The International Conference on Engineering Against Failure VIII took place at the end of June, 2025 in the beautiful resort town of Kalamata, Greece. You know, where they grow a lot of olives. Kalamata is at the tip of the middle “finger” of the southern Peloponnesian Peninsula, which intrudes into the Mediterranean Sea. I was invited to present some failure analysis topics to the “Industrial Failure Analysis” session at the 3 day conference. As far as I could tell, I was one of three (3) Americans attending. One of the others was from an organization I belong to, and a fellow mover and shaker for international friendship through professional associations. The other was a sophomore engineering student from a Christian university, presenting on behalf of his professor, whose wife reportedly would not let him change the family vacation plans in order to attend the conference.
Overall, the conference, and visiting Greece, was a good experience.
My one disappointment was that the taxi company that I had arranged a trip to Sparta with, so I could brag to my neighbors that I had visited the “Real Sparta,” said it was going to be too hot. 43 Celcius. That’s like 99 F. They had a new model Mercedes, but the route involved going over a small mountain range. I still do not know if they were more worried about the vehicle overheating, or the customers having heat stroke, but they took us to the closer Messinia instead. That too was very hot, even though we got back to the hotel before the hottest point of the day.
Here’s a little writing that I did early in the trip, before the conference itself.
I did not go to Greece to see the Parthenon.
That was the subject of the 1977 trip.
This time, an engineering conference, held at a seaside resort. At poolside, American Hip Hop is Hot. A lovelorn man feels like he’s enduring “Katrina, with no FEMA.”
Imagine those words being written today. Grounds for deportation. No simple exhortation.
In Kalamata, olives and lemons grow, not giving a fig that the fig does too.
Too bad for you if you love the sea view with hip hop. Here the sound track is seagull squawks, waves, and traffic noise. No, I don’t know who that person is.
In Greece, “Daily Necessities” at the resort shop do not include hats, or sunscreen. A trip to a pharmacy is in order for the latter. I bought the Greek brand.
A few buildings cling to low, green sloped mountains to the north. The slopes to the south are steeper, some overhanging, and claim no soil. Arid, white rock sparkles.
This is the land of wine and olives. They have cheese and honey too. And fish. Lots of fish. And squid. And octopus on menus.
The birds sould cheery at 7 pm. Not exotic as in farther lands. Although the swallows don’t chitter like the ones I heard at home. They squeal.
https://www.bird-sounds.net/tree-swallow/
(Apparently swallows make a lot of different sounds…)
Thank you for sharing your trip, visually and audibly! Always interesting and entertaining! ❤️