day 6:

imagine, if you will, waking up to this:

this is a sunrise in greece. does it get any better?

unlike the grand adventure of santorini, we had an easy day in corfu, greece, a rather large island just west of the mainland. our excursion was a simple beach package. we boarded a bus to a resort. the interior of the hotel was vastly superior to its exterior, we were a bit concerned when we first pulled up. it almost looks like a dump on the outside. we were led through the hotel to the back, past the pool, and down a path surrounded by lush green grass, trees, and flowers to a long stretch of beach. the sun hung behind the clouds, allowing the chilly wind to keep us a little cool. and so we relaxed and enjoyed both the view and the relative peace.

we were given single drink tickets, so that we could enjoy a soda on the beach. any further food and drink were available for a nominal fee.

i, for one, have no problem shutting down.

and, for a while, nicki did her best to comply.

there wasn’t much to do except for shooting random pictures.

after a couple of hours, we wandered around, ate a little lunch of gyros (she fed the local birds in the process), and generally explored.

there were a number of locals sunbathing topless there. unfortunately for me, all but one of them were old and droopy. i caught one picture of an older topless women from rather far away, because i didn’t want to be the creepy guy taking everyone’s picture. so this is my clandestine effort. you may not be able to see her all that well, and she’s half-obscured by a tree, but here she is, bringing the movie-rating of this blog up to pg-13:

yeehaw, that’s hot stuff!

anyway, as the afternoon dragged on, nicki discovered the two dogs that seemed to be there randomly. this is doggy #1:

doggy #1was a bit like chloe, in that he didn’t like when doggy #2 came along for attention. he growled and went on his way.

doggy #2 was much friendlier, and had no problem being petted. doggy #2 was also a bit smellier. nicki obliged nevertheless, petting the dog every which way.

suddenly, it looked over in one direction, pissed at something, and ran away, barking at some phantom.

then it stopped again and hung out on its own, scratching himself.

upon my request, nicki washed her hands.

we returned to our beach chairs and spent the rest of our time at the resort lounging around. there was a young girl, perhaps seven years old, running around topless. she had no breasts yet. even her sister went topless, who was perhaps eleven and had only the beginning mosquito-bites of breasts. neither of us considered this to be acceptable. i mean, adult breasts are fantastic, but i don’t want to think about little girls’ chests. y’know? well, nicki captured a picture of this, but we didn’t bother uploading it. it’d probably break some kind of law. all you see is her back, anyway. what’s weirder, to me, is that she’s wearing a thong. going topless is one thing. but a child’s thong bathing suit? that’s an overtly sexual piece of clothing, isn’t it? i don’t think it’s a choice i’d make for my daughter at that age. i mean, i’m all for breaking nudity taboos, but for consenting adults, not for children. however, those europeans are rather loose on these things, eh?

anyway, our time was up, so we took the bus back to the downtown area of the port. we explored, we shopped, we got lost, we took some pictures, it was nice. we’d return to corfu, for certain. there was so much we didn’t get the chance to explore. i could see doing a couple of days there, too.

back on board, that night was the midnight buffet. i had a bit too much to drink and wasn’t feeling well, so i went off to bed. nicki went with ken and josh to take some pictures of the buffet.

day 7:

this was it. the final day of the cruise. it was an at sea day, sailing slowly back to venice. soon, we’d be back to speaking italian, back to calling the city venezia, back to using the international electric plug adapters.

we attended a lecture with the captain about the ship with wayne and candace. after the lecture and the Q&A, he invited us to the bridge. we’d heard about it the night before from one of the entertainment directors.

there was a group of about 20 of us on the bridge. as he showed people the various machines, we just hung around and did our own thing.

even captains need to eat:

the view from the bridge:

it was a bit rainy that day, which was all right with us. wayne and i thought we were sly, taking pictures of us ‘driving’ the ship. the girls just rolled their eyes when we showed our dorky pics.

we weren’t there for more than ten minutes, really. the crowd mobbed the captain, asking him inane questions. we bailed out early, but not before snapping another few pics.

the captain:

nicki punched me in the arm for taking this picture:

the rest of the day, we just kinda hung around.

nicki competed and lost in a karaoke tournament. monday night, nicki and josh sang a duet of mony, mony. wednesday night, they performed solo numbers to a dead crowd that turned out to be the qualifying round for the friday night tournament. josh sang “i’m so excited”, and nicki sang, of course, “like a prayer”. video exists of this, perhaps soon it’ll see the light of day. they both did it just for a laugh. at no point did nicki expect to make it to the finals, but you should’ve seen her face light up in shock when her name was called that night.

fast forward to friday night, and nicki performed “material girl”. she felt “like a prayer” was way too long. she smoked the competition up to that point (in my humble opinion), but then the last singer could actually sing. “she’s the person in the karaoke bar that everyone hates,” nicki later said. “there’s always one talented singer that comes in and ruins everything. it’s doubly bad cos she’s pretty.”

alas, the judges gave it away to the girl in the white dress. i forget what song she sang. it was an eagles song, i think.

as far as i’m concerned, nicki was robbed. that’s not the point of karaoke, to actually be good. you’re supposed to be really good at sucking. oh well. nicki was nervous, but put on a good show nonetheless. it was all for fun, anyway. the prize wasn’t that interesting, as it turns out. a bottle of champagne. i mean, that’s nice, but we managed fine without it. we were drinking that ouzo anyway! we had a grand old time, win or lose.

we went to bed late, said goodbye to everyone, and woke up early to depart. the ship was in at 5:00am saturday morning. we were off the boat by 7:00 or so, if i recall correctly.

this time, for once, we didn’t leave anything of value behind. we learned our lesson!

next: the final post about the honeymoon, as we take you to the beautiful, romantic city of venice for our final weekend. and no, we didn’t ride on a gondola.