Corfu - Supermarket Run, Pool Time, and Beach Time

Well, I have to take it back—Sarah did see the sunrise this morning! 😮 We got up at 6 am, which until yesterday would have felt like 5 am! We wanted to catch the 7:05 am bus into Corfu to go to the supermarket.

Surprisingly, the bus was pretty much on time, and we decided to buy an all-day bus ticket in case we wanted to go somewhere else later in the day. Bit of a no-brainer really, as the one-way fare to town was €2.50 and the all-day ticket was €5.

There was a big Lidl supermarket right near a bus stop, which we expected to be good value and easy to get to. It turned out to be perfect. We found everything we needed there for the next four days. Many of the items even had names written in the English alphabet. The store is set up for bulk buying, but you can still buy single quantities as well. They even had a self-serve mechanical bread slicing machine, which a local woman showed us how to use. The total shop cost us €63.25, which, for what we got, was comparable to home—even if you double the Euro value. We had taken both front packs and two supermarket bags, which were all full once packed.

The buses in both directions were not as full as yesterday, which made the trip much easier. We had the shopping completed and got back to base at around 10:30 am. We put everything away and headed downstairs for a swim. We put our loungers in the shade and stayed down there swimming and reading until after 1 pm. We only left to make sandwiches and coffee for lunch, which we then ate poolside.

It was quite warm down there though, so we went back up to the air-conditioning for more reading and some TV watching. Photo above shows the apartment block. We are on the top level 2nd from the right. There are two apartments where you can see the balcony sticking out on the right. 

At 3 pm we decided to use our bus pass and go check out the beach at Benitses. The next bus wasn’t until just before 4 pm, so we didn’t need to rush getting ready. Getting to Benitses only takes about five minutes on the bus as it’s just four stops away. We hopped off one stop short of the beach so we could walk through and check out the town. It turned out most of it was at the other end of the beach, so we didn’t do much exploring before reaching the beach. But we did see a few restaurants and bars that might be good for a drink later.

The water at the beach wasn’t as clear as Sarandë, but it was the same temperature—perhaps slightly warmer, as it didn’t get deep as quickly. At least it wasn’t super shallow like Vlorë. We floated about enjoying the warm afternoon. The little fish here seemed to like biting my feet a lot more than Sarah’s. At Sarandë, it had been the other way around. They even had a fresh water shower right on the beach to rinse off when finished.

To help us dry off before getting the return bus, we walked for a bit and came across the part of town we had hoped to check out earlier. Lots of restaurants just back from the beach road. We’ll likely make another trip to explore here again, as we think there may be another street behind the area we walked along. We saw signs pointing to "Old Village" and "Roman Baths," so there might be more to see than we realised.

We had dried off enough that we decided to sit and enjoy a pre-dinner drink before heading back to cook. We found a nice-looking bar right opposite the beach, with only the road separating the two. We got two beers and were busy practising our selfie-taking when the woman next to us said, “Are you Australian?” She was very obviously Irish, judging by her accent. She was suitably sorry when we said we were Kiwis.

We explained to her how we were hopeless at selfie-taking but were getting better—we think! 🤔 She laughed, and we started chatting about having children at home, etc. They had two teenage children who were at the beach. When she asked how long we were on holiday and we said six months, she was surprised. When we told her we quit our jobs to come here, she replied in a typically Irish way with “Feck off?!”—except she didn’t say feck. 😂 That led to more travel discussion, and it turned out they had been to both Australia and New Zealand pre-children. They had even walked the Abel Tasman National Park track. Anyway, it was very nice to chat with them, and they’re now counting down the years until their kids are old enough to stay at home and look after the house and the dog. 😉

At 6 pm we caught the return bus back, walked up the steep hill yet again, and cooked dinner. We went with the beef nachos option tonight, as we were hungry and knew it would be quick and easy to prepare.