Most memorable journeys

During the pandemic many travel addicts like myself were suffering from serious withdrawal symptoms but as the saying goes, an addict will always find a way... In the fall of 2020 an app called Clubhouse was founded, a place where people could meet and talk in different virtual rooms.

Klaus Derendorf knew what his tribe was missing, he knew that an airport lounge is what we needed and he created a room called THE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT LOUNGE which is a very special place where people from all over the world meet and engage in stimulating conversations about travel, the world and humanity. No politics or pitching of any kind of product or service is allowed.

I used to wake up in the morning, open my app and start talking to people from all over the world imagining that I was in Los Angeles or Sydney or Hongkong and not in my PJs on my sofa in Limassol. We talked about culture and countries and so many stories were told and friendships were formed; after the pandemic people started meeting each other in person.

Of course Klaus Derendorf is so much more than the founder of a Clubhouse room. He has 20+ year track record in global media, tech & venture financing with high level professional relationships in banking, family offices and VC. He is an experienced company director, business developer & investor with strong EQ, technology, marketing, analytics and management skills as well as a forward thinking growth driver & team builder. He is passionate about discovering, supporting and building the next game changing platforms, services and products with incredible teams. People over product. ESG & sustainability metrics matter.

He has a trilingual multi-cultural background and education with extensive business experience in English, Spanish & German across the Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia.

He is a former award winning music producer and company founder with sales in excess of 20 Million units including six number 1 albums and singles. Producer on international talent TV shows X Factor, The Voice & Got Talent and he served on the Board of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Recording Academy (Grammys). Soccer and Formula 1 fan.

His latest venture is being Head of Web3 Operations at Creative House

I always wanted to be a flight attendant and despite making most of my dreams come true, I never was. After the pandemic, when all airlines were desperately looking for staff, my best friend Ruth told me to apply but, hello, I am 62 years old. Even though I knew that I wasn't going to do it, I still did a little research, googled a little here and there and found this amazing young lady:

Noémie Frischknecht studied law, then passed the bar exam and worked in two previous legal jobs, before she started working at SWISS in January 2018. This was the time right before the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) came into effect. Noémie had been entrusted with the creation and implementation of a Data Protection Management System within SWISS, which included designing processes, training business units and giving legal advice to SWISS management.

Even though Noémie enjoyed her job, she knew, that life is short and that it is up to us to follow our dreams and create a life we love. Being a lawyer in Switzerland pays well and offers a comfortable lifestyle but her NLP trained mind also knows that the comfort zone is where our dreams go to die. She has a website called "Peak-performance - one heart at a time) where she helps people bring out the best in them, no matter at what point they are in life.

She took a leap of faith and decided to become a flight attendant because she wants to experience the whole spectrum of life and work with all sorts of different people and see the world even more. She followed the complete training of Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), learnt that the main priority is safety; she learnt to ditch, firefight and improved her medical knowledge including the ability of performing CPR, which is expected from every Flight Attendant.

Now she is flying, she has completed all her training for long haul and short haul flights and whoever has the luck to be a passenger on a flight with Noémie is blessed because she is a very special person.

https://peak-performance.org/

https://www.instagram.com/arcticflyingfox/

Inspiring conversation with these two beautiful people from Australia who decided to go "walk about" later in life. They are both on their second marriage and have 4 married adult children and 7 grandchildren - so far. Being active and healthy is a priority for them. Leanne is a walker and tries to do some Pilates and Yoga and Lyle is a swimmer and swims at least 1.5km most days.

Lyle and Leanne sold their motel business on 1st April 2019 (no it’s not a joke) in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Queensland, to embark on our dream life of beach, travel and wine. (You know what happened then!!)

Travelling is something they hope to do more of. Between them, they have been to over 40 different countries. They have some great stories to tell since they have been travelling together and they love Spain and their experience there; they love everything about wine.

Probably one of the most memorable week’s away that they will ever have is the week they spent in the Maldives and two of their favourite holidays have been to Queenstown NZ, sharing a five bedroom house overlooking the lake and snow capped mountains with their three children, partners and grandchildren. This was as close as you can get to the perfect holiday - family, fun, food, wine, and nature at its stunning best. Lyle skied like he had never stopped. Very impressive.

There is so much more to share about what they have done and where they have been – but what they are most excited about is sharing the next adventure stage of their life with us all and hope to make it fun and interesting.

They are very lucky to live in an amazing part of the world, Kings Beach at Caloundra. They have downsized into a small two bedroom, two bathroom apartment which rewards them with lovely ocean views from every window.

Please check their website https://www.beachtravelwine.com/

I met Dr Olivier Seiler at an International travel insurance conference to which I accompany my husband Hector every year. In a restaurant in Athens he recited parts of the Odyssey in ancient Greek and I was impressed, not only by the ancient Greek but by his kindness.

