Tales from Crete | 32

Our first trip to Crete this year, with a really lovely group of guests, is almost coming to an end. On Saturday evening, the guests go home and on Sunday I go back to Denmark myself. It has been a fantastic trip in every way and super nice for me as a tour guide, to once again have a team of happy guests with me, who through the experiences I can help give them, more or less start to make some new friendships and bands that they can take home with them in their luggage. As Troels Kløvedal said in his time: "All travel is about coming home", for us in Elena's Group Travel it is precisely about having some unique experiences down here that you can then take home with you.

Troels Kløvedal also said that "happiness is when expectations correspond to reality". We probably all live with expectations for both one and the other, but the art is to match one's expectations, be realistic and not raise expectations to the unattainable. In this way, the impossible can suddenly turn out to be possible and thus reality exceeds one's expectations.

One of the most popular myths from 1930s Germany is that the bumblebee cannot fly and the impossible turned out to be possible after all. On the other hand, there is so much else that is not, where it is more a matter of believing that something can be done, even if it has not been proven and immediately seems impossible.

Troels Kløvedal moved throughout his life on the edge of what for most did not seem possible, when he sailed the world's oceans thin with the Nordkaperen and as a better explorer explored the places he visited, met other cultures and people with respect for diversity and outlook on life . Troels Kløvedal was someone I personally looked up to because he was a loner in his field. He dared to go his own way and was able to combine wisdom and knowledge with practicality, courage and experience, at the same time with the experimental. Some excellent properties that together mean that you can act on the unexpected and unpredictable and still maneuver with great safety.

When some of the guests I have with me here in Crete said the other day that I reminded them of Troels Kløvedal, it was honestly something of a gift. Whether they really meant it or it was just because of my unmanageable gray hair, I don't know. But I know that I share many of the same views on life that Troels Kløvedal had, and I am sure that if you believe enough that something can succeed for you, and if you otherwise have the will to do it, the chance to reach in terms of what you set yourself up for, far greater than if you just sit down and wait for something good to happen.

In my eyes, happiness is just around the corner and sometimes right in front of you. But you don't always get to see it, in your efforts to constantly chase more happiness, and then, in my opinion, you have set your expectations higher than reality can fulfill.

According to the Cretans I often associate with and myself, happiness is neither creating a big business, a big fortune, gaining fame, a big car, yacht or whatever you can buy yourself. Happiness is waking up every morning and being able to be happy that you are still around, and here at the beginning of the month of May, it is also natural for me to be happy that summer is now very soon upon us, because the bright days and nights give so much extra energy.

So that's why I want to wish you all: Kaló mina (good month)