Corfu Day 5 - tanning opportunity

Friday was the penultimate( yes, I use the term penultimate.  Now, cringe) day in Corfu.  We wanted to maximise our stay so Luke and I woke up earlier than usual to stuff ourselves with the breakfast buffet and to head to the pool early.  If you haven't been to European resorts, then you'll be surprised with the amount of towels in the sun bed without the actually owner with it.  This is the resort version of queue jumpers.  As civilised humans, we refrain from doing this.  It is just unfair and selfish.  If you know my husband, he is the last person to do this.  He is too moral which is good for me.  :)

We spent the whole morning tanning ourselves.  By lunch time, I've read all 3 books that I brought with me on this trip and started re-reading one of them.  I was bored.  My only entertainment were the people on the resort.  Like this old guy for instance.  He was swimming in the pool.  His wife threw speedo on him.  He undressed immediately with his back away from us but exposing his genitals in the people in the pool bar.  When he realised this, he faced our way.  Luke and I didn't hold back our laughter.  We left soon after for the beach.  When we had enough, we left for town centre.

That day, Luke found out that he have panorama feature on his phone.  :)  These are some of his test shots:

 Private beach owned by the hotel.

 View from just outside the hotel.

Corfu town port.

Corfu Day 4 - Canal D' Amour Disappointment

I am starting to feel like I have the Midas touch but instead of turning everything to gold, I turn everything to malas.  Take this trip for instance - This was my choice.  :P  Canal D' Amour is about 1.5 hours away from Kommeno Bay.  It is located in Sidari.  Driving from Kommeno Bay to Sidari is confusing.  The rule is to carry on until you see a sign.  We had to take few stops just to make sure that we are in the right area.  When we got there, we were disappointed.  The view is good but not amazing.  It is quite unique for a cove though.  Great for taking photos but that's about it.  Not worth the drive.  

Sidari,where Canal D' Amour is, is just horrendous.  It reminded me of Pattaya.  Not my crowd, not my type of holiday destination.  We left as soon as we arrived.  Luke and I were so thankful that we were where we stayed.  Kommeno bay is a great location, near to town.   Away from the busy crowd.  I feel such a snob. Well, I am. :P  

Unfortunately, it was overcast that day.  I regretted rushing to go to town the previous day.  I could have gotten a bit tanner.  Yup, that's all I can think about.  I am obsessed with tanned skin as I rarely get to have strong sunshine on my skin.  As Filipino, we are used to the sunshine but you go to the Philippines, everyone is white.  Everyone is obsessed about whitening their skin but that's another topic.  :P  Back to the topic, when Luke and I got back in the hotel, the weather is still bad.  We stayed beach side, relaxed as I wore my two piece with towel wrapped around my body.  At about 4PM, we gave up.  Showered, slept, had feta and wine and left for town.

Corfu Day 3 - The Explorer Banks

One thing my mum taught me that stuck with me on all my travels - basta may pera ka, wag kang matakot magbyahe, which translates to more or less to, as long as you have money in your pocket, do not be afraid to explore.  The same thing I shared with Luke on this trip although it wasn't about the money but instead, petrol. :P

Before Corfu, I made a list of things that I wanted to visit:

1.  Edem for Clubbing

2.  Canal D' Amour

3.  Old Town

4.  Liston

Let me say that from the above list, our best decision was to go against the list.  The list is a good idea of what you wanted to do, at the same time, it limits you in both time and experience.  At least that's how it is for me. 

The photos below are the reasons why I love Corfu town.  I will let the photos below to explain.

 (click on the photo to enlarge)

Corfu town is very small.  The tourist spots are very easy to locate.  All you need to do is walk.  There is something historic in every turn.  It is safe.  I wouldn't dare do this in Tondo.  :P  

Whilst Luke likes certainty, I like to walk aimlessly.  When we hit an unfamiliar turn, he wanted to re-trace our route whilst I just kept on going to see what's behind every turn.  Ako naman nasusunod.  The beauty in travelling is the element of surprise basta walang magnanakaw. Hahahaha.  By the third visit, I learnt Corfu's alleyways.  I know how to go to the Old Fortress to Liston, to the Pier.  This is my proud moment when travelling - knowing my bearings.  :D

Corfu Day 2 - desperate for a tan / let's get lost

Part 1 - Desperate for a tan

Living for almost a year now in the UK made me desperate for a tan.  In the Philippines, where I am originally from, people complain of the weather being too hot.  In England, it's the other way around - too cold, when is the winter gonna end?  Since the first day was spent in bed, we both decided that this day will be spent in the beach side.  We woke up early motivated by breakfast buffet because as most of you dearies know, "you know how I feel like missing free breakfast" - Luke.  We packed our Luke's bags  with our books, suntan and water.  The first half was spent taking photos followed by endless hours of reading.  

