oh haaaayyy!! how do bloggers do this for a living. blogging is a bit easier for me than posting on socials but wow. it do be an artform and a career.
anyways GIDDY UP for our corfu, greece blog post!!!! i guess greece as a whole. SO we took a funnnn ferry from Brindisi, Italy all the way to Igoumenitsa, Greece!!! we actually walked the 40 minutes from our Airbnb to the port and PHEEW it was warm. but we made it!! also shoutout to the american girl we met at the port/ferry <3 hope your trip went well.
what was fun about the ferry was sitting outside and then looking up and BOOM hello albanian mountains you gorgeous things. it was fun and magical. we then had dinner on the ferry, some delicious chicken and some yummy greek salad (i was PUMPPPED to be going to the land of greek food. the oLIVES. the FETA).
we made it to Igoumenitsa in the night time. also exiting and going onto the ferry felt funny bc they had us go through where the cars were??? and it felt like we shouldnt be there. dodging out of the way of these big trucks.
we walked for a bit and then when we told our Airbnb man we were almost there he was like STAY WHERE YOU ARE. and he pulled up with a car feeling super bad about not picking us up. Yall this man was one of the highlights of our Greece trip. he was SO SWEET. he was like let me know when you wake up I will take you to get breakfast and then drop you at the port. he went above and beyond. taking us to this cute coffee shop in the morning and having breakfast with us. he was soso lovely and hearing about him and his family. wish we were staying longer with him bc he invited us to go hang out with him in some beautiful nearby places.
ANYWHO we go onto ferry no. 2 to CORFUUUUU!!! where we were staying for a week. now we thought the hike to the Brindisi port was hard? welcome to the hike we took to the bus stop bc we needed to get to the other side of the island. LUCK was on our side tho. we got to the bus stop and BOOM the next bus left in 5 mins. so we didnt need to wait the hour and a half for it. our airbnb host STAVROS was going to meet us at the bus stop near the place. well this is when we learned that there wasnt any buttons or anything to alert the driver we wanted to get off. and bus stops are super sneaky in Greece bc we couldnt even tell we missed our stop until our host was like ??? you didnt get off. and so we asked the driver and we just got off at a random side of the road. but Stavro to the rescue he came to claim us. Y’all people from Greece are SUPER hospitable.
He brought us to our cute, chill, one room Airbnb and explained that we were in the hippy area which LOVE. basically the beach near us was nude. also we mentioned to Stavros that we wanted to rent a scooter for a week and this man was like SAY LESS I KNOW A GUY. he then stayed with us for like 30 mins to help us get a scooter, translating on the phone. and then the scooter peeps came and dropped it off at our place?? how nice. we did love the vibes of the scooter people bc Ian asked about the speed limits here and they were like “its not about the speed man its about the vibe of the road…” incredible. definitely recommend renting a scooter on the island, it was so fun.
we went to a Stavros recommendation for dinner called Spiros Taverna 97. if anyone is ever around these parts, highly recommend. lovely staff and tasty tasty food. they bring this incredible tapenade with the table bread. we also got Saganaki, which …. if anyone has had it in places in Canada/Toronto they usually do a table side demonstration of lighting the cheese on fire and yelling OPA!! well. hate to break the news but i THINK this is a North American thing bc no such performance happened in Greece when we ordered it. but wow was it delicious. we both got Souvlaki, and the pork was incredible. with the homemade tzatziki, it was heaven.
we also had this ever growing greek salad that we would have at home and eat for dinner basically every day. the feta. the olives. the dressing (which we made by ourselves). the tomatoes!!! it was so yummy and a highlight of the trip. did i eat a jar full of olives basically single handedly in one sitting? yes but … worth it. i thanked all the olive trees i saw. shoutout to you olive trees <3 forever love you.
people were so kind to us on the island of corfu. RANDOM lovely strangers would come up to me and ask what happened bc i had a splint. and they would be like oh my gOSH im so sorry. like how kind. very caring people.
a very hilly terrain. warning if you are on corfu, and the google says a 10 minute walk?? it might be fully uphill. and lots of switchback roads which Ian did enjoy navigating on a scooter. shoutout to him for liking driving things like that.
we were luckily right by the beach (yes the nude one) and so we hit that up. very clear water and while i couldnt fully submerge, it was shallow enough where i could enjoy the water and go out pretty far.
one day we navigated to the north shore to hit up the Canal D’Amour. my boy got to go cliff jump in the iconic spot and it had very very cool terrain. loved how people were just posted up on the ridges of the cliff. also people were rubbing the clay on their bodies so if anyone visits thats a fun lil thing to do!!!
