Kalafatis Beach Special: The Waiting Dog

Just when we were about to leave the beach, I saw a man dragging his canoe to the water while his dog was hopping around him with excitement. 

Alright, the story goes on below. Happy viewing!!!

The beginning

Kalafatis Beach, Mykonos

Kalafatis Beach is one of the earliest established beach at Mykonos, but it's more famous for its water sports. For tourists like us, we didn't get much to know the premise more, all we had was just about 30 minutes of sightseeing tour. Besides enjoying the scenery of the beach, we also took the chance to grab ourselves some Greek frappe and cappuccino from Thalassa Restaurant and sip them slowly under the hot sun.

Happy viewing!!! 

I assumed it's 12 Euro per "seat"...

Greek Trip 30/05/12: Mykonos

My first impressions on Mykonos was, the places seems a little "flat" if compared to Santorini, which were built along the cliff of the coastal area. Mykonos doesn't have much high ground though, and the first place that we arrived was Chora Port, and along Chora port there lies "Little Venice" where the buildings were stood less than 3 meter from the seaside.

This post is covering our destinations from Chora Port to Boni's Mill, and to Agios Ioannis.

The rest of the photo-stories shall be posted soon. Happy viewing!!!

Clockwise from top left: My breakfast, tendering process, the tendering boat navigator, Ester & Noelle

Greek Trip 29/05/12: An Unforgettable Evening At Santorini

夕阳无限好，只是近黄昏。That's a Chinese proverb saying that "a setting sun is utmost beautiful, unfortunately it does not last." That's how I felt when we about to leave the beautiful Santorini while enjoying the iconic sunset on our way to get our cable car.

Well, I'll leave the rest of the stories through my photos. Hopefully I can come back here to know you more, Santorini.

Mykonos will be posted after this, stay tuned. Happy viewing!!!

Popi with some "last words"

It was Angelos' birthday, what a coincidence

Popi doing some traffic work here

Santo Wines, Santorini

The clock was ticking towards evening time, and we had moved to another place called Santo Wines. There we had our Greek style dinner where they served authentic Greek Food. Guess what, it was our first encounter with Greek food. The verdict? Well, for the food that's served with meat, it tasted good. However the vegetable ones tasted quite weird, as mint was being added as one of the ingredients. Overall Greek food was okay for me.

There we also experienced ourselves with Greek dance performance, played along was the music, Zorba The Greek. After we finished our dinner, tasted some wine, bought some souvenirs, then we called it a day by heading back to Oia to get a cable car ride.

Happy viewing!!!

Oia, Santorini

Oia (pronounced as ee-ya) is an architectural picturesque town, and famous for its unique Venetian houses which were drenched in bright white color under the blue blue sky. Along the cliff of Oia are the remaining houses that survived from a large volcanic eruption many years ago which eventually sunk the center of the island.

Oia is surrounded by the ever blue Aegean Sea and remains as one of the popular tourist attractions. Oia looks amazing under a clear blue sky, but whenever the sun is setting, it turns to a even more beautiful paradise on earth that words can hardly describe. Well, I guess we were lucky enough to "witness" the sunset of Oia just before we got back to our cruise.

However, I shall only post some sunset scene right after this album. Hope you enjoy the photographs.

Happy viewing!!!

Interesting shadow

One, two, three donkeys!!!

Follow the sign

Greek Trip 29/05/12: Γεια σας Santorini

Γεια σας means "Hello" in Greek, and it's pronounced as "Yea Sou".

Long before I stepped my feet on Santorini, I've already seen lots of pictures on Santorini itself, and the signature colors, are none other than White and Blue.

And now, finally, I was here at Santorini. Call myself a little lucky and extremely excited to be here and explore the world-renowned tourist attraction by my own. 

Well, this post is mainly on boat tendering from the cruise and having a panorama view on Santorini coast from up above.

Full feature on Oia will be posted after this, thank you for stay tuned.

Happy viewing!!!

A glimpse of Santorini, zoomed in at 85mm

Greek Trip 28/05/12: Back To Corfu Town

Right after Petros dropped us at Corfu Town, we paid our fee and bid goodbye to him, we only have less than an hour for the town itself. So we just walked and looked around while walking back to the port. It was really rush but I still have some scenery to be presented on this post.

Gonna miss you, Corfu.

Up next, Santorini, oh yeah. Happy viewing!!! 

"Mess" on the fence

This is Mouse Island

The "standard" color of Corfu sea water

The Achillion Palace, Corfu

Alright, final attraction before we headed back to town to our cruise. This is a palace turned museum and located at Corfu coast and renowned for its classical architectural features.

This was built in 1890 by an Empress of Austria, Elisabeth of Austria, also known as Sisi. The palace was designed based on the mythical warrior Achilles as the theme. Achilles can be seen in most paintings throughout the palace, and two sculptors on the rooftop garden.

