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June 6
Day 26
Contiki Day 17
Corfu Island, GREECE
Day 26
Contiki Day 17
Corfu Island, GREECE
Drunken Swimming at the Pool Party
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Dare Night in Corfu
The Journey...
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My alarm went off at 4:30am to prepare for our 5:30am arrival in Corfu Island. I was feeling 100% better this morning. Ryan & Amos were right - I’d feel better once I got my “sea legs”. Being a prairie boy from the landlocked province of Saskatchewan, I don’t exactly have easy access to boats or large bodies of water. Hopefully my experience last night helped me adjust to life on the sea.
It was still dark at this hour, so we all gathered on the back deck to watch the sun rise. It was a magnificent view. The sun began to peak over the rolling, misty hills on either side of us. The Greek islands looked green and inviting. I was so glad I could enjoy the ride without feeling like I was going to puke.
It was still dark at this hour, so we all gathered on the back deck to watch the sun rise. It was a magnificent view. The sun began to peak over the rolling, misty hills on either side of us. The Greek islands looked green and inviting. I was so glad I could enjoy the ride without feeling like I was going to puke.
At 6:00am we finally docked at Corfu Island. After Amos pulled the coach out of Ouranos, we made our way to our hotel for breakfast.
Our lodging in Corfu was a Contiki-owned hotel located on the shore of the island. It was built on the side of a steep hill and had several different areas to it. The bottom part had rooms in it, including a roof-top restaurant, Internet and a bar. The middle part was another hotel area with the pool and another bar on the upper level. The top part was a villa complex. There were also more villas down the road. After having breakfast on the roof of the bottom part, we were shown to our rooms. My room was located on the bottom floor of the middle building and it was, to put it bluntly, horrible. Everyone else seemed to have nice rooms - some of the girls even got villas (which were very nice) - but for myself, Aaron and Adam, our room smelled like raw sewage and had so many trees outside our balcony that we couldn’t even see the ocean. The shower had barely any water pressure and wouldn’t hook on the wall. On top of that, there were two major obstacles to overcome to get to our room. The first was walking down the “road of death” - a the narrow road in front of the hotel with no foot path. The crazy Greek drivers would literally come within inches of us while walking down this road. At least the drivers were courteous enough to honk to let us know they were going past us. You basically had to hug the wall along the side of the road to avoid getting hit. The other obstacle was what we called the “stairs of death”. We had several steep flights of stairs to climb to get to our room and the pool area. When I say several I mean about four or five VERY long flights. I tend to think I’m a pretty fit guy, but climbing those stairs almost killed me. On top of that, the reward at the top was our shitty room. I made sure that if I went down the stairs I wouldn’t have to go back up for any reason.
Our lodging in Corfu was a Contiki-owned hotel located on the shore of the island. It was built on the side of a steep hill and had several different areas to it. The bottom part had rooms in it, including a roof-top restaurant, Internet and a bar. The middle part was another hotel area with the pool and another bar on the upper level. The top part was a villa complex. There were also more villas down the road. After having breakfast on the roof of the bottom part, we were shown to our rooms. My room was located on the bottom floor of the middle building and it was, to put it bluntly, horrible. Everyone else seemed to have nice rooms - some of the girls even got villas (which were very nice) - but for myself, Aaron and Adam, our room smelled like raw sewage and had so many trees outside our balcony that we couldn’t even see the ocean. The shower had barely any water pressure and wouldn’t hook on the wall. On top of that, there were two major obstacles to overcome to get to our room. The first was walking down the “road of death” - a the narrow road in front of the hotel with no foot path. The crazy Greek drivers would literally come within inches of us while walking down this road. At least the drivers were courteous enough to honk to let us know they were going past us. You basically had to hug the wall along the side of the road to avoid getting hit. The other obstacle was what we called the “stairs of death”. We had several steep flights of stairs to climb to get to our room and the pool area. When I say several I mean about four or five VERY long flights. I tend to think I’m a pretty fit guy, but climbing those stairs almost killed me. On top of that, the reward at the top was our shitty room. I made sure that if I went down the stairs I wouldn’t have to go back up for any reason.
After getting settled in, Amos drove us into the city so the Egyptians (those of us doing the Egypt option) could go shopping for some supplies for our week in Egypt. The Corfu shopping district was really nice. It had almost every kind of shop you could want. Lots of clothing stores selling beach stuff like shorts, towels and t-shirts. I thought about buying a few light t’s since most of the shirts I brought were on the heavy side. It was HOT in Corfu - by far the hottest we’ve experienced. I’d say it was a little over 30° today. Overall the city had a really up-beat atmosphere. The locals were really friendly. I had been looking very forward to Greece and it was definitely living up to my excitement.
Ryan suggested that we buy duffle bags for our trip to Egypt and leave our big suitcases on the coach. We also wanted to get some emergency medical supplies. The Contiki rep at the chateau in Beaujolais said that when she went to Egypt with her tour, a lot of people got sick. About six of us went shopping for supplies together. Our first stop was a chemist where we bought re-hydration packets and throat lozenges. I also bought a big bottle of shampoo for a ridiculous price of 11.50€ since I had been out for a couple days. That taught me a lesson - when going on holidays for three months, don’t pack travel-size shampoo. It won’t last.
Ryan suggested that we buy duffle bags for our trip to Egypt and leave our big suitcases on the coach. We also wanted to get some emergency medical supplies. The Contiki rep at the chateau in Beaujolais said that when she went to Egypt with her tour, a lot of people got sick. About six of us went shopping for supplies together. Our first stop was a chemist where we bought re-hydration packets and throat lozenges. I also bought a big bottle of shampoo for a ridiculous price of 11.50€ since I had been out for a couple days. That taught me a lesson - when going on holidays for three months, don’t pack travel-size shampoo. It won’t last.
Before I left Canada, I went to the doctor and got a prescription of general antibiotics incase I picked up some nasty African virus. I also had a couple boxes of Immodium (anti-diarrhea medication) just incase I got, as Tiana would call it, “King Tut’s butt”. With all these meds I felt as though I was prepared for almost anything that could happen.
Our next stop was a bag/suitcase shop. They had a huge selection of duffle bags and backpacks. We looked around for quite some time trying to find the perfect type of bag. We finally decided on one and the shop owner had enough in stock for all of us. Since all of us were buying one, we talked her into giving us a 2€ discount. With our bags bought and feeling prepared for the next week, Paula and I went off to relax and have some lunch at one of the town’s street cafés.
On the way to a café, we stopped at an alcohol store and bought some bottles of cheap booze (or GROG as the Aussies call it) for our pool party tonight. I bought a 26oz bottle of Ouzo for 5.80€! A bottle that size in Canada would easily cost over $20.
We found a nice café and sat down for some genuine Greek gyros. If you’ve never had a gyros before, it’s a pita wrap filled with either chicken or pork, fries, vegetables (like onions and tomato), meat sauce and tzatziki. They’re SO GOOD. The restaurant I work at sells them for lunch, but they didn’t compare to the ones we got here. I think I ate about three or four in one sitting.
Our next stop was a bag/suitcase shop. They had a huge selection of duffle bags and backpacks. We looked around for quite some time trying to find the perfect type of bag. We finally decided on one and the shop owner had enough in stock for all of us. Since all of us were buying one, we talked her into giving us a 2€ discount. With our bags bought and feeling prepared for the next week, Paula and I went off to relax and have some lunch at one of the town’s street cafés.
On the way to a café, we stopped at an alcohol store and bought some bottles of cheap booze (or GROG as the Aussies call it) for our pool party tonight. I bought a 26oz bottle of Ouzo for 5.80€! A bottle that size in Canada would easily cost over $20.
We found a nice café and sat down for some genuine Greek gyros. If you’ve never had a gyros before, it’s a pita wrap filled with either chicken or pork, fries, vegetables (like onions and tomato), meat sauce and tzatziki. They’re SO GOOD. The restaurant I work at sells them for lunch, but they didn’t compare to the ones we got here. I think I ate about three or four in one sitting.
During lunch, Paula and I ordered a couple beers and just chilled for a while. Today was a very relaxing day. No major sightseeing. No driving for hours. It was just a slow day to have some drinks and chill in the sun. Except for our one day in Beaujolais, every day so far had been very busy and action packed. Ryan said that our itinerary in Egypt was going to be twice as crazy as anything we’d experience in Europe, so these couple days of relaxing were very welcome before the real fun began. This also gave me an opportunity to get to know Paula better. We hadn’t really talked much before now, but by the end of the tour she’d become one of my closest friends. I think it was all due to today’s lunch. Paula is an Aussie, and we talked a lot about the differences between Canada and Australia. She said she had always wanted to experience a white Christmas. I couldn’t imagine having Christmas in the middle of summer. I explained that in Saskatchewan, we sometimes drop down to -50° Celsius in the winter. It’s horrible. You never get used to the extreme cold - no matter how many prairie winters you’ve experienced. Paula seemed intrigued at the whole idea. I’d agree that a cold snowy Christmas is something that everyone should experience at least once, but I’d guarantee that 99% of Canadians would give anything to have Australia’s mild climate. We also joked about each other’s accents. Aussies tend to forget about “R”s at the end of words. The word ‘revolveR’ would be pronounced ‘revolvA’ using Aussie English. I don’t think either is right, since both our accents originated from the UK (and even then, England has a wide variety of accents - not to mention the Scottish one which sometimes sounds like a completely different language). I also said that I sometimes noticed a slight “R” sound where there shouldn’t be one. Like, for example, if Paula were to say her name, once in a while it would sound like she was saying “Paulr”. Other North Americans noticed it too. It was funny cause Paula had never noticed it before. She asked me if there was any difference between Canadian and American accents. Normally there isn’t, but it all depends on where you’re from. Americans from a few Southern states talk with a bit of a slurish drawl, while Canadians on the far East coast pronounce “U” like an “oo”. For example, I’d say “about”, but someone from Newfoundland would say “aboot”. The whole conversation was hilarious. That was one of my favorite lunches on the whole tour.
On our way back to the coach, Sean and I split a carton of Marlboro cigarettes. I had brought enough Canadian smokes to last me up until this point, but I was running out pretty quickly. I normally don’t like any other brand of cigarettes besides DuMaurier, but since they don’t sell them anywhere besides Canada, I had to settle with American or European ones. I know what you’re thinking - SMOKING IS BAD. Yeah, I’ve heard it a million times. All I can say is go stand on a scale and tell me if you’re overweight. Same difference. With all the non-smoking bylaws in effect everywhere, smoking doesn’t effect the general public like it used to. All it effects is the user’s personal health. The effects are almost the same as being overweight. If an overweight person told me that I should quit smoking I wouldn’t hesitate to tell them to quit eating so much. Sorry about the rant, but I’m very opinionated on the subject. I know I should quit, but some people have very addictive personalities. For me, if I didn’t smoke then it would just be something else. I’d rather rely on smoking than something even more destructive like alcohol. Maybe some day I’ll kick the habit, but for now it’s just who I am.
In the late afternoon we went back to the hotel and got ready for our pool party. There was another Contiki tour staying with us, so we’d have a chance to mingle with other people.
Amy was lucky enough to get a villa room, so tonight Amy’s Bar was extra fun. Everyone gathered there for some pre-dinner drinks. The cover charge to get into Amy’s Bar was to do a shot of Ouzo at the door. If you don’t like the taste of black licorice, Ouzo might not be your favorite drink, but I personally love it.
