Are you a Matrix fan?
I was obsessed with the first movie in 1999, I've seen it so many times! We even used, with my friends, to watch the last scene and with the sound of end credits by Rage Against the Machine to start our evening before we hit the bars :)
The second and the third one was not as good and when I heard that there is a fourth one coming in 2021, I was a bit skeptical about it. But I watched it any way and I don't regret it. But I don't want to make a movie review. I just want to share the obvious truth that come before me during the movie!
The Matrix Resurrections is somehow a mixture of the previous 3. Old scenes are integrated with the new ones, the story is pretty much the same and the line of Trinity sums it up beautifully:
Thank you for giving us an other chance.
You may have noticed that some Sundays I use the #showcasesunday tag, an initiative of @nonameslefttouse meant to revive old and potentially undervalued posts. Do you get my point? This is the exact same concept!
Congratulations @nonameslefttouse, your idea made it all the way to Hollywood! This is definitely a #showcasesunday movie :)
So in honor of this brilliant idea I am going to present you today, a mixture of 5 older posts that illustrate one journey I had, in August 2020. And after all, I fancy the idea το gather all the material in one post instead of all those scattered ones.
It all started as a short van trip. My partner and I are living at the east side of Crete, in Greece and we had never done a proper tour at the west side of the island. We were planning to do that trip in June but we didn't made it, so we rescheduled for July. But in July it wasn't possible either! And then it was August and we hate to go on vacation in August! But we needed a break so we figured to leave for a few days and consider September for a longer trip.
On August 3rd it was the full moon which we enjoyed at an archeological site next to our home. The next morning we prepared our van and hit the road going west. On September 2nd there was one more full moon and we were still on the road :)
Don't imagine that Crete is so big that you have to drive for weeks in order to cross it but it is so fascinating that you can spend many months wandering around and still it will have more to offer! The most remote place that we have reached was 300 km (186 miles) from our home but we managed to make a 5 weeks journey of 1500 km (932 miles) out of it!
Let's start with two 2 panoramic pictures.
The first one is from the most unexpected and secluded place on the coast, literally under the noise of thousands of tourists that do not have a clue! Totally charming, totally unknown and I am totally not going to say where is it :)
The second one is from a plateau at an attitude of 600 meters (almost 2000 feet). The mountain you can see is part of the mountain range "Lefka Ori" meaning in Greek "White Mountains". If you look the top of it you'll understand why!
Those two sceneries are illustrating pretty good our trip. Gorgeous secluded beaches and harsh, remote mountains, that was our daily routine. The perfect places to satisfy the hunger for new discoveries and at the same time the ideal places to listen to your own thoughts.
The next pictures are from the big (there is also a small) beach of Triopetra. The name means three-stones and I guess you can easily understand why!
The 3 pictures below are all taken about the same time from the same spot and I have to admit that I don't find myself very often on a place that provides an amazing, well lit scenery in every direction I look!
Looking east
Looking North
Looking West
The whole trip was focused on remote places away from the masses of tourists and the crowded attractions. Nevertheless we did make a stop at one of the most popular landmarks of Crete!
Lake Preveli attracts thousands of tourists every summer to admire the second (after Vai) biggest palm tree forest at Crete and cool off in the water of the river that flow into the sea!
But even in August you can enjoy it practically alone. Just go there early in the morning, finish your walk by ten o'clock and go away before eleven when it starts to look more crowded than the streets of New York!
And that's exactly what we did :)
It is a magical place and although it was burnt to the ground ten years ago, the trees have miraculously recover and nature has restore it's balance. If you are close don't neglect to visit it. You won't regret it!
Road trips are always interesting but unplanned ones can be really fascinating! We were driving along the south coastline of Crete heading west, with no specific program or timetable.
It was the second week of our trip when we decided to detour from our coastal route and explore a bit the highland scenery. What we didn't know was that this detour would be the "checkmate" of our trip!
After practicing my driving skills to consecutive u-turns we reached the harsh beauty of the mountains.
And when we were about to return to the beach that we had camped the previous night, we saw a sign pointing to a place that we had never heard of.
Of course we followed it :)
At first all we saw was a meandering dirty road and some annoyed goats but in a while the stunning view come to affirm that we were on the right road!
