August 12 CORFU

Yesterday was a bit of a wash-out. We got up early and rushed to the local “blue bus” stop to catch the bus to Pelekas, with the intention of catching a free local shuttle to Glyfada beach.

The object of my desire, Glyfada beach:

There were hordes of people walking and driving into town. The waiter at the Black Cat Café had explained that it was the day of Saint Spiridas, the patron saint of Corfu. We felt like we were salmon swimming upstream during spawning season.

At the bus stop we bought bus tickets and asked the woman behind the counter where to wait for the bus. There are only seven buses daily to Pelekas so we arrived early and watched very intently for the correct bus number. It was hot and noisy and the carbon monoxide was horrible so we were all eager to get on the bus and to the beach.

The 10am scheduled arrival came and went and we did not see the No. 11. Simone asked the woman at the ticket kiosk if the bus was late and she waved Simone off, saying that it would come soon. We waited some more. At 10:45am Simone asked the woman again when the bus was coming and she said that it had come and gone already.

We were pissed off by this point, partially because of the woman’s attitude but mostly because of the heat and noise and the fact that we’d wasted close to two hours waiting for a bus instead of enjoying the Saint Spiridas celebrations.

I asked the woman at the ticket kiosk for our money back and she grudgingly refunded our tickets. We walked back to the hotel for a wash and to reconsider our plans for the day. I was feeling sick from the heat and carbon monoxide so I opted to have a quiet afternoon in the hotel. Mom and Simone went to the museum and for a walk around town.

We had dinner at the Black Cat Café and then an early night. The next morning Mom and I got up early and caught a taxi to Glyfada beach. It cost a bomb but it was my last chance to go swimming so I was determined to get to the beach, come hell or high water. The taxi driver got lost and we ended up taking some short cuts along back roads to get to Glyfada. We enjoyed the ride immensely because it afforded us a chance to see the countryside.

Glyfada itself is very small. It’s a white sand beach at the bottom of a mountain and a typical Greek switchback road. We made our way down the wooden walkways onto the beach and found a couple of loungers under an umbrella and settled in.

Glyfada beach:

I was in the water like a shot. I was expecting a calm ocean but Glyfada is very shallow and as a result there are huge breakers crashing onto the beach. I waded out past the small breakers and rested for a bit, then tried my luck with the big breakers. It was an absolute hoot getting tossed about by the big waves and I was laughing like an idiot the entire time.

When I got tired I made my way back to shore and helped Mom wade out into the water. She doesn’t like swimming and was extremely brave as the small breakers knocked her around.

I swam a couple more times in the breakers, which got smaller and tamer as the day progressed. By noon we were feeling tired and a bit crispy from the sun so we went to a tavern for lunch. We shared a pork kebab and watched as the beach filled up with swimmers and sunbathers.

I’d learned that there was a bus from Glyfada to Corfu Town at 1:45pm so after lunch we walked up the road to the “bus stop”. Getting up the road was a typical Greek experience. When we’d arrived at the beach in the morning the road was clear and two cars could pass each other easily. As the day progressed people had parked on either side of the road, reducing it to one lane. People trying to leave the beach got halfway up the road and were met by people trying to get to the beach…and neither would/could give way. There was a lot of horn honking and yelling and gesturing. Mom and I had to weave our way through the traffic jam, while trying not to get run over by scooter drivers doing the same thing.

At the top of the second switchback was the “bus stop”. It consisted of a wide dirt area covered in garbage and a sign that was so damaged that you could barely discern the words “bus stop”. Our experience with the distance “green” bus was far better than our experience with the local “blue” bus. The green bus arrived on time, the driver and his assistant both shouted “Corfu Town!” several times to indicate the destination, and we could buy our tickets on the bus instead of from a grumpy woman at a kiosk. We arrived back in Corfu Town in record time, thoroughly pleased with our day at the beach.

Simone had spent the day visiting the New Fortress and the Asian Art Museum. Two cruise ships had arrived in Corfu Town in the morning and disgorged their passengers…mostly gay men. Simone had noticed quite a few couples visiting the New Fortress, and when Mom and I walked back from the “green” bus station we also noticed an sudden increase in the male population.

Simone, Costas, Mom, Anna, Me, and Stavros:

We went back to Café Bellisimo for dinner. Stavros and his father Costas greeted us warmly and asked where we’d been the night before. We asked how their business was going today and learned that they’d taken half a day off to relax and catch up on sleep. For dinner we had salad and pastitsada again, and tried something new…stifada. Everything was delicious and Stavros surprised us by serving a plate of watermelon for dessert. We took pictures, exchanged emails, and had kisses all around and then slowly made our way back to the hotel for our final sleep in Corfu.