On our way back to the coach, Sean and I split a carton of Marlboro cigarettes. I had brought enough Canadian smokes to last me up until this point, but I was running out pretty quickly. I normally don’t like any other brand of cigarettes besides DuMaurier, but since they don’t sell them anywhere besides Canada, I had to settle with American or European ones. I know what you’re thinking - SMOKING IS BAD. Yeah, I’ve heard it a million times. All I can say is go stand on a scale and tell me if you’re overweight. Same difference. With all the non-smoking bylaws in effect everywhere, smoking doesn’t effect the general public like it used to. All it effects is the user’s personal health. The effects are almost the same as being overweight. If an overweight person told me that I should quit smoking I wouldn’t hesitate to tell them to quit eating so much. Sorry about the rant, but I’m very opinionated on the subject. I know I should quit, but some people have very addictive personalities. For me, if I didn’t smoke then it would just be something else. I’d rather rely on smoking than something even more destructive like alcohol. Maybe some day I’ll kick the habit, but for now it’s just who I am.
In the late afternoon we went back to the hotel and got ready for our pool party. There was another Contiki tour staying with us, so we’d have a chance to mingle with other people.
Amy was lucky enough to get a villa room, so tonight Amy’s Bar was extra fun. Everyone gathered there for some pre-dinner drinks. The cover charge to get into Amy’s Bar was to do a shot of Ouzo at the door. If you don’t like the taste of black licorice, Ouzo might not be your favorite drink, but I personally love it.
L to R: Erica, Shelley, Ashley, Brianna, Janay, Theresa
After dinner the party began. By now I had finished off my 26oz bottle of Ouzo and started buying vodka & coke. Everyone was at the party tonight. I think everyone from the other tour was there too. It was funny, though. The two groups basically only mingled with themselves. We didn’t do much talking to the other tour.
Everyone had a great time tonight. Nothing beats partying it up on a tropical Greek island. Like with most parties, our day song played and everyone once again went crazy and sang along at the top of our lungs. Our day song meant a lot to us. It wasn’t just a song, it was a symbol for our entire tour and the whole experience we were having. There was also a bit of rivalry involved. We wanted to be louder and have more pride than when the other tour’s day song played. I don’t remember what their song was, but it was probably something lame ;)
After quite a lot to drink, I thought it would be fun to go swimming. I stripped down to my shorts and dove in to the pool. Ashley took pictures of me swimming around. I was the only one in the pool and it was pretty cold, so I didn’t stay in it for long. Aaron thought it would be pretty funny to throw Kansas Chris in the pool, but he didn’t know that Chris had his digital camera in his pocket. The camera got soaked and quit working. Aaron felt really bad and gave him a bunch of money to replace it. He kept the camera to try and claim it on his insurance. At first, the memory card wouldn’t read and Chris thought he had lost all his pictures. Luckily, after drying out, it started working again.
Our first major drama happened tonight. One girl, who I had thought was really nice and had become pretty good friend with, made a very nasty comment to another girl on the tour. There was absolutely no basis to the comment. It was just genuinely mean spirited. She pulled me off to the side at the party and told me how horrible she felt for what she did. I didn’t ask what was said (and wouldn’t find out until a couple weeks later), but I told her that she should apologize once everyone had sobered up. At that point I had no idea how bad the comment really was. I didn’t want conflict between my tour mates. We had all gotten along so well up until this point, but I knew that in reality being together for 46 days would produce a bit of drama. Little did I know that this moment would lead to another event that would seal this girl's segregation from the entire tour. The sad part was that she brought it all on herself.
Later in the evening, when everyone was nice and pissed up, the dares began. I was really impressed at the guts it took to do some of these dares. After Theresa openly announced her undying love for me in front of the whole bar, Ashley announced that she shit her pants and loved the feeling. Next we all gathered outside for the show to begin. First up was Luke and Jay. They walked up to the pool with towels around their waists. As soon as they got to the edge of the pool they took the towels off to reveal nothing underneath but paper cups being held on by pieces of string. I couldn’t believe they actually did it (although this was nothing compared to Matt’s dare). They both dived into the pool, but lost their cups in the water. As Tyler threw them their towels, Graham came out to the pool wearing a girl’s bikini. Graham is a fairly built guy and I thought the string bikini was going to snap off him like a rubber band.
