Dave and I took a year out after finishing sixth form. Some people go abroad to build schools and water wells. I'd like to say all the months we spent planning our trip was also for the good of mankind, but I'm afraid we were just looking for a good place to go on the piss.
After spending my entire time in Ibiza with a camera stuck to my face I made a conscious decision not to take one with me to Corfu. This freed up both arms facilitating the holding of twice as many beverages as would otherwise have been possible, but unfortunately means there are very few photos from our trip. The following is some of what I remember....
The plan was to go abroad for the summer and find work in a bar. We decided to go to Corfu because the Greeks were apparently very friendly and spoke English well, and Corfu seemed to have the highest concentration of bars and clubs of any of the Greek Islands. So 20th May 1997, Dave and I met up at Digbeth coach station and set off. We arrived at Corfu airport at about 4am in the morning in pitch darkness. Once all the other people from the flight had dispersed into their various taxis and coach transfers it was just Dave and I left standing on the tarmac. With no idea where we were going, staying or sleeping I stuck my finger in the air and we set off in the direction the wind was going. Seemed as good a plan as any. Before too long a taxi pulled up and we got in.
We drove down the east coast towards Kavos, the sun was coming up over the sea and it was our first look at the island, it was a magnificent view and prompted my first "bugger - should have brought a camera". It took most of the half hour drive down to Kavos just to get our driver to understand that we hadn't actually got anywhere to stay. He eventually dropped us off at a small bungalow apartment and motioned us inside. We weren't entirely sure he'd understood our situation, and we didn't really understand most of what anyone was saying to us. Before coming out here we'd toyed with the idea of living in a tent on the beach, this apartment if it was indeed intended for us to stay in seemed a somewhat more attractive proposition.
We unpacked and headed out to find out where we were. Fortunately in my suitcase I'd packed a small emergency disposable camera, unfortunately it was bright purple and had pictures of My Little Pony all over it. I'd won it in a Boots photo competition, needless to say I didn't consider it a style accessory and so it stayed in the gaff for the majority of the time. Down at the beach we met the first locals, Big Bollox and Well Hung, a couple of stray dogs. Don't think I need to go into any details as to how they got their names. We walked around Kavos and were amazed at how deserted it was. After a few nights we realised this was because most of the town had only just gone to bed.