The palace has been playing different roll from then till now. It has become a summer retreat residence after the death of the Empress, as a military hospital for French and Serbian troops during World War I, military headquarters in World War II, converted into a casino and museum in 1962, and in present day it serves as a full time museum. James Bond (For Your Eyes Only) even has a casino scene being filmed at Achillion Palace in 1981.

Check out the rest of the photos below. Happy viewing!!!

From this scene, you may predict there's a number of tourist in the palace

We checked out the nearby stalls before entering

Petros' cab

At the main entrance

Paleokastitsa Beach, Corfu

We moved to the next spot after the monastery visiting, it's the Paleokastritsa Beach. The color of the sea is just wonderful, it's a gradient of 3 color tones; blue, turquoise and green. Besides that, the temperature of the sea water is unlike others, it's icy cool.

We don't have much time here though, so all we can do is enjoy the scenery (a quick one) and take some photos.

Happy viewing!!!

Petros dropped us here for a quick sightseeing

Paleokastritsa Monastery, Corfu

Second visited place at Corfu, it's the Paleokastritsa Monastery. It was built on top on a green hill above the beach of Paleokastritsa (it's quite hard to pronounce and remember this word), and it gives a majestic view of the island and the sea.

The premise was dated back in 1228, has a small museum with rare Byzantine icons, holy books and other relics. Plus, there's a few sleepyhead cats lazing around each corner of the monastery.

Kindly check out the previous post here. Thank you.

Happy viewing!!!

Greek pooches

Love locked

Greek Trip 28/05/12: Corfu, First Impression

Right after we landed and went through custom clearance, we bumped into a few cab drivers who also were also being "unofficial" tourist guide for those passengers who didn't purchase shore excursion tour. So after some negotiations we chose to follow a Greek cab driver named Petros.

Petros offering us 30 € per person for a tour around a few tourist attractions around Corfu. First stop, we were going to some higher ground for a panoramic view on Corfu.

Happy viewing!!!

Check out

Sunny

Corfu, Upon Docking

Finally, after 24 hours of cruising and waiting, it's land ahoy! Weather was fine and breezy, which you can see it through some of the photos below. It's just great to land and go out there and explore how Corfu looks like, and it will appear on the upcoming post.

Happy viewing!!!

Ready for some actions

Warm light and cool breeze, such a mix feeling

I didn't expect a ring flare appear on this photo

Exploring Norwegian Jade

This post is roughly about how I spent a day on the cruise, with my camera with me all the time. The day after that, we will be at Corfu island, Greece. 

Coming up next.

Happy viewing!!!   

Oops, I've been spotted

The crushing water creates a beautiful pattern

Breakfast, Norwegian Jade

After we board the cruise, we have to stay for another 24 hour at sea in order to reach our first destination, Corfu. Why not starts the day by having a good breakfast, and photograph the lovely food at the same time.

Happy viewing!!!

Someone ordered breakfast

Sunrise Over Adriatic Sea, The Next Morning

I had my watch and iPhone's time parred with the local time zone the day before, so I followed the cruise' log for the next sunrise, and it turned out quite accurately where the sun rises at around 6 something in the morning. 

It was a lovely morning. Happy viewing!!!

Lonely sleepyhead in the elevator, ready for some sunrise scenes

Majestic

Playing with silhouette

Sunset Over Adriatic Sea

My first time capturing a sunset scene at sea, on board. Check out the previous post here.

Happy viewing!!!

Gorgeous setting sun without any distracting subject on the foreground

Greek Trip 27/05/12: Boarding Norwegian Jade

Here we are, so close to our transportation to Greece. Looking from the ground, The Norwegian Jade seems like a big ship, with a total of 14 decks. As the cruise starts sailing, we get a little sneak peek on Venice. So check out some of the scenes on board throughout the post.

Happy viewing!!!

Checking details

It's quite a huge ship, with 14 decks in total

A big sea gull hovering around the cruise

From Amsterdam To Venice

The stories go on, showing in this post is some scenes around Schipol Airport, some aerial views from the flight and upon arrival at Venice.

Please check out the previous post here.

Happy viewing!!!

Steel structure is all over Schipol Airport

Greek Trip 25/05/12 - KCH - KUL - AMS

This is our first ever trip to Europe. On the board are Noelle, Wei, Woon, Ester and me (of course). Our main destination is Greece, but before that, we have to fly over to Kuala Lumpur, fly to Amsterdam, and one more flight to Venice to board Norwegian Jade Cruise to the Greek region.

So this post and the rest of the followings will be my first travel blogs here, hope you all will like'em. Well, stay tuned for more great travel photos, sincerely captured by me.

Happy viewing!!!

Here comes the plane

Wei & Woon busy with their tablets while Noelle checking on out itineraries