For nearly 30 years, Olivier Seiler was the Chief Medial Doctor of REGA, which is a private, non-profit air rescue service that provides emergency medical assistance to people in Switzerland. Having a travel insurance is important because when the unexpected happens, it is good to receive the necessary care.

In this episode we talk with Olivier about how he decided to become a "flying doctor" and why he did this challenging but also very rewarding job for nearly 30 years. It is not an easy task to be confined to the space of an air ambulance jet even though it is equipped with every possible medical appliance. We also talk about the importance of good communication between doctors and respecting local customs and practices anywhere in the world.

https://www.rega.ch/en

When I walked into a conference room at a hotel in Dubai recently, a very kind and beautiful blond lady smiled at me and said hello to me in Swiss German. I knew that I had seen her before, and we were debating about where this could have been until she told me that she used to be on a TV program called "Fenster zum Sonntag" which can be translated as "Window towards Sunday". It turned out that I had seen her but she had obviously had not seen me, because I had seen her on TV. She was a TV presenter for 10 years.

She was a rebel in her young years and travelled around the world as a singer of the band E-Rotic, and at some point she was nominated for the title of Miss Switzerland. As a young women she was attacked by someone with a knife and talks about he incident in this episode. She also talks about how she found more harmony in her life through God and how she ended up living with her family in Dubai because of her husband's job.

She is the President of the the Swiss Ladies Club of Dubai which was initiated in 2004 to organise meetings for all Swiss ladies resident in Dubai. It is a forum and platform to share experiences and mutual interests in an informal, constructive and positive way.

https://www.swissladiesdubai.com/

On a recent flight from Dubai back to Cyprus on Emirates Airlines I watched the documentary "The Last Tourist" which points out that travel is at a tipping point. In the movie, various tourism expert reveal the real conditions and consequences of one of the largest industries in the world.

One of the cast members of the above documentary is Dr Rachel Dodds, who is the Director of Sustaining Tourism – a boutique consulting firm. She is also a full Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada where she joined the Ted Rogers School of Tourism & Hospitality Management in 2006. I was delighted when this busy lady decided to take the time to be on my podcast.

Having been trained to look at many different aspects of tourism, Rachel knows that sustainability means long term planning and management and that experience and understanding of diverse cultures and environments is a fundamental part of tourism. She also has seem many of the issues that lead to overtourism and perhaps undertourism and understands how to plan for them. Rachel has furthered her understanding of the industry through both her personal and work travels. She has now has traveled extensively to six continents and over 80 countries.

Rachel has written, co-authored and edited articles about sustainable tourism, tourist motivations, CSR, islands, tourism development and planning and urban sustainability. She has published a book about sustainable tourism policy (2005), planning and island sustainable tourism (2010) and overtourism in 2019.

Her latest publication is a children's book called: Are We There Yet?Traveling More Responsibly with Your Children

This book will help you make responsible and sustainable choices before, during and after your trip. It will also help you to navigate travelling with children and will give you tips and inspiration for how to raise resilient, responsible kids who will grow to love travel as much as you do!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61261282-are-we-there-yet

https://sustainabletourism.net/

I met my soul sister Leila during my master coach training in Dubai and I felt very drawn to her from the very beginning. She is a beautiful soul and has a beautiful smile and that fact that we can converse in French made her even more attractive to me. She studied Microbiology in Algeria but due to political instability and unrest in her home country she moved to Abu Dhabi nearly 25 years ago and worked as a French teacher and head of Department at a private school before she educated herself in the Personal Development field

In this episode, she talks about her first trip to France, her trip around the world on a ship as the wife of the captain and how Nelson Mandela was freed while they were in South Africa and how they got stuck in the Port of Constanza during the time that Nicolae Ceausescu was executed in Romania. She is also telling me her journey about how she decided to remove her hijab and that her love for God has not changed because of it and how she thoroughly enjoys the swimming in the sea.

She is a Master NLP Coach and Master Hypnotist and the co author of one the international bestselling books series "Magnetic Entrepreneur. A Personality that Attracts. She is also a certified Business Coach.

https://leilaatbi.com/

Tatiana Stupak (piano) started learning the piano at age five, studying at the Special School of the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in St. Petersburg, and after that, for a further five years, continuing at the Conservatory itself. She is the winner of international music competitions including the Leipzig Bach competition.

Tatiana is very well known in Cyprus, having played piano at more than 80 events in the last few years, both as a solo pianist and accompanying other musicians. Since 2018, she has played piano solos at The Big Choir Project concerts.

