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Coreyoria World Tour

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”

It's all Greek to me.

Get ready for the longest post I've ever made. Deep breath. Now go!

Grecians are crazy ... and I love them. I just spent 3 of the most amazing days on the Greek island of Corfu. I have so much to share and I don't know where to begin. I have seen scenery that I never imagined I'd see in my life. Definitely the most beautiful country I have ever been to. I'm going to try to post some pictures when I get back here to Athens in 4 days, but I'm not making any promises. Meanwhile, thanks for all of the emails, everybody! Continue to send them - I love hearing from you all!

That first night was the craziest toga-party I have ever attended. Okay, so it was the only toga party I've ever attened. But the Greeks know how to party and party hard we did. :-)

So let me begin with the second day in Corfu, since the first was mostly traveling and exhaustion. I rented a car to drive around the island with 3 others from my tour: Cassie, Mary, & Craig. We got a little, red, open-topped 4-wheel drive Suzuki and we named her Suzi. Traveling north from Corfu, we drove to the beaches of Sidari, where the rocks jut out above the water and you can jump into the crystal clear Adriatic Sea. We swam under a cave and when we emerged at the other side there were mountains stretching across the horizon, contrasting with the bright turquoise water. Absolutely breath-taking.

From there, we went back out on the roads to battle the crazy Greek drivers, and took the more rural winding roads along the Western coast of Corfu to the beach at Agios Georgios. We had the wind blowing in our hair and the sun was shining - not a cloud in the sky! The second beach was just as beautiful as the first and we took another dip in the ocean before continuing on.

We got out of the car in some of the smaller towns and wandered around the shops and met some locals. One lady stopped our car to give us directions when we got a little lost, but she then proceeded to give us a sales pitch for family-made honey, olive oil, or wine. She was a real Greek mama. Well her kindness worked on us and Craig bought a $2 bottle of delicious red wine from a country town in Corfu. Something I forgot to mention, the roads have no names or signs in Corfu ... you just have to look at the signs that tell you which direction you're heading in and pray for the best. It made things interesting to say the least, but Craig's an automechanic so he was an ace at driving and I sat beside him in the front seat, doing my best to help him navigate. When you're in Greece, you're in a hotbed of chaos, but all of the people are completely relaxed. No one is ever on time and things don't run smoothly. You just have to adapt the same attitude they have. So if you're standing at the counter for an hour waiting to be served, it doesn't mean they have not seen you, it simply means you'll get served when it works for them. After being here for a few days, I certianly know where the phrase, "It's all Greek to me," hails from.

Our last stop of the day was Pelekas Kinopiastes, a beach surrounded by caves. But we didn't get out there because we still had a trip to get back to our hotel by 7. We left at 10 in the morning by the way, so we had a loooong day. But it was a great way to get a feel for the culture that most tourists don't ever have the opportunity to truly experience.

Then, yesterday, which was our last day on the island of Corfu, I had the most amazing experience. We were blessed with another gorgeous, clear, bright blue sky and and the sun was at it's finest. We woke up bright and early and headed to the port to jumpaboard George's Boat, where we went on a special all-day boat ride around the southern part of the island.

After a beautiful cruise and a history lesson interspersed with some of perverted Geroge's jokes (he was a real character and had us cracking up the entire time), we reached our first stop where we had the chance to partake in virtually any watersport you can imagine. So I took advantge of this!

First thing off, I took to the skies and went parasailing with my buddy Steve. After harnessing up, attaching ourselves to the boat via rope - the boat started and we ran and then all of a sudden we were flying high above the islands ... looking over the mountains and horizon in every direction. The water below was clear as could be and we could see all the way down to the coral reefs below. There was a warm breeze and I just let go and flew throw the air. I'll never forget it. After that I went tubing with 3 others in these triangular tubes called Mambos that are designed to give you a bumpy ride and get lots of air. It was bumpy all right and the whole time I couldn't stop laughing hysterical. What a workout! But even more of a workout was this ride that they call "fly-fishing" even though it actually has nothing to do with real fishing. Basically you sit on this flat raft that has 3 bumps across it and each person sits on the own bump. Then you hold on for dear life with all of the strength you can muster up as the boat starts and the raft goes over bumps, turning vertical, and flying into the air. Boy am I sore today. You have nooooo idea how sore I am today. I'm still glad I did it all though. I wouldn't take it back for the world.

