Why is getting up two hours earlier than normal so painful? Even when you go to bed a bit earlier in an attempt to compensate?
Our flight to Corfu boards at 6:55am this morning. It is a local airline, Aegean Air, so they don’t use the jetways like the bigger airlines. For these flights, you load onto a bus, they drive you out on the tarmac to the plane and you climb the stairs, Presidential style, up into the aircraft. This means you can’t be late or you miss the bus and hence the plane. We set our alarm for 4:30am. I cooked scrambled eggs for breakfast while she got ready. At 5:15am I summoned a Uber car. I thought it might take 5 or 10 minutes for a car to arrive, giving us time to descend the 3 floors of steps to the outside door. My phone said he would be arriving in one minute. We scurried out the door, put the outside key in the lock box and got to the street just as he pulled up. It was still dark at 5:25am.
We picked this AirB&B because it is only 7 minutes from the airport, cheap and very roomy. The driver spoke almost no English and dropped as at the airport a little after 5:30am.
This is the same airline that requires your bag to weigh less than 8Kg, about 17 pounds. I had added a jar of honey to my pack, so I was wondering how close I was to my limit. I was wearing my swimsuit under my shorts, had a t-shirt on under my button shirt and my pockets were stuffed with extra phone battery, chargers and cords. Sally was wearing her heaviest outfit, her dress. Last time it was not an issue. We were hoping it would be the same this time. We had done check-in online, so we didn’t stop at the counter. It was two hours before our flight, so the gate number had not been determined. We passed through security and found a generic set of chairs to plop in until our gate was announced. They posted Gate B27 almost as soon as we were seated. We picked up and moved downstairs to our gate. We dozed and played on our phones until they brought up the bus for us to load. We passed though the ticket scanning process and were soon on the bus.
Now, for a country supposedly worried about COVID and trying to attract tourists, they were not very responsible about social distancing on the bus. We weren’t sardines in a can, but we were certainly closer than the recommended 1.5m. Yet, no one was allowed on the bus without proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test. I guess it was okay.
The flight was less than an hour. We deplaned the same way we boarded, on the staircase to the tarmac.
Once on the ground we had two goals: 1. Find how to get an appointment for a PCR test two days before we start flying home and 2. Determine what bus to ride to Kavos, the start of our hike and when it departs.
Sally had researched COVID testing on Corfu and had a placed picked out. It looked like we could just make an appointment online. Problems was, when we made the appointment it looked like the office where the test would be performed was at the far south end of the island. We asked a few people at the airport terminal, but could not get the answers we needed.
Also, we knew there were limited buses these days due to no tourists and COVID travel restrictions, yet we could not find a schedule on line. We were concerned we might miss the only bus of the day while we were trying to secure our COVID test appointment.
We finally talked to someone who knew where in Corfu Town the clinic was. She suggested a taxi. We talked to a taxi driver. He knew where the clinic was and for 12 euro, would take us there.
Two and a half miles later, on the very same road we would ride down in the bus to Kavos, the driver dropped us at the clinic. Another customer was at the front desk and they only allowed one at a time in the lobby, so Sally waited outside while I went to find the bus stop our taxi driver had said was just up the road. I stopped into a pharmacy and talked to an English speaking clerk. He assured me the bus stop was just up the road. I ran back to find Sally inside with the receptionist successfully making appointments for our COVID tests. Once secured, we walked up to the bus stop. We still didn’t know what time the bus left the bus depot, up by the airport, for Kavos. Behind the bus stop was a little coffee bar. I stepped inside to ask if anybody knew what time the bus would come. The owner, about 25 was there as was a customer about 20. The customer understood English, successfully navigated the Green Bus website and found two busses ran on Saturday. One at 12:45pm and one at 3:45pm. If it left the depot at 12:45pm, it would pass by our current location about 10 minutes later. It was now 9:45am.
