Does anyone know how to change the selfie mode called “Beauty face” on a cheap ass Samsung phone? It’s really pissing me off. I am ROCKIN’ the selfie on this trip, okay, I know they pretty much all look the same, me in front of clear water smiling, so maybe I’m not rockin’ it per se, but I am attempting to take them at least. I’m not kidding, two words describe my selfie-taking skills…I suck. And that’s probably mostly due to lack of interest, and that when taking a self-portrait, I was trained to use a tripod, SLR, a self-timer and film. I also don’t have the most advanced phone (think a more grown up version of a Motorola Blur), but my niece, who lives very far away, taught me how to appreciate the fine art of taking funny pictures of your own ass to make experts laugh at how crappy you are at selfies, so now it’s just another way we can crack ourselves up.
But I do not like this setting and Samsung or Android is forcing me to beauty face myself. Why can’t I change it to Auto or Pro? I mean I can use my SLR, but honestly, I feel like I’m insulting it. I can almost hear it say “How dare you. How dare you use me for something so pedestrian, you…you neophyte. Don’t you know I have mirrors and advanced optics and sensors and that I am built to help you control perspective and light and now you’re holding me above your head like I’m a … phone??”
What the what? Where did all my normal face lines go? And my pores. I did not sign up for this. And why hasn’t anyone told me I was cross-eyed? I do have a mosquito bite on my eyelid, but still. Why can’t “Beauty face” fix that!? It looks like a really bad photoshop job. Or that someone slapped an inch of vaseline on my face. When I saw it on my phone screen I was like, oooh, that looks okay, I look relaxed, I have a nice tan, you can’t see my upper arm flab, but when I saw it on my computer screen I screeched like I would if I saw a mouse. Beauty face bad. Beauty face very scary. But I don’t know, I might wear more blue stuff…( ;
So the first real excursion I took was on foot, to Poros along the unnamed coastal road. The sign in Skala said it was 12km (about 8 miles) so I figured I could easily walk there in the morning, have a nice lunch and take a taxi back before starting work since there is not a lot of public transportation here. Walking along Skala beach, I passed some of the big hotels, but it still doesn’t seem overdeveloped. The buildings are pretty low and they are set back from the beach road, sometimes fronted by tavernas, or gas stations or supermarkets. It might be entirely different in July and August, but now it was very quiet and really lovely.
First stop was to check out the Archaic Temple in daylight. Dated at around the 6th century BCE, these ruins have some nice Doric columns and evidence of five or six rooms in situ. Early excavation produced some interesting terracota artifacts, specifically dice, which I think may be in the Argostoli Museum, but unfortunately it was closed all season. The site was discovered in the early 1800s and first excavated by Spyridon Marinatos (of Akrotiri fame) in 1960. Although it is classified as a temple, there is no evidence of an altar and although I’ve seen it referred to as a temple to Apollo, I don’t think that’s conclusive. Adjacent to the temple is the 19th Century chapel of Ayios Giorgios (St. George) and also evidence of another earlier Christian church. It is very common at ancient sites across the Mediterranean, and probably everywhere really, to see multiple religious buildings built next to or on top of ancient temples and sanctuaries, sometimes the newer buildings using existing walls and columns or other architectural elements of the ancient buildings in their construction.
Next, was to just enjoy the scenic hike along the coast, photograph some of the enchanting landscape, swim at some hidden beaches and have a nice lunch by the sea in Poros. This was one of favorite days here. What an amazing coastal road! Outside of Skala and past the temple, it seems like every 10 minutes there is a path down to another secluded beach and as you get closer to Poros the landscape changes and the road winds through barren hills with spectacular views of Mount Atros. I could have spent all day going from beach to beach but just went to two for quick swims and photos since I had to be back in Skala by 3.
Hungry and thirsty and hot, I just went to the first taverna I saw on the paralia, Totolinos, I think. Couldn’t wait for an ice cold Mythos, some souvlaki and tzatziki and just sat down, apparently in the wrong taverna. In about 10 minutes, a very nice woman from the wrong taverna brought me over to the one I intended to go to. Her name was Vicky and she started chatting to me in her very limited English and I chatted back in my even more limited Greek. Mine consists of pointing to myself and blurting out my name or the name of the town where my grandfather is from or random words or sentences I know. I wanted to translate something from English to Greek so I asked her, but she looked at me with the same face I have when someone speaks to me in Spanish too rapidly. But our obvious lack of a common language did not stop her from sitting down and talking. We exchanged names and I told her I lived in New York and that I was part Greek and that part is from the Mani, a peninsula in the Peloponnese where I’ve been told inhabitants are infamous for their strong, unyielding disposition and vendettas. It’s beautiful, I visited my grandfather’s town with my sister years ago and the whole region is stunning. So she was also from the Mani, some place that started with a K (I should have wrote it down) and then she started talking about her yaya and I told her my yaya wasn’t Greek but my pappous was, and then she got up and pinched my cheeks and took my hand and wrapped her hand around it and said “Maniates” and then pointed at me and then pointed at herself and then tapped her own eye a few times. Maybe I shouldn’t have told her my grandfather’s last name.
Okay, it’s photo gallery time. I apologize for the ridiculous amount of pictures and multiple views of the same thing.
Lol loving the pictures. …to take beauty face off there should be a mode bottom or option and it should give you four options click auto and beauty face gone….I have nothing but samsung phones lol
So glad you’re enjoying the pics sweetie! I take too many. I was just walking around my new city in Spain today and I took like 20 pictures of one church! Porque? No se. Yeah, I just cannot switch the mode for selfie setting. It won’t let me. There’s just Beauty face, and only Beauty face. Now, I just took it out and there is a slider for Beauty face so I just set it to 0. So now I have 0 Beauty face…let’s see how that works. I want Beauty face gone! xoxo
My father was called maniaties by everyone when we went to greek gatherings.
I think her actions were equivalent to saying that you two were paesonas?
Yup, maniates was one of the words you taught me (along with scatta)…yeah that’s probably exactly what it was, but I don’t know, it’s kinda fun to think that maybe her family had a vendetta against our family way back when. You know me and my imagination! I do remember though, when we were there, we were smiling at everyone and everyone just looked at us suspiciously. It was very funny, we were like “Let’s not tell anyone our grandfather’s last name, okay?”