Corfu – A Place in The Sun
When I landed in to Corfu from dreary London, I was pleasantly surprised by the mild climate. My arrival date was at the start of the very first week of April, a time not associated with tourism and I had not expected such good weather. My flight left foggy Stanstead Airport and arrived in Corfu just as the sun had set and the island was engulfed in darkness. From the airfield plain I could vaguely see the shadow of mountains, dominating our position below.
Table of Contents
- The Pink Palace
- A Little Geography
- Agis gordios
- Old Town of Corfu
- What to do in the Old Town of Corfu?
- Festivals and Religion
- Nightlife
- Around the Island
- Entering/Exiting Corfu
- Conclusion
The Pink Palace
I was picked up at the airport by the Pink Palace van, a bright pink vehicle branded with the hostel name. The driver was a well humoured greekman, with a great sense of humour, that just referred to me as “Canadian Boy”. On this bus I met a bunch of American exchange students, who the driver just referred to as the “Americanos”. I would become friendly with them, they were a nice group. Back at the hostel, I met two crazy Brits, Charlie and Deano who I would befriend and later meet up with back in Manchester, as well as my friend Barbara and my roommate Hazem. This hostel makes it very easy to meet people and before you know it you will have made a large group of friends. It is at the Pink Palace that I first experienced travel separation, the awful feeling missing people that had either just left the hostel or people that you left when you checked off the hostel. That’s the beauty of hostel life, its a star crossed adventure full of drunken nights and long days out exploring in the sun with perfect strangers you had just met that morning. I could not replicate that initial Pink Palace experience if I tried.
The palace is a famous party hostel, located at the nearby beach town of Agios Gordios. It offers many amenities such as a hot tub, a 24hr bar, a beach, volley ball court, a restaurant, a night club and much more. The complex is located at the top of a hill above Agios Gordios and its walls are completely painted in pink. The rooms are clean and the beds sheets are a bright pink as well. The hostel offers transfers and pickups from your point of arrival and meal are communal meal happen in the large dining room on site. I am not a big fan of all some party hostels but the Pink Palace is one for the ages. It is the granddaddy of all party hostels, yet still retains much more charm than newer facilities.
Activities are organized on several different days or nights of the week, such as the Saturday night toga party, complete with pink bed sheets and plates to break. Other activities include a tour of the island, a booze cruise and four wheeler rentals. On nights where the weather is conductive, an exterior patio bar is opened as well.
A Little Geography
Corfu is the largest of the Ionian Islands, a chain stretching along the Adriatic (western) coast of Greece and the southern tip of Albania. The island is elongated with the capital city of Corfu lying at its center. Agios Gordios, a beach town is on the opposite shore, a half hour drive south west of Corfu. The island is strategically placed as to control the entrance of the Adriatic sea, as thus has been coveted for its strategic location.
Agis gordios
The first night was spent having an well nourishing meal of Lamb at the pink palace dining room and partying on the patio outside with other hostel guests. I woke up the next morning, stretched and went to check out the view of the town outside. The temperature was nice and sunny revealing the beautiful mountains that had been hidden from me the night before, a magnificent sight. The hills of Corfu are covered in Greek cypress tree, a beautiful species I had dreamed of seeing.
This beach town may be small, but it sports a scenic crescent shaped beach with the imposing backdrop of jagged mountains and a striking island formation. Although it was only April, I managed to land during a heatwave. It was over 25 degree’s outside and although the Adriatic was cold the water was still bearable, if I was cold I would just run up to the Pink Palace hot tub.
As I said after a few beers and an ill advised evening swim in the cold Adriatic:
Every night at the Palace ends in the hot tub!
Me… drunk
Since I was visiting in April, most of the shops and restaurants in town were still closed. The village had an empty feeling when we went in to find an ATM, it was cool to see the villagers preparing for busy season on the other hand. In the street the local dogs slept, sometimes blocking the roads. Local shop owners were dusting their patios and homes were being whitewashed. I would recommend springtime in Corfu to any traveller. The island is practically devoid of tourists and although many attractions are closed the temperatures are perfect. I found my days to be warm and humid but my nights to be cool and brisk, making it easy to sleep.
Refugee Boat
On one of my last days in Corfu, my friends and I rounded up other guest at the hostel and set off to go cliff diving. On our way there we came across an abandoned refugee boat. I wouldn’t recommend climbing in, but we did.
Cliff Diving
After we left the boat, we came across a nude beach and it was not a pretty sight, so we carried on. It was an hour walk and after a while some of the spoiled Americans we were with started complaining (For the record: I’ve met some great travel buddies that are Americans, but these ones were walking stereotypes). The path cut across a farmers field and we were honked at by many farm animals including an army of turkeys!