Cliche photo.  Why not?  :P

My failed attempt to look hot.  I am too wholesome. :P

My first book from the trip was the kite runner.  Wrong choice.  I was crying on and off through out my read.  Hahaha!

Part 2:  Let's get lost

I love that my husband loves to explore.  We loves long drives too.  It's such a joy to find someone who is interested with the same interest as I.

Luke and I rented a car for the rest of the trip.  The 30 Euro bill from the airport to the hotel, 10 Euro per person travel from hotel to Corfu town, lack of restaurants in the area and the ripped off dinner helped a lot in decision making I assume.  That's a lot!  Whew!

First stop, The Church of Ipapanti.  It looked romantic on the outside that I wanted to have another wedding not realising that this church maybe Greek Orthodox.  :(  This is my dream church - small but small enough to fill up with friends and family and very scenic.  I can imagine my shabby chic wedding happening here. 

Drama aside, we decided to do action shots.  :P

 

I can't close my mouth!  We did 3 attempts for me and one for Luke.  

The plan ended with church of Ipapanti.  LOL!  Luke decided to drive around and we stumble upon Gardelades.  It was a very small town.  Too small to the point that there are only 2 roads - leading to and leaving from Gardelades.  From this day forward, Luke kept on referring to small town boys AKA Cinema Paradiso - all I want is to leave this small town and go to big city when I grow up.  

From Gardelades, we ended up in Dassia.  Dassia according to Luke is a very English holiday area.  He had an instant hate for it.  :P  We then drove and circled through Corfu town twice failing to find the city centre.  We gave up and went home.  Slept and woke up in time for dinner.  Fatties.

We took a different route to town and ended up in the city centre, finally!  Corfu town blog post will follow. :)

Corfu Day 1 - this day shall be spent in bed

Day 1:

Lately, I have been slacking with planning on holidays.  Making up as we go along best describes our trips.  I am trying to rationalise this and come up with these reasons:

1.  I am a UK resident and I will have plenty of time to go back to any European country.

2.  I too tired from work to actually organise a trip.

3.  I am lazy.  No excuse.  

I think it must be #2.  My work is knackering and leaves me no time to think about planning.  Plus planning stresses me out and I try to avoid unnecessary stress.  I love trips with my husband.  He is an explorer by heart.  He loves long drives, he loves to take good photos and he loves to experiment and try out new things.  Whereas, I can't drive, I love to be in a good photo and I like to try new things but ended up with the same old things.  He said I have a set menu for every restaurant.  According to him this is what I always go for:

Chinese = crispy shredded beef with special fried rice / yang chow

Italian = seafood pasta or lasagne

Indian = chicken rogan josh or anything with creamy sauce and tomato

Burger Joint = cheese with bacon burger

Thai = red thai curry with sticky rice

Am I getting too predictable or this is marriage life for me?  :P

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Day 1 was a day spent in bed.  We left the UK at 5:55AM flight and arrived just before 11AM.  UK is 2 hours behind Greece.  When we finally checked in, we slept the whole day.  Luke and I where both knackered.  I kept on getting interrupted in my sleep worrying that we might end up sleeping the whole day, we did.  Luke pointed out that this is a new thing to us.  We arrive early, we sleep the whole day.  Never mind, we were on holiday.  We were meant to relax.

When we finally emerged from room, it was dinner time.  We enquired at the hotel and the price shocked us, it was 35GBP per person.  As we were both sensible, we walked out and found a restaurant 15 minutes walk from the hotel, Glogpo(I think) over looking the Church of Ipapanti.

I am a bit alien when it comes to Greek food.  I've only been to Cyma, I have no Greek friends and this is my first time in Greece.  As you have noticed, Greek is not on my set menu.  LOL!

 I love cheese!  Baked feta with paprika and bread.  It was heaven for me.

Veal steak.  The steak is bigger than my hand.  It was insane.  The salad is massive too.  That night, I discovered my love for Greek red house wine.  It wasn't dry and it was strong enough for me.  Luke got pissed drinking half a liter on his own.

The view from the restaurant is amazing.  The server was very polite and warm.  We wanted to go again but we didn't get the chance.  When we finally had the car, the only destination was in town.  Too much options in so little time.  <-- Spoken like a true fatty!