Corfu, Greece & The Best Destination Wedding of All Time
Why more people don't do destination weddings I'll never know. They tend to be cheaper, a more manageable number of attendees, and everyone has an amazing time. Whilst being in Korea, I was lucky enough to meet a couple worth flying halfway around the world for to be in their wedding, and they definitely picked one of the best places on Earth to get married: Corfu, Greece.
After 26 hours of travel (Seoul -> Dubai -> Athens -> Corfu) we landed at the tiny airport in Corfu Town on Saturday September 12, and took a 35 Euro cab ride over to the Pink Palace in Adios Gordis on the Western side of the island. Corfu Island is the northern most island in Greece, about 1 km away from Albania, and just utterly beautiful. The Pink Palace is rated as one of the best hostels in Europe for 25 Euro per person, per night, for the top level room with a view. It is also a place full of sin and debauchery, and I am extremely happy that I was not there during peak season. There was a hot tub there that the Australian bartender told me, "Don't go in there unless you want to come out pregnant, fathered by 10 different nationalities." It all turned out really well though - spent a day drinking with the staff, rented ATVs and drove around, and then rented kayaks and found a small private beach on the last day before heading up to the main event.
Going from Adios Gordis up to Paleokastritsa was like night and day. It's the richest part of the island with the most resorts, we settled into a really nice apartment and then went to find the bride and groom. We got there on Tuesday, and ran into people as we went along in this one street town. With only about 4 bars in the area, we frequented all of them for the nights, and then we did beaches and stuff during the day. One of the days we rented scooters to go back around the island and as I'm returning to the apt, I ended up crashing it and had to 100 Euro to fix it. They wanted 200 but 100 is all they got and that was the end of it. Not entirely fun, but a story nonetheless...
The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and just stress free, simple, and fun. The reverend was an old college friend of the groom's who got himself ordained on the ol' internet (much like yours truly did a few years back) who said some really nice things, married the two in a short ceremony overlooking the ocean at La Grotta Bar, and the next 8 hours we spent eating and drinking and swimming. About 45 people made it out both family and friends, and overall, I have never seen a more perfect wedding in a more perfect location. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:
After 26 hours of travel (Seoul -> Dubai -> Athens -> Corfu) we landed at the tiny airport in Corfu Town on Saturday September 12, and took a 35 Euro cab ride over to the Pink Palace in Adios Gordis on the Western side of the island. Corfu Island is the northern most island in Greece, about 1 km away from Albania, and just utterly beautiful. The Pink Palace is rated as one of the best hostels in Europe for 25 Euro per person, per night, for the top level room with a view. It is also a place full of sin and debauchery, and I am extremely happy that I was not there during peak season. There was a hot tub there that the Australian bartender told me, "Don't go in there unless you want to come out pregnant, fathered by 10 different nationalities." It all turned out really well though - spent a day drinking with the staff, rented ATVs and drove around, and then rented kayaks and found a small private beach on the last day before heading up to the main event.
Going from Adios Gordis up to Paleokastritsa was like night and day. It's the richest part of the island with the most resorts, we settled into a really nice apartment and then went to find the bride and groom. We got there on Tuesday, and ran into people as we went along in this one street town. With only about 4 bars in the area, we frequented all of them for the nights, and then we did beaches and stuff during the day. One of the days we rented scooters to go back around the island and as I'm returning to the apt, I ended up crashing it and had to 100 Euro to fix it. They wanted 200 but 100 is all they got and that was the end of it. Not entirely fun, but a story nonetheless...
The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and just stress free, simple, and fun. The reverend was an old college friend of the groom's who got himself ordained on the ol' internet (much like yours truly did a few years back) who said some really nice things, married the two in a short ceremony overlooking the ocean at La Grotta Bar, and the next 8 hours we spent eating and drinking and swimming. About 45 people made it out both family and friends, and overall, I have never seen a more perfect wedding in a more perfect location. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves: