Alrighty - so here I am back in London back tracking through our trip.  But at least I can post more photos.  So what i’ll try to do is do it in little chunks - post a few pictures and then I will post a link to the album that i’ve put up in facebook so those of you not on it can view the whole album.

When I last left you we were on an overnight ferry from Brindisi to Corfu.  It did get quite a bit choppy that night but one sleeping pill later I was in Corfu.  We had a lovely hotel there with a big swimming pool and a nice big room which was nice.  A good place to spend a couple of nights!

We had some time to get to the hotel, have breakfast and relax for a little while and then they took us into town.  The town was quite pretty and your typical European - narrow laneway streets off a major type artery.  Much of it was pedestrian.  We had time to wander around and I did a little shopping, buying some dresses for a good price (didn’t realize one was see through until I got it back to the hotel though.  Oops!).  We spent a lot of the day with our new friend Mike, who is a Londoner and whom we have caught up with a few times since being back, but I digress.  

After I finished my shopping we met up with a few other Contiki-ers and had a wonderful Greek lunch at a place called Rex.  It was delish and we got to try some traditional Greek food.  The baked feta was to die for (and I don’t even like goats cheese!) and I will never have Tzatziki like that again - well outside of Greece anyway.  

We went from there to the fortress that was in town and climbed up to the top for a beautiful view over the coastline and the island itself.  We didn’t have much time to explore though as the bus took us back to the hotel for the afternoon.  It was nice to have some time for some R&R and we spent some time by the pool before going to a group dinner at a place called Gloupos.  We had Ouzo (gross) and more tzatziki of course while watching them do the plate breaking dances etc.  Bryce and I tried our luck at the potato dance - you have to hold a potato between your foreheads while dancing.  Last couple on the floor wins.  I think we were about 4th overall which we were pretty proud of!!

The next day we went to George’s boat.  An experience all on its own.  The boat drives around the island of Corfu and allows you to swim in the (much colder) Ionian Sea.  He also has some interesting ways of welcoming you on board.  He makes you sing your national anthem (thank goodness for a good contingency of Canadians on Contiki) and bryce ended up doing the Haka to represent New Zealand.  It was an interesting afternoon on that boat but was nice to relax amongst all the touring.  One of the photos above was one of the beaches we stopped at - probably the only place we ended up where you could sit on a beach chair for free!  That night we had a toga party and I got a good lesson on tying a toga properly.  It was a very fun night and there were about 4 different Contiki groups partaking.  Needless to say some people were not so fresh the next morning :)

Next day we had a long driving day to Athens.  our only notable stop was at the Corinth Canal.  Didn’t do much here though bryce was disappointed to have missed out on Bungee jumping.

We didn’t get into athens till quite late that night but managed to get up to the rooftop of the hotel where they had a lovely swimming pool as well as a bar and I got the photo you see above of the city.  It was gorgeous.

Next day was up to the Acropolis, including the Parthenon and its plethora of scaffolding that seems to plague most European monuments.  We also did some shopping in the Plaka district.  Then that night was actually goodbye night for this Contiki group as we got on our cruise ship the next day to continue our journey.  Athens was an alright place but wouldn’t be on the top of my list to go back.  It’s not the safest in some areas (some places we were expressly told to stay away from) and not as much to see as some other cities.  Rome seems to have done a great job of preserving and living with their old city but Athens seems to have gone the other way unfortunately.  

Anyway, next post will be about the start of the cruise!  Hopefully will get there soon!