Friday, July 30, 2010

Zakynthos Part III

Hello there girls
here is part III and final one from our vac to Zakytnhos

Day 6
Round the island tour by boat!!
As we were leaving the port of Zakynthos

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one thing you will see lots around the island are the fantastic caves
that one can reach mostly by sea!!

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We became really excited with all those places!!!The camera got fire from the number of photos we took there!!

Next it was the very known shipwreck beach!!It is the most spectacular place I have ever seen!The colour of the sea was out of this world!!
The only way I can describe the colour is the colour you see in the pool!!
So common for the pool but so divine for a natural place!!

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There were so many people on such a small beach that it was really weird!!
But it was the time that all those small boats were bringing people to see the beach!

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and a pic of me with the shipwreck in the background!

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After we passed this wonderful place we headed for another beautiful place on the island!!Porto Vromi!! It is a very beautiful little port!! It has very deep waters, around 1 km and they say that many submarines during WWII were using this place as a hideaway because of its depth!!
Also, a very strange thing about this place is that water has sculpted on a rock the face of poseidon as they locals have named it!! And very strangely you can see the face of a man on the rock!

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Next, we passed through Mitithres, the rocks I was telling you about
but hubby had gotten so seasick at that point that he was sleeping on the table!!

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Following, we reached another amazing beach ,called oasis and we dived from the boat into its emerald waters!!!

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and as our trip had a few more stops until we reached the port again
we saw this beautiful boat in the distance

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Day 7
we went to visit the church of Saint Dionysios who is the protector of the island!!

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This bell tower is exactly the same but smaller as the one that exists next to the Saint Marco's church in Venice!

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Zakynthos has never been occupied by Turks like the rest of Greece
so its only cililization influences were mostly western and especially Latin!

Next we went for a swim to another beautiful beach bar restaurant called
casa playa!!

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And that was our last day in Zakynthos!
The next day we began the journey back home!!
Along the road there are so many shops that sell pumkins
a type that we don't have in my town and it was really strange for us!!

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and we made a stop for lunch to Nafpaktos, a very beautiful little town
with a famous middle-ages castle!

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And this was the end of our small vacations!!
I hope that you enjoyed this ride with us!!
And maybe I showed you a small hint of how beautiful
Greece is with all its contradictions and problems!!
Even for us greeks it can be difficult but we love it
for its beauty is so striking and unique that I believe
no other place in this world has ever been so blessed with it
as Greece!!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Zakynthos Island Part II

ok girls here is the second part of our journey to
this superb place!!

Day 4

We visited a very special beach!Gerakas beach!
In Zakynthos you can find a very rare species of sea turtle
called Caretta Caretta and it is an endangered species!!
They love the gulf of Laganas in particicular and there
are many beaches on the isnald that are nesting beaches and people aren't aloud to enter at all or are partially aloud to visit them
as there are many tutle nest where they have laid their eggs and these
sites are covered in order for tourists not to step on them and
destroy the eggs!!
Gerakas beach is one of them!!


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at night we decided to visit a very known village for its night life on the island called Laganas!! So here it is

Laganas by day!

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I guess we love Tom Cruise too, xo, xo

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walking by day in this village it feels noone is there
but at night the streets are covered by thousands of tourists
that drink and dance!! Well not my favourite sight but
it exists only in this village!! The rest of the island is peaceful
and beautiful!

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So wanting to leave the crazy village of Laganas
we returned to the city of Zakynthos for an icecream!
We walked along Dionnysios Solomos square!!
He is our most beloved poet since the greek anthem lyrics
are taken from one of his famous poems called
"eleftheri poliorkimeni" which means
that the people who are under siege are free.
This poem refers to the siege of Mesolongi town here
in Greece and it's the town Lord Byron loved the most and died there!
So here it is Dionysios Solomos statue

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Day 5

we decided to have a round the island tour by car!! we tried to visit
various places and we started by visiting Alykes beach!

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On the road we found this extremely unique street shop that I had to
take its pic!

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and the view from this road shop was superb

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along with the beautiful goats we saw on the street!

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Following we went to a spot on the island that you can see the famous shipwreck beach from above!! The site is breathtaking!!!

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On our trip we found many shops that sold folklore items and I had to take a few shots of them as they are really superb!!

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the things you see in this photo are small carpets that have a decorative use on the walls of the houses!! They are really unique!!!

Next, on the day we found another amazing place called
Porto Limnionas.A really hidden small port from the sea but a really
amazing place with crystal waters and emerald colours!!

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There we ate at a very beautiful traditional tavern many local dishes
and really cheap and finally when they treat us the dessert after we
asked for the bill we really got crazy!!!

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It is a mix match of many different sweats. Cherry and orange sweats with
yogurt and another which is created with fried bread, cream and syrup!!
Amazing tastes and really delicious as all of them were home made and not
made in a pastry shop!!

And on our way back, we went through the center of the island where we wanted to visit a really great and and old temple of a very special Santa of the island called Santa Mavra!!
What we didn't expect was to find that the church had been burnt in a fire
in 2005 and it is currently in the process of reconstruction!! It was really heartbreaking to see how this spectacular temple ended up!!
Thank God all the people that visit the temple help in order for this
church to take its prior face!!!There is a big story behind the
building of this church!! It is said that a peasant found the
icon of Santa Mavra about 3 centuries ago and he took the icon to his house!
Every day for the next year the icon, as it is said was returning
in its original place, probaly pinpointing to the peasant that she wanted
her church to be built on that specific site!! And like this it happened!!
It is believed that this Santa has done many miracles and many people
are coming every year to pay their respects to the church!!

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And finally our day ended in the hotel room as we decided to stay in to rest as the next day we had to way up early to go to the round the
island tour by boat!!

This was our hotel room view!!

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Tomorrow I will post the 3rd and final part of our
trip to Zakynthos!!
Hope you like my small tour!!!
Hugs