After more than 35 hours of traveling, I finally made it back to Rome. The overnight train was crowded and dirty, the ferry rides seemed to last forever, the man behind me on the plane wouldn't stop coughing, and the 12-hour overnight bus ride was pure misery.
But all of these transportation inconveniences were worth it. To remind those who may have forgotten, my friend Rachel and I decided to spend our spring break on the Greek island of Corfu. Neither of us had heard anything about the island before deciding to travel there. In fact, we had only read about it in a guidebook two days before we left. We left Rome for spring break a little anxious about what to expect.
It took us nearly 17 hours to reach Corfu, and by the time we arrived at the hostel, I was exhausted. I expected to be greeted briefly and then shown to the room, but this didn't happen. Right away, the people who had already been staying at the hostel for a few nights welcomed all of the new arrivals and started trading travel stories. Immediately, all of the weary travelers dropped their guards and settled in at the bar.
I've never stayed at such a hostel before. Most of the guests were either students traveling on spring break or backpackers taking a break from a six-month-long world tour. When these two groups of people came together, a sort of bond was formed right away. This backpacker mentality is much different from anything I've seen before.
Rather than forming cliques and creating judgmental first impressions, everyone traded stories from the road, laughing over travel mishaps and connecting through similar experiences. I've never experienced such a laid-back atmosphere amongst people my age, especially during college. Right away, I felt welcome.
The island of Corfu is something like a movie set, complete with rocky mountains and scenic overviews that look out over endless waters. One day my friend and I rented a car and drove all over the island, just to get to know our surroundings better. It was Sunday, so everything was closed, but we passed many friendly families sitting on balconies and strolling along the roads. The quaintness of our surroundings became even more cinematic after we got stuck behind a herd of sheep walking down a one-lane road.
While the island was so remarkable in its beauty, I was most impressed with the people I met while vacationing there. Never have I met people so willing to include everyone around them and so worried about making sure everyone is enjoying themselves. It's so much easier to relax in such a setting, and it made my spring break so much more fun. I'm sure that this backpacker mentality exists throughout the world, and I'm anxious to run into it again.