Our second stop was right off the coast, in more crystal waters. We dove right off the boat and into the ocean. The water was so salty that you could float standing straight up, without treading water. From where we were, we could see Albania in the distance and we just splashed around, some people snorkeled, and all had fun. Then more beautiful cruising until we came to our last spot, which curious George deemed "Hanky Panky Island." Well a group of us girls swam pretty far away from the ship and then we all skinny-dipped in the Adriatic Sea. No boys were allowed. And now I can say that I flashed Greece (and a couple of passing boats, which made for overall hilarity and a bunch of giggling girls).

The boat ride in and of itself was a wonderful experience. I've never done anything quite like it and I really felt like I was on vacation at that point. Geroge kept us busy with his antics, at one point making everyone group up according to nationality and making us sing our national anthems. They played this old Yankee-doodle dandy version of the star-spangled banner, which left us 3 Americans sounding like downright fools, but it was enjoyable anyway! I got some spectacular pictures and I'll cherish these memories forever. I've been blown away by Greece. I think I'd be hard-pressed to find somewhere more spectacular. And I'm getting along great with all the kids from my tour. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I was really lucky to get this tour group. I've seen the other groups and every time, I'm thankful for the (mostly) normal bunch I landed with. No party-poopers aboard. I'm experiencing new cultures with these people, and we're growing into a big family.

And lastly, last night we went to a traditional Greek dinner nearby and it featured traditional Greek dancing. The men were wearing tights and skirts, and throwing plates. One man even stood in a ring of fire and lifted a table with his teeth. Wow. We all had the chance to get up and take part in the dancing, which we all readily did and everyone clapped along the entire 4 hours that our dinner lasted! This was after a whole day out in the sun filled with all those activities aforementioned. The highlight of the night for me was the "potato-dance." Let me explain. You and your partner must hold a potato between your forheads while following the orders given by the lady orchestrating the whole thing. My partner, Clint, is a lot taller than me which made things interesting, but he's a hilarious guy and we ended up doing really well. We managed to make it pretty far, spinning around, getting to our knees, sitting on the floor, and laying on our sides - all while keep the potato pressed between our heads. But we dropped it when we went to get up. At that time there were only about 10 potato-dancing couples left out on the floor. So I was pretty proud to place tenth. It was the funniest thing ever. I nearly went cross-eyed and was dying from laughter. At the clubs we've been to, Clint is the craziest dancer and we always pretend to ballroom dance when the music is the most inappropriate for doing such. He even dragged me up on stage to ballroom dance in Barcelona to Spanish techno. Don't worry, there's video footage that I'll try to obtain as soon as I get home. Good clean fun of course, just good clean fun.

After that, as you can imagine, I was wiped out. And we had to leave Corfu at 6:45 this morning to catch the ferry to the mainland of Hellas (Greece). Needless to say, I slept through the whole ride. Then we drove all day to make it to Athens, and I slept most of the bus-ride as well. On our way to Athens, we saw the Corinth canal, that was dug in 3,000 BC and it was truly unbelievable. Everytime I see these things that were constructed or dug so long ago, I can't imagine how they were able to create things on such an enormous scale without the advances of modern machinery. One guy from our tour bungee-jumped down the canal, which was pretty crazy. Other than that, just more riding on a bumpy bus while trying to catch a few zzz's. Tomorrow morning we leave at 5 am to catch a 6-hour ferry to the island of Mykonos, where's we're staying at a resort for 3 days of pure relaxation and sun-filled fun.

Whew. Well that was a lot of typing, but I had A LOT to say. Thanks for taking the time to sit down and read it! I can't wait to share my pictures and memories when I get back. I seriously wish you all could be here with me. Hope all's well on your side of the world! It's time to get me some dinner!

XOXO,
Cor
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28/8/05 15:52

Is there some way to get the Cliff Notes for this blog entry?    



29/8/05 15:31

You can find them at your local Barnes & Noble. :-D    



2/9/05 23:52

hey you crazy world traveler, i finally got the internet and i've just been catching up on your entire trip. wow. it sounds absolutely amazing. auditions for my show are tomorrow so i'm pretty much freakin out tonight...haha. ah. life back here in the states...oy. i miss you and i can't wait to see you again. matt & i are slightly addicted to the all you can eat sushi and we've found another delicious vegan place. mmk. enough rambling. i love you!    



3/9/05 11:31

Hope your auditions go well! Cheesy quote of the month: "I believe in you." :-) I am madly craving sushi and other forms of vegan goodness ... there shall be no more talk of vegan delights seeing as my main diet is comprised of tomatoes and bread (not exactly well-balanced!). Although, next time I'm in Chi-town, I'd be more than willing to check out a new vegan hotspot. Miss you and hope your year is off to a good start, Cor    



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