Kassiopi in Corfu

Next day, after another noisy night, we sauntered off to a nearby bus stop near the ferry terminals to catch a bus to Kassiopi, a small fishing village north of Kerkyra that had been recommended on TripAdvisor. It took about 20 minutes for the bus to show up from the city centre to our stop. Usually the buses had the destination marked on the front, but we couldn't find it on this one. Luckily, a local lady was going on the same one, and confirmed that's where it was going.

Unlike elsewhere, you actually entered from the doors in the middle, and instead of paying the driver upfront, we were methodologically seated (as methodologically as you can do it in Greece), and when the bus started, the conductor went around collecting the fare from everyone. The trip was 3.90 EUR per person to Kassiopi. The bus picked up people along the way, mostly tourists heading to where ever they were, and they were all seated in an orderly fashion, didn't care if families or friends were separated. Eventually, we had picked up so many people that some had to stand.

The road through the mountains was winding with hairpins turns that the bus negotiated with reasonable ease. Using the other lane for leverage wasn't unheard of, and if a car happened to come by on that lane, it was their duty to move out of the way. When a car filled with young tourists didn't realise this, and challenged the driver, nothing good followed and they had to give in. The rest of the journey we then listened to the driver's discussion about tourists. Luckily that was all in Greek, so we didn't understand it. 

When we finally arrived in Kassiopi, we didn't really know where to go. Consulting a map beforehand might have been a good idea, but hindsight and all that... I do as others do, so follow the people who seem to know what they're doing. Finally, we found a small beach and decided to have a couple of ciders by the restaurant/bar and watched the tourists drive by. 

I had a feeling of "is this it?" Should I stop trusting TripAdvisor on these things? Finally, I sacrificed enough mobile data and googled where we were. Turns out we were on the opposite side of the village, from where all the action is. Well, Mom was sporting enough 

to start walking by the scenic, oceanfront route, with its many beaches and sunbathers. 

We even managed to catch a glimpse of Saranda on the Albanian side. 

and eventually we came to the actual village centre, where the harbour/port was. It was a hive of action with tourists flocking to the restaurants and souvenir shops. There were also lots of different vessels moored in the harbour. 

We ended up having lunch at a restaurant by the harbour, where I had the best ever beef stifado. And that's not saying it lightly! Wish I remembered the name, but oh well. The return trip seemed to go through a road closer to the coast, which meant we could see even more places on the way. The bus dropped us off near the harbour and terminal, although there wasn't really a designated stop there, the driver just followed a passenger's instructions on where to drop her off. Fine by us!