Island of Hydra #2 : Flora and Fauna

Hydra is famous for typical Flora and Fauna, main reason being the petroleum cars/bikes are not allowed in this ancient island, so they need to have some alternatives.

My most interesting capture was this white pigeon. The contrast against the deep blue Mediterranean attracted me and I took sometime to have a steady shot. We all know that pigeon is emblem of peace, and it might be good enough to serve the purpose of a vehicle, if Hydra was an island of lilliputian creatures of Gulliver travels. But fortunately the inhabitants are normal hardworking humans.

I captured some interesting flora (plants and trees) in this island, starting from sea-shore to the top of the mountains. The half-burnt flower trees in the seaside drew my attention, and again I used the blue background contrast, but no way better than the first one.

Then I came across many cats, dogs, small birds, fishes etc. Cats were fighting to each other but the most intriguing one was the Donkeys. They are mostly serve the vehicle purpose but not by drawing carts as carts are not preferred in rough hilly areas. Just ride them to roam around. I have seen young chaps, local heros were riding the oldest model of communication, keeping the latest mobile in there ear, the most innovative communication tool of this civilization. That was simply outstanding.

The following BW shot is little hazy, but still I like it as it resembles to the Arabian fairy tells (as if Alif Layla is passing through the lanes of Old Middle east civilization). The next one is also caught my eyes because of its Indian look. Hydra is full of flowers and the colorful island will keep me haunting for years.

Click to get larger view

Island of Hydra(Greece) #1

Hydra is a wonderful island in Greece. Colorful, vibrant, cheerful and the most importantly no petrol vehicle is allowed in this hilly island. They how the inhabitants commute? That I will explain in my next post. May be this is the reason my friends didn’t want to accompany me; the poor guy traveled alone in the ancient island of Greece.

Hydra Island - a panoramic view

So, I was alone in this tour and that’s the reason I enjoyed it most. Don’t take it otherwise, what I mean to say, I rambled freely, walked up the mountain, roamed around the harbor, gazed the beauties in small beaches. Oh! I am revealing everything :-)

Flying Dolphin approaching Hydra Port

Took a flying Dolphin from Piraeus (Port of Athens) and it took couple of hours to reach Hydra port. The boat was really flying (only couples of blades were in touch with the water). I was seating next to a middle aged German woman who was traveling with her cute boy. Have had a breakfast with fried feta cheese bread and Cappuccino and enjoyed the blue Mediterranean for the last time, as it was my last trip before I said goodbye to Greece.

Hydra has old culture and history. Everything is perfectly preserved in one museum which is worth visiting, its called "Historical Archives - Museum of Hydra" .

As of now I am posting few shots of some ancient churches. Greece is always considered as orthodox Christian country and Hydra is not exceptional in this context. Previously Christianity was a basic requirement to get Greek citizenship, but not now (though still one has to know basic Greek in order to get citizenship, EU wants flexibility in this one also).

This Church is up above the mountain, I walked to explore the panoramic view and found a wonderful church. In my next post I will write about the journey.

This one is a small church near the harbor.

Recalling Santorini - Part III (Sea)

See always attracted me starting from my childhood. Indian Ocean and Bay-of-Bengal is very different from other seas. Sandy beaches, mild waves, wide sea shores delight me. But Mediterranean is something which is incomparable. The deep blue green colors, mild serene breeze and kaleidoscopic flora and fauna in the clean water mesmerize me every time.

kaleidoscopic flora and fauna in the clean water

Here I am sharing some of the views of sea I have captured in Santorini.
Santorini has a variety of beaches. One side of the island has cliff and typical beaches like red beach and white beach. Then couple of black beaches (some images in my past post). On the other side it has rocky sandy beaches.

Here I uploaded some pics for red beaches.

This is my last post on recalling Santorini, it was wonderful experience to visit that island and I will cherish my memories in future too.

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I am leaving Greece on 17th Oct ’07 for good and will stay in India for next few months.Thanks for all your support and I am glad that you enjoyed the posts and pictures. This blog was started as a private blog almost a year ago (when I was the only reader). But slowly I started sharing it and got positive responses from my blog friends and I would like to continue the journey of this blog.

I thought to put “India” in front of my blog name. Any good suggestion will help me to make it better. Thanks and Have a nice weekend.

