The boat was a much smother ride than the trains and there was a lot more room. Consequently, I had the best night's sleep that I'd had in ages. I woke up briefly at exactly the right moment to see the sun rising, and then the next thing I remembered was the announcement that we were arriving at Corfu. The boat had showers, so by the time we got to shore, I was quite refreshed.

The boat was met by loads of people flogging their accommodation, which was nice considering that up to now, we'd had to hunt high and low for somewhere. Monica, one of the Finish girls, had been raving about Pelekas, a particular village that she had been to, but there was no accommodation from there on offer. Against our better judgement, we decided to get a taxi and find somewhere to stay when we arrived.

We arrived to a sleepy little village where the only sign of life was a few old Greeks ushering donkeys which were carrying supplies. We checked the hotel where Monica has stayed last time and it was full, but Monica was welcomed like an old friend and the two girls were put up on the floor in the manager's apartment. The two guys and I looked for a while, but everywhere was full. We wondered how everywhere was full in such a sleepy little place, but we didn't realise until later that things had changed a lot since Monica had last been there and it had become a bit of an eighteen thirty resort. The reason it was so quiet was that everyone had only finished partying a couple of hours earlier.

Monica got a verbal thrashing.

We headed down to the beach, which involved a huge climb down a cliff and was - surprise, surprise - deserted. There was a small hippie campsite over one end, but they were, presumably, all doped up to the eyeballs and wouldn't surface for a while, if ever. We had the whole beach to ourselves, until about the middle of the afternoon when people started to surface, looking decidedly worse for wear.

The others were going to party all night and hope that they could get some accommodation sorted for the following night. I didn't have the energy or the funds for that, so I decided to spend the day slobbing on the beach with them and then head back to the port to catch the ferry early the next morning. I caught some serious rays, had a couple of beers with the others. Greek blokes who remembered Monica from the last time kept flocking round, so it's obvious now why she liked the place so much!

The port was a lot further than I had remembered it in the taxi. Not only that, but all the signs were in the cryptic Greek giberish and I was never entirely sure whether I was going in the right direction. It wasn't long, however, until some Greek blokes on mopeds took pity on me and gave me a lift. My backpack made it very unsteady, but any worry about that was more than made up for by gratitude for the lift.

Not that it mattered any more, but I was on the right road. I should have had more faith in my natural sense of direction, although it has let me down frequently and it was probably more luck than judgement.

The port was lined with sleeping back-packers, so I find a space and joined them for some sleep. Everyone started to a wake in plenty of time for the ferry and join the huge queue which was developing. We waited and waited and waited. At the time that the ferry was due to leave, there was still no sign of it even arriving. We left an hour and a half late.

I later discovered that everything here runs to GMT or Greek Maybe Time.

The ferry had showers, a sun deck and a swimming pool. It was a brilliant day.