We arrived on Corfu on a Tuesday. It was quite late so we went to bed immediately. Listen, I’ve always wanted to do a race. Sadly, I’ve never been able to join one. The next morning I was playing in the garden when my mom called me up to the house. I asked her why she called me up and she said she had found a 1 mile race. I was so excited I couldn’t wait till the race. She told me the race was Sunday so early on Sunday we got up. We drove there (it was almost 2 hours in the car) and we made it early. I signed up and we started to stretch. There was a bunch of kids older than me so I was quite nervous. 😥 We got ready for the race. We were all standing there waiting to run.
I don’t know Greek, but the lady was speaking Greek. I didn’t know when to start but then she said something and all the kids started chanting, then they started running, so I guess they said “3 2 1 go”! I followed. We were running in a big pack. We ran past all the traffic. We were following a bike for directions. All the kids started to slow down, but I didn’t. Soon I was 20 meters ahead of them. I kept running as we neared a corner. We turned as the bike turned. Two girls were nearing me fast, but I kept my pace. They soon were at my heel. We ran for a while longer. As we neared the end I sprinted, and one of the girls sprinted too. She was just at my heel as we turned the corner and saw the finish line. We both ran as fast as we could. I ran past the finish line and high-fived a lady on my left. I won. I just won! Oh my God I couldn’t believe it.
We stood on the podium and got our medals.
On our drive back home we stopped at a beach. Me and my sister were playing around on the rocks when we saw two sea urchins.
This was the black sea urchin. I looked up about it for this post. It is also known as Arbacia lixula, is a medium-sized species of sea urchin that can be found in the Mediterranean Sea.
It is characterized by its deep black color, hemispherical shape, and equal-sized spines.
I was walking around in the water barefoot so i had to be careful of where i was stepping.
Unlike some other species of sea urchins, the black sea urchin does not cover itself with debris, and its mouth is surrounded by soft, dark-greenish skin.
The black sea urchin feeds on algae and lives in exposed areas on cliffs.
There was lots of algae around, so I’m sure these spikey guys were eating well.
As i was being very cautious and looking everywhere so i would step on an urchin… then I turned around and oh my Goodness there was an octopus.```
I stood in the water and tried to touch it. It started moving. One of its long tentacles came out, and it grabbed my foot and then another tentacle grabbed my foot as well. I tried to move my foot, but those things are strong. I managed to pull my foot away and then it swam away. That was my first time ever seeing an octopus in the wild.
Check out this cool photo i got of the octopus on my foot. At one point it was fully over my foot feeling around with its suckers, this shot it was just leaving. It felt so crazy when it was crawling over me, it felt so strong, it was pulling my foot really hard. It was kinda scary.
The species was likely the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris), which is known for its presence in the Mediterranean Sea, including around the Greek islands like Corfu.
The octopus vulgaris is a fascinating creature that can grow up to 3 feet in length and weigh up to 15 pounds. This one was maybe about a bit more than 12 inches if fully outstretched.
These common octopus are known for their intelligence and problem-solving abilities, as well as their ability to change color and texture to blend in with their surroundings. And I saw this with my own eyes as I was following it around and it changed colors 3 times to blend with the changing rock colors.
Later, as we were leaving the beach, we saw another octopus. We didn’t get a picture of this octopus though because it was at a weird angle and we were just about to leave. We got in the car and drove off.
We also stopped at Lawrence Durrell’s house. There was a nice beach next to it.
If you’re not familiar with the name Lawrence Durrell, he is a English novelist, and the brother of Gerald Durrell who wrote the famous book ‘My Family And Other Animals’, which was set on the island of Corfu.
All in all, this was a wonderful day. I really enjoyed my first race.
//:# (//:# (!worldmappin 39.74240 lat 19.93321 long Kalami Bay octopus beach d3scr))