Egio, Greece

Along with Bob and Kari Sarni and the Lawrence family, I spent some time on Saturday morning in the small port city of Egio, Greece (sometimes spelled Aigio) while waiting for a ferry to take us across the Gulf of Corinth en route to Delphi.

The Greeks seem to be fond of building churches into cliff faces, and I took some photos of one such church in Egio.

 

  

  

 

Greece - Chapter One

I landed at the Athens airport on January 24 along with five of my colleagues and some of their family members, and proceeded to drive our convoy of three rented Ford Focus cars westward for two and half hours to the seaside village of Longos (sometimes spelled Logos or Loggos). Thankfully, National rent-a-car upgraded us all to a larger class of car, or the eleven of us and our luggage wouldn't have fit. In Greece, a Ford Focus is pretty spacious.

Longos is a sleepy village, especially in winter. It consists of an orthodox church, two tavernas, a few mini markets, and a bar, plus a smattering of nearby vacation homes (all vacant this time of year) and mostly shuttered hotels. We're staying at the Harmony Hotel Apartments, a nice place - recently constructed - about 150 meters from the beach. They filled the pool for us, but water temperature is still shockingly cold.

 

Brad with Kieran (my colleague's son)

The village looks a bit run down, with many half-built and shabby buildings, plenty of graffiti and litter - I would say it's nice from far, but far from nice. The place does manage to retain a bit of charm, though. Kari Sarni and Dawn Lawrence, who are wives of my colleagues, have made friends with the local baker and butcher (but no candlestick maker that we've found yet), demostrating the Greek's well-founded reputation for hospitality.

An odd fisherman's cottage with a tree growing through the roof

Greece is suprisingly mountainous, and the mountain ranges rise up straight from the Mediterranean coast, so their elevation is quite impressive. Mt. Hermos, about 30 km away and home of Kalavrita ski area, rises to 2340 meters (7800 feet). Yes, there is snow in Greece. A fair amount of it recently. We've had rain on the coast all but two of the twelve days I've been here so far, which translates to snow above about 1000 meters. At our apartment on the coast, I've had to scrape ice off the windshield twice this week.

Our first night our hotel host introduced us all to the best of the villages' two tavernas, a tongue-twisting place called Metexetasteoi (using the closest Latin equivalent of the Greek letters). The taverna's chef (and I presume owner) is a flamboyant fellow named Evangelis. We asked him to bring us an assortment of appetizers and main courses. We quickly learned that Greek tavernas are very generous with their servings, and we stuffed ourselves silly with food and wine, but not before starting the evening with a round of honey-sweetened warm Ouzo, which is surprisingly tasty.

The Metexetasteoi taverna in Longos

Driving in Greece is a contact sport, and the pesky traffic laws are merely mild suggestions. The shoulder on the main highway - two lanes only - has been adapted to serve as an extra lane in each direction. Passing on blind curves is expected. If you're driving any less than double the speed limit you'll likely find someone riding your bumper - until they pass you on a blind curve and play chicken with oncoming traffic.

This week a bunch of Greek farmers decided to protest government plans to reduce or eliminate farm subsidies by blocking the main freeway out of Patras, where we work, which bumped our evening commute from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. It seems the Greek police couldn't control the situation so it went on for three days. Thankfully all is back to normal now. It seems the Greeks may have fudged the numbers a bit to join the EU and it turns out their public debt exceeds EU limits so now the government is proposing a variety of austerity measures. The silver lining for American visitors is that the turmoil is strengthening the dollar against the Euro - even if only slightly.

I have just six weeks to go in my temporary Greek home. I'll try to make the most of it.

Four freezing days in Berlin

I'm startgin a contract with the German company Agile42, who is consulting with a telecommunications company to help them transition to agile software development methods. Agile42 has recruited a fantastic team of nine consultants to coach the client over a four-month period. The nine of us met for the first time in Berlin last week to prepare.

I arrived on Wednesday afternoon in a cold and snow-blanketed Berlin. Everyone tells us it's been unusally cold here for the past weeks - maybe the coldest in decades. Our gracious hosts, Marion Eickmann and Andrea Tomasini, invited us for Prosecco (which I had to look up - it's the Italian version of Champagne) at their flat, just a few blocks from the hotel. The 'Prosecco' turned into quite an ample feast, starting with Prosecco, of course, plus a delicious sampling of appetizers. Soon the wine and beer was flowing and a variety of hot pizzas arrived from nearby Al Vecchio Trattoria - also delicious. Marion, who is a generous as she is gregarious, soon brought out bottles of Scotch and Grappa, which I unwisely decided to sample on top of the wine and prosecco I'd had.

Hungover and jet-lagged is not a good combination. I learned this lesson first thing Thursday morning, when our team got down to business, but I made it through day. The sun made a brief appearance in the morning, but the mercury never climbed above 20 F, and we collected a dusting of snow on our jackets walking back from lunch. Per our request, Marion arranged a German meal for us all on Thursday evening - Wienerschnitzel with potato salad. Sehr gut!

Friday was another work day and another day below freezing, with the typical depressing overcast skies. The festivities continued Friday evening with an Italian feast for the whole team, spouses and families. Our camped out at the Al Vecchio Trattoria for almost five hours of food, drink, and great company.

Saturday was a brutally cold sightseeing day, with daytime temperatures around -11 C (about 15 F). Our first stop was Potsdammer Platz, a former checkpoint on the wall which has been completely razed and rebuilt, now home of the Sony center - shops, cinema, restaurants. We didn't linger outside long due to the cold so we soon enjoyed a great German meal - and of course beer - at a local Hofbrauhaus (brewery). As the sun was setting we took the subway to the Brandenburg gate, and walked along one of the few sections of the wall that is still standing. After the wall fell in 1989, the east side was completely covered in artwork -- first rough graffiti and later much finer paintings -- which have since been restored and made into a sort of outdoor museum.

