Monday, June 26, 2006

Corfu Port

To be honest, downtown Corfu looked a bit of a dump, but apparently the Old Town is the place to go, and the coach didn't drive through this because the roads are too narrow.

We arrived at the port and surrendered our passports and went through immigration and had our pictures taken for our boarding passes.

Next we had to queue again to be allocated a dinner table and then finally we were knabbed by a photographer who made us pose in front of a backdrop of the ship and have our pictures taken. Now, both Pin and I had been travelling for 12 hours by this point and we were both tired, irritable - and not really in the mood for photos!

Day One - Penzance to Corfu

Our holiday began early on the morning of the 16th June. I was to get the bus from St Ives and meet Pin at Penzance Station to catch the 7:47 train. However by 7:04, the 7:05 bus to Penzance still wasn't there so I decided to get the train to St Erth to Rendezvous with the train there instead. As I was walking into the station, I saw the 7:05 bus coming down the hill above the town, late. By then it was too late to go back to get it so I stayed on the train to St Erth. Not that this little setback was an annoyance, rather a pleasure, as the train ride from St Ives goes past some pretty scenic views of the coast.

I caught the train at 7:57 and found Pin at our pre-reserved seats. Now the long wait started. The train wasn't due to get into Bristol till about 12:19, so we had four hours to kill. Talk about cabin fever, even the most disgusting cup of coffee I've had in years (thank's First Great Western) couldn't alleviate the boredom. I did a bit of stitching on Home is Where the Cat is, (until I spotted that I'd made a mistake in an earlier stitching session) and put that away in disgust too.

We arrived at Bristol Temple Meads station and caught the shuttle bus to Bristol Airport, still with over 2 hours to spare until the plane was due to depart. We checked our baggage in, both of us being just under the 20kg limits, and went up to the food court at the top of the airport for food and otherwise liquid refreshment. We were sitting there enjoying a burger king when we were called back to the check-in desk. Oh my god, we both thought, what's wrong now? But it was nothing, they just wanted to change the seats that we'd been allocated. We proceeded through to airport security to the departure lounge.

I was wearing a rather bulky belt buckle on my jeans, when I offered to take it off, the security guy just waved me through and of course it set the bloody alarms off! Next I get frisked by a lady security person, who even thinks I've got something stowed under my hat! Then this other security guy wants to look through my handbag because I've got a camera and a mobile phone and batteries in there. Hey mate, I bet everyone else at this airport has as well - we're off on holiday! Big mistake mate. Do you really want to know how much crap I carry around in my bag? Regular readers of this blog will know that you don't want to go there, but he did - poor sucker. After he'd spent about 10 minutes emptying every single nook, cranny and side pocket he finally said I could put it all back in. Except I left all the unwanted receipts and other rubbish all over his table. Serves him right!

Anyway, without further incident we boarded the plane and departed on time for Corfu. The flight was without incident, except for Pin accidentally chucking her empty half measure sized wine bottle down the cabin aisle! She said she'd never do that to a full one!

After collecting our luggage from the carousel (there's my nice new co-ordinated luggage collection dirty and covered with big black marks already!), we were told to slap stickers on our luggage so it could be sorted at the port and taken straight to our cabins without having to take it on ourselves. Pin and I were allocated cabin 183. We boarded the transfer coach and proceeded through downtown Corfu.

We Board the Emerald

Finally we were allowed to leave the port buildings and walk down to the quayside where the ship was docked.

We took a couple of pictures on the way down to the ship and then after bouncing our way up the gangplank - we were finally on board the Emerald. Our Stewardess met us and showed us down to where our cabin was located. Our luggage hadn't arrived yet, it was still sitting on the dock waiting to be taken aboard by the ship's personnel, so we went up to the Lido Deck, snagged a couple of seats and tried to chill out on deck.

Fashion Faux Paus

We were sitting up in the Balcony seats (or the Royal Seats as the ship's entertainment team called them - we later learned) and looking down at all the new arrivals sitting and having their first meal and drinks on board. We had missed the reception buffet in the dining room by this time, but the Bistro Buffet was still open. As we were sitting there, Pin looked down on the lower deck and noticed that one of the passengers was wearing a shirt that exactly matched the pattern of the table cloths on the Lido Deck. We had a good laugh at him I can tell you, and jokingly suggested that his wife was a very good seamstress and had just whipped it up for him. I don't think he wore that shirt again during the entire cruise.

