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| Off Season Greek Island Hopping |
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We started our journey on Corfu. The Easter celebration in Corfu Town is one of the finest in Greece, with a unique set of traditions that attract visitors from all over the country. Several days before Easter Sunday, temporary stalls appear, selling eggs, candles, icons, red pottery, and popular toys packaged especially for Easter: Barbie tied with a ribbon to a bright pink candle! But everyone must have a candle, to share in the celebration. On Good Friday, solemn parades of flower-draped biers emerge from each church to commemorate the death of Christ. The morning of Holy Saturday opens with the procession of the coffin of St. Spyridon, patron saint and miracle worker of Corfu. When Spyridon safely returns to his chapel, the church bells sound— followed by the crash of thousands of pots dropped from balconies to the stone streets! Unique to Corfu, the origins of the pot-dropping ceremony are shrouded in legends that range from covering the sound of the morning slaughter of the lambs for the Easter meal to scaring non-Christians out of the city. Late in the evening, families gather in the park, their candles a flickering sea of light. A purple cross, high atop the Old Fortress, illuminates the night. In a solemn march, the bishop and his procession reach the bandstand at the stroke of midnight. He says a prayer. At the words “Christos Anesti,” Christ has risen, the lights on the cross turn white. Fireworks explode above the fortress, and people embrace in joy. FERRYBOAT TO ATHENS Corfu & the Ionian Islands (The Rough Guide) provides excellent leads on cheap sleeps. It’s easy to spend days exploring Corfu Town on foot, following the twisty cobbled alleys of the Venetian quarter and musing over the museums and archeological sites. Rooms in Corfu Town, Garitsa, and Kanoni are most convenient for walking tours. For transportation information, including bus and ferry timetables, look for a copy of The Corfiot (the island’s English language monthly) at the magazine shop behind the Liston. Situated closest to Italy and the Greek coastal port of Igoumenitsa, Corfu has strong connections to the mainland. International ferries from the Minoan and Strinzis Lines stop at least twice daily en route to Patras. A deck class ticket (Pullman seats, or spread out your sleeping bag in an interior deck corridor) costs 5,800 drachma ($20) for the eight-hour journey, best done as an overnight trip (departure at 11:30 PM) to ensure your timing to reach Piraeus. Once on board, you can purchase a bus ticket to Athens for 4,000 dr. ($15). After a scenic four-hour journey through the rugged mountains of the Peloponnesian peninsula, capped off with a short lunch stop, the ferry’s bus will deposit you near Olympic Stadium. Find the nearby metro station and hop the metro to the port of Piraeus— a thirty-minute ride costing less than 300 dr. ($1). Several ferry companies run booths in the metro station, or you can wander down the waterfront and try your luck with a travel agent. A deck class ticket to Rhodes cost us 8,600 dr. ($30) for the twenty-hour ride. Our ferry departed immediately. Once you purchase a ferry ticket, you may disembark at any stop leading up to your destination. Since Rhodes lay at the end of our ferry’s journey, plenty of island-hopping opportunities appeared en route. Paros, the first stop, provides connections to ferry lines heading out to all points in the Aegean. In the middle of the night, the ferry stopped at Patmos (where John the Baptist wrote the Book of Revelation), Leros, and Kalimnos. We greeted sunrise at Kos, the island of Hippocrates, and glided along the rugged, uninhabited coast of Turkey for the remainder of the journey into Rhodes. ONWARD TO RHODES A National Heritage City, Rhodes beckons with mystery. Cobblestone streets, glorious stone murals, dark arched passageways, and twisted alleyways sing the praises of an era long past. Rhodes is the world’s most well preserved medieval city, echoing with history, the remains of its many waves of occupants still in place. A temple to Aphrodite lies not far from bubbling Italian fountains. Mosques and minarets adjoin the Palace of the Grand Master. An imposing stone fortress, built during the Crusades, separates Old Rhodes from the new city. Numerous pensions offer low-cost rooms to travelers, with off-season rates ranging from 6,000 dr. ($22) and up for a double with bath. We started with Cava D’Oro, along the city wall near the ferry dock. While the ambiance was wonderful, the stone room provided no easy way to dry our clothing, so we moved to the Sunlight Pension. Here, a rooftop garden