Some Fun in the Sun

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The Aussies singing "Down Under"

It was another amazing breakfast this morning as we all stuffed ourselves silly in preparation for our full day on the water. We were all warned about George, the operator of the boat we were about to board. He was a perverted old man but was loads of fun and laughs. We got off bus and walked towards the docks. I was wondering which boat we were going to get on. I saw this dinky little thing and was hoping that wasn't the boat. Sure enough, George was heading towards this boat. It was so small that I was beginning to wonder if we could safely carry all 45 of us aboard. No life rafts either! After seeing Titanic, this was a big deal to me. We all boarded and most of us headed towards the front of the boat. As we made our way, a cool morning breeze was blowing. I decided I was just going to lay out and relax. After about a half an hour of sailing. We arrived at a small beach resort where we would participate in water sports if we so wished. After looking at all the options, the prices scared me away. I decided that I was just going to sit back, watch, lay-out, and maybe take a dip in the sea. Patrick and I left the dock to find a lounge chair to lay out in. I was laying out for about 20 minutes before I left to take a walk on the beach. Sandra convinced me to take a dip into the water. The water was really cold and the bottom was really rocky. We swam around for a little while before returning back to the dock to see what activities were on hand. The first activity was a tube racing thing where 4 inner tubes were at the top of this waterslide. All 4 tubes were attached to a boat. The boat would take off pulling all 4 inner tubes with it. Erin, Sara, Mel, and Lesley decided to try this out. The contest was too see who would fall out first. Once the boat took off, the inner tubes raced down the slide. The first to fall off was Erin, apparently her top came off with her. They rode around for a good 15 minutes out in the ocean. There were a few moments where they were going so fast that they caught some good air. After the inner tube thing, a few people did para-sailing. Matt went first, followed by Mel, Lesley, and finally Dave and Mandy. The parasailing lasted about 20 minutes for each person. They got to some pretty impressive heights and ended with a dip into the cold ocean. While waiting around for the para-sailers to return, little Sara, Sandra and I decided to be daring and do a little dive into the sea. The water seemed overly salty but was nice and refreshing. Patrick was trying to get me to go with him on one of the activities. I told him if he could find a third person, I would do it. I was wondering what had happened to him when I noticed he was about to do the flying fish with big Dave. Oh well, I really didn't want to shell out the cash for that anyways. The flying fish was this big yellow contraption that you would hang on to while being pulled by the boat. This also went at high speeds and caught some good air. Other water activities that people partaked in were wake boarding and the sea-doo's. We were at this spot for a good 3 hours before we re-boarded our boat to continue on with our cruise. We followed the coastline for a good 30 minutes. The watersports seemed to lift everyone's spirits as we were all in a good mood. George was playing cheesy 1980's rock hits but no one seemed to mind. We dropped anchor in a small bay lined with oceanfront homes to do more swimming and have lunch. The azure waters of this bay were very tropical-like and hard to resist. I took the plunge just as George started blasting the music. When YMCA starting playing, we all starting doing the cheesy YMCA dance in the water! Back on board, we munched on small sandwiches, a salad, and fries complete with homemade tzatziki sauce. I just could not enough of his tzatziki sauce and kept going back for more. All of this washed down with ice cold Greek beer! We continued cruising along the coastline; drinking beer, listening to music, and just enjoying everyone's company. We dropped anchor again at a spot not too far from the shore. The waters here were even more clearer than the previous spot. Again, most everyone took a dip and swam to the shore. Matt brought out a few balls and we started throwing them back and forth from the shore to the ship. Back on the boat, George announced for all the Australians to head to the front of the boat. He was going to do this with all the nationalities aboard. Once they were all at the front, he started playing their national anthem and instructed them all to sing along. He would do this to every nationality on board. Matt was well prepared for the event as he brought out an Australian flag for them to hold up while singing. After their national anthem, George played Men at Work's "Down Under" while all the Aussies sang along. Once the Aussies had their turn, it was time for the Canadians to show their stuff. All 8 of them sang along to "Oh Canada" and were completely off key. Their singing was like 3 seconds ahead of the music! After their laughable rendition to their national anthem, Bryan Adams' "Summer of 69" was played. After the Canadians, it was our turn. Patrick, Andria, Jason, and myself represented the USA as best we could giving our rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Then our pop song was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA". It was pretty hilarious trying to sing it. None of us really knew the words except for the Born in the USA line. George didn't have the anthem to Taiwan available. Still, he made the 3 Taiwanese girls go up and sing their anthem. It was pretty funny seeing them up there. It was the most vocal they had been the entire trip. Last but not least was Michael, the lone South African. Surprisingly, George had his national anthem available and he bravely sang it all by himself. Afterwards, there was no second song but a traditional South African dance that surprisingly Michael was able to perform quite well. With all of our national anthems out of the way, George went up to the front of the boat and led us in some really corny and silly chants and songs.

