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Page 1 of 3  Colors of the volcano at Santorini
Looking for an inexpensive but enriching travel experience? Grab your backpack and try hopping the Greek Islands during the off-season. You'll have the opportunity to immerse yourself in local culture, partaking in such important holidays as Greek Orthodox Easter. And the prices of lodgings drop off dramatically, making budget travel a breeze.
My sister wes a permanent resident on the Ionian island of Corfu, the northernmost island in Greece. Using her home as a base, we ranged to the most southerly of the Greek islands, Rhodes, during the off-season. Our two-week journey, including the use of Olympic Airways twice for connections, cost us less than $650 each, including all food, lodging, and transportation.
We started our journey on Corfu. The Easter celebration in Corfu Town is one of the finest in Greece, with a unique set of traditions that attract visitors from all over the country. Several days before Easter Sunday, temporary stalls appear, selling eggs, candles, icons, red pottery, and popular toys packaged especially for Easter. Imagine Barbie tied with a ribbon to a bright pink candle! But everyone must have a candle, to share in the celebration. On Good Friday, solemn parades of flower-draped biers emerge from each church to commemorate the death of Christ. The morning of Holy Saturday opens with the procession of the coffin of St. Spyridon, patron saint and miracle worker of Corfu.
 Shopping Corfu during Easter
Corfu & the Ionian Islands (The Rough Guide) provides excellent leads on cheap sleeps. It's easy to spend days exploring Corfu Town on foot, following the twisty cobbled alleys of the Venetian quarter and musing over the museums and archeological sites. Rooms in Corfu Town, Garitsa, and Kanoni are most convenient for walking tours. For transportation information, including bus and ferry timetables, look for a copy of The Corfiot (the island's English language monthly) at the magazine shop behind the Liston.
Situated closest to Italy and the Greek coastal port of Igoumenitsa, Corfu has strong connections to the mainland. International ferries from the Minoan and Strinzis Lines stop at least twice daily en route to Patras. A deck class ticket (Pullman seats, or spread out your sleeping bag in an interior deck corridor) costs 5,800 drachma ($20) for the eight-hour journey, best done as an overnight trip (departure at 11:30 PM) to ensure your timing to reach Piraeus.
Once on board, you can purchase a bus ticket to Athens for 4,000 dr. ($15). After a scenic four-hour journey through the rugged mountains of the Peloponnesian peninsula, capped off with a short lunch stop, the ferry bus will deposit you near Olympic Stadium. Find the nearby metro station and hop the metro to the port of Piraeus, a thirty-minute ride costing less than 300 dr. ($1). Several ferry companies run booths in the metro station, or you can wander down the waterfront and try your luck with a travel agent. A deck class ticket to Rhodes cost us 8,600 dr. ($30) for the twenty-hour ride. Our ferry departed immediately.
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