Winston Churchill once said that, tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that the look forward to the trip.
 As a graduate of Diplomacy, a traveler and a fan of that quick-witted man, I got fascinated with this phrase in more ways than one. So I started dissecting it and really thinking about it. The way I saw it, it consisted of three concepts, the tact, the hell and the trip.
 I consider myself a very tactful person but I doubt I could pull something like this off, even with all my textbooks about diplomacy at my disposal. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't going to make a habit out of telling people were to go, but it should be handy to know the way if the rare occasion arises.
 Then I started thinking about the ''going to hell'' part, or as we often say the destination of the ''road paved with good intentions''. Of course if we believe the song of AC DC is more of a ''Highway'' than a road.
 I was scribbling all that down exactly on the spot where I took the above picture when the thought occurred to me, why on earth am I troubling myself about hell instead of enjoying the view of my favorite place in Greece? And then everything became obvious. I was -even temporarily- at my heaven, at my happy place, spending some quiet time with my thoughts.
 I couldn't help but wonder, if we eliminate the spiritual side of the matter, what exactly are heaven and hell? I decided that it is a state of being, instead of an actual place.
 I had the example right before my eyes. For me Thessaloniki -the town in which the picture is taken- is my heaven. The place where I went to the university, the place where I got my first glimpse of independence, the place where I explored more about theater, and which holds countless other memories. For someone else though? It could be the town where they got their heart broken, they lost a job or failed to realize a lifelong dream. My own heaven is someone else's personal hell.
 So the trip there can be often short and it can be unexpectedly pleasurable as well. Because if you really think about it the person willing to send you to such a trip will have a vast difference with you about how the destination will turn out. Bottom line, his version of hell can be your paradise.
 In conclusion, making an attempt to reprogram my mind to have only positive thoughts I can tell you this, if someone wish me such a trip -tactfully or not- I will take and I will also have some fun doing it!

KISSES!

E.