Jan 15, 2025

Comedian Justine Stafford on downing shots of olive oil in Greece

High Road, Low Road is a travel show that sees two familiar faces fly to a surprise location - with a twist. While one enjoys first-class luxury, the other explores the destination on a tight budget.

This year's series includes a flurry of famous faces including Neil Delamere, Mary Black, Donal Skehan, and Brian Dowling. Ahead of her episode going to air in the coming weeks, we caught up with comedian Justine Stafford to discuss her trip to Greece with Quizmaster Darrah Ennis.

"When I took the results out of the envelope, I said I wouldn't even try to pronounce it,"Justine tells me of her surprise trip to Thessaloniki.

"I did not want that on national television! As it turns out, Darragh couldn't pronounce it correctly either. They literally had to get a follow up recording of us saying the name," she laughs.

"I felt better about not being able to pronounce it because Darragh couldn't either," she adds. "He is like a walking Wikipedia page, which is really helpful to have in Greece with all its history. I was just there for the craic."

"I bring the craic, he brings the facts," she quips. "It was a nice combo that way."

The comedian was flown to the tricky-to-say, but delightful-to-visit city of Thessaloniki to explore rich history, pirate ships, bee farms, paddleboards and tandem bikes.

Whether she got the high road or low road is yet to be revealed, but she did enjoy the experience of being flown to an undisclosed location.

"The taxi man was asking where I was off to and I was like, 'I couldn't tell you'," she smiles. "Then I remember in the airport a man came up to us and said, 'sorry, I don't know who either of you are, but are you on High Road, Low Road because I love that show'."

Although the No Worries If Not! star stayed mum on her luxury or budget status during the trip, she did manage to share some sage advice from her travels: don't drink olive oil.

"I'll tell you one thing not to do," she cringes. "I did an olive oil tasting tour. which was literally sipping back shots - and they're not the kind of shots I'd be used to. The person doing the tour nearly choked on the first one and I thought, 'this isn't very reasurring'.

Though the memory of trying to swallow gulps of oil isn't cherished, the Meath woman insists the three days of filming had plenty of high points.

"It was eye opening as to how much you can actually fit into holiday," the stand-up says. "I never would really think of going to Greece, but it was gorgeous. We went in October and the weather was 26-27 degrees, it was absolutely stunning. The people there were so wonderful. All the tour guides had so much information - as well as Darragh."