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.

On The way to Meteora

We went to a short trip to Meteora last weekend. We started enjoying Greece again after coming back to Athens. But the main difference this time is the scorching heat. This is one of the hottest summers and temperature almost touched 50C some days. It’s unbelievable and unbearable. Almost 100 people died here due to this consequence of Global warming. The worst effect of the warming is massive flood in Indian subcontinent, another catastrophe but different in nature. What I heard from one of my Greek colleague is, if the summer continues like this way, part of Greece will be desert in few years, but I really don’t know the authenticity of it.

Well, keeping aside the Global warming, what I observed this time is nature lost its color here in Greece, its bit shabby but still enchanting. The sky is not that blue (so as the water as it’s the reelection of the sky), but very natural. See the original version of the picture below on the way to Meteora.

Meteora is wonderful, formed by many big meteors it’s a true gift of nature. The nearest town from his place is Kalambaka, almost 400km away from Athens. Passing through lovely crowded beaches to small gray mountains it took almost four and half hour to reach Meteora. I was the only driver and it was tough for me to drive 800km in a day, especially in hilly highways. This is my longest drive as a driver and enjoyed every moment of it with Hindi songs, witty comments with co-passengers and cokes.

The first view of the place is very impressive; the fascinating rocks bewildered me in first glance .Greek: Μετέωρα, "suspended rocks", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above", however there are many theories for the rocks creation, like meteors, dropped from sky; nothing is full proven. But it looks amazing, soothing heavenly, very unique and absolutely natural. That’s the reason it is considered to be one of the best tourist attractions of Greece.

We were hungry and not wasting any time started searching for restaurants. But in the mountains there was hardly any house or restaurants. We found one board “Eagel Restaurant – 8 km from here” and followed the path. It took us to the top of the mountain and driving there would have been extremely difficult if not the infrastructures are so good. Scenic beauty was fascinating and so the Lunch. Very tasty traditional Greek Lunch in cheap price (compared to islands).

Meteora is not only famous for the natural beauty of rocks, mainly because of the world-famous monasteries. I am going to write about them in my next post.

Weekend Photo Upload: Videos of Paros & Naxos

Naxos Island


Paros Island

Weekend Photo Upload 10: Small Vedio of Sunion

The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion

The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion is one of the main attractions of Greece.

I have been twice and still I feel to go there. In my second visit, I enjoyed more than the first one. I strongly feel this is must seen place, and very easily reachable from Athens.

The site is accessible by road from Athens .This is the scenic highway 91, which closely follows the west coast of Attica (the "Attic riviera"), passing through numerous upscale residential districts and resorts, such as Glyfada, Vouliagmeni, Varkiza. There is a regular municipal bus service to Sounion from Omonia Square. (from wikipedia)

As I mentioned in my first post the driveway is just amazing, probably the best I have ever had. Even our manager from Germany, who was in a short visit to Greece, agrees that it’s much better than the coastal drives of US. The beauty of the driveway is wonderful for the combination of different gray colour of rocks and hills and the other way the red and blue combination of setting sun in Mediterranean. The green valleys and modern-old houses was enriching the sceneries.

We left Athens through Glyfada and took the coastal root. We were in the coastal town of Anavassos, famous for its seaside fish taverns, after that couple of nice beaches in blue Mediterranean. Every bent of the hills unfolded fascinating secrets of nature. I cant express the beauty of the place, quoting some lines from Matt Barrett's Greece Travel Guides

As you leave the coastal suburbs of Athens you pass towns and settlements,
mostly in bays, harbors and beaches. Some Athenians have built their summer and
weekend homes out here and villages have sprung up out of nowhere. But the
closer you get to Sounion on the tip of the Attiki peninsula the less houses
there are until finally you come to a few hotels and a nice little beach with
two tavernas. The temple of Sounion sits above the beach on a mountain that juts
out into the sea and was dedicated to Poseidon. In ancient times the temple was
the last sign of civilization the Athenians saw as they sailed away from home..

The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion

And the details of the temple is quoting from this site.

