My Greek retreat

Athens

This retreat would be one of the most memorable and joyful one we have experienced so far after Italy. We spent most of our time in one of the most beautiful Greek island in the world, Santorini. We have amply experienced numerous situations from an adventurous sort, and dramatic ones, to comical situations where we have literally laughed out our bellies, and superstitious encounter. We have been to the Acropolis, dined traditional Greek food and wine (beer for me); walked from along the mystical narrow streets of both Athens and Santorini to climbing treacherous steep steps of rocks and stones; stood with both arms stretched out in freedom on the summit of cities while feeling the breeze in the air coming from the Mediterranean sea, swam in the Mediterranean sea to one of its hot-springs with my almost broken left foot, got farted in my face by another donkey while on a donkey ride up the hills of Santorini; and finally sat in and relax to watch the famed sunset of Santorini.

The ever delicious lamb souvlaki pita wrap. In it, lamb meat, tomato, onions, french fries (optional), tzatziki sauce (Mmmm...)

The weather was superb upon arrival in Athens and Santorini. It was hot and I could feel the scorching sun in my face. As a result, the zebra-tanning I got was especially visible on both my feet. I wore sandals for the entire trip. We didn't move around much in Athens besides visiting the Acropolis, the ruins of Agora, and looking for reasonably priced Greek food by night. For the latter, the one thing that caught my eyes was the number of kebab outlets all over Athens and I was captivated by the pita wrap (a.k.a pita-kalamaki). Not knowing what it was called when I was supposed to pay for one first, we had waited for more than 5 minutes for someone to buy it so I can point to the cashier that that is what I wanted because everything on the menu was in Greek. Immediately I went up to the cashier and pointed to that customer who just walked away with "MY" dinner pita. It cost €1,70 (take out) and €3,40+ (eat in). Soon enough after I took my first bite I realized why almost every tourists have had a souvlaki pita. It was awesome! From this point forward, dramatically, we kept having souvlaki pita for the remaining days of our trip.

One of the many ancient ruins in the city of Athens.

Panoramic view of one of the temples on Acropolis.

"Athens is a dump", according to one of the many comments from forums and friends. I would personally consider myself fortunate to have heard of such comments as it helped tamed my expectations. I wasn't exactly disappointed nor impressed as a result however, I was enjoying my trip more. There were a number of amazing things and people I have come across and I guess that was what made our entire trip worthwhile. I was disappointed only because I couldn't stick a gum onto the foot of Zeus. But He's in Olympia, which we did not visit.

Anyway, as for Acropolis (as well as most entrances to historical sites and museums), students studying in any academic institutions in the EU may be admitted for free. There is no need to buy tickets as long as you produce your student's ID card at the ticket office where you will be issued a ticket nevertheless. We both went in with our expired SID! This piece of information is probably NOT covered in travel guides such as Lonely Planet Guides, and the like. It is best recommended to visit either early in the morning or a little towards the evening where there will not be many tour groups. The site opens at 08:00 and closes at 19:00. No bags larger than a reasonably sized hand-carry will be allowed on site and you must check it in a 'cloak room'. It is free. There's a water fountain on the site if you just want to travel ultra-light (just yourself, your camera, and perhaps your tripod).

Why Do I Always Bring My Tripod? (Sub-article)
So far in many of our trips, I have overheard many people noticed us fumbling about and around our camera and tripod saying stuffs like:
"Oh, we should have got/brought a tripod", in regret;
"ooh, that's very handy. Look, they've got a tripod". ETC.
Everybody takes pictures of everything to their satisfaction. When you want your picture taken because you particularly liked the scenery behind you, people would definitely snap it for you. But you will make the person you chose at random to shoot your picture feel bad if you repeatedly requested him/her to do it one more time till s/he gets it right. Time wasted. You feel bad because you can't have the picture you wanted. You don't expect anybody to know The Rule of the Third. You are always placed dead-spot on the center of the picture when the particular scene you wished to captured is actually far right of the frame.

As soon as you gave up your camera to another to snap a picture of you, you loose control of it, therefore, you would not expect the picture to turn out the way you wanted it. Well, out of 100 people, there are almost probably 43 people with an SLR camera. However, of that 43 people, I can be sure that there are less than 13 people who are actually at least semi-pro photographers OR at least understands how to should a picture be shot and where the subject (such as yourself) should be framed. If I had to choose people at random, I would begin by looking at these 13 people. Then I would look if s/he owns other lenses, in particular higher-end ones, or gears or other camera accessories. If a default/basic lens if used, that usually tells me s/he is a newbie.

However, the easiest solution to this probable issue is to bring your own tripod. Get into your desired spot and frame your scene. Tell yourself where you want to stand. If you shoot manual (as I always do), I would take my meter readings and focus on passerby -- whoever walks in my line of fire. Set timer. Release shutter to trigger timer countdown. Run to that spot where you focused. Smile! *click!* Take Control!! This is why I bring tripod wherever I go. Another reason is mainly for night shots, where you just cannot rely on another random person to stand as still as me as though frozen with a smile for a 5 seconds exposure. I love natural lightings too much that I would not use flash for any reasons. Using flash at night would only shoot me, not the background. Besides, if you use tripod, you stand out among the crowds. It's like the tour guide telling his group that that slab of stone has some famous historical facts to it and everybody starts to shoot pictures of that stone not knowing if they were bluffed. Your tripod and camera pointed at a particular direction has similar effect. It tells people you know what you're shooting! ;)

Panoramic view capturing the all-too-well-known Parthenon seated above the city.

Looking beyond the city's skyline.

Shot under one of the most beautiful stoa in ancient Agora, which was a marketplace.

More pictures of Athens can be found here.

The vast land mass of the Acropolis from Agora.

The cross section of a smaller Greek pillars that's ubiquitous in Athens.

High street of Athens.

An open philharmonic auditorium?

The crossed path.

Just a thought on the picture above. If you are single and looking you would probably understand this better. There have been countless of times when your Mr/Miss. Right walked passed you and you did not even know it happened. Maybe you will meet him or maybe you will never. No one will ever know. OR it could be that the person you just passed has a 95% resemblance to your previous lover.

This picture attempts to recreate that very moment when the two walked passed each other only to realize it could have been love at first sight, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

The famous four ladies sculpture in one of the ruins on Acropolis. Postcard shot!