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Day 20 - Corfu
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After the overnight
ferry, we arrived in Corfu where a local bus picked us up and took us to
a Contiki run hotel, the Frini, located south of Corfu town on the east coast of
the island. We got to stay in the
apartments beside the hotel which were roomy and ideal for a party. We
were
picked up for a trip into Corfu Town for shopping and lunch.
Greek fast food was the Gyro pita (pronounced yuro). For a couple of
Euros, it was folded pita filled with pork or chicken (shaved off a vertical
rotisserie or slouvaki style), tzatziki, onions, tomatoes and fries.
It's only 1.50€ by the Mic & Mac besides McDonalds in the main square across
from the fort. The day was pretty much
free and after coming back to the hotel, we chilled at the apartment or
crossed the street to the small beach. That evening, there was a toga
party at the hotel bar. |
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Me, Ashley & Carmen
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Day 21- Corfu
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This was another free
day and I had reserved a jeep to go exploring. Unfortunately, the weather had
turned and it was raining pretty hard in the morning. The soft top didn't
provide much cover during downpours. After heading into town and grabbing some
lunch, we headed northeast to Paleokastritsa.
The weather improved a bit as we took in the views from the monastery up the
hill. The beach in the area had clear aqua green water and was surrounded by limestone
cliffs reminding me a bit of Thailand. Next it was over to Pelekas
and another viewpoint at Kaiser's throne. It was a little socked in
from the clouds but it would break once in a while so we could imagine what
the view would be like. |
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Brandon and me at Paleokastritsa Beach
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| Next it was over to Pelekas beach and then to Agios Gordis
beach. We checked out the
Pink Palace (it's a famous backpackers hotel, probably a lot livelier at
night during the toga party) and parked on the beach to grab a bite and beer at
a restaurant nearby. In the evening, we had our optional Greek dinner and
dancing night. It was a party in Room 1 back at the apartments after. |
Day 22 - Corfu
| We
had been scheduled to go on our optional on George's boat for a
cruise and watersports which was touted as one of the highlights of the tour. The weather was rainy and
cool and with most of the group sick with the Contiki Cough, it was decided
we would not have a good time so it was cancelled. The bus took us into
town again for a couple hours and the girls went shopping as usual. I
missed the pickup back to climb the fort and then waited an hour for a local
bus to the hotel. We chilled out watching The Italian Job in the lounge,
recognizing all the places we had been to in Venice before heading back to
the nightly party in Room 1. |
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Emily, Kate and Megan shopping in Corfu Town
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Day 23 - Corfu to Athens
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Our
last long drive day took us through Greece. We ferried to the mainland,
drove along the coast and crossed the Corinthian Gulf on a second short ferry.
The Rio-Antrirrio bridge was under construction probably to be completed
just in time for the Olympics. We had a stop at the Corinth canal and
got into Athens late in the afternoon. The drive was a bit
hair-raising since the highways in Greece are
mainly single lane in both directions with few passing lanes. Trucks will
basically drive on the shoulders to let other cars pass. |
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Rio-Antrirrio bridge under construction
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Corinth Canal
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| In the
evening we had our farewell dinner in the Plakas
area at the foot of the Acropolis with some more Greek dancing. |
Day 24 - Athens to Mykonos
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For our last day, we had a guided tour of Athens with a stop at the marble
Panathinaiko stadium and we joined the crowds at the Acropolis. I had
heard that Athens was noisy and polluted but it was actually quite nice. |
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Me relaxing by the Parthenon
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Mike checking out the view of Athens
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Most of the plazas and hotels were a big construction zone renovating and
cleaning up for the Olympics. The metro was brand new and probably
eased a lot of the air pollution and traffic snarls.
Around noon,
our tour was over and everyone headed their separate ways. It was a hurried and
disorganized goodbye as the bus was illegally parked. I went for lunch with a
few of the group staying in Athens before I headed to the hotel to get picked
up for my transfer to Mykonos. The ferry from Rafina to Mykonos took about six
hours with stops at Andros and Tinos. We arrived in Mykonos fairly late but in
time to hit the toga party at the resort bar.