We also passed by an anarchists march - about 100 anarchists marching to protest police repression. Ironically, they were being escorted by probably 300 German police in dozens of police vans. Just as frostbite began to set in, we arrived back at Marion's flat in east Berlin where she prepared us a home-cooked German meal - this time a tasty potato dish called 'green sauce'.

I must say 'vielen dank' to Marion and Andrea for their exceptional hospitality toward us all!

Off to Greece via Berlin

I'm at Denver International Airport right now waiting to board a flight to Berlin. About a month ago I signed up for a contract to work with a European telecom company, training and coaching them on agile software development. The company Agile42, based in Berlin, is leading the project and they subcontracted much of the work to independent consultants such as myself. Besides getting over the jet lag, I'll spend Thursday and Friday preparing with the team of consultants at Agile42's office in Berlin. On Sunday, we all fly to Athens, and then from there it's a few hours' ride West to the city of Patra, on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece. On Monday, the two-month first phase starts. Yep, I'll be living in Patra for 2 months. Amy and the kids will be joining me on February 10, but not until they've enjoyed a week-long vacation in Cozumel - a vacation that I had to cancel when I snagged this gig.

But wait, there's more! After two months in Greece, we have two weeks off. We're planning to do some traveling, and we're leaning toward Egypt since it's a short flight from Greece. I'd also like to see some of the Greek islands if we have time. Anyone have suggestions on sights to see in the region?

After our two-week tour, we all fly to Shanghai, where I'll start phase 2 of the contract - another two months. I'm looking forward to the adventure!

Andrew's first double diamond

Amy and I went skiing with the kids on Sunday at Beaver Creek where we met my college buddy Michael Acosta and his kids for a great day of skiing. Michael and I took Andrew and Michael's son Alex on Golden Eagle - a double black run that was the course for the 1999 World Championship downhill race. It's steep. Really steep. But the boys did awesome! Andrew made great turns - without poles - to control his speed.

 

Not quite 'Rain Man', but impressive

At dinner tonight, I was explaining how I did some code complexity analysis today and found a class with a complexity number of 39 versus the project average of 1.8. Serious nerd talk, sure, but that's not the point of this here post. Somehow this nerd talk led to the question "what is 39 divided by 6?" I asked Andrew, age 6, if he could figure it out. Here's a play-by-play.

Brad: So what is 39 divided by 6? can you figure it out?

Andrew: Hmmm. (pause...some mumbling) "36...What's 39 divided by 3" (a brief pause) "13...so what is half of 13...there is no half of 13!"

Brad: "There is a half of 13, it's just a number and a half."

Andrew: "Hmm... (brief pause) 6....six and a half."

Brad: "So what is 39 divided by 6?"

Andrew: "Six and a half."

Brad: "Awesome, buddy! How did you learn how to do that? Did someone teach you?"

Andrew: "No, I just figured it out by myself."

Fancy jack-o-lanterns for little tykes

We got some fancy-schmancy patterns for jack-o-lanterns and put the kids (and ourselves) to work for a few hours last weekend carving. The pumpkins were courtesy of my dad, Dean; his pumpkin plant was thrashed to shreds in a July hailstorm the broke windows and destroyed the roof, but somehow it make a comeback and produced two huge pumpkins by October. One of them weighed about 45 pounds! Unfortunately they were still green, but they worked! Andrew carved the spider, mostly by himself, and Elizabeth worked on the skeleton with daddy. Mommy gutted the pumpkins.

 

 

 

Halloween snowman

Andrew and I took advantage of an absolutely gorgeous Saturday with warm weather and lots of packable snow on the ground to build a big ol' snowman in the backyard. I feel like a little kid again when I'm playing in the snow!

 

5:04:25 on Pikes Peak

Today was the big day. My goal was to finish the Pikes Peak Marathon in 5 hours, 10 minutes, and I beat my goal by about 4 and a half minutes. The weather was great, in contrast with last year's cold, rain, snow and lightning.

By the numbers:

• Finish time: 5 hours, 4 minutes, 25 seconds
• Overall place: 42nd out of 711 people
• Place in age group (M 35-39): 8th out of 97
• Ascent time: 3:12:17
• Average pace: 11:37 per mile
  
• Elevation gain: 7,815 ft
• Elevation change: 15,630 ft
• Elevation at the summit: 14,115 ft
  

The injury report:

• sprained left thumb
• scraped hand, knee and ankle
• stubbed toe

After doing some reading the day before the race, I revised my strategy to take a slightly slower pace in the first 5 miles, which is the steepest section. It was a challenge to stick with this strategy as I watched 9 people pass me during this section, but paid off in the long run since I had enough juice left to pass more than 9 people during the rest of the race. I ran the last mile of race in just 7 minutes!

How does one sprain a thumb in a marathon you might ask? Well, the race goes up the single-track Barr trail, not the road as many people assume. The trail averages 11% grade with rocks, roots and steps, so running downhill on this terrain can be treacherous, especially when you're severely fatigued. I tripped going down some steps and landed on my left hand, spraining my thumb. I stumbled several other times on the downhill run.

My pre-race routine consisted of eating half a banana, one energy quark (fantastic energy food from Nutropolis), one Clif shot, and one Power gel, plus getting a 3-minute warm-up run just prior to race start.

It was a great experience and a proud accomplishment, but now I'm looking forward to a few days of R & R!