Corfu and Athens

Well guys I've finished my tour and I am devastated. The only thing that got me through it was meeting my brother and my friend Darren meeting me where my group departed. It was the best thing I've done and I'd recommend it to everyone.

So on to Corfu....
The travel over to Corfu involved a night on the ferry. I'd been warned how great the ferry rides were and was expecting the worst, however I was pleasantly surprised to find the rooms and showers quite clean - especially compared to some other places. The ferry ride was not bad as we really only sleeped.

Into Corfu ->
Now for those who don't know, Greece's plumbing is as old as the Greece itself (well almost). So, you ask why I'm mentioning this? Well in Greece, you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet. What do you do with it? Well for your convenience, a waste paper basket is provided. Once you get used to this method, it actually doesn't seem so bad. The worst thing though is if you forget or some falls in...because you can't flush any at all and in the end you have to try and grab it out (yes even if it's wet!!).

You wouldn't believe how beautiful the water is here. It's a lovely greeny-blue colour and it is so calm compared to back home. What was even more unbelievable was the hotel view. Most rooms had a balcony which had a 180 degree view of the lovely water surrounded by greek isles - fantastic.

So we had three days here, where one day included an optional on the infamous George's boat cruise. The first two days included a tour into town with some shopping time. Amanda, our tour manager told us about how good and cheap gyros was. Let me tell you, she was right on both accounts. They are very addictve and are a bit like our souvalakis but involve fries. They do taste totally different here and I recommend them highly. (No, I haven't stopped being vegetarian, mine were without meat)

The shopping here is great...things are cheap and very different to back home. So much so that the next day, I decided to head back to town (instead of going to the beaches) and look at all the shops. The only purchase however, was a bracelet.

Now the first night, included our first raunchy party! (Well it's meant to be but I was tame). Toga PARTY! The party involves wearing a toga. What's raunchy about that? Maybe the fact that you don't wear anything else....It was quite a good night where most of my group were drunk, including a very tipsy Mel...I do have a few stories which I can't mention on this PG rated version. So feel free to ask when I see you next for the MA versions of the trip.

George's boat ->
was very cool. You are taken on a cruise around Corfu and some greek isles. The first stop being watersports!!

Here I went parasailing (why was I so worried) and also this sofa type thing (ARGH!) I was nervous with the parasailiing, however the only scarey part is liftoff. In the air it's quite tame, almost boring apart from the beautiful views and reminds me of ballooning. It's great to be able to say I've done it though and I have some cool photos from it to prove it.

So the sofa thing, well this was freaky!! You had to hold on sitting down, whilst being spun round at full speed. Nicole, my little mate from Geelong, came with me and she kept being thrown on me, so I ended up carrying both our weight on this sofa. The whole time I was wishing it would end (even though it was quite fun) and near to the end, we both fell off. It was all good fun!

After the watersports, we headed two little private water spots for a swim in the beautiful ocean. It's really weird as there are no waves. So it's quite easy to swim or play water sports etc. The hardest part was getting in...

Later on, we headed out to traditional Greek meals and dancing. It was great at the start, however the dancing went too long and there was way too much traditional wine available to us for free....and I don't know how much I had in the end.

Athens ->
well, well. This could possibly be the nightmare spot of the trip. We got lost on more than one occasion. We were diverted, too many times to remember....and seriously I don't know how the Greeks will finish in time for the Olympics. They have a hell of a lot to do in a small period of time. I was very disappointed and I really feel sorry for the athletes....it's one big mistake.

Once we actually arrived at the hotel, I think it was about five hours late, we had a quick meal and went to bed afer ringing the parents. Only five minutes in bed and horns starting going. First only a couple of times, then every car and truck (with air horns) passing by started using their horn. These were not little get out of my way beeps, but constant I'm-keeping-my-hand-on-the-horn beeps. This actually and I'm not kidding, went on ALL night and in the morning when we left. What was the reason? No, not a huge traffic disaster, but Greece won the soccer...

So as you can imagine, I as did many that night, had absolutely no sleep in Athens ready for our ferry to the just opened Mykonos, awesome, most beautiful place on the world resort.

More later....