The view from the ship while leaving Santorini

Recalling Santorini - Part II (Houses and Temples)

Oia (northmost point of the island) is wonderful in terms of landscape and sunset (Above pic was taken by my colleague). It is considered to be one of the renowned picturesque places of the world. I have posted some pis here.

The small houses, carved into the rock, the mansions with their stairways and
their neoclassical architecture, with white and ochra as their dominant colors,
the walls decorated with small stones, the roads paved with flagstones, and the
flowers, form a harmonious total of the impressive picture of the Oia village.

The houses in Santorini are typical in architectures as it is not made up of concretes and cements; kind of mud is used for cementing the walls. The reason being a dormant volcano is situated close to the island, which can erupt anytime. I was reading in one of the books that tells..

“Excavations have shown that the island was inhabited in prehistoric times, during the cyclic period (3200 – 2000BC) …. The island reached its apogee during the ensuing period (2000-1550BC), which was cut short by the eruptions of the volcano in 1500BC.”

I have posted some pictures of traditional orthodox Temples in this post. The picture below of a temple, is taken in front of a film studio. Santorini is famous for film shooting and “Chalte Chalte” one of the famous bollywhood movies was shot here. So Greece is now quite interesting place for Indians :-)

The fascinating view of the houses in the cliff hypnotized me in first glance.

Recalling Santorini – Part 1 (views from the Hotel)

As my assignment in Greece is almost in an end, I have had a nice time here and it’s the time to pick my favourite 3 places in Greece which I would like to visit again and again.

One of the obvious choices is Santorini, a wonderful island with stunning geomorphology, nice beaches, typical Greek churches and the dormant volcano.

View of the Volcano from the Hotel

Here I posted about the journey in Sea. In this post I wrote

"I was also skeptical like others about what makes it special. A Volcano? So
what!!But once I have seen it first time; it indeed appears marvelous. The whole
island (called Thira) is situated in an extinct volcano and a dormant volcano
(called Santorin) is nearby. The unique geomorphology, sedimentations of rocks
and picturesque landscape in the Aegean Sea made if completely different from
other islands of Mediterranean."

It was very refreshing journey in the boat and then enjoyed the captivating beauty of the island.

Our room in the Hotel

I have already posted this one with some details of that hotel and some of the views of the cliff. It was one of the good hotels from the position point of view, facing the breath taking landscape. We had a nice time there.

View of the cliff from the hotel (Above) and from the Ship (below)

Have a nice weekend

(Click on the pics for bigger view)

Old Houses in Greek Island

I have been to many Greek Islands and each of them is unique. Usually I spent some time to see the normal life there, specially the houses, small lanes and people. These are some house in Aegina and Poros.

These two pictures had taken randomly in Aegina by normal camera, not very special to me. But still I have posted to feel how the houses are. But the main reason is to feel how special the third one to me. It may be simple but this neoclassical house in Poros Island is taken by my Canon 350D. I avoided the distractions on the ground floor and only captured the main object. The original version is here.

This one is my 50th post in this blog.

Though intotal I completed century week back.

Weekend Photo Upload 9, Paros : an island of Greece

Paros is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos (from Wikipedia)

Typical Cyclades Churches, small houses, nice beaches and sea birds made it one of the hottest tourist destinations of Europe. Many tourists spent couple of nights here on their way to Santorini.

The view of the port is wonderful, the landscape of this enchanting island is breath taking and a must seen island in Greece.

Weekend Photo Upload 8, Naxos : an island of Greece

Naxos : is a Greek island, the largest island (428 km²) in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. (from Wikipedia)

Temple entrance landmark or the "Portara" - an archaeological site in Mediterranean sea

Santorini - The Volcanic Island in Greece

Santorini : A nice Island in Greece, The post is done in the Islands of Greece Section , link is here.

Some Videos (I have uploaded in YouTube)

Approaching Santorini

Red Beach

The Volcano

The Port

Definitely this is the best Island I have ever seen (yet) in my lifetime.

Halkida

Chalkida, Halkida, (Greek, Modern: Χαλκίδα), the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, situated on the strait of the Evripos at its narrowest point.

This is not very far from Athens, 1 hour drive in E75 highway and then a right exit has taken us to this wonderful city. The lovely bridge over the sea is something to see. But truly speaking, it was not a very exiting place, specially when we have seen places like Nafplio and Delphi.

We were bit tired as we reached the small town after having a tour of Garmatiko. So, small refreshment with Coke and junk foods helped me to regain some energy. As usual we took some snaps and came back much early in that day - 1st April '07.