She has developed a second major interest since early 2019: mountaineering! Her goal is to climb the 7 highest mountains of 7 continents. Having had no previous climbing experience, she succeeded in reaching the summit of the highest mountain in Europe (Elbrus) and Africa (Kilimanjaro). Just recently she climbed Mount Damavand, the highest peak in Iran and Western Asia and the highest volcano in Asia

She plans next to climb the highest peak in South America, Mount Aconcagua in Argentina while playing music and she is attempting to get in the the Guiness Book of records; she loves adventures of all kinds. For example, in 2018, she took a hot-air balloon flight in Cappadocia; in the summer of 2019, she did her first sky-dive, at Kingsfield Airfield in Cyprus. She also took a trip to frozen Lake Baikal early in 2020, where she played the Russain Gusli instrument. And she leaned free diving in 2020 as well, and proved it, by being filmed playing a piano on the bed of the Mediterranean. She like to combine her musical talents with her adventures, whenever possible.

She arranges charity concerts for children and for the church, and brings famous musicians from Russia, for example from the Bolshoi Theatre.

She opened the Tatiana Stupak School of Music in 2018, where students can enter for examinations set by the Royal Schools of Music and by Trinity College. Students may also take part in public concerts, to gain experience in performing before audiences.

In 2018, Tatiana won awards on being chosen in competition, as Russian Cultural Woman of the Year in Cyprus.

In the summer of 2019, having organised fund-raising concerts on several occasions for the Institute of Neurology and Genetics, she was invited to play piano solos at a concert at the Presidential Palace, where President Anastasiades presented her with an award on behalf of the Institute.

She has been interviewed many times on Cyprus radio and TV channels. Early in 2020 she was interviewed on the subject of children and music, and the interview was shown on Smile TV; previously she appeared live on TV ONE’s charity show, DanSing for You, not as a pianist, but as a dancer. Most recently, she was interviewed by RIK1 TV, and the interview was broadcast in July 2020. Also during 2020, over a period of a few weeks, she made live broadcasts on the Internet, giving illustrated talks about ten classical music composers.

Tatiana maintains two YouTube channels: one for herself, and another for her music school.

http://tatianastupak.com/biography

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPa-fpO17yX0y1aN51Yu_WA

Gil Antolin founded Luxury World Traveler as a way to share his passion for travel with the world. What started as a hobby by creating an Instagram account in 2013, has now become much more.

Antolin visited Uganda, Africa ten years ago as part of a mission trip. While there his group spent time volunteering at an orphanage, help fund the school and take to the needs of the children. Antolin became overwhelmed with gratitude at the reaction of the students and had a life altering experience. From that day on he was convinced that whatever path he took would incorporate travel and create a positive impact on the world.

Shortly thereafter, Luxury World Traveler was born and has gradually become one of the globe’s most trusted travel marketing companies, focused on the future and how we can impact the industry and the rest of the world positively, meaningfully, and sustainably.

He has tapped into a unique market of over 5 million globetrotters worldwide who seek something more of their travels. More than just a social media platform, he aims to bring these extravagant opportunities to life by booking these experiences for his community of avid travelers via their travel booking agency.

It’s why he partners with over 400 luxury hospitality brands to showcase the most compelling destinations in the world. By harnessing ideas that appeal to discerning travelers, he creates maximum reach across all social media channels and helps his clients succeed by reaching the widest base of engaged consumers possible. To date, he has created over 10 billion social media impressions for our clients.

A sense of wanderlust. A desire to see more. A commitment to life as an adventure. The journey begins with Luxury World Traveler, a global travel community that celebrates the nomadic spirit with a rich combination of inspirational and aspirational experiences, photographs, and opportunities for luxury seekers all over the world.

https://www.luxwt.com/about-gilantolin

Traveling without insurance is a gamble. Nobody knows that better than my friend Dick Atkins, owner of Dick Atkins, Esq. an attorney from Philadelphia who specializes in assisting companies and individuals on legal issues in foreign countries. He is an owner of International Recoveries, LLC and lectures at travel insurance conventions. He is on the Board of Directors for the United States Travel Insurance Association.

Atkins has literally been bailing out North Americans and North American Corporations abroad since over 30 Years. He also represents foreign nationals on U.S. soil. U.S. Embassies, U.S. Insurance and other large corporate entities.

For those who remember the movie "Midnight Express" and how Billy Hayes, a young American got caught trying to smuggle 4 1/2 pounds of hashish out of Turkey in 1970. Thrown into a hellhole of a Turkish prison, he's tortured by sadistic guards, betrayed by corrupt lawyers and toyed with by capricious judges before he finally escapes. This movie is based on a real story.

Each year, on average, 1,000 Americans are arrested in foreign countries on drug charges. While many are quickly released, roughly 1, 600 are currently rotting away in foreign prisons, often in conditions similar to those endured by Hayes.

Prison conditions in much of the world are pretty horrible, acknowledged Dick Atkins, and the criminal justice systems in a lot of countries are just as bizarre as the one in the movie. It's important to remember that when you travel abroad, your rights as an American citizen don't come with you."