TBEX Athens through a 9-year-old child’s eyes

A kid at a conference?  You might think ‘how boring’, but not for Explorason at TBEX Athens.

“Hello, Explorason – I follow your blog and read all about you traveling the world”.  A stranger comes up to us on our first day in Athens and gives us a hug.  Having never met her this makes Explorason feel a bit like a movie star.  Over the next few days, this happens time and time again.

Our first night prior to the conference is a get-together, and people are coming to say hello and have a photo taken with us.  It was fun.

We have a few parties to attend to, and Explorason goes along to them with his headphones and finds a comfy corner to relax, whilst I stand nearby and network.

On the days leading up to the TBEX conference, we went on several tours.  The Athens Walking Tour was a hit with us – we ate our way around Athens trying all sorts of yummy Greek treats.

Then there was the Hellenic Motor Museum where Explorason did another tour. He was able to drive an F1 Simulator – sweet!

Another tour we did was to Cape Sounio with Key Tours. It was a great time of world schooling for Explorason.

Explorason loves, loves, loves YouTube. So he was pretty happy when he was able to make friends with the famed Lukey D.

There was lots of giveaways and a promo bag of goodies we received with our registration.  There was yummy food for lunches too, and there was fun with some of the staff at the Travel Exhibits, like these boxer gloves we were given from Discover Thailand – Discover Thainess.

We made loads of new friends, and they all made Explorason and I feel great.

Here are a group who were either all Australian or who had lived in Australia.  We seemed to connect. I must say I don’t feel my 52 years old at TBEX either – maybe there is a ‘Youth Elixir’ they add to the drinks?

Here is Explorason.  One night at a social event, he was found sitting talking to one of the speakers.  He is learning about adding videos to blogs. At nine years old, this too is world education. And it is learning from the masters. I was ff chatting, so it was fun to see the pic flash up on the big screen at the end of TBEX too.

On the last day, there was a fantastic presentation on Thailand for one of the next events.  Explorason was able to have a Thai Boxing lesson with these champions.

TBEX was great. We learned so much. We went to some great sessions, and there were some fantastic Keynote speakers too.  Jaume Marin from Costa Brava Tourism Board will stand out forever!

“And then on the last night, there was a big street party thanks to Pandrossou Street.  We saw a lady hand paint pots, and she gave me a small one as a present.  We ate a load of food and saw a man making a musical instrument.  It was so busy, but it was like a treasure hunt finding all sorts of nice treats”, says Explorason.

We walk on with the Farewell Street Party and Explorason was given a turn at rolling out the dough for the pies.  He loved this and left covered in flour.

So many people and companies helped make TBEX a great event. Mary Jo from TBEX was great in helping us as “newbies” to sort out all our silly questions. She had the patience of a saint, and it made all the difference to us, so we thank her immensely.

So as we say goodbye to Athens TBEX, we think we want to do this again. For a nine-year-old, it was like a party that lasted for days. Traveling longterm has its lonely days, but these days certainly we anything but lonely.  They were just amazing.

Thank you TBEX.

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