my travels in pixels

Secure Internet Using public WiFi for banking or opening your password manager is not a good idea. What you need is a VPN - a virtual private network, like  Tunnel Bear . With the free version, you get 500mb free each month which is plenty if you only use it for banking. All you do is select the country you are in, there are many to choose from and click it to "on". Wait for it to log on and it will let you know when it is safe to start surfing in private. You can then open your password manager and banking websites. Just remember to turn it off when you have finished your banking or closed your password manager, or you will use up your quota. Password Manager When every website requires a different set of rules for making passwords it becomes impossible to remember them all. A password manager means you don't have to write all your usernames and passwords in a file or book. The main programs that are usually recommended are:  1Password , LastPass and Dashlane  - ...

Santorini (Σαντορίνη) Santorini is also officially known as Thira, so if you are trying to book a ferry, you need to look for Thira. The original name of the island was Kallístē which means "the most beautiful one". The name Thera - Greek (Thira - English) was reintroduced back in the C19th, but people prefer the colloquial name of Santorini. Santorini is a contraction of the words Santa Irini, Saint Irene was the name of the old cathedral in the village of Perissa. It sits on a volcanic caldera which has been filled with seawater. We stayed in two places on the island, in Oia on the western tip and the main town of Fira. It's very easy to navigate around as there is one main walking street through town. --> In hindsight, I would have just stayed in Oia or tried another island as Fira is just too busy and not very pretty. Our hotel in Oia was a cave hotel and we were right at the tip of the island. The weather on Santor...

Mykonos (Μύκονος) Our ferry I thought it would be easier to go to the islands by ferry, no waiting around in airports etc. I chose the fastest catamarans that are actually made in Tasmania, the SeaJet2 which takes only three hours from Piraeus to Mykonos. It leaves at 7am in the morning and gets in at 10am, so we grabbed some breakfast on the boat. Even though we arrived early, our room was available so we were able to check in straight away.  As a precaution I took a Bonine motion sickness tablet before we left and it worked brilliantly. It was a little rough and Lindsay even complained of not feeling well and he never gets seasick. There is a faint smell of stale cigarette smoke even though you aren't allowed to smoke on board. --> The Island isn't very big and the streets are narrow cobbled laneways without names. Even armed with a map it’s difficult not to get lost in the old town of Mykonos, the streets are like a maze and you ...

Our mainland route Driving from Delphi to Metéora we went through farming country. Cotton, crops and sheep. There is cotton all along the highway because the trucks that carry it from the farms are cages and the holes are about 7cm (3”) so it escapes as they drive along. Only one toll booth today with no-one manning it. It didn’t like my coins and we fed it much more than it needed while the cars behind us were getting frustrated at having to wait. Metéora (Μετέωρα) The Stone Forest Varlaam Monastery We had trouble finding the town let alone our hotel. Our GPS wouldn’t bring up Kalambaka. It turns out it can be spelt three different ways. We drove through a town about 21kms from where we needed to be to try and get WiFi because I had forgotten to take a screen dump of the map near our hotel but now we also needed to find the town. I had seen a sign but graffiti made it difficult to see where it was pointing. We double parked like the locals, found an open network and f...

The countryside from Olympia to Delphi through the mountains is gorgeous. Terracotta roofed houses surrounded by olive trees and Mediterranean Cypress aka Pencil Pines. The cypress grow on slopes and in valleys that have rocky and usually limestone soils in areas with hot dry summers and winter rain. Unlike the ones in Italy, these have a fair bit of the trunk showing like a normal tree, whereas in Italy the “leaves” go fairly close to the ground. The grey of the olive and the dark green of the cypress make a great contrast, but there isn't anywhere to stop to take a photo. Many of the roads outside the city have very wide shoulders and slow movers will drive partially in this lane to let you partially share the other lane to pass them regardless if there are double lines or traffic coming the other way. Freeway signs in Greek and English-Greek, check out the word for exit. The highway signs to minor towns are now only in Greek, in the Greek Alphabet, as well as some of ...