Greetings from Delphi - and Email Usage in Greece
Before my observations about “Email Usage in Greece” (see bottom of this page), here are few notes about my trip to Greece.
From top left in clockwise direction - Our team for one of the two Aussie cars at the start of the Classic Acropolis Rally; the steep descent along the coast road into the port town of Itea in Central Greece; a narrow road through the small village of Akraifnio in Central Greece; pebble beach on the foreshore at Itea; finish location for the rally at Delphi, overlooking the port town of Itea and the Gulf of Corinth; a wider view of the olive filled valley between Deplhi and Itea; yours truly overlooking that superb view from one of Delphi’s restaurant balconies; one of the convenience stores along the foreshore in Itea, which stocks an incredible range of goodies in an extraordinarily small space. Middle photo shows us in action on the first stage of the rally, passing through various patches of grapevines.
First impressions
I was in Greece for the second of three car rallies I'm doing this year with my brother (Finland done, Greece conquered, England/Wales coming up in November). We were competing in the Historic category for two wheel drive cars that were famously spectacular in rallying in the 70s and 80s.
Athens? What a shock! Landing on a sweltering 30+ degree afternoon, the airport was chaos, finding our hire car was a nightmare, and driving into chaotic traffic of the city felt like entering a concrete jungle covered in graffiti. Not exactly the warm Greek welcome I'd imagined!
But wow, did things turn around once we escaped west for four days of rally reconnaissance. The countryside was stunning – constantly changing views of dry, rocky landscapes dotted with ancient ruins and tiny villages with streets so narrow we felt like intruders squeezing through.
The roads were highly interesting – main ones were great, everything else was pretty rough, and the dirt rally stages? Absolutely brutal, living up to the Acropolis Rally's legendary reputation!
What I loved most was the pace of life
Greek rural life isn't just relaxed – it's wonderfully languid. Old men shuffle slowly down streets, chatting at the kafenio over tiny cups of thick coffee and endless games of backgammon. It reminded me of Con the Fruiterer – "coupla days," "bewdiful," "doesn't madda!".
Cats rule everything! Skinny little things everywhere, while dogs roam in small packs in the countryside. Villages come alive in the evenings when it cools down – kids playing football until ridiculously late by Aussie standards, families eating outdoors, and everyone is socialising.
We delighted in seeing some stunning vignettes of sleepy villages with narrow winding streets, white walls, shady cafes and bright coloured flowers.
Delphi was an absolute highlight
Perched dramatically on Mount Parnassus, overlooking a glorious olive-filled valley rolling down to the Gulf of Corinth and the port town of Itea and our base for a few nights. See the short video and photo below.
Click on the map above to learn more about Delphi, Greece.
A few quick observations: I saw way more smoking and vaping than I normally see at home; no lamb souvlaki to be found anywhere (too expensive!); and those tiny convenience stores in Itea were like Tardis machines – massive stock crammed into impossible spaces with a cashier sitting in a little booth you could barely see! All this on a fraction of the space occupied by convenience stores back in Oz.
After our recce, we had a ceremonial start back in Athens at the Acropolis (hot Friday evening, huge crowds), then the real rally began next morning – back west to Itea, finishing at Delphi.
While the team flew home, I stayed for four more days in Athens, then off to Santorini for six days of pure bliss. But that's a blog for another day...
Email Usage in Greece
After my observations about the use of email in Finland and Estonia, Athens brought me back to a more traditional, yet paradoxical, use of email.
Email remains central for anything official or client-facing, with a preference for formal, carefully structured messages. However, in practice, day-to-day collaboration rarely happens through email. Teams lean on Viber, WhatsApp, or Microsoft Teams for immediacy.
This creates a dual system: speed in chat apps and formality in email.
The challenge is fragmentation. Many professionals manage multiple inboxes (work, university, personal) alongside several messaging platforms. Important decisions sometimes live in threads that are difficult to track later.
Productivity, in this case, relies less on tools and more on discipline to capture outcomes across different channels.
There seems a real opportunity to provide some guidance on improving email productivity in Greece - I might have to consider a working holiday there next year!