Around the world

MOTTO: "I travel a lot; I will not settle for the routine"

By: Florin

Salut! Hello! Ahoj! Merhaba! Привет! These are the greeting words I’ve used during the last 3 years, 9 months and 26 days since I’ve joined Accenture. Meanwhile I spent 394 days working in 4 countries (USA, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine) and taking more than 150 flights (missing at least two of them). I have visited, for business or pleasure, several cities: Bratislava, Prague, Vienna, Milan, Zurich, Ankara, Istanbul, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Miami, Annecy, Cannes, Nice, Barcelona, Kiev any many more. All these are facts that I can track, but the most important things are the countless memories I have accumulated along the way – I have met so many interesting people, I’ve experienced different traditions and I’ve been in all kinds of situations, some good, some bad and some funny. I will share some interesting stories and some valuable advice that you might want to consider for your future travels.

First of all, when preparing to travel, try to list the things you need to take with you – for sure you will need clothes and money. After going through your wardrobe, you will consider taking more clothes than you actually need – I suggest you to take half the clothes and twice the money. Remember, even if you plan the trip really well, statistics show that it is more likely to deal with losing your luggage or missing your flight connection. After so many trips I can say that there is nothing safer than flying –the crashing possibility is really dangerous, but always keep an optimistic attitude – I like to think that an optimist invented the airplane and a pessimist the parachute. On my first assignment abroad I was informed I would have to fly every week, so I started

following the weather forecasts, until I realized they are actually horoscopes with numbers – “It’s going to be a sunny day with 28 degrees” – In reality: big storm, maximum 15 degrees and the airplane facing difficulties at take-off.

A tricky part in the travel process is getting to the airport. Actually, George Winters said “If God had really intended men to fly, He'd have made it easier to get to the airport.” Have you noticed that every time you are running late it is impossible to find a taxi or, if you manage to find one, there is a big traffic jam, and by the time you reach the airport the check-in for your flight is closed and you have to kindly ask the airline representatives to re-open it for you? Because of this I have a personal record of 14 embarrassing situations where I was the last one to board the plane, having all the passengers yelling at me angrily for having delayed the departure.

You can always recognize the persons who frequently fly, as they will be the first ones asleep and snoring before take-off, and the “amateur” tourists paying attention to the safety instructions. They sometimes ask me what they should expect and what to do in case there is turbulence and other questions which are bothering them. I usually suggest that they should calm down and I “help” them by saying that in case of a thunderstorm, it is never as bad on the inside as it appears on the outside… it's worse! And there is the landing part, which from my experience, is never the same. A pilot

once told me there are three simple rules for making a smooth landing, but unfortunately, most of the pilots know only two. I remember that on one of my many flights from Istanbul to Ankara, the plane was full of people travelling to get to a religious celebration – due to the fact that they did not care about the seat number indicated on their tickets and they started occupying the first available seat, we had a delay of one hour. After we had landed and before the plane had come to a complete stop, everybody stood up and started pushing each other towards the door. I remembered a quote I found on the internet: “There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 2 ways out of this airplane."

Every type of airplane has different safety instructions, but one announcement is always the same: “To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight.” I remember once reading about a flight attendant who was overheard to add: “It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised."Whenever I decide to do some shopping in the duty free, to try some perfumes or to buy some candies, the last call for my flight is announced. I sometimes have the feeling they do it on purpose.

I discovered that in general, when attempting to speak your first words in a foreign language you will invariably end up saying something unforgivably wrong to the person you’re chatting to and it is likely to go one of two ways:

a) They understand you don’t know what you’re talking about and they explain to you that you should never say that again or

b) You get in trouble – I have been lucky enough not to have had any issues… so far.

During the last few years I have learned how to be very expressive and I use my hands a lot to communicate whenever English is not an option. The only thing I don’t like when I am trying to talk with someone who speaks only his native language is that he insists on telling me several times the same thing and when he realizes that it’s not effective, he says it again, only louder – “I don’t understand what you are saying, I am not deaf!”

In Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine I had to learn some common expressions to get along but also some specific expressions which would allow me to be independent while ordering a taxi or food for example. Even so, I ended up many times without a taxi, or the taxi driver took me to the wrong address, or eating something totally different from what I had ordered – but that’s the fun part of being in different countries, these are challenges that make you more flexible. I can proudly say that I have a lot of friends around the world, friends whom I met during my Accenture travels or during my holidays: Mustafa, Baki, Ekinsu, Meltem, Evren, Ezgi, Burcu, Dario, Umut, Roberto, Helenka, Martin, Evandro, Mario, Simone, Eugenia, Tony, Konstantinos, Evan, Anna,

Ondrej, Jakub, David are some of the friends/colleagues I’ve met throughout my journeys. I have lovely memories about all of them and we managed to overcome difficult times at work, to have fun and to offer support to each other whenever needed.

We live in such a beautiful world and what makes it so amazing is the diversity – so my advice to you is to go visit, feel and experience a little bit of everything. In your travels you will discover that what you thought about other countries is not true – things you were told that might be dangerous, are quite safe, stuff that you should avoid eating turn out to be actually delicious, people you thought are too nationalist, make you feel at home. There is only one way to discover all these: start travelling! Have a nice trip!

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

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