We got something to eat from the Bistro and after we'd eaten that, returned to the outer deck where the embarkation party was starting in full swing. We walked in on the middle of it and realised that we were getting in the way of the crew members who were all lining up to be introduced to the passengers, so we quickly found a seat. We had a good night, it wasn't long until we were up there dancing and the first night ended with a conga going around the deck and through the restaurant.

Day Two - Cruising in Style

After 12 hour journey of the day before, we really needed the second day as a quiet day to chill out and also explore the ship. We went and had breakfast in the posh Chanterelle Dining Room, but having waiter service at breakfast and being seated properly every morning was a bit OTT, so after that first day we just grabbed what we wanted from the Bistro Breakfast Buffet on the Lido Deck (or Canteen - as Faye later called it).

After breakfast we went and found a couple of sunbeds on the deck and waited around until 10:30 for the Lifeboat Drill, which was mandatory for everyone to attend.

Greece Floats Past....

After the meeting, we went back into the Bistro Dining Hall and had lunch before finding another couple of sunbeds up on the deck to laze away the afternoon and watch the coast of Greece drift past. I got my Greece Lonely Planet Guide out and looked at the map and tried to figure out exactly where we were. In the end I took the book and marched around the ship trying to find a member of the crew who could tell me, the first person I stopped was a waiter, but predictably, he didn't have a clue.

In the end I walked up to the end of the ship and still didn't meet someone in a crew uniform, so I went inside deck 9 (I really wish the ship had one additional floor, because the front top section of the ship was called "Deck 9 - Forward" and this was the only place that topless sunbathing was allowed - wish it was Deck 10 - Forward - trekkies reading this will probably realise why!! lol), and down the stairs and bumped into some guy wearing a Thomson uniform and asked him. He said "who'd you think I am, the Captain"? but he did indicate a general area on the map and said he thought that we were probably around there. I learned later that this guy was actually the Thomson Cruise Director - I do half pick them, don't I?

There was a quiz in the afternoon hosted by the onboard entertainment team who were really good and entertaining. The guy doing the quiz this afternoon was this Thomson Rep called "Kane" who was a loud mouth comic from Blackpool, he always had the audience eating out of his hand. Me and Pin both attempted the quiz as a distraction from sunbathing, and then I noticed a distinctive Island on the horizon with a lighthouse on a peninsular. I checked the map and worked out that this must be Zakynthos and so I finally worked out exactly where we were.


The Swimming Pool on the Lido Deck. They covered this up of an evening when there was entertainment out on deck.

The ship hardly moved at all those first few days, whenever I've travelled on a boat before you can tell you are on board even when tied up at the quay, but the Emerald's 26,000 tonnes didn't move at all. Even at sea, there was no detectable motion. In fact it was only on the fourth and fifth days that we noticed the ship swaying slightly, and that was because the sea was a little rough, whipped up by winds with whitetops on the waves.


The Lifeboat Drill

At 10:30 they called the whole ship together with their life jackets to the Muster Stations for the obligatory lifeboat drill. Yes everyone had to stand around for about 20 minutes dressed like prats in orange polystyrene filled jackets.


Pin was the first to find her whistle, and soon everyone was blowing theirs too until they told us off and told us to stop blowing them. We had to stand there and wait for the captain to walk past and inspect everyone.

After the drill, we went into the Regency Showroom for the welcome meeting and port showcase where we met the Destination Services Team and learned about the excursions that we could book for our various ports of call. Pin and I had already decided in advance to do the Athens trip, but Pin had second thoughts about accompanying me up the volcano on Santorini - so she booked a trip to Oia village instead which involved a visit to a winery.

Captain's Cocktail Hour

We left our sunbathing positions and went back to our cabins at about 4:30 to get changed for the Captain's Formal Dinner. We were supposed to assemble in the Regency Showroom for pre-dinner cocktails at 5:30, but when we got there we had to queue for what seemed like forever to have our photos taken, first next to some fake trees, then standing in front of a backdrop of the Titanic staircase and then once again with the Captain.



The Titanic picture turned out great, but I'm not too sure about this one - I look as if I'm pregnant with the Captain's baby! lol (I could of course lie and say that this picture was taken at the end of the cruise and I'd piled on a few pounds by then, but the truth is this was only the second day on board and I was wearing Bridget Jones stomach-holding-in-pants too. Whoops!

As Pin lapped up the Champagne, I stuck to fruit punch cocktails and I was glad to see that another lady had the same reaction as me when she tried the cavier hors d'oeuvres that the waiters were serving from silver trays (I can't stand the stuff).