The end of the road led us to a tiny settlement with just three buildings and a beach! And it was all we needed!
We spent there the busiest days of Greek summer, the ones around the 15th of August and yet we remained in a chilled, low key vibe, enjoying the breathtaking sea and the amazing scenery!
A trip to Crete is all about amazing beaches and lovely seaside settlements but it is also about majestic mountains and epic hiking routes! It is a big mistake to visit this big and multifarious place and avoid the highland since that's exactly the place to capture the true essence of the island!
The building at the picture above, is the shelter of "Volikas" at an altitude of 1450 meters (about 4.800 foot) on the north part of the "Lefka Ori" mountain and it is the highest point of my trip in August. Despite of the clouds, hiking in the heat of the summer was not a very wise decision so I promised to myself to go back on another season and explore properly all the area around!
Another truly unexpected twist of our trip was the descent into a cave with wonderful stalactites that is closed for the public! I owe that experience to my partner that did all the googling to locate the key-keeper and to an amazing coincidence!
The cave has a tiny entrance closed with an iron hatch. The man that holds the key lives in a village nearby and he is the one that actually found this cave a few decades ago. Now he is too old to go into the cave and allows only to members of speleology societies to enter, with a previously arranged appointment. And lucky us an appointment like that was arranged for the same day we were around!
Τhe two best things when you spend a night in the mountains is the incredibly fresh air and the mesmerizing view! Below are a few shots of a glorious morning that had both!
The last picture is dedicated to the noble creatures that dominate the scenery and were always discreetly monitoring us!
Below you can find the links to the original posts:
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
Commenting, upvoting and rebloging are highly appreciated!
I have not watched The Matrix Resurrections (2021) so far. Now I know that it is a mixture of the previous three movies, and that the "the story is pretty much the same". Maybe it would have been better to write something like "spoiler alert" before writing these lines. There could be many people, who have not watched this movie yet.
Navigating those roads must've been hair raising! But those places?!!! WOW! WOW!! WOW!!!! You and Fotini are blessed with truly beautiful and quiet places. How special.
Yes, Crete has many amazing locations!
And many awful roads, but we are used to it :)
Sounds like here
Thank you @qurator and @ackhoo !
Again :)
I've been meaning to get around to telling you that whole tag kind of died... LOL.
Some great shots here though. Solid work.
Haha, am I the only one using it?
Too bad I have found it very handy :)
Thanks!
It was meant to breathe new life into old work and I even stated direct copy/paste was doing it wrong but people ignored that part, got lazy, and ruined it for everyone. But yeah, it's done. People can still breathe new life into old work, especially images, when combined with new writing for instance, any day of the week. Even a meme image gets used a million different ways, right. There's no more #showcase-sunday though.
Farewell to it then!
Thanks for letting me know.
Great mixture you have created such a great bunch of images together. When it comes to Matrix, I have HATED this new one.
Thank you @sergiomendes, I am glad you like the pictures!
And I am sorry you hated the movie. It is never nice to spend 2 hours of your life to something you don't like at all!
I know... yeah the fact that it was so long it was another of the reasons I that made me not liking it. Come on... It didn't need to be that long. Maybe if they have compressed it in 1 hour and a half I would have enjoyed it more.
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It amazes me to see a landscape and view that seems otherworldly to a continental dweller and far from this place that may be a bridge between continental and tropical (or desert) climates.
When a true photographer encounters a magnificent landscape the result is what I saw in your post! I can't find any other words to characterize, it just takes time to be able to see all the posts you have mixed here. Speaking of which... I'm sorry this tag died. I think rereading some of the older posts, mixing them up, or livening them up would be helpful for everyone who wants to read something of quality here.
Thanks for the beauty, @fotostef!
Your comments make me blush @bluemoon :)
Thank you very much, you must be my biggest fan!
There should be more fans. I don't know what it is about these people, they don't read much.
I've only just looked at your site, at your photos. I love them!
I admire the beauty of these places. Looking at your posts, Stefanos, a trip to Greece is already a dream for me. Of course, your posts deserve the highest reward!
Thank you very much Olga. I hope you'll have your dream trip really soon and that it would be even better than you can imagine :)