From Greece to China

Ni hao,

I write this episode from Bejing airport where I sit in transit waiting for my flight to Qingdao. I’m sure it’s most likely due to the recent Olympic Games held here, but I’m going to make a big call and say that the Bejing airport has got to now take the prize of the biggest, cleanest & overall best looking airport I’ve visited to date. This is my first trip to ‘real’ China & I’m quite looking forwards to getting involved in Qingdao where English isn’t as prevelant as many of the bigger Chinese cities.

Last weekend I took the first of hopefully many more to come ‘mini-retirements’; a 4 day trip to Greece. Firstly some of you may be wondering what a mini-retirement is exactly, well it’s a term coined from my new bible “the four hour work week” and simply put it’s basically a holiday away from work but something you do more often & for longer than usual. I’m starting off small hence only the 4 day trip, but this is hopefully the first of many more to come.

The plan was initially to stay in Athens the 4 days but the friend I was staying with happened to come from one of the islands & their extended family was all spending their holiday there so we decided to travel there instead. One of the cousins drove us out to the island Kefalonia on the west coast of the Peloponese and right next to Ithica (for those who know Homer’s Odyssey this was where Odysseus lived). Kekalonia claims to have the most beautiful beaches in the world and I wasn’t about to argue after seeing the green and blue cystal clear waters against the sandy beach and rocky cliffs.

The drive out across the Peloponese was rather exciting for two reasons; firstly we were running late for the last ferry of the night so it was a race against time to actually make the boat, and secondly the Greeks seem to all drive like racing drivers. What I would consider a normal 2 lane highway with 1 lane east, the other headed west, the Greeks seem to consider a multilane with any space room on the road available for passing. We were driving 2 cars abreast on our lane for most of the way as traffic passed each other all over the place. It did seem like organized chaos though as even though there were many times 4 cars crossing each other on a normal sized road, the slow drivers always pulled way to the side & no one ever seemed to cross the centre line. It’s makes you wonder if us NZers are really that good a drivers when you see all these small European cars passing each other at sometimes 140-150 kph on a normal sized road & not really at serious risk of crashing.

Arriving at Kefalonia we stayed at my friends family house on a hill overlooking the main coast line. The parents were there along with the rest of the family and the mother didn’t speak any English so I got a welcome introduction to a real Greek lifestyle. It was great, the cooking was amazing, the olives & grapes were all homegrown and produced and I even got some on site olive oil crushed with their own feet to take home with me! The beaches did live up to expectation, the temperature was a modest 35-40 degrees every day and I don’t think I saw a cloud in the sky the entire 4 days. It was a much needed break away from reality for a bit. Also the housing there is rather cheap, potential purchase could be on the cards?

Next mini-retirement planned is Octoberfest & skydiving with Scuba Steve in Munich at the end of September and then a ski-trip to Switzerland in January, can’t wait!

This week some uni friends made it up to Copenhagen to visit which was a welcome additional to the flat. Steve & Rechelle had been travelling for the last 5 months, through South Africa for the world cup and then up through Spain and France before joining me in Denmark. It was great to see some familiar faces and hear the stories they had from Africa and the Games.

The previous week has been a bit of a nightmare actually & I feel a bit bad for Steve and Rechelle as this week’s I’ve worked the longest hours I think I’ve ever done! It’s all been in preparation for this weeks trip to China where I am running a contingency plan test with around 300-400 Chinese customer service staff. Of course dealing with this many people everything has to be right, even though it is only a test, but given the amount of risk to the business should the test not go right, there’s been a bit of pressure to get those t’s crossed and I’s dotted. I can’t complain though as I did only have a 4 day week and I am spending the week and weekend in Qingdao where the Asian beer festival is currently taking place.

So without further ado, it’s about time to head to my gate. Those back home will be pleased to hear I’m still trucking round in shorts & jandals, the regular outfit for which I cycle to work in still. The weather in Copenhagen has started to pack in lately but it’s not quite bad enough yet to warrant switching the traditional outfit! I’m sure come winter time you’ll still see me pushing through the cold with my trusty Haviana’s and Macpac!