The Captain came on stage (I don't know why, but he reminds me of a Greek version of Max Bygraves) and introduced all the rest of the senior crew, when they all came on stage one by one in front of the audience, we were shown through in to the Chanterelle Dining room for dinner.


A' La Carte Dining Indeed

I can't emphasise enough how good the quality of the food was in the Chanterelle Dining room. It was always delicious no matter what I ate. We had three waiters at our table, plus the occasional assistance (and at times hilariouis hindrence) of the Assistant Maitre'Ds. There was a choice of over 5 or 6 main courses every evening together with 3 or four starters, a soup course, a salad course and then deserts and coffee as well. If you wished you could eat five courses every single night. In fact, they offered the same sort of dining experience at lunchtimes as well, but really enough was enough! Pin got talking to a couple who said that they'd been on a cruise once, but had not come back for five years because of all the weight her husband had put on!

Below are some pictures of our waiters. Pictured in the first one are also Faye and Shirl from Wales who were regulars at our table almost every evening.



The only criticism that I can give is that the waiters were usually in a hurry to clear the tables to reset them for the second dinner setting at 8:30, and as I'm a very slow eater and we had six gossiping women on our table who never arrived on time we were usually one of the last tables to leave the restaurant. Of course, having the head waiters come chat to us and entertain us probably didn't help us in leaving the dining room on time - but it was up to them if they wanted us out early!

Our other dining companions:


From left to right: Phil and his father Roger from Warsaw, Pin, Me, Noreen and Pearl - two Medical Secretaries from Cardiff. When we sat down, Phil and his dad couldn't believe their luck being seated at a table with six unaccompanied women!


The No Shoe Blues

After the Formal Night's dining experience, we went down into one of the cocktail lounges with a couple of ladies from our table. The Entertainment team put on a quiz game (I was even asked to participate but I didn't want to show myself up on stage). This went on a bit long, and we were relieved when it finished and one of the on board groups "Juice" started playing a set.

The lead singer was a little blonde girl named Ellie from Scotland, and she certainly had a good voice. She was accompanied by a black guy from New York called "J" who played keyboards and sang, a bass player from Holland named Tommy Lee, and a guy from Yorkshire on the drums (can't remember his name).

They started playing a load of blues music, and Pin was really into this. I sat back down at this point, watching Pin jumping around doing this funky dance. She was really jumping up and down and on high heels too. One of the Thomson reps was at our table talking to Faye, she leaned over to me and said, "how much has she had to drink?", I said, "too many to count! I'm a bit worried about those shoes though".

And no sooner did I say that that I looked up and Pin was standing on the dance floor holding one of her black sandles in one hand, and the heel that had just broken off and skidded across the dancefloor in the other. I just completely lost it then in the advanced stages of cracked up laugher. I was rolling around on the sofa in tears of laughter for over 10 minutes. Pin finally sat back down and joined me.

"J" the singer noticed that she had stopped dancing and encouraged her to come back on the dance floor. Pin sat there and held her shoes up to show him what had happened to them. He said "Why are you not dancing, you love the Blues!". Pin said, "yes I love the blues, but I've got no shoes!!". She then asked, "is there a cobbler on board?". The black singer said "I could say something to that but I won't".

So then the singer started up an improptu song, "The No-Shoes Blues", made up on the spot just for Pin, about the lady in the black dress who loved the blues but had no shoes. It was sooooooo funny.

Going....
Going.....
Gone!

Undeterred, Pin shrugged them off and carried on dancing!

On the way back to our cabin we bumped into Dimitrius one of our playful Greek waiters in the corridor, we were both really drunk at this point and still laughing our assess off about the shoe incident. Pin showed him what happened, and he suggested taking the shoes to Reception and asking if the Ship's Carpenter would fix them for her. So that's what she did. When we finally got back to the cabin and got into bed, we still couldn't sleep, we were laying there in the dark still giggling about what happened for what seemed like an hour afterwards.For the rest of the holiday I couldn't top that. Half of the cruise ship had seen what went on that evening. The very next morning at breakfast, the guy on the next table asked Pin "Where do you get all your energy from?".


Day Three - Athens

We arrived at the port of Pireaus early in the morning, and were were awakened about 6:30 by the sound of the ship's engines as it maneouvered into port. Our wake up call went off about then and we rose to get ready and have breakfast so that we could leave the ship to board the coach at the port to go on an excursion to the site of the Acropolis in Athens.

