Picking up where I left off...
I know, I know - I've been slacking big time. But now I'm going to get caught up. So let's start with Greece.
As glamorous as it sounded to do a week-long event in Greece, it had to be the hardest event I've done to date. On the surface, it was easy for all the guests to say it was a fabulous event, and the best one to date. Behind the scenes, it was a lot of 20 hour days before the event, and during the event... and pretty much everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Lost luggage. Cancelled flights. Misspelled awards (twice). Guest got sick and needs medical attention. Guest with kids needs extra attention. Guest with family emergency and needs to go home. You name it, it happened. Nevertheless, I survived (and so did poor Steve). Steve and I did get to see Symi Island on my one day off, which was beautiful, and we went sailing one afternoon on the Mediterranean - my first time ever. And we did have one lovely, hot day in Athens all to ourselves after the event was over and spent it sightseeing and eating gyros.
Lessons learned? Don't fly Olympic Airlines. Don't move a group of 130 people from one city to another island. Don't have an event in Europe when the exchange rate is terrible. Don't try and drink with the Europeans (you won't win). Massimo Dutti needs to open a store in the US.
Above all, leave the pool area when people start getting thrown in. When we came home, I took the week off from work, sat around the apartment and pretty much did nothing. I can't even begin to tell you how great of a week that was. :o)
Next year, Costa Rica, here we come!