The grand finale, and the dare that everyone didn’t think was going to happen, was Matt. He casually walked onto the pool deck, surrounded by about 100 onlookers, completely stark naked. That’s when I realized that Matt has absolutely NO SHAME. He walked around the entire pool and went and dry humped Graham. Everyone was in shock. From that point on, it wasn’t uncommon to randomly see Matt walking around somewhere completely nude at any given time. He tried it at a bar one night and almost got kicked out.
Everyone had a great time tonight. Nothing beats partying it up on a tropical Greek island. Like with most parties, our day song played and everyone once again went crazy and sang along at the top of our lungs. Our day song meant a lot to us. It wasn’t just a song, it was a symbol for our entire tour and the whole experience we were having. There was also a bit of rivalry involved. We wanted to be louder and have more pride than when the other tour’s day song played. I don’t remember what their song was, but it was probably something lame ;)
After quite a lot to drink, I thought it would be fun to go swimming. I stripped down to my shorts and dove in to the pool. Ashley took pictures of me swimming around. I was the only one in the pool and it was pretty cold, so I didn’t stay in it for long. Aaron thought it would be pretty funny to throw Kansas Chris in the pool, but he didn’t know that Chris had his digital camera in his pocket. The camera got soaked and quit working. Aaron felt really bad and gave him a bunch of money to replace it. He kept the camera to try and claim it on his insurance. At first, the memory card wouldn’t read and Chris thought he had lost all his pictures. Luckily, after drying out, it started working again.
Our first major drama happened tonight. One girl, who I had thought was really nice and had become pretty good friend with, made a very nasty comment to another girl on the tour. There was absolutely no basis to the comment. It was just genuinely mean spirited. She pulled me off to the side at the party and told me how horrible she felt for what she did. I didn’t ask what was said (and wouldn’t find out until a couple weeks later), but I told her that she should apologize once everyone had sobered up. At that point I had no idea how bad the comment really was. I didn’t want conflict between my tour mates. We had all gotten along so well up until this point, but I knew that in reality being together for 46 days would produce a bit of drama. Little did I know that this moment would lead to another event that would seal this girl's segregation from the entire tour. The sad part was that she brought it all on herself.
Later in the evening, when everyone was nice and pissed up, the dares began. I was really impressed at the guts it took to do some of these dares. After Theresa openly announced her undying love for me in front of the whole bar, Ashley announced that she shit her pants and loved the feeling. Next we all gathered outside for the show to begin. First up was Luke and Jay. They walked up to the pool with towels around their waists. As soon as they got to the edge of the pool they took the towels off to reveal nothing underneath but paper cups being held on by pieces of string. I couldn’t believe they actually did it (although this was nothing compared to Matt’s dare). They both dived into the pool, but lost their cups in the water. As Tyler threw them their towels, Graham came out to the pool wearing a girl’s bikini. Graham is a fairly built guy and I thought the string bikini was going to snap off him like a rubber band.
The grand finale, and the dare that everyone didn’t think was going to happen, was Matt. He casually walked onto the pool deck, surrounded by about 100 onlookers, completely stark naked. That’s when I realized that Matt has absolutely NO SHAME. He walked around the entire pool and went and dry humped Graham. Everyone was in shock. From that point on, it wasn’t uncommon to randomly see Matt walking around somewhere completely nude at any given time. He tried it at a bar one night and almost got kicked out.
Luke and Jay doing their dare in nothing but string and a paper cup
Tiana and naked Matt (censored)
After he finished the dare he didn’t exactly rush to put his clothes back on either. He posed for pictures, had a drink, and at the end of the night after the bar closed, we went back to Amy’s Bar for more drinks and he yet again got naked and started walking around. Without a doubt, Matt is the most spontaneous person I’ve ever met in my life.
I was far too drunk to have any idea what time I went to bed tonight. We stayed at Amy’s bar until the wee hours of the morning. I probably went to sleep around 3:00am, but that will forever remain a mystery.
I was far too drunk to have any idea what time I went to bed tonight. We stayed at Amy’s bar until the wee hours of the morning. I probably went to sleep around 3:00am, but that will forever remain a mystery.
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