Friday, June 29, 2007

Travelogue : Corfu - Arrival

Moonlight in the sea

I landed in Corfu last evening to attend a workshop on Personalization in Digital Libraries. Corfu is an island in the north of Greece, in the vicinity of Albania and popular attraction among tourists who love the Mediterranean sea. If you are planning for a good vacation along with your family or your loved one and hoping to have lots of sun and sand then Corfu is the must-go for you. The island has some exotic beaches - sandy, rocky, pebbled - all kinds, with clear waters which are as pristine as they can be. I could'nt find a direct flight to the island from mainland Italy, so had to take a transit from Venice-Athens-Corfu. I hadnt flown out of Italian airports so far, so when I arrived at the Marco Polo International Airport at Venice, the chaos was quite out-of-normal for me. There was no information displayed about the check-in counters for our flight to Athens. And when we finally checked in our baggages and waited at the boarding gate to depart, we had to wait for an agonizing hour for the flight attendants to show up. On asking we were informed that the flight was delayed. The least they could have done was inform the passengers about it, rather than leaving them high and dry with no clue about whats going on.


Islets surrounding Corfu


I have had some bizarre experiences before in my life, but this one was out of the blue. My fellow passenger, sitting beside me was also traveling to Corfu to attend the same workshop. We were both pleasantly surprised. I mean what are the odds to meet someone like that. So we had both found good company, rather than having a boring flight. Athens Airport is quite good, but the first thing I noticed on landing in Athens was the immense heat there. Thankfully we were inside the airport and had to change our flight to Corfu. To our ill luck the flight to Corfu was also delayed. Luckily we both had enough things to talk about to keep ourselves occupied.


summer fire on the outskirts of Athens

When we were airborne we learnt the reason for the delay was due to a fire in the woods on the outskirts of Athens. The flight to Corfu is small and sweet. The island looks great from the flight above. After checking in my hotel, I couldnt spend much time walking around the city, as I was having some body pains (owing to the tasking 8-hour climb on the Monte Bondone in Trento, I had done a day before). So I had some quick dinner in an Italian restaurant and went to bed early on a dose of pain killers. I saw some good restaurants along the coast close a historical monument. I hope to see around parts of Corfu in the evenings after the workshop proceedings close and am looking forward to capturing the beauty of the island on my lens.

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