Day 1: Home to Corfu

After my recent adventure in Jersey, I was feeling the need for a more relaxing holiday! Luckily, I already had something which will (hopefully!) be more relaxing booked; a trip to Greece with my sister, Helen. We went to Greece together around the same time last year, that trip being to islands of Rhodes and Symi. This year we are trying something different, visiting the islands of Corfu and Paxos, which are new to both of us. The trip started early this morning, when Tim kindly gave us a lift to Birmingham airport.

Our flight was at 09.35 and the rule that you can only check in bags for Ryanair flights from Birmingham two hours before your flight was being rigorously enforced. We joined the queue slightly earlier, but didn't make it to the front until it had turned 07.35 and we were free to proceed. Other passengers weren't quite so lucky, with people on a flight to Ibiza being removed from the queue in front of us, whilst some girls on a flight to Faro - who had somehow made it as far as handing over their bags - were disconcerted to be told as they were about to head to security that checking in bags for Faro wasn't permitted yet, with an implied threat that theirs may not now arrive.

Otherwise, the airport was drama-free and the new scanners that they were busy installing last year definitely make things easier when going through security. We had time for a leisurely breakfast in All Bar One before boarding our flight to Corfu. We took off a little bit late, although not horrendously so, and had a pleasant flight (though without many great views because we were sitting over the wing!).

Passport control once we arrived in Corfu was pretty smooth too, except that Helen had the misfortune to get bitten by a mosquito before we'd even been stamped into the country! We walked out of the airport and straight onto an airport bus, which was sufficiently sophisticated to let us buy tickets by card, and transported us into the centre of Corfu Town for €2 each.

We'd booked an apartment to stay for the next few nights on Airbnb. The owner had sent instructions on how to check in, giving us photo instructions to follow from a nearby square. We navigated our way to the square, which was less than a kilometre away from the bus stop, and then followed the instructions quite successfully. We retrieved the key from the lockbox outside and we were in

The apartment is quite spacious. We've got a living room...

...kitchen...

...plus two bedrooms, which both have their own air-conditioning units.

We've also got a lovely outdoor terrace area to ourselves.

The only problem with the apartment was that we couldn't get the WiFi to work. I tried messaging the owner, who gave me a new password to try, but we could only get as far as "connected with no internet". He suggested we try turning it on and off, which we did repeatedly to no avail. Eventually we decided we were too hungry to mess around with it any longer, and went out to get some food.

Our route led us back to the nearby square, from where we'd been following the Airbnb directions, with its colourful church.

We then walked along some narrow streets, comparing the offerings of various restaurants, until Helen spotted one which looked promising. We sat down outside with a beautiful view.

It hasn't come out very clearly in the photo, but I realised once we'd been sitting there for a while that there were grapes growing on the pergola above our heads

We ordered some halloumi as a starter, which was really nice. Then I had a pastitsio for my main course and Helen had moussaka.

It was a lovely restaurant and pretty good value; €50 for the food and some wine, though the wine did come with the tiniest glasses you've ever seen!

I still needed some more steps to make it to 10 000 and we also wanted to find a supermarket to stock up on supplies, we had another wander around after dinner, first of all inland to track down the shop and then later more towards the coast.