Team Canada takes the Pink Palace, Kayaks by Storm

I know that last time I wrote I was feeling a little leery of this hostel, with the party people and the frat-type atmosphere. Then Max and I met what we now affectionately refer to as 'Team Canada'. We sat at the same table our second dinner here - four of us Ontarions, two Albertans and two from Quebec, and very quickly we hit it off and made plans to go kayaking the next day (and then proceeded to play fooseball and pool for a couple hours).

We gathered at reception the next day, all nine of us ready to take on the sea. It almost conquered us at the very beginning, as their docking point for the boats is mostly composed of uneven rock and pounded by the surf. We all managed to get into our boats with little mishap, thankfully, and then we were off, dipping and rising over the swells. We kayaked out to the towering rock-island just off the point near the hostel, and getting close to the sheer cliff faces and tenacious little trees that form the outcropping was amazing. I swear I saw faces in the rock, ancient and monolithic, gazing benevolently out at us in our brightly-coloured little boats. The wheeling seagulls completed the magical scene, and I floated by in a daze, completely blown away by the beauty of what I was seeing.

Upon our return a number of us decided to go for a swim, and I finally got my chance to swim in the sea (my first time in saltwater for thirteen or so years). Floating on my back, lifted up by the waves, I let my imagination run free, picturing myself a mermaid, a sea-nymph, a page for Poseidon. Absolutely beautiful. Post-swim we walked into the tiny, touristy town for ice cream, and I reveled in the sensation of the salt drying on my skin, making my hair curlier than it's ever been.

Here's paper-journal excerpt that I wrote last night:

I can still feel the sun in my skin, a lingering, tingly warmth that hasn't got the violence of a sunburn, just a soft hand laid across my back, along my arms, reminding me that today I swam in perfect blue-green water and covered myself in a coat of salt and sun, sun that flows like honey here on this island. I am reminded that today I floated on my back, face upturned to nothing but wheeling seagulls and a blue, blue ceiling of sky.

Soon we meet Team Canada for lunch, since they're all leaving on the ferry tonight bound for Italy (I'm a bit jealous that they'll all keep each other company on the crossing while we must go it alone). It's another sunny day on Corfu and I'm ready to keep on relaxing in the land of Greece!