(filtered by month 'August 2013')

Angali beach, Folegandros

Beaches are probably not phenomena that attracts tourists to Folegandros. At least not most of them. Apart from some beaches around port Karavostasis all other are not very accessible. I don't mean those you need to use boat to get there, just those accessible by walking 20 minutes from bus stop or even more if you don't settle for the first one.

BTW, plural in title might suggest there will be "analysis" of many beaches, but you cannot do that in 3 days. So 2 beaches must be enough. I am sorry for that.

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For such a small island I wanted to show too many photos. They would not fit into single post and my original approach with several pages per post was not very successful - people haven't noticed there is another page (at least those looking at photos). So now I try to separate them in individual posts.

That leads me to this small and potentially strange post - about our accommodation in Chora and about nearby church. What links them together is direct visibility from one to other.

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The second island belonging to Cyclades we had visited was Φολέγανδρος. What a difference to Santorini. I don't mean different geology, but how I felt there. While Santorini is touristy, busy and commercial, Folegandros is quiet and not many tourists find it. Locals live their lives and that is part of its magic.

I felt much better in Foldegandros than in Santorini. Finally we had an option to relax. Lonely Planet said it nicely: "Turn off the clocks on dreamy Folegandros". Some people might say there is nothing on Folegandros, but for me that is the point. 3 or 4 full days are probably sufficient to see everything interesting, but more might be needed for proper relaxing. We have been there for 3 days (arriving in the morning of the first day and leaving in the evening of the 3rd day) and certainly we could stay longer.

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Red beach, Santorini, Greece

There is more to Santorini than just towns with white houses and churches with blue domes. There are also beaches and ruins of ancient towns. Definitely, the beaches are different compared to what most of people are used to.

Let's look at them in order we have visited them.

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Wind mill in Oia, Santorini, Greece

Οία is the Santoriniest place of whole Santorini :-) When you search for Santorini, you will probably find more photos from Oia, than from any other place. Even web ad companies still show me glimpses of Oia thinking I am interested in holiday again. Stupid cookies.

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Firostefani is another town in Santorini or maybe it is part of Fira, I don't know. It's name suggests that and also there is no clear separation between them. Nevertheless I decided to write about it in separate post.

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Fira, Santorini, Greece at night

We wanted to go to Santorini for quite long time. Long enough we have already forgotten whose idea it was. Eventually we planned it for following September. That was, according to our information, the best time of year to go there. But I started to be impatient in April and started searching for information just in case our source of information was wrong. And eventually we have learned, that we like more weather statistics for late May or early June than what September offers.

Quick preliminary search for flight and accommodation prices, then allocate free time and we can start serious price hunting. I handled before mentioned areas, Zuzka looked into our itinerary. And it would not be her if she wanted to stay at one place for whole time. So she added also nearby islands Folegandros and Milos. "Those are beautiful islands, but they don't have international airport. Do you see my point?". "Yes, I do :-)"

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Our company event continued also on Saturday. According to plan, those of us with stamina and courage will hike some unmarked path to summit of some mountain with rescuer and mountain guide. But then it was decided we all will go together to hike like normal people do :-)

I guess that disappointed our guide Juraj Majer. But what he could expect from bunch of IT guys? On the other hand we were disappointed next morning, when he told us it is too windy for helicopter rescues. So our 1€ insurance will not turn out into helicopter ride. We should probably stick to hiking safely :-)

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This blog is long overdue, but my free time is not what I was used to anymore.

Company I work for had a company event last October in High Tatras. I could not miss such an opportunity. And also our best customer from USA used it for getting to know us better, not to mention to see nicer part of Slovakia than Bratislava :-) Looking back at it, it was probably a bit irresponsible to "force" people giving you money to hike in the mountains but they fared well. And survived. All of them. :-)

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