Prior to arriving at our last stop on the cruise, another boat full of tourists passed close enough to us that a bunch of us went to one side and gave them a good mooning. I supposed we had to give them Contiki's version of a hello. Perverted George took us to our final stop, Hanky-Panky Island or Skinny-Dippy Island. It was basically a small outcrop in the middle of the sea with no one around. The idea here was to go stark naked if one wanted to. Matt was the first one in as he quickly dropped his shorts and cannon-balled in. Shortly after, he was joined by Rob and Patrick who took off their shorts after jumping in. Jayson, Andria, Dave, and Mandy joined in as well, also taking off their tops and bottoms after jumping in. The guys swam over to the island and proceeded to walk around buck naked, much to the laughter of everyone still aboard the boat. Fortunately for everyone, it was strictly butt shots and no full frontal to be seen. I didn't feel like getting back into the water so I stayed aboard and watched all this nudity unfold around me. A few others decided to jump in but kept their clothes on. Back aboard, we slowly made our way back to Corfu town. After spending the entire day in the sun, everyone seemed a little tired. I know that I layed out for a bit and eventually fell asleep. Back ashore, we jumped on our coach back to the hotel. Not much rest to be had though, as we were soon to be taken to the center of town to find dinner and catch the bus to another hotel for the toga party.

After about a two hour rest, we all met up in the lobby to catch the bus together to the center of town. Once there, we had some time to do a little shopping and grab dinner. A large group of us were walking around in search of a place to eat. We came to a small cafe and some people wanted to eat there. Little Sara, Andrea, and myself were not content with getting just a light snack. All 3 of us really wanted a good traditional Greek meal. We wandered around some more and found Rebecca and Julie having dinner at an outdoor restaurant. We checked out the menu and decided this looked traditional enough. Dinner turned out to be delicious. I was thankful we didn't settle on just getting a small bite to eat. After dinner, we met up at the bus stop to catch the bus for the toga party. The bus was really packed and we all had to squeeze in the back just to all fit in. After about 30 minutes of having to stand in the back of the bus, we finally arrived at the hotel. There was another Contiki group here whom we would be partying with. They were already decked out in their togas and having a good time when we showed up. We walked in and rented our sheets for 2 euros. Not having any idea how to put together a toga, I had one of the staff wrap mine around me and put it all together. Since we had no pockets, we also had to purchase chips in order to buy drinks with. The rest of the evening was spent on the dance floor hanging out with everyone and getting to know the other Contiki group. Not really in the mood to party, I decided to call it an early night. I saw Sandra and the Taiwanese girls getting ready to leave so I decided to join them. Big Dave also left with us when he saw us leave. We were only there 2 hours and it seemed like it was going to be a fun and long night. I was just exhausted by being in the sun all day and from the entire trip. Big Dave and myself caught a taxi back to our hotel. What is it with Greek taxi drivers? They seem to have no problem going 90mph through curvy and residential streets. I kept my eyes shut for most of the drive back hoping we would just arrive in one piece. Before going to bed, I made sure to pay my hotel tab which ended up being around 80 euros! At around 3am, I was awaken by Patrick knocking on my door. I completely forgot that he had wanted to sleep in my room tonight. I let him in and we both just crashed.

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