The temple that we see today was built in 444 BCE and stands on the site of an
older temple. An Ionic frieze, made from 13 slabs of Parian marble, is located
on the east side of the temple's main approach path. The frieze is very eroded,
but is known to have depicted the mythological battle of the Lapiths and
Centaurs, the Gigantomachia, and the adventures of the hero Theseus who was said
in some legends to be the son of Poseidon. The east pediment (of which only a
seated female figure is preserved) probably depicted the fight between Poseidon
and Athena for the domination of Attica. Local marble, taken from quarries at
nearby Agriléza, was used for the temple's 34 slender Doric columns. The
remaining 15 columns have been restored. When the temple was built there were
special features incorporated which helped it combat its unique location on the
water's edge. The columns were cut with only 16 flutings instead of the usual
20, thus reducing the surface area exposed to the elements and subsequently
reducing the corrosion caused by the constant sea spray.

The temple of Poseidon is truly amazing; the robust architecture just in the end of mainland reminded me Kannyakumarika of India (the south most point). The sunset from this point is just awesome, but we were unlucky because the sky was clouded. But the view of small islands in the sea, the boats in serene Mediterranean, and the temple in land side made it one of the favorites of mine.

A view of the sea from Poseidon Temple

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

Nominations for Seven Natural Wonders

Please nominate some Indian treasures for new seven natural wonders . My nominations are Sundarbans and Himalayas.
One can very well ask why so, these are wonderful creatures but not that special to be listed in 7 wonders. My answer is why NOT. I have not seen such unique natural creation like these two in my lifetime, one is typical mangrove forest(largest in world) with wonder creature of nature - The Royal Bengal Tiger and another the best among mountains, highest pick of the World, lovely natural beauty with green valleys.
I have to find some pics of these trip and soon modify this post.

Weekend Photo Upload 7: Eiffel Tower, Paris

A view from the Top

10 Tips for Travel Photography

The way I prefer to capture my trips are written down, this may differ with someone. I may have missed some basic points, or may be I only told about basic points here, but it can be helpful for beginners. Please put a comment./suggestions the way you like to capture or if you do not agree with some of the tips.

Use digital camera

I used to take pics with still camera even 2 years back, but later I found there is no added advantage of still camera over digital camera, except some professional reason where only original shots are considered.

One can take as much pics, where ever and when ever needed, can see the shot instantly and delete/retake at that point of time, can store in computer/CD/pen drive, can print anytime by using digital camera, without bothering the loading of films. Its now very

cheap and if you have not switched to digital, do it asap.

Take at least one backup shot

We always have to take photos in a short time frame while traveling, so there is high chance that any shot may be shaken or not taken perfectly or something has come in middle or some part of it has not been captured in the frame. So it is always wise to take a backup shot, specially for the precise pics.

Try different angles

Gamlasthan in Stockholm

Avoid flat photography while doing travel photography. Try to use one predicate to the main subject. Like taking a shot of a castle keeping the main gate as a part of it. Sometime the angles provide amazing look to the pictures. See the following picture where three things has been captured through a unique angle.

Take small videos

This is really important to give a feel of the place, specially for the moving things, sounds, different landscape in many directions. If you are using any DSLR, it is better to carry another normal digital camera through which you can take small videos. However, I personally don’t like to use Video cameras/Camcorders to capture constantly. The movies that I have taken years back have not seen after few days for many reasons, and this is same for almost all of my friends.

Use different modes /exposures/ apertures

Sunset in Sunion

This is very important, specially for the beginners. Try to avoid Auto mode as much as possible and use portraits / landscape / night / close / moving mode appropriately. Why this is important because of the separate combinations of ISO/aperture/Shutter speed is used for each of these one, which helps to captures the subject at the point of time. For an example the portrait needs low DOF, so high aperture is needed whereas in Landscape we need to have wide region in focus, thus low aperture is needed; in night shot the ISO and Shutter speed has to be maximum, but in moving it has to be minimum.

For the advanced users one small trip is to take the same picture in different exposures. It gives different look of the place/subject.

Do necessary adjustments/edits through s/w

This I do often, specially to corp (resize)/sharpen (to sharp)/ Auto contrast/ Colour saturation/ remove hue/fill light etc. These small effects sometime make an ordinary picture extraordinary. In net there are many free soft wares available for photo editing like Picasa, photoshop etc. You can start trying anyone of these two.

