Vassiliki Part I

'Your flight number as been changed, but everything is fine.. there is nothing to worry about.' Oh how wrong that check-in girl was! 7 hours later I was still at Manchester Terminal 1 waiting to board my flight to Prevaza. My flight out couldn't have been more stressful, as I sat waiting in Manchester knowing that my taxi man at the other end would be grinning from ear to ear getting 5 hours worth of my money for doing sweet F A! However in the end I got to Vassiliki and met Barnsey.. the flying fish lead person thingymajig, and holy shit he had the craziest facial hair ever! During the stages of mitosis he must have fallen somewhere into the gray area of not quite human and not quite goat either, but he was 'super' friendly and all in all a good chap.

Greece's weather was in direct opposite to NW England. In the morning, when I got up at 3 am, it was a mixture of sleet, driving rain and misery, but by 8 o clock, despite my journey from HELL, I was relaxing with my new 'fishy' friends with a pint of Mythos (local and cheap lager) as the sun set in board shorts and a t-shirt. In complete contrast to the last 7 years of education, surrounded by particularly exuberant males (some of whom may have been a little too touchy-feely ... no names, Melvin) there was only girls on my course :) And although everyone else had already been there for either 6 or 4 weeks, once I finally could remember everyone's names, everything was lovely and dandy.

On the first day of the course we had Eric kick in. Eric is some crazy wind shizzle that goes cross-shore early afternoon at literally the perfect strength for blasting. It was so good to get planning on the Laser Ones, but I did ruin my hands. Gota remember gloves next time! But despite the blood on my fingers I left the water with a massive grin on my face. The wind was consistent, very little movement .. just like back home at work on Ullswater ... hmm wait a second?!

On Wednesday we went on a day-sail. Pretty cool really, as we just chilled sun bathing on the boats, then on the beech, then back to Club Vass. Went for some very very chilled beers in the evening and ended up cooking some of the randomest concoctions of food ever seen. Working on a budget never allows the extravagant over keen prawn starters like I do at home! ...Well I've done it at least once. Our instructor, Captain Hew, was awesome at singing and playing the guitar. Either that or we were hugely pissed as it was Ally's birthday. Sung 'Crazy Moose' until we had no voices left and then went to Zeus Bar .. the Vassiliki version of Toast really, but less scummy and much more lenient when you dance on their tables and bar!

                                                                         

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we did 'fitness' ie either mountain biking or basketball. I went for the biking option with Lucinda, Becky, Max and Susie. The first ride was a gentle cruise up to a small, very rustic Greek village through vine yards and past barking dogs, whilst the second ride was up to the infamous Two Towers (not the L of the R ones though I was in Lefkas not Mordor). It was a steep climb up, but the views from the top mmm mmm! Downhill rattled me to death but my bike (No 9) just seemed to swallow up any obstacles so I didn't die, which I guess was a bonus. The sailing on these days was OKish but the wind wasn't anywhere near as good as the first Monday. Tried some windsurfing as well, ended up very internally damp but having mastered the 'Becky Roll' chuffed that I had mastered a grade A-star plus windsurf move!