Pin at the port:


The Acropolis

This was the view of the Acropolis from the coach park at the bottom of the hill. We started climbing up the steps to the top, stepping over this sleeping smelly old dog:


Modern Distractions

I caught our Guide on her mobile phone which interrupted her talk at the Parthenon. It was a genuine call though, it was Thomson's calling about a missing tourist who'd got on the wrong coach.

The iron rods at the front of the Parthenon are going to need replacing as well. I hope they don't ruin it when they take them out.

Ancient Temples

Arriving at the top of the steps our guide bought everyone tickets to go into the Acropolis proper. This was the view of the city that I took while we were waiting to go in:


Down in the valley amonst the trees you can see the Temple of Hephaistos. There are ancient ruins and temples all throughout the centre of Athens.

Excuse the scaffolding - it was everywhere throughout the ancient site. Apparently they are replacing a lot of the supports because they were sheared up at the turn of last century with Iron rods and these are now causing the marble columns to decay. This is the Propylaia, the ancient gatehouse at the front of the Acropolis. In ancient times, this structure contained great doors which defended the temples inside from invaders.


This was the Temple of Athena Nike to the left of the main gate. From here we proceeded through the gatehouse and over some uneven ground with Marble patches (that was very slippery) to behold the Parthenon (the largest temple there) itself.


Our guide, calling the party together in front of the Parthenon for a talk. Looks a bit disturbingly like "Hail Hitler", doesn't it?

The top of the Parthenon.

The Parthenon Cat - they get everywhere, don't they?


Fight! at the Parthenon


It's a very sad thing, but some people don't really deserve to go on holiday, let alone traverse the ancient wonders of the world. Why? They bring their behaviour with them.

Whilst our guide was telling us about the history of the Parthenon and pointing out parts of it's design, a scuffle broke out in the crowd at the back our excursion party, the first we knew was shouts of "You pushed me", "You pushed my wife". They nearly came to blows. Children please.

The photo above depicts the three participants. The guy in the hat and the lady in the loud shirt were an American couple from our cruise ship. The twat in the T-shirt took real exception to being shoved. (I actually think that what started it was someone accidentally stumbling on the uneven ground outside the Parthenon, but rather than brush it aside as an accident twat in the T-shirt has to make an issue of it).

The guide interceded with the shouting started and said that everyone else wanted to hear what was going on and they didn't need to be exposed to childish behaviour like that. But Pin was standing closer to the incident than me, and she later overheard T-shirt twat standing behind the American gentlemen and saying "I'm going to make your life hell back on the ship"!!

After the talk, T-shirt guy continued following the American couple around the ancient site and hassling them further. The American lady was telling him to go away when I took that shot, you can probably tell from her body language. He just had this massive chip on his shoulder - the complete ASSHOLE! He did later apologise to everyone when we got back on the coach following a small shopping diversion, but what a complete twat he was to let it get so far in the first place!

I really hope that T-shirt Twat finds this blog entry at some point in the future and feels rightly embarrased by his behaviour.

Obligatory Tourist Shot



An American tourist took this shot of us in front of the Parthenon, we did him the same favour in return.

Temple of Erechtheion

The figures of the lady columns are called the Caryatids.

Theatre of Herod Atticus

Just outside the main site of the Acropolis, underneath it in fact is the Temple of Herod Atticus. This theatre has been recently rebuilt and now accommodates ballets and concerts. The guide said that it seats about 4,000 people.


They were just setting up for a new show the day that we were there. I went outside the Acropolis grounds to get a better look and take this extra photos of the theatre.

The woman at the gate didn't want to let me back in until I managed to find my sweat-soaked Acropolis ticket in the pocket of my shorts. You know when you accidentally wash paper in your jeans pocket and it gets all mangled up? Well my ticket looked like that, but I got let back in on it anyway. Just as well because Pin thought that she had lost me by this time.

Athens Cityscape

Pin with Athens in the background.


You can see Mount Likavitos in the distance with a ruined church on top.

This is the Theatre of Dionysius

The remains of the Temple of Zeus.


Athens City Tour - Olympic Stadium

Where we just were, you can see the Acropolis in the distance. Oh, there's our coach too.


Pin and me in front of the Stadium


The Ancient Olympic Stadium in Athens.


Athens from the Coach

The only part of the excursion that I didn't enjoy was that apart from the 5 minute stop at the Olympic Stadium, we weren't allowed to leave the coach again until it returned to us to the port. We weren't allowed off to stretch our legs or take any pictures of Athens, so sorry for the poor quality of the following pictures which were all taken through the glass.

Orange trees grow along the city streets (spot the camera!)

