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.

Sunset in Corinth and Sunio - Greece

I was thinking what can be my last post from Greece. But when I was checking the photos of last two weeks I found couple of Sunsets in Corinth and Sunion, the perfect departing post from Greece. However I will continue posting old photos of Greece.

The first two photos are taken last weekend in Corinth and last two one week back in Sunion. Second and Forth one are original, but I wanted a Black & White and Zoomed view as well.

The name of the blog is slightly changed. I will not be regular next few weeks due to my migration to India. Have a nice weekend and Happy Durga Puja.

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)

A Small Boat Ride in Nafplio

Nafplio - Sea view

I have been to Nafplio, an old city of Greece few months back. It was a wonderful experience and I posted some pictures of the place in this post. That time I was not well connected to blogosphere, so many of you may not have seen my previous post on Nafplio.

The view of the Harbour

I enjoyed the place. Nafplio is very different. It was the first Capital of Modern Greece. I was captivated by the nice old architectures of houses, Castle up above the mountain and hypnotizing sea landscape. Thus I thought to share some of the pictures I had taken in a small boat trip to Bourtzi (The castle of Bourtzi is located in the middle of the harbour of Nafplio) .

On the way to Castle

The boat ride was quite adventurous. It was a small private boat, something like the boats in Indian rivers but machine driven (otherwise it would have sunk in the sea). The waves in the sea made it more interesting. The boat was swaying in the sea dangerously, as if it can topple anytime. My friend was scared and tightly held my hands. We were wet. But I was enjoying it thinking its just a ride and if anything happens I had nothing to do. Both of us do not know swimming. Thanks to the boatmen(see images) we finished our journey to Bourtzi Castle safely.

Bourtzi Castle

(Click on the pics for bigger view)

Weekend Photo Upload: Rafina - Sea in Greece

Rafina is a beautiful town in the east coast of Athena. It has a big port which connects to the east Aegean and east Cyclades islands of Greece. But what I found best is the beaches, very unique, sandy and full of big waves.

I lost the way when approaching Rafina from Athens due to lack of navigation or may be because of I like bit of adventure in long drives. So we landed in a hilly area after crossing Kiffisia. I posted a photo of that place in this post, where I played with my sunglass. To be specific with the goggles are of my friend. I have spectacle in my eyes and can’t enjoy the Sunglasses for long time.

But finally found the way to the small coastal town through a mountain. The landscape was breathtaking and I enjoyed the drive.

Here is one of the pictures taken from the mountain.

Left pic: This is a fisherman in Rafina (Greece) who is busy in catching fish in the sea.

I have taken this picture in the same fashion, keeping the Sunglass in front of the Camera Lens. I liked this one as it is facing the Sun. The reddish touch reminds me some kind of masks professional photographers use. I have seen people using circular polarizer to eliminate the haze of bright sunlight, blue polarizer to make the sky bit more blue.

The following is an original picture which I took facing the Sun just before leaving the place. I love this one. Wish you a nice weekend ahead.

Fire and a face

I was thinking about capturing some Greek face after the fire, but I have not got the opportunity. Fortunately I had this danish pondering face which resembles to the situation. So posting it.

Some update on Greek Fire. These Links tell how the fire was broke out. who has done it.
Some article was published in local Bengali news paper Anandabazar Patrika.

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 : Small Video of Meteora,Greece

Weekend Photo Upload: Athens in Fire

This was a terrific week for Athens, for many reasons. The roads are almost like a desert and hardly there are any cars because of summer vacations. People used to enjoy their vacation in the island.

Another unfortunate incident took place this Thursday, in the Hills of Athens. A fire broke out and almost the whole forest and few houses burnt. However the fire did not came to main city, it caused significant damage. Athenians are bit scared. There were same incident months back. Due to global warming this is the hottest summer in the history of Europe. The previous hottest was 1997, but the average temperature of this year is more than 1 degree this time than 1997. In Greece it almost touched 50C, thanks to low humidity the suffering and casualties are less. But fire bloke out in many places.

This picture is taken in mobile from my desk in office and this is the normal view .


We went to the forest a day before, took the following pictures. The last one is taken in a special way. Can anyone guess how this one is taken?

This was taken keeping my sun-glass in front of the Camera Lens.

Updated 25th August 2007.

OH my GOD!! Fire again, I read the comment of GMG and opened my windows and its horrible, sky is covered by the smoke and the color of sunlight changed. We still can smell the fire from our balcony.Phone line is not working, it was a massive massive fire caused 41 lives. Check CNN today. and some more photos. (not by me as I was sleeping the whole morning) .

Global Warming is in action. we are slowly leading to a big disaster. This summer was a warning of it. Massive flood in Indian sub-continent, Fires in Greece, Heat wave across the Europe, high temperature, unpredictable seasonal changes etc are final knocking in our doors, but very small initiatives have been taken so far.

Monasteries in Meteora : World Heritage Site

This is the continuation of my last post to Meteora. For quick reference -

“Meteora is an area in Thessaly (Central Greece) and Kalampaka is the city under
the rock towers of Meteora. The thing that makes Meteora so special is the
monasteries on the top of the rock towers. The monasteries, the amound of peaks
to climb and the paths for hiking brings in Meteora the whole year many
tourists”.

The view was absolutely amazing, but the most atomizing was the Monasteries in the top of the mountains, which was built 1000 years back, without the help of modern science, in a typical way. It is beautiful and the painting in the monasteries reveals the orthodox Greek culture, reflects the way they lived throughout ages.

Wikipedia is describing this place as “The Metéora is one of the largest and most important complex of monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos.The monasteries are built on spectacular natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Peneios river and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. The Metéora is home to six monasteries and is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.”

Matt Barrett explained how the Monasteries were built.

The area of Meteora was originally settled by monks who lived in caves within
the rocks during the 11th Century. But as the times became more unsure during an
age of Turkish occupation, brigandry and lawlessness, they climbed higher and
higher up the rock face until they were living on the inaccessable peaks where
they were able to build by bringing material and people up with ladders and
baskets and build the first monasteries. This was also how the monasteries were
reached until the nineteen twenties and now there are roads, pathways and steps
to the top.

List of Monasteries in Metéora (from Wikipedia)
All of these monasteries are located at Metéora in Greece, and most are perched on high cliffs and accessible only by treacherous staircases cut into the rock formations. They were created to serve monks and nuns following the teachings of the Greek Orthodox Church. Much of the architecture of these buildings is Athonite in origin.
The Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron – This is the largest of the monasteries located at Metéora. It was erected in the mid-14th century AD and was the subject of restoration and embellishment projects in 1483 and 1552. The building serves as the main museum for tourists.
The Holy Monastery of Varlaam – This is the second largest monastery in the Metéora complex. It was built in 1541 and embellished in 1548. The refectory of the church serves as a museum.
The Holy Monastery of Rousanou - This was founded in the middle of 16th century AD and decorated in 1560.
The Holy Monastery of St. Nicholas Anapausas - Built in the 16th century AD, this is a small church. It was decorated by the Cretan painter Theophanis Strelitzas, in 1527.
The Holy Monastery of St. Stephen - This small church and convent was built in the 16th century and decorated in 1545. This monastery is more easily reached than many of the others, as it rests on the plain rather than on a cliff.
The Monastery of Holy Trinity - This monastery is very difficult to reach, due to its location, on top of the cliffs. It was built in 1475 and was remodeled many times .

What I found some interesting facts about the dress codes in these monasteries, Women with short dress are not allowed, and also the visiting hours. In some of the monasteries communication is done through rope way. When we came back from the place it was almost night and the visibility in the hill was poor, so better to leave the place well in advance.