one day we also navigated down south to i think one of our favourite spots, Halikounas Beach, a really looong beach with beautiful water where even when its busy, you have room. funny thing that happened, and i guess a warning, is that i got a lil stain on my WHITE linen pants and we laid it out to dry and damn the sun bleached it right out!!! incredible. but be careful!!!
an exciting thing we did was GO PARAGLIDING. it was my boy Ian’s birthday while we were on Corfu and for awhile i was like what the heck do you get for someone backpacking since you dont want them to have to carry it. also how will i buy it when we are together 24/7. as well, i think he is an activity and experience person so i found this spot close to us that did paragliding and booked a surprise session for him!!! we both ended up going separately. and WOW. it was incredible. very surreal??? like my eyes couldnt really comprehend. the man who was flying us was like a professional paraglider who competes!!! who knew that was a thing but sounds so fun. and he is like usually ranking first or second!!! so hell yea we paraglided with a very trustworthy man!!! the people who was running the show were hilarious and kept talking about how us Canadians are WILD and fight BEARS every day. it was very humorous and very stereotypical. but i let them believe i fought a bear and broke my hand. they also informed me “kay” in greece means “too hot.” and when we took a photo they asked me to hide my broken hand so people didn’t think i broke it with them. they gave us a great recommendation for lunch after with some local Corfu dishes, Stifado and Sofrito - very yummy. we had it again at another place on the side of the road and wowzers. it is tasty. Greece man … tasty stuff happening.
one day we also drove into Corfu old town and WOW it is BUMPING!! lots of people, lots of cute alleys and market streets. we had one of the best coffees from a stall there. and we enjoyed wandering the streets just vibing.
this was also the day we went to a private hospital to get a x ray on my hand to make sure we were healing properly. i had purchased some fancy travel insurance so we figured we should use it and go to a private clinic to hopefully cut some time. a great experience!!! and Ian enjoyed the air conditioning. the team at this clinic was very kind and helpful!! it didn’t take too long and they confirmed it was healing. but said i should get another x ray in two more weeks before removing the splint. so. who knew this was becoming a “hospital tour around the world” trip.
on our last day we went to another beach, Kontogialos beach, one of the nicest of the trips. we splurged and paid for the umbrella and chairs. the water was loooveellyyy and it was so shallow that i could basically kneel and enjoy playing in waves.
one small sad thing that happened was on a scooter ride a GIANT bug landed on my leg and bit or stung me. i was very sad bc i am such a friend of bugs and i was surprised it would do this and i wasnt used to harboring negative feelings towards bugs. and it was MASSIVE. i still dont know what it was.
Corfu overall was an incredible time and one of our favourite parts. i think we are learning that being in some kind of nature is important to us, whether that be forest, beach or mountain thats where we have the most fun!!!
next day we had a BIG travel day to Athens where we were staying for 5 days!!! we lucked out and was able to take a bus FROM corfu all the way to athens. it was kinda fun in the way that it felt like those middle school trips being on a coach bus and stopping at gas stations along the way. anyways it was a big day. and it was HOT in athens. and a bit smokey bc there were forest fires 😟
now, this is where we kinda started to struggle. our AC was holding on for dear life and did not really work. so we really relied on cold showers and wet towels. our place was very modern and beautiful. but not sure if it was the heat, the traveling or just something else but i was kinda mentally not doing great the next few days …. i kinda just wasnt present for the 5 days and i did NOT want to do anything. i seem to have these moments every month or so where i just … need to decompress. and do nothing. and i want to normalize this bc i am not sure it is talked about a lot. i often feel this PRESSURE to be doing something every day and im not sure if thats for me. i need days to just … be.
we continued our streak of always having a greek salad on the go. and i had so many olives. we had one of the best bottles of wine weve had the whole trip. and we really just chilllled.
we also of COURSE went to see the Acropolis and do those fun things bc i really love Greek mythology. it was PRETTY COOL. not gonna lie. it is quite beautiful. i loved seeing the carytids and they truly are smaller than i thought?? its also interesting bc exploring the Pantheon and Acropolis felt weird bc so many people were there. I know its super touristy but like … it really made it feel a lot more surreal. stunning though. Ian also got an incredible selfie of us so 10/10 job there my guy.
we also walked around a bit and found this BEAUTIFUL park which i think was a highlight of our time in Athens. it was so lovely with different types of trees.
i have to tell you a funny story and maybe its just me that thinks its funny. but we were sitting on a bench in this park soaking in the beautiful nature, and then Ian just gets up and says one sec and runs away like 50 meters and goes “its a TURTLE.” how did this boy see this turtle moving in the distance???? but it was pretty magical. and then we came to this TURLE POND. and i was loving life. turtles can swim so fast <3
i still crack up thinking about that story. anyways this blog post has gone on far too long. SEE YA. loved Greece. will be back.
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