My first trip to Greece was in October 1995, I was 18 years old and fresh out of college. I had always a desire to travel, and many of my childhood memories involve looking through travel brochures and filling out the forms at the rear of the brochure with fake names, little did I know that this obsession would lead to a long career within the travel industry.
I left college and had no real desire to go to university at the time, so with my parents on my back, I went out and got a job. I applied for a YT scheme at Lunn Poly, and out of around 400 applicants, I was one of ten lucky trainees who were offered a job.
I joined the Travel Agency in July 1995, and by October, I was offered the chance to take a Thomson travel concession to anywhere I wanted up to a budget of around £300 per person. October is probably not the best month to travel to the Ionian islands, but I had always wanted to experience Greece. I had been to Spain and Portugal, and wanted to try something further afield. I was warned not to go to Zante (Zakynthos) because of the weather and it being the end of the season, but I never listen to anyone, so I booked the holiday and departed from Birmingham on the last flight of the season, infact the numbers were so low on the flight, we picked up some people from Manchester airport on the way out.
My peers were right, it was wet, cold and damp, and that was just the apartment, but it did not change my fascination for this strange country. The writing, the language, the conversational shouting and the food were just for starters, and this is where my love affair with Greece began.
I would love to know about your first time to Greece - so please, leave a comment on the page to tell me where you went and a memory from the trip!
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