When we made it to the cliff diving spot we were greeted by a beautiful view of the Agio Gordios coastline.
The cliff diving rock was located at the far end of a massive rock formation. To get to it we had to git into the freezing cold seawater and swim across. Even though it was the smaller rock it was still several stories high. The barefoot climb on the sharp rocks cut my feet but it was a great diving spot! We befriended a group of Greek kids who taught me many Greek swear words. An easy one to remember is “Malaka”, you will hear it on the island quite a bit. I will let you look it up.
The Toga Party and Booze Cruise
THe weekends at the pink palace are when the party truly starts so don your pink bed-sheets and make your way to the bar. The toga party is the signature event at the Pink Palace. 50 euro cent ouzo shots are served and a wide selection beer while plates are broken in the Greek tradition! What can I say, join… Its a blast!
As for the Booze cruise, it is the it is the second big weekend event. Both are a lot of fun, if your liver hasn’t died yet.
Old Town of Corfu
During the busy season many buses run from the town of Agios Gordios to the Old Town of Corfu. If visiting in the off-season, the hostel runs a tour that stops in the old town for a few hours. Or you can do like me and make friends with people that own a car, it is very convenient.
A Little History
Corfu [Kerkyra] has a long history of human occupation, with settlement dating from the Mycenaean Greek period. Due to its geography and imposing fortification it has been coveted by many and held by few.
Mycenaean Period
Corfu was inhabited during the early years of Greek Civilization. We know this as Linear B scrip tablets have been found dating from 1300BC. The island appears in many myths and legends including the Odyssey and Jason and the Argonauts. The island was occupied by a seafaring people of the Adriatic called the Liburnians.
Classical Greece
The Librarians were displaced by the Corinthians in 735BC and the island became a colony of Corinth. Due to its location between Magna Graecia (Southern Italy and Sicily) and the Greek mainland it grew powerful from trade and built a powerful fleet. It was one of the few colonies to rebel against the mother city. In 665, the Tyrant of Corinth Periander had to fight the first naval battle in Greek history to reclaim the island after it rebelled. Under the rule of Periander settlers from Corfu settled the city of Apollonia in nearby Albania.
During the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), Corfu again turned on its master and joined the Athenians side. That was resulted in an Athenian loss but it again rejoined Athens during the Corinthian War (395–387 BC). It resisted all hostile takeovers and sieges during both these wars. In 303 BC the island is was assaulted by Cassander, the king of Macedonia in a failed bid to take over the island. During this period Corfu was finally taken over and traded a few times before becoming an independent city. In 229BC it was taken by the Illyrians.
In Between Two Romes
The roman republic swiftly liberated the island from the Illyrians and it became a Roman naval base. The island was calm during this period. When Rome split in two halves it became part of the Byzantine Empire. In 551BC, the capital of the island is burned to the ground during the Gothic War. The Old Town of Corfu located just to the north, would replace this settlement. During the Gothic wars, the Byzantines under the great Belisarius retook much of Italy. Up until the fourth crusade, Corfu would become an important trading center for Byzantine possessions in southern Italy.
Due to its wealth, Corfu is besieged, occupied or raided many times. At first the island repulsed Muslim invaders and then, after the conquest of southern Italy by the Normans, it was they who would assault the Island. The city would not be taken until the betrayal of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade (1204).
Republic of Venice
In 1207, shortly after the heinous break up of the Byzantine Empire by the Latin powers (Fourth Crusade), Corfu along with much of the Greek islands, became a colony of Venice. Corfu was devastated when the island suffered repeat invasions by opportune adventurers, foreign powers and pirates. The island would only begin to recover when it finally rejoining Venice in 1386. Under Venetian rule, the existing byzantine castles were heavily reinforced and new fortification such as the New Fortress of Corfu was completed. The island was known as the “Door of Venice” as it consistently turned back successive Ottoman fleets are they tried to assault Venice’s Adriatic possessions. If Corfu had been lost, Venice would have crumbled. During these sieges defenders were heavily outnumbered and resisted gallantly.
French Republic and Great Britain
In 1797, the republic of Venice came to an end and it’s possessions split between France and Austria. Corfu went to the French, with a brief period where the island was occupied by a Russian-ottoman fleet. The British could not let the French domination of the Mediterranean stand in in 1815, took over administration of the Ionian Islands, forming a protectorate called the United States of the Ionian Islands. The British were good stewards, under their watch new roads were built, proper education (the first Greek university!) was provided and sanitary/water systems greatly improved. The governor general ruled with the help of the Ionian Parliament. The protectorate rapidly adopted Greek as its official language.
