WLAN on the Beach?

During my last day(s) off from the Army, I went with my girlfriend to Chalkidiki, and more specifically to a small town called Chanioti. An ideal place for young people, since it offers a variety of bars and clubs. Needless to write about the girls that were there: The whole Eastern Block was there, in bath suits. And what am I supposed to write you about? How gorgeous they looked?

I’d rather write about a positive aspect of the whole “beach” thing. This was my first time I went to a beach after 2 years. I don’t know what happened during those 2 years, but I observed a number of things.

First: Minimal to no garbage at all. The sand was garbage free, not only in Chanioti, but in another place, called Potidea, I don’t recall seeing a plastic bag, an ice cream package, or a finished cigarette.

Which bring us to my second observation: In a beach full of people of all ages, I noticed only one smoking. And she was a young woman, unfortunately. Very good looking, she threw that beauty of hers away, once she lit up a cigarette. Other than that, the beach was smoke free as well, which made me happy and optimistic.

The third observation had to do with cell phones. Yes, they were absent as well. I was one of those people who took their cell phone with them to the beach, but this year, I decided to leave it back to our room and just go for a swim and sun tan. I noticed that most, if not all people had the same idea, so to speak. Even if they had them in their bags, not even once in four days did I notice someone talking with his/her cell phone. Great improvement here.

Which reminds me: There was a hilarious ad, airing some time ago, where an office guy is packing his things, his colleagues viewing him with sympathy. “Where will you go?” asks the one. “I don’t know”, he replies, “somewhere outside Athens. Maybe… Mykonos!” and then we get a glimpse of him, sitting under an umbrella, with his notebook, taking advantage of a mobile company’s internet connection. Hmm, so far so good. The advertisement is clever, humorous and somewhat original. But then, there was another ad, from another company.

They advertise on how their cell phone signal is now powerful enough to reach even the more distant regions of this country. So, they show a farmer at his work, talking to his cell phone. Logical: He may be on a village. They show a fisherman, on his boat, talking to his cell phone. Logical: He may be on a distant lake on the mountains. They show a hiker, on a cliff side, reaching for his cell phone. Logical: He is on the mountain, he may need help. They even show a man talking to his wife and children via video conferencing. Too good to be true, but logical. Then they show a gorgeous babe, in a small blue “makes-you-drool-all-over-the-place” bikini, sitting next to the sea, SURFING THE INTERNET WITH HER NOTEBOOK, USING A WIRELESS CONNECTION! LOGICAL: WTF? I say again: W T F?!?!

This ad means to tell me, that a hot looking girl, in her twenties, has nothing better to do, on a beach, than surf the internet with her laptop? Not even I do that! Even If she was not on a beach, how many 20-year olds that look like models do you know, that surf the web, with a freaking wireless card that connects via 3G – I mean, she did a research over that thing, right? She walked into a telecommunications store and asked some poor guy about “the fastest 3G connection in order to use my laptop on the beach”? Suuure!

I am confident she’ll hook up with the guy from the previous advertisement…