met our washing needs. The hostel on Odos Ag. Fanouriou was open and lightly populated, costing 1,000 dr. ($4) a night for dorm beds. We spent three days exploring the city on foot, and ventured out to the archeological site at Lindos (51 km) using the public KTEL bus for a 1,950 dr. ($7) round trip. Our plans to ferry to Santorini changed because of the infrequent service provided during the off-season. We used Olympic Airways (23,000 dr., or $82) for the 45-minute trip, and were among only six customers on a jet able to carry 67 passengers! Had we been able to stay on Rhodes for three more days, we could have hopped a ferry to our destination for 6,000 dr. ($22). SANTORINI Several hostels provide cheap lodging on Santorini, but none were open when we arrived. After a night in perpetually touristy Fira at Hotel Asimina for 7,000 dr. ($25), we retreated to Kamari. The room at Esperides also cost 7,000 dr., but included a basic breakfast, an expansive balcony, and a one-block walk to the beach. Our exploration of Ancient Thira cost us only an hour’s walk up a cobblestoned, switchbacked road to see carvings and ruins left by the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian residents of the island’s first city. KTEL bus service links all of the major villages and archeological sites on Santorini through the main station in Fira. Using the buses – never more than 270 dr. ($1) from point-to-point – we explored the entire island, visiting the dig at Akrotiri, the unusual black sand beaches and lava flows along the coastline, and the village of Oia, where architecture and light merge in a fine symphony of color. Moving our base camp to pricey Oia for several days, we passed over the expensive “traditional homes” dug into the hillsides, and stayed at Hotel Anemones for 9,000 dr. ($32) per night, including breakfast. From here we savored Oia, drinking in the sunsets and marveling how the whitewashed buildings spill over the caldera rim like froth. A volcano tour – 3,500 dr. ($12.50) for the guided boat trip – capped off our week in Santorini, allowing us to climb the cones of the active portion of one of the world’s largest volcanoes. Our 9 hour return to Piraeus via one of Agapitos’ newest ferries, Express Santorini, cost 6,000 dr. ($21.50) for deck class seating – comfy Pullmans and couches – more clean and comfortable than our previous ferryboat experiences. Had we the time, we could have hopped to Ios or Naxos, or jumped off at Paros to head to the northern Aegean. We didn’t stay in hostels, we ate our meals out, and we used local transportation. But by traveling off-season, we enjoyed an inexpensive, richly textured trip. We met Stavros, who lived in New York before returning to Rhodes to open the Sunlight Bar and pension, and savored dinner at Cleo’s, where our American waitress and her Italian husband presented tasty fresh pasta dishes. We discovered the joys of mavro (black) wine at Petrino in Kamari, and learned that Ancient Thira beat Akrotiri hands-down for intriguing archeology. I learned to speak some Greek, feeling much more in touch with the culture. But by the end of our journey – May 1, the start of the tourist season in Greece – the first planeloads of package tourists arrived on Corfu. The door closed on the quiet season, the off-season, until the fall. RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Greek Island Hopping (Thomas Cook Touring Handbooks). This definitive guide to island hopping will make your ferryboat selections a lot easier, and you’ll get a good understanding of the standard routes each ferry line takes. We relied on the excellent city capsules (with maps) heavily to find inexpensive lodgings, ferry docks, and bus stations. But don’t rely on the timetables—they’re purely for the in-season tourist! The Greek Islands (The Rough Guide) and Corfu & the Ionian Islands (The Rough Guide). Excellent for finding inexpensive lodgings and pleasant cultural aspects to enhance your travels. But again, an in-season attitude prevails—the information on Corfu emphasizes the crowded beaches and party atmosphere that, thankfully, aren’t a part of the off-season scene. BBC Greek Phrase Book. A must if you’re new to the Greek language. This article originally appeared in Transitions Abroad, 1999 Reprint rights available Electronic rights available Images available |
Looking for an inexpensive but enriching travel experience? Grab your backpack and try hopping the Greek Islands during the off-season. You’ll have the opportunity to immerse yourself in local culture, partaking in such important holidays as Greek Orthodox Easter. And the prices of lodgings drop off dramatically, making budget travel a breeze.
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