to get some dinner before heading back to the boat. The trip back consisted of yet more ABBA and ‘Oppa’s’...

After all this the week was soon up and it was time to head back to sunny London (this time no sarcasm needed)!

Last week...

Back in London, the exam was out of the way...but unfortunately the next assignment was looming. So it was time to knuckle down yet again...
Between work and the assignments, once it was submitted there was just enough time to enjoy the last 2 nights with my mom. However I had an event on the one night and had to leave work late – this particular day/night my mom decided to catch the bus back from Wimbledon to our place (only about a 10 min trip)...45 min into the journey she realised she was going the wrong way. So when I got back to my desk after the event, to pack up for the evening, I had 6 missed calls from a very distraught mom, who had managed to land herself in Streatham of all places (not the best area in London). Not being able to get hold of me, she managed to get Mark who just told her to get off the bus... By the time I was able to phone her she had gotten off the bus and was waiting for the next bus to come by on the other side of the road. She only managed to get home a few minutes before us, much to her dismay as she had very kindly cleaned our entire flat, and just wanted to put the finishing touches to it before we arrived back from work. We were very happy for the clean house! The next night we went to see Tap Dogs...AMAZING! Shona and I absolutely loved it and seeing Adam Garcia in the flesh (the Aussie Boy from Coyote Ugly). The tap dancing was amazing and the show although only an hour and a half was full on...how those boys keep it up, I don’t know. Basically it was a group of 6 or 7 guy tap dancers and 2 girl drummers...and the story is told through the dancing as opposed to acting and script! Loved it!

The last day of the whirlwind holiday had arrived, and we were able to take my mom to see the new place we were buying. Hopefully next time she comes, it will be all nicely renovated and finished! After that we headed to the airport - a 4th time in a month to say good-bye - but not before yet another altercation with security...this time for taking photos of the checking-in process! Much fun and adventures of a whirlwind holiday!