One of the city guards. These guys are like the guys at Buckingham palace, they aren't allowed to move or do anything. I poked my tongue out at him and he just stared back. I jokingly said to Pin that I could get him to move by flashing him!

More guards outside the Parliament Buildings. We had missed the change of the guards at 11:00.

An excavation right next to one of the city streets.


Hadrian's Arch.


Cow Fixation

While everyone was looking at the guards outside the Parliament buildings, I was looking out the other window of the coach at some strange cow statues that were all over the streets. Our Guide said that they had all been painted up by local artists and that later in the year there was a Parade of Cows.

After that I ignored all the Ancient sites of Athens for the most part and concentrated on cow spotting!

Day Four - Kusadasi (Turkey)

The following day we arrived at the port of Kusadasi on the West cost of Turkey.

Pin and I had both arranged to do different trips that day, we left the boat together, she boarded a coach to do a trip to a turkish village and winery, and I was stuffed aboard a minibus to be driven to a farm where I was going to do a horse safari ride.

Horse Safari

It was an interesting journey from the port through the town and the growing tourist attractions along the shore and up into the hills. I passed two water parks on the way - it definitely seemed as if there was plenty to do in this resort - I'd definitely consider coming back here again.

We arrived at the farm and were seated at a little cafe and served apple tea while we waited for the horses to be saddled up and brought around to us. We wondered if we were in the right place to start with because when we arrived there was a line of quad bikes outside the cafe and we thought we'd all been taken to the wrong place, but it was ok, because the quad bikes left from the same place too. We were given helmets and led around the back to where the horses were. I asked the guy in charge if I could ride on a white one and he did. My horse (I think they were only ponies, they weren't quite big enough to be truly called horses) was called Papetierre. I felt sorry for him with my fat arse stuck on his back because he kept coughing and slipping to the back of the line of horses and I had to keep geeing him up to keep up. Poor thing!


I thought I was going to be quite uncomfortable sitting on the horse, as the last time I had done some horse riding (back in 1999, in Cornwall when Sean and I had come down for the eclipse) I was very sore in the rear end for two days afterwards. But this time I was fine. I think it was because I was relaxed, in fact on the way back I was so relaxed I took to riding just holding on with one hand - go cowgirl go! The scenery that we trekked through was very beautiful, full of hills, trees and fields. There was one very pretty scene as we trekked through a cornfield with poppies in it, I tried taking a picture of this, both on the way there and back, but when I checked the pictures on the camera I'd just shot the sky both times - it's not easy trying to take a steady picture from horseback. I am still very struck by how green and fertile the Turkish countryside is - I imagined it to be very dry and arid, like parts of Spain or Tunisia where I have been before, but it is not like this at all. Despite the intense heat, everything seems to be growing in this Eden-like garden.


As we neared the end of our trek the quad bikes caught us up and overtook us. I thought the horses might get a bit nervous by the engines, but they didn't. The horses were very well behaved, even though we weren't tied together or led, giving us riders the impression that we were actually controlling them ourselves they were so under the control of the horsemasters that it only took a few words of command for them to stop or slip back into line. At one point we even had to walk along the end of a road before we could cross it to reach the beach, the horses didn't flinch at this - I think I was more nervous about crossing the road than my mount. As we approached the beach, the horses seemed to know where they were going because they all speeded up into a trot, like us they were eager to see the sea. We dismounted the horses in the dunes above the beach and went down onto the beach, where one of the horses who had been specially trained was unsaddled and led down into the water.


Our party reached the deserted beach.

We got changed and went into the water with the horse and got on the horse and a guy with a camera took our pictures of us riding the horse in the sea. The horse was trained to rear up and that's when he took his shots, of course that dumped you off into the sea too. The first time I tried to get on the horse (which wasn't the same one that I was riding earlier), with the help of a knee-up from the guy holding the horse I went straight over his back and down into the water on the other side! lol The second attempt worked and the guy with the camera took this amazing picture of me on the horse. If I look like I'm clinging on for dear life - then now you know why!

After drying off on the sand and wishing that I'd brought a towel with me, the quad bikes arrived at the beach and lined up and we all had our picture taken with them too.

After that we got back on our horses for the trek back to the Farm, where a 3-course lunch had been prepared for us. It was soup, followed by a dish of Turkish meatballs, rice, vegetables and chips followed by a bowl of fruit. We knew that the fruit was fresh because we had been picking the same fruit from the overhanging fruit trees as we rode back to the farm. I told you that Turkey is vibrant and growing!

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