"Tour" of Duty

Just got back from a nice trip to Athens, Greece. It's still winter there so the load was light, and thus most of the crew were in a relaxed mood. It also helped that one of my senior colleague organised a trip to one of the outlaying islands, called Aegina. So this actually felt more like a vacation than work!

The island of Aegina used to be a small fishing port, and I suspect they still do some fishing for the local market. It was totally different from all that traffic and noise that's so common in the city. We checked into this very nice studio apartment with a great view and quaint rooms. 3 of us guys shared a room, with the 2 of us sleeping in a cosy attic above.

As it was an off peak season, the rooms were reasonably priced and we didn't have to fight with the summer crowd, which can be quite daunting. Moving around in the small island in a big group of 11 plus a child wasn't as difficult as I thought. We happily went about snapping pictures of each other and the group. In the evening when it got cold we headed back to the studio apartment and the nice owner got the fire started while we had drinks around the warm fireplace. We retired happily, and I think my room was the noisiest as us guys took turns keeping each other awake with our snoring!!

I woke up early to try to get some sunrise pictures but alas, it was too cloudy to get any good ones. I did, however, get in some very nice pictures of the island, each looking just like them picture postcards. We had a nice lunch of (more!) fish again before going back to pack for the trip back to mainland.

The rain came pouring down just as we were making our way to the port for our ferry ride. After that I saw the biggest rainbow, rounding up a pleasant stay on the island.

Special credit must go to my colleague, who did all the research, made all the bookings, even got down to ordering for us during lunch. It's not easy to be the tour organizer/leader I think, but he does it with such ease. Of course, it helps that most of us are quite chin chye, and don't nit pick about food, the weather and sleeping arrangements... ...

A wonderful tour of duty, truly