*NOTE* I posted May 23rd before May 22nd….*
Oh what a day! We signed up for an Excursion to Corfu, Greece which is just off shore – to have a tour of the island and to take a small boat and check out the colourful water and caves! I was really excited about this excursion as 1. Corfu is a Greek Island and so far these islands have been beautiful! 2. I love being on a small boat on the water and 3. We get to ride in a hydrofoil to Corfu which is a first time experience for us! Allons-y! So as this was a tender location, we were tendered oh so carefully to the shore – the Oosterdam has an elevator and I was pleased to be able to use it! Then we walked a ways to the hydrofoil boat location which was just arriving from Corfu – you could hear it coming – it sounded like a rocket on the ocean! All these people got off with luggage and the tour guide explained that for the residents of Sarande it is far simpler to fly into Corfu and take the hydrofoil than to fly into the main city in Albania as it is a 3-4 hour drive away, as long as there are no accidents on the highway. Ugh. The other thing she said was to prepare for the Albanians to want to get on the boat first and she was right – we were all ready to board and they all pushed their way through with their luggage to the front of the queue. No issues – there was room for everyone! So now, in the “rocket” (and it felt like it too” we were off and shortly out of the port we “lifted off” and flew across the water to Corfu. Just as we were getting ready to get (climb) out of the boat the tour guide casually said “You do all have your passports with you correct?”. Ah NOPE said about a dozen people including Andrew. I had mine as I could not find my drivers licence. All HAL had told us was that we needed government ID and our Ship Card. Not true as we were actually coming from a Non-EU country (right now – soon to be EU) to an EU Country – Greece so we needed passports! So they separated us and those with passports could enter Corfu. After some discussion and the fact that people had their passports in their in-room safes and did not want anyone going into them so the passports could be brought to them, we returned on the “rocket” to Sarande. I chose to stay with Andrew as it would have been difficult for me to go on a tour without his help. The Oosterdam was prepared for us to arrive back and offered the afternoon bus tour into the mountains if we wanted to go on it. We passed and just relaxed on our balcony. Then we made a very quick trip into Sarande just to get my fridge magnet and back! So that was our day – lots of tendering around however no Excursion! As we departed at 4:30pm, we spent a nice late afternoon on the balcony watching the world go by… or knitting!
