The Morning After
Sun, sea, and way too much raki. That's how I celebrated turning 36 in Crete. The next morning? Back to work in a café surrounded by holidaying Greeks in swimwear, nursing a mild hangover and trying to focus on code while the Mediterranean morning unfolds around me.
What a strange way to celebrate your birthday.
The Great Café Migration
The contrast with life in London hits you in waves. One day it feels like an extended sunny birthday weekend getaway.. swimming in crystal-clear waters, long dinners that stretch past midnight, the kind of freedom that makes you question why anyone chooses to live anywhere else.
Two days later, you're battling tourists for a spot at the local café that was completely empty just a week ago.
As the Greek holiday season picks up momentum, even finding a quiet spot to work becomes a strategic mission. Our little co-working crew has been migrating between cafés like modern-day nomads, hunting for good Wi-Fi and fewer distractions.
The café we've called home for the past month? Now packed with families on vacation, kids running between tables, the gentle hum of productivity replaced by the excited chatter of people on holiday. Not their fault, of course. They're living their best life. We're just trying to meet our deadlines while surrounded by it.
The Sensory Battle
Friends and familiar faces are popping up everywhere as summer reaches its peak. The island transforms from a quiet, focused retreat into a bustling social hub. It's almost as hard to stay focused on work as it is to ignore the intoxicating mix of strong Greek coffee and coconut sunscreen that drifts through the air.
There's something beautifully absurd about debugging code while listening to conversations in three different languages, watching someone apply sunscreen at the next table, and trying to pretend that the beach isn't calling your name just 200 meters away.
The Reality Check
Remote work has its perks - flexible schedule, incredible views, the ability to take a swim break whenever the code gets too frustrating. It has its quirks - internet that cuts out during important calls, finding power outlets in century-old buildings, explaining to confused waiters why you've been nursing the same coffee for three hours.
And it's definitely an experience that changes how you think about work, life, and the arbitrary boundaries we create between them.
But as life in London starts picking up.. job interviews lining up, projects moving forward, the real world demanding attention, and I'm starting to count the days until this unexpected remote adventure comes to an end with joy of the prospect of going home.
The Bittersweet Truth
There's something oddly comforting about the thought of returning to routine. To having a dedicated workspace that doesn't involve negotiating with tourists. To meetings that don't get interrupted by the sound of waves or the distraction of perfect weather outside your window.
Paradise, it turns out, is a wonderful place to visit. But it might be an exhausting place to live and work, especially when everyone else is there to forget about work entirely.
The Greek summer continues to unfold around us, beautiful and chaotic and completely indifferent to our laptops and deadlines. And maybe that's exactly as it should be.