Generally in Greece, most people could speak English probably because Greek
is a difficult language to learn. Costs for food and bottled water
were less than in France and Italy. Most of Europe tend to take a long
lunch (main meal of the day) or siesta in hot regions (some shops are
closed). No wonder all the Olympic venues were late in construction. |
Day 25 - Mykonos
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After a short time on
the beach in the morning, I decided to head in town since I was desperate for a haircut. The
bus was less than a Euro and picked up/dropped off in front of the hotel but
only ran every 2 to 3 hours. |
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Mykonos town
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With Natalie
Gruzlewski host of Australia's Getaway Show
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Mykonos town is pretty interesting with the
port, tightly spaced whitewashed buildings, narrow alleys and small shops.
It was easy to lose your bearings in the alleys but you would eventually
find a clearing to find the water or the windmills to figure out where you
were.
After coming back from town, I had found out that I had missed an opportunity to
get on Australian TV since a film crew had been filming at the resort for a
segment on a travel show called Getaway. If I didn't head into town,
you may have caught me on TV banana boating and playing volleyball on the beach.
In the evening, it was Greek dancing at the pool bar. Three days of Greek
dancing in a week was probably more than I could handle. The link to the
Getaway segment with the video is
here. You can see half my head eating
breakfast if you look carefully.
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Day 26 - Mykonos
| This was pretty much a chill out day.
We went for a kayak in the morning but I slept at
the beach and pool most of the day. It was karaoke at the resort bar in the
evening. For some reason, the girls wanted to sing "I Will Survive". We had wanted to go into town late at night but
killed the idea since it was going to
be a long wait for a taxi. Bars didn't open until midnight and didn't get
going til 4am. We had been recommended to go to either the Scandi bar or
the Mykonos bar. |
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Kalafatis Beach in front of Contiki resort with the breasts of Aphrodite in
the background
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Day 27 - Mykonos
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I had signed up for an optional
organized "cruise" for 50€.
For the price we paid, we were expecting a yacht, lobster lunch, and
champagne but we got a small wooden boat, sausages and kebabs, and ouzo &
orange juice instead. |
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Andy, Krissy, Me, Dave & Billie at the Tropicana Bar on Paradise Beach
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Me with CAPS Becca and Mel on the dock by the resort
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There were about 18 of us and our first stop was to a deserted beach for
lunch and snorkeling. We
headed next to Paradise beach. The Tropicana bar was right on the
beach with a DJ spinning tunes as we sat at the bar.
The bartender would pour us free shots every 10 minutes and the Heineken's were only 3€. It was a great atmosphere. The bartender indicated
the party started at 4:30pm but we were too early and had to head off to our
last stop which was Super Paradise. Based on the guide books, I was
expecting Super Paradise to be mainly gay and nude but that wasn't the case.
Just the usual topless girls and MTV Italy was taping some beach contests that
one guy in our group participated in. We sat by the bar and drank some
more. In the evening, I was recruited to participate in the man 'o man contest.
Having previously won a weekly Mr Cancun Club Med contest in my younger days, I
thought this wouldn't be a problem. However, a large Contiki group
had just checked in that day and I would lose any home field advantage I had. If
anyone has any pictures of me from this event, please delete them. The
dancing contests were painfully long though my moment of glory came as I had a
chance to perform "She Bangs" (the William Hung rendition WITHOUT backup
dancers). As expected, I didn't even place. This was my last night in Mykonos since I had an early morning
ferry back to Rafina. If they had booked a fast ferry for me, the trip
would've only taken two hours and I could've left at noon instead of early in
the morning. |
Day 28 - Mykonos to London
This was pretty much a
long travel day. After a five and a half hour
ferry, ten minute taxi, six hour layover at the airport and four hour flight, I was back in
London. Since I had an early morning flight to Edinburgh, I dropped
my big
pack at the left luggage counter and tubed back to Russell Square for a night at
the Generator again. It was actually cheaper to fly to Edinburgh return and
spend a night in the hostel than to take an overnight train to Edinburgh one
way. It was back to the hostel bar in the evening and I had a couple of hours of
sleep before I was off again.
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