This was a leisure day culminating in a farewell dinner. Some went into town, some hired a car and revisited their favourite spots and a large contingent chose a swim in a sheltered cove in Nisaki followed by a seafood lunch in the wonderfully located Mistos taverna with the sea on one side and the cove on the other. Large quantities of oysters, prawns, mussels, baby octopus, sardines and anchovies were consumed, mostly with a fairly acceptable rose on this occasion.
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| Nissaki Beach from Mitsos Taverna |
For the finale our host Saki put on a barbecue spread which featured an extensive range of Greek entrees but introduced the evening with some traditional drinking of ouzo. This was basically a form of skolling with the small glasses held by the little finger on the bottom and the thumb on the top all to the tune of a ‘yaaamaaass’ each time we downed a glass. With daughter Sarah he then gave us an exhibition of barefoot Greek dancing on the lawn which soon had everyone joining in.
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| Saki and Sarah - barefoot Greek dancers extraordinaire! |
During the course of the evening we had a limerick competition which had to feature the Greek surname of Papadopoulos. The prize of a “Rolex” watch was taken out with a recital by Anthony but the word is that it was actually penned by Frances. Frances took out the Greek quiz prize which was another watch so there can be no excuse for the Macdonnells running out of time.
Dick then announced a number of awards that covered every group member or couple. The awards were across a wide range of subjects involving either unsavoury incidents or bad habits that took place during the tour, examples being: The Avoirdupois Award, The Greek God Award, The Greg Lougainis Award, The Cheapest Drunk Award, The Accident waiting to happen Award, The Ouzo Drinking Award, The Ageing Playboy Award and The Repartee Award. During the course of this segment we were reminded of many things that caused a laugh such as the irreverent comment about one of the candidates for The Avoirdupois Award as he announced a dive off the bow of the boat on our beach barbecue day, “Greece is about to have its first ever tsunami.”
Several of the girls - Cinders, Glen, Marli and Margaret - put on a skit which showed off both their singing and composing skills which was greeted with much acclaim:
The Girls' Song
On my first day in Greece
My tour guide showed to me
A passage of Greek mythology
On my second day in Greece
My tour guide showed to me
2 divas diving
And a passage of Greek mythology
On my third day in Greece
My tour guide showed to me
3 great guides
2 divas diving
And a passage of Geek mythology
(carry on as above, adding the extra line, as follows:)
4 ancient ruins
5000 steps
6 Zorbas dancing
7 swimmers shivering
8 bellies bulging
9 buses weaving
10 tootsies teatering
11 elbows lifting
12 gods a-greeting
.....(and finish with).......And a passage of Greek mythology
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| Mr 'New York' and his long suffering wife of forty years! |
The highlight of the evening was the cutting of a large cake we bought for Doug and Judy Corder who were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. Gordon proposed the toast which was quite appropriate because he and Sue had had their honeymoon on Corfu ‘a couple of years before’. After that we had the “For they are jolly good fellows” bit and Doug’s response which we think featured a couple of “porkies”.
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| And it was delicious too! |
With some having to get taxies to the airport at 4-30am the next morning it was goodnight and goodbye with the Grecian Yearn finally satisfied.
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| Some of the group leaving at a slightly more reasonable hour of the morning. |
We are confident that it won’t be the last time that some of us will come to Greece and Corfu and that Saki will see some of us again at the very relaxing and wonderfully located Panorama Hideaway in Dassia. Thank you Saki.
The abiding memory of Corfu is summed up in one of the limerick entries:
There was an Old Man of Corfu,
Who never knew what he should do;
He checked out the ouzo and got on the boozo
Which may well be an idea for you! (thanks to Dick!)
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| The intrepid threesome working hard - as always! |
In conclusion, Jane, Dick and Jan would like to say that we had a marvellous time and we hope that all members of our group did too and we would like to thank them one and all for making the tour such a great experience (for us at least!). The agents we had in Athens (Kiki from Dolphin Ellas), Parga (Christos from Ephira Travel) and Corfu (Iota from Ilios Travel) were fantastically helpful, always there to lend a hand and ensure that we got to wherever we were supposed to go. The guides we had – Alexandra in Athens, Penny in Delphi and Sophia in Corfu were also extremely personable and knowledgeable. The drivers Sissis, Kosta (from Athens) and Kosta (in Corfu) were amazing – we were sure at times that their coaches had elastic sides because at times they had to breath in to get through alley ways, with cars, bikes etc parked in very inconvenient places – and they hardly ever swore!
So as the Greeks say – sto chrono (to next year) – we hope that members from this group and that new friends (or as Cinders said – new best friends) will join us again on another of our adventures next year or sometime in the future, so keep tuned to this blog which will advise what is planned. Efharisto once again!
If you want to see what Jane, Jeanie and Jan got up to after Dick left and have a preview of some of the places that will be in our tour for 2012 - have a look at
www.carpediemgreece.blogspot.com
The 2013 tour is now in place, so have a look at the programme and a few pictures at www.agrecianyearn2013.blogspot.com . Hope you can join us - as you can see we had a ball in 2011!
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