Wednesday was a beautiful day. It was the first time that we all slept
through the night so we woke up well rested.
When we went to the dining room
for breakfast, Oma K thought she’d ‘build her own omelet’ and decided to order
every ingredient listed. Our helpful
waiter informed us that by selecting so many ingredients, they would need to
use at least ten eggs to hold the omelet together. Hildy was horrified at the fact of ordering a
10 egg breakfast but Jessie and I just laughed at the thought of our tiny
grandmother trying to finish it all (she never wastes food!). In the end, she opted for a different option. After a delicious breakfast in the dining
room, we went out to explore the town of Corfu.
The ship schedule had advertised a temperature of fifteen
degrees for the day so we all dressed moderately for the climate. Hildy and Jessie both packed sweaters and
heavier tops. Once we were outside
however, we felt the immense heat. It
turned out that the temperature went up to 29, so sweaters weren’t at all
necessary.
As we began our touring (with sweaters now in backpacks),
our first stop was the Old Town. We
decided to walk the whole way into town instead of hiring a taxi, and this gave
us an opportunity to see some of the outskirts of the area. When we made it to the Old Town, we were
impressed by the charm and character of the place. Our first stop was at a Mc Donald’s to use
the washroom, and the service was not friendly at all. Wanting only to buy a water bottle, the
server refused to take my 20-euro bill and demanded smaller change. Customer service clearly wasn’t a strong suit
here.
Afterwards, we went into a small Catholic church and sat
down for a rest. Hildy thought this was
a good opportunity to ‘contemplate’ so we took in the surroundings of the
quaint church. We were joined by several
other cruise passengers who came in to pray as well.
When we continued on, we came to a beautiful water fountain
that was surrounded by flowers. Hildy
loved the look of this and decided to take her camera out and take
pictures. She’s still getting the hang
of it, and struggles to see through the lens, rather than seeing her reflection
bounce back at her. Jessie and I have
both spent time trying to explain it to her and she’s getting better and
better. (She’s able to take photos of us
now while ensuring that our heads are captured in the image.)
Continuing on we made our way to the Old Fortress which
overlooks the waterfront. This was a
wonderful area to explore and offered stunning views of both the water and the
town. There was quite a lot of uneven
walking terrain, but Oma K did an excellent job at navigating it.
Following the fortress, we walked to the gardens to observe
a variety of different flowers and look out at the waterfront. The flowers were stunning and were especially
appreciated by Hildy. The pinecones here
were particularly interesting because they were in the form of spheres rather
than cones.
When we looked over the edge of the lookout, we saw a bunch
of boys swimming in crystal clear water.
Because it was so warm out, this sight was extremely tempting, but we
resisted the urge to join them.
We continued walking and touring around the shops etc. Jessie and I purchased a pencil crayon set
for Aaron and Emily which was made out of real tree branches. The size of the crowds throughout the
touristy part of town was fairly large, so we didn’t do the whole shopping bit
for long (although Jessie was drawn to every shoe store that we came across).
We were soon heading back to the ship after our exciting day
touring. While we were walking along the
cobblestones, Hildy tripped on the uneven surface and landed hard. Jessie and I both rushed to her aid and
quickly had her back on her feet so that we could clean her off. We took her to a nearby bench so that she
could regroup and so we could assess the damages. Overall, she seemed to be in good shape—a
little shaken up, a small scratch on her wrist, but no severe damage. Jessie and I both felt awful for Hildy… I
would have much rather taken the fall myself.
Jessie had a first aid kit with her, so we cleaned up her scrape and put
some Polysporin on it. Hildy kept
insisting that she was fine… that it was only her pride which was hurt, so I
guess that’s a blessing in disguise because it could have been much worse.
We continued walking and stopped at a café along the way for
two different frappe drinks. This was
supposed to give us the chance to Skype home (free Wifi) however, my ipod
wasn’t working, so we decided to just sit back and relax for a bit.
When we returned back to the ship, we got an icepack for
Hildy to put on her wrist (which was becoming a bit sore) and we noticed just
how sunburnt we were. Hildy was ok, but
Jessie and I were both bright red.
Clearly we should have exchanged our sweaters for sunscreen! We showered, smothered ourselves in cream to
try to prevent peeling and then ordered room service and a movie. For the next two hours we dined on Chef’s
Salad, Asian Wraps, Smoked Salmon with Cream Cheese and watched the Blind Side…
a great way to enjoy the afternoon, despite the small injuries!
Finally, we went for a nice dinner in the dining room and
met a waiter named Tito… he was extremely kind and helpful. We talked a great deal about his Balinese
heritage and hopes for the future.
Jessie and I told him of our love for Bali and our hope to return there
someday…. He offered to show us around!!
During dinner, Hildy’s wrist became increasingly more
painful and swollen. I had to help her
cut her meat and do various simple tasks.
By the end of dinner it was much worse.
Earlier we had asked at the front desk where we could find a tensor
bandage, but they had told us that the medical centre was closed until the next
day. In light of the fact that we didn’t
have any medical supplies for Hildy, we brought back two of our dinner napkins
and made her a wrist brace out of napkins and safety pins.
Jessie and I were both very worried about our dear Oma, and
we hoped that this fall did not break any bones. We had to insist that she would go to the
medical centre in the morning, but she was dead set on not missing the tour we
booked. In the end, we negotiated a
compromise, she would go on the tour, but we would seek medical advice
beforehand.
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