The Greek Republic
After the formation of the First Hellenic Republic (Greece), pressure mounted at home and abroad for the protectorate to join their Greek brethren. The British, although reluctant, agreed and after a plebiscite they gifted the Ionian Islands to the Greek king in 1864.
The Great War
During the first world war, Greece served on the side of the Triple Entente along with Great Britain, Russia and France. When Austria invaded Serbia, the country folded quickly and massive losses were incurred. Fleeing Serbian soldiers and civilians took refuge in Corfu, many of them sick and dying. A memorial called Blue Tomb and a epic poem commemorate this tragic event.
Shortly after the war Italy under Mussolini bombarded and invaded Corfu, in a ridiculous and shameful incident. Fuck that guy!
Second World War and the Modern Era
Greek again fought along side Great Britain during the Second World War. The Germans quickly crushed Yugoslavia, but the Greeks put up a spirited resistance against Italy, so spirited that they drove the Italians deep into Albanian territory and Hitler decided the Germans had to do the job themselves. After this Corfu fell under the Italian occupation zones. After Italy surrendered in 1943, the islands historic core was heavily bombed by Germany and they occupied the island. It is during this period where the worst atrocities were committed with all 5000 Jews sent to concentration camps. The Jews had been living in Corfu since the Venetian occupation and had become an important community on the island. The islands would be liberated by British marines in 1944 but there was not much to celebrate. The island was in ruins.
In 1946 communist Albania mined the straits of Corfu, this was part of the opening salvos of the cold war. Post-war rebuilding took place and the island is now a leading tourism center of Greece.
What to do in the Old Town of Corfu?
I started my tour of the Old Town at the most imposing structure in the island, The Old Fortress of Corfu. It is located on a rocky promontory on the bat of Corfu, with two hills, the nearest one to the mainland, Castel a Terra, is taller than the other that is located towards the sea, Castel a Mare. The fortress was conceived in byzantine times and inside its thick stone walls was the location of the medieval town of Corfu. The Venetian reinforced the existing walls and added a moat to separate the fort from the city. The walls held back the Ottoman sieges of 1537, 1571 and 1716 and along with the seaside defenses of the Adriatic city of Kotor (Montenegro) is considered the most impressive example of Venetian military architecture in the Adriatic.
At the foot of the fortress is a large public park and a parking lot for day-tripping vehicles. At the center of the park is a large cast iron gazebo where music often plays at night. The best views of the fort can be found along the seaside parks and promenades on on either side of the fort. To the south, by the statue of Ionnis Kapodistrias, the first president of the Hellenic Republic or in the north at the Faliraki, a waterfront club and one of the few areas with direct ladder access to the clear Corfu water. On the side of the mainland a small half-wall surrounds the fort and prevents anyone from falling into the moat. Where a bridge connects to the mainland a statue of Count Schulenburg has been erected. He was a Saxon German that served the republic of Venice in 1716 and is credited with a successful defence of the island. On the bridge you will grasp the extent of the construction undertaken by Venice, thick angular exterior walls and a moat called Contrafossa would have greeted an invader. The moat is deep and wide, almost like a large canal. It now serves as a docking for modern pleasure craft. The gate built into the walls is an ornate pink archway called Porta Maggiore, showcasing the wealth and power of Venice.
Once inside you will find a first bastion containing many of the soldier barracks. The first fort, Castel a Terra, is located on the tallest mountain, it is accessible to the average tourist and you can climb to the top. Here you will find a large steel cross. At the base of the mountain you can find a history museum explaining the usage for the site throughout the years as well as a stone clock tower, painted in bright pink. On the south side of the fort you will find a very attractive Hellenic building with a Doric colonnade on all sides. This building is the called the Church of St. George, built in 1840 it was meant to serve the religious needs of British soldiers station on the island. When the island reverted to Greek rule it was converted to an Orthodox church dedicated to Saint Spyridon. Looking at the waters you can see just how transparent and clear they are from up close, it is spectacular.
On the north side, you will find a rectangular building that us home to the music department of the Ionian University. As we approached we could hear music being played. Due to it’s history long association with the Republic of Venice, Corfu has developed a long tradition in the field of music, a specialty of the Italian city. Past the university, you can take a long walk amongst overgrown stone blocks that lead to the second fortress. I climbed up a staircase to the door, a rectangular hole with the Lion of St. Mark as the headstone but an Iron bar door blocked the way in. This fort is inaccessible to tourists. Before you leave do take the time to absorb that that this facility was a detainment site for Jews during the Holocaust. Greek Jews were stripped of their valuables and contained in cells before being shipped off to Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland.