BW/Tint/Sepia looks

Seaside in Athens

The Black n White/Sepia/ Tint looks make a picture quite different. You have to choose the appropriate one depending on the contrast and subject. Like a picture of Sunset will not look good in BW, whereas a colourful houses will not look better in Sepia, so its your taste and judgment to use these features through some soft wares.

Try to take 2/3 skyline in landscape shots

Countryside in Denmark

However there is no mandatory rule, but still a skyline I the middle makes a picture more flat. Usually the skyline is kept in the upper half (2/3 from the bottom) if the main focus is on the land, but if you have to focus the sky I prefer to keep the skyline in the lower half (2/3 from the top), as I have done in the above picture.

Take unusual shots

Hand Riksa in Kolkata

This makes the difference from a normal traveler and a photo traveler. The unusual subjects like the local people, small houses, windows, doors, uncommon wild life, street lights, small statues, special features of the place, local transports, people’s look, the trees etc all these captures the whole essence of the place. It also reflects your innovative look and artistic scene as well as the enrichment of the place.

Take the snap by any means

If you think that the shot is worth capturing, just do it. Even if you have to stop your car/reverse the car, have to go top of a small hill or down the roads, whatever it may be, if it is not risky do it to capture the shot. The same point was mentioned in one of the posts of Rambling Traveler blog by Stacy, and I strongly suggest this one, because you may not get second chance to capture the shot in your lifetime, may not get the same sky, same view and same opportunity.

Weekend Picture upload 6: Stockholm @ Night

Victoria Memorial : Kolkata

I have passed though the nearby roads, but never seen the inner beauty; have been to the garden once, but never felt to enter the great architectural beauty of modern Kolkata, Victoria memorial. Built in 1921(Started in 1906), by W Emerson in the Indo-Saracenic style, this landmark is considered one of the remarkable monuments of today’s World.

It was made on the honor of British Queen Victoria, who was an Empress of India and a ruler par-excellence, a person close to the hearts of Indians. Unlike other governor generals she helped the natives, understood the grievances and concerns, and taken effective measures.

It looks quite like the Taj Mahal. The white marbles it is made up were came from the same quarries in Rajasthan that supplied the Taj, to the similar main dome, octagonal domed chattris, the high portals, the terrace, the domed corner towers, and the correspondence in the function – both were conceived as memorials to Expresses, Victoria Memorial is evidence of W Emerson’s great admiration of the Mughal masterpiece.

Finally last weekend I happened to witness the inner beauty of this majestic architecture. The paintings, galleries, and the Calcutta museum is something noteworthy, but nothing compare to the Mahal. I liked some of the painting of British painters, on Kolkata; some initial photographs of small townships of Kolkata, some of them are world class, but neglected like nothing, kept open in the hot and humid weather decades after decades.

In the main entrance the gigantic lions (one of them is in the picture below, which is edited in picasa and a part of my virtual series)and in the back the gate and the extremely well maintained greenish garden (which is considered the heavens for couples in Kolkata) are fascinating to watch, a beautiful experience. Specially the view from the balconies of the main building is really enchanting(picture above).

The entry fee Rs 10/- for Indian nationals, but 150/- for foreign nationals. I liked this concept, because Rs 150/- is less then 2GBP, 3Euro, 4USD, which is cheaper than entry fee of any castle or museum. But what I don’t like is the way it is documented and maintained. One foreign traveler was looking to some information in the board in the entrance, but was very unhappy with the outcome. It was some general guidelines to keep the premises clean, not to walk on the grass of the gardens etc. Its simply funny because every visitor expects some historical details in the entrance. What more surprising to me is photography is not allowed in the gallery (museum). May be it is because the flashes of cameras damage the paintings or because of the security reasons photography is prohibited here. We really don’t know how to promote tourism; don’t have the mentality to make something different. The concerns for this landmark has equally expressed in Ananda’s Blog, where he describe the mishandling of 'Angel of Victory' (as can be seen in the photo above, atop the dome). After fifty years of independence why there is no big architectures like this, why the initiative has not taken or we don’t have that projection. Because of we lack our vision; we prefer to work with our personal and self centric goals.