Way too long to just sit and wait for a bus. But, we were 3 miles out of town, to far to walk back, and no taxis were around. Across the street a woman was waiting for a bus bound for town. It took us a few minutes to realize we could ride the bus she was waiting for back into town and the bus depot (duh!). Luckily, her bus was very late, or she got to the stop early, because the bus was a long time in coming, and it gave us time to think through our whole situation. Finally, we crossed the street. The bus came a few minutes later. A very patient bus driver helped us make our plan. We paid the fare and took a seat. 15 minutes later we passes the bus depot where we would catch the 12:45pm bus for Kavos and headed into downtown Corfu City.
It was now only 10:00am, so we had a couple hours to explore the city. We would stay here after our hike for 5 days for the wedding, so a little orientation to its environs seemed a good idea. We exited the bus on a busy downtown street and walked towards the old town.
The city is Venitian in style and is a World UNESCO Heritage site. We found it quaint and attractive. It will be fun to spend some days here after our hike.
In our random wanderings we passed a nice looking outdoor seating restaurant and stopped for Greek Salad for lunch. We finished about 11:20am and started toward the bus stop. I had two errands to perform along the way, 1. Stop at the Internet Provider store and make sure my service was sufficient for the two weeks we will be hiking and 2. Find a new Europe/US electrical adapter. The one I have arcs and is not reliable. If time allowed, it would be nice to find a pocket knife as well.
The phone service provider was right on our way to the bus station. There was a line outside the store. Due to COVID they would only let a limited number of people inside. Cell phone stores are notoriously slow, so the line out the door bode poorly. Yet, it moved quickly and I was being helped within 5 minutes.
The clerk spoke decent English so we could communicate. She sold me another 4Gb of data for 20 euro and gave me unlimited Internet for the weekend. I don’t trust cell providers and some of the deal seemed fishy, but I am at their mercy so I just roll with it.
Number 1 accomplished. On to number 2. As we continued through this downtown area (think downtown Bellingham size) we popped into stores likely to carry my converter, to no avail. Finally, we found a store that carried the converter and scored one for 3 euro. No knife, but that’s okay. Off to the bus depot.
We arrived a little after noon, secured our tickets and hung out at the station until the bus left. I noticed a cleaning lady replacing full garbage bags with new empties. I had not brought plastic bag liners for our packs in case it rained, and the forecast is for four days of thunderstorms. I asked her if she could give me two bags. She said of course and I followed her to her supply room where she pealed to bags off her roll.
When it came time to load the bus, we noticed a man loading his backpack on the bus at the same time we loaded ours. I asked if he was hiking the Corfu Trail. He replied yes. Wow! I thought we would be the only ones. It will be fun to share the route with someone else.
Other than a big bus driving through impossibly narrow small town streets and around narrow winding roads, the ride was uneventful and we were soon in Kavos. Enroute I received an email from the manager at Umbrella Resorts, our hotel in Kavos. He wanted to know what time we would arrive. I fired back that we were on the bus and should be there sometime between 2 and 3. He called and gave us walking directions to the hotel. I didn’t think that necessary as I had the location mapped and a route laid out on my GPS.
He told us to find Eva when we got there, she would show us to her room.
Kavos is a party town. It houses about 7-8000 people when in high season and has a reputation. What we found was a ghost town.
All but a few of the hundreds of businesses were shuttered. The few (5-10) that were open had no customers, the owners/workers standing in the street looking for non-existent customers.
We found our place and Eva, she was out by the empty pool power washing the gratings that surround the pool. She showed us to our room, clean and with a view of the sea. We rested a few minutes, then walked to a grocery store to get food for dinner, breakfast and our first day of hiking tomorrow.
With everything closed, we were hopeful of finding a grocery open. We walked by one. The lights were out, but the front was open. We stepped inside. The proprietor switched on the lights and said she was open. The shelves were nearly bare, but we were able to find bread, cheese, eggs and some noodles-enough to get us by.
The rest of the evening we cooked dinner, ate, walked the beach, explored the deserted town, stopped at the bar next door for a Coke and long discussion with the person behind the bar and finally called it a night.
So far, all our logistics have worked and we are ready to start hiking, on the day we planned! During COVID! Great day of problem solving and travel. Tomorrow we start traveling in our favorite fashion-on foot.
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