Years ago I participated in an interesting
society that we used to call “European Traveling and Sightseeing Institute”
(ETSI). That was a club of people who loved to travel and they even managed
combine business with travel. The members of the club volunteered to arrange
meetings in order to give the other members opportunity to travel to new
locations. The society had sub-committees according to travel preferences, so the members chose their most preferred travel destinations accordingly. Once in
a while there was no volunteer to host a meeting. However, the group was fully
committed to travelling and those weeks they travelled to the headquarters of
the institute in Sophia Antipolis close to Nice, France.
The vision of the club was to digitize the air
around the globe. The meetings were organized to achieve the goal. I became a core member of the society when my yearly travel volume hit 150 days. The life
of a core member was simple. Day was spent actively in the meetings together
with the other members. After the meeting, the core team enjoyed a quick but nice
dinner, after which it was time to start working in order to prepare the
documents for the next day. It was time to go to bed when there has been
complete darkness for several hours. I was a weird member of the society,
because I started my regular day by jogging while the others enjoyed the last
hour of their sleep. Once the core member got back to home, it was weekend that was dedicated for a lengthy rest in a sofa (even if the other family members preferred to do something else). I enjoyed my life and I was a
proud member of the society.
I believe the travel effort was very successful, because
so far billions of people around the world have been breathing the digitalized
air. Current estimate is that almost half of the global population has been hearing or seeing the services. Additionally, some companies were successful in filling their briefcases with notes and coins of a currency unit
called FRAND. That is a virtual money that was born long time before Bitcoin.
But where was I. I almost lost track of time and forgot that I was
supposed to write about Monaco.
I was having my “seventeenth” meeting in Sophia Antipolis. The headquarter of the institute was located almost in the middle of the forest. Besides working, there was nothing else to do than morning runs and late dinners. After a couple of boring visits everybody learned to stay at a hotel close to the Mediterranean beach. Juan Les Pins was my favorite town.
Luckily the meeting was over and I had couple
of hours extra time before my flight back to home. I decided to drive to
Monaco. If I would be quick, I could still catch the flight back to home.
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| Mediterranean area around Nice. Route from Sophia Antipolis to Monaco. Source Here.com |
The coastal road between Nice and Monaco was
beautiful. I was even more impressed when I entered Monaco. However, I had only
one hour to see the whole country. Luckily I was in a good shape. With quick feet I was able to visit the
beautiful Casino Monte Carlo, Harbour full of boats, pool and a tunnel, all
well-known places for the formula one fans. Unluckily I did not see a glimpse
of any celebrities. I managed to see in one hour what the normal tourist can see in a weekend. However, in such a hurry I missed the nice dinners.
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| Monaco. Source Here.com |
Time was short and I was already in a hurry.
The drive to the Nice airport was stressful, but I managed to catch the flight.
I am so proud that I have been in Monaco, have you?
Lessons
learnt:
Time is a scared
resource – use it wisely.
Done that! The same quick visit.
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