Heading back across the moat to the old town, you can access a seaside promenade to the north that leads to the museum of Asian art and the pink painted Mandrakinas Church. There is an archaeological museum on the south side but it is a long walk away. Where the old town meets the park, there is a large lineup of terraces soaking up the sun. It is here that I had my first authentic Greek gyros (for more info on Balkans food, check out my article here).
The streets of the old town are cramped and walking though the old town will give a good idea for what a typical Greek life really consists of. Like any town in Italy or Greece laundry is strung from alley wall to alley wall and shutters decorate windows. Speaking of which, the alleys are so narrow that conversations are often carried out from the windows, down to the streets below, or from the window opposite. If people reached out on each side of their respective windows their fingers would touch.
I would recommend visiting the Byzantine Museum of Antivouniotissa, a museum of medieval art as well as the Ionian Parliament Building, a rectangular structure with a colonnade and a pitched roof. The later was the center of the colonial British administration, as such is an important site in the the history of the island. If you want a great view of the Old Town rooftops make sure to visit the New Fortress, located near the port of Corfu. It was improved by french and British engineers and once held artillery that was so powerful that it could reach the coast of Albania. The walls of the fortress include some great depictions of the Lion of St. Mark, the symbol of the Venetian Republic.
Festivals and Religion
The Patron of Corfu is Saint Spyridon, a Cypriot Shepard of Great Piety. He is the patron Saint of Potters. After the fall of Constantinople, his relics were brought to Corfu for safekeeping.
If you can come to Corfu at anytime during the year, make it Orthodox Easter, people here go nuts. The church of St. George is buzzing with activity and a procession with brass bands and philharmonics fills the old town streets with thundering sounds. The celebration commemorates the miraculous end of a deadly plague that swept the island in 1629, an event attributed to the Patron Saint. Every Palm Sunday his remains are taken from the Chapel of St. George and parades trough the streets for the fateful so see.
For more information on Easter, check out this article.
Nightlife
Much of the party action happens at beach-side bars, in the Greek resort towns and hostels. The old town of Corfu does not have much for traditional nightlife but has a very active cafe culture with many bars and restaurants serving food while music plays. If you walk in front of the old citadel, there is a gazebo in the park where bands will often play.
Around the Island
Ptichia (Vido)
This small island, directly across the old town of Corfu, has a tragic history. After the invasion of Serbia by Austria, a large contingent of Serb soldiers and civilians retreated to the straights of Corfu were they were taken in as an act of compassion. Many of the soldiers were sick or gravely injured. Close to death or dying they were treated in quarantine in Vido, so that they would not transmit disease. Although many recovered, a large portion did not and over 5000 were buried at sea (the island is composed of solid rock, hence preventing land burial).
Today the island is home to a modest Serbian memorial thanking the Greek nation for the refuge it offered its soldiers during the First World War. Furthermore, the island gives travelers a great view of the Old Town away from the summer crowds. It is accessible by boat from the Old Town of Corfu all year round.
Aqualand
This popular waterpark has been entertaining generations of children for decades. Its no wonder that Corfu is referenced as the children’s island.
Kaiser’s Throne
This lookout with an unusual name gives a commanding view of the scenic hills of Corfu
Paleokastritsa
This is the most beautiful beach of Corfu, in my humble opinion. High above it, on a steep rocky promontory, is a small byzantine fortress called Angelokastro that gives a commanding view of the rough Adriatic seas. This is one of the most important defensive positions on the island.
Sidari
This interesting rock formation is a great beach town destination. It is one of the more popular sights on the north side of the island
Kavos
Among the many towns of corfu, Kavos stands out as one of the premier resort beach town on the island.
Pontikonisi and Vlacherna Monastery
Travelers can see two island monasteries from the hilltops of Kanoni, just south of the Old Town of Corfu. The first must be accessed by boat and the second is access by causeway. Pontikoisi’s byzantine chapel is the oldest of the two, dating from the 11th century.
Saranda and Butrint (Albania)
The seaside resort town of Saranda along with the ancient ruins of Butrint are a quick ferry ride away across the Strait of Corfu. You will be crossing a Border so have your documents ready.
Entering/Exiting Corfu
Corfu is accessible by both air and ferry, both of witch are located near the old town of Corfu. For further information on taking the ferry click here.
Conclusion
Corfu was my introduction to the Balkans. The large island was a great getaway to relax at before my long track on the mainland Balkans peninsula, one such trip that would stay with me for the rest of my life. The Pink Palace was only the second hostel I stayed at in my life and during my stay I experienced an wide array of emotions. I made new friends more easily than anywhere else and experienced the loss of these companions just as quickly, a sort of separation sadness when you realize that those precious moments you spent with these people was to come to a screeching halt. For that Corfu will always have special place in my heart.
