90 km/h Shakira in Spanish Caravans 24 hours break Movies Technical problems Toothpain Slushi souvenirs Sundried colors Nervous arogant spanish manager Spanish girls Turkish toilet “Rare” showers French girls Good german drivers Pinetrees Mountains and ocean Clean women toilet Transmitter Highway highway highway 10 km traffic jam Rain So little sleep Legs up Coffee and tea Sleeping czech policemen Beer Tipped truck Basque sunrise Shot holes in motel windows Mussels and pork elbow Cold nights Desert

Took camera, video camera and found out I’ve already packed up all my Irish maps… So I needed to buy another one, again. I chose to go via Macroom and Bantry. Both are amazingly charming towns and the road between them was wonderful.

Surely, I lost the way a bit when I was trying to get to Toormore (which I visited on the first amazing trip with my girlfriend) from Bantry. But it was just minor flaw and I was basically heading the right direction, I just took the different road and prolonged the trip. ;)

Unfortunately, I came to Mizen Head just to find out the bridge is closed and tickets were sold just for visitor’s centre. Well, nothing for me, so I decided to stop at Barley Cove beach on the way back home. What a beautiful piece of land it is! I just love the sea, the ocean, although it was like walking in liquid ice cubes, where Irish were swimming. As usually. ;) The sand was wonderful and the summerish weather just underlined the great feeling of freedom I had there.

I knew the road up on “The Hill” was somewhere between Kenmare and Bantry, after passing Bonane (wasn’t sure where exactly – I used GPS then). I told to myself, alright, there is also Beara peninsula nearby, which I haven’t seen, so why not to do so now? Good decision.

After passing the Kenmare bridge I turned right to take Ring of Beara. What a fantastic trip! I’ve got rain, I’ve got snow, sun, got lost and got found… ;)

Beara peninsula trip map (click to enlarge). Green = trip there, blue = tip back.

First loosing of the way was just minor when I couldn’t get to Tousist and go along the coast. But second lost was a bit confusing as I really haven’t got a clue where I am. I was returning to Kenmare, still on Ring of Beara road and knew I was somewhere near Ardgroom. I tried to get my position by the direction signs along the way, but those of you who traveled Ireland probably know, how “strange” the way signature is… I wasn’t able to locate the places on my (fairly detailed) map! Finally I’ve found a way back to Eyeries. It wasn’t planned to visit this town, but fortunately I get there. What an amazing view on this colorful town I got!

And sometimes I felt like in Sweden or Norway, although I have never been there ;) Snow caps over mountains, gray ocean, ships in harbor, color houses and dark skies over Atlantic. Fascinating.

When I get back to Kenmare (see trip map) I was pretty tired and decided not to search for “The Hill”, as I’ve already experienced something similar on Beara (see the gallery), and not to go home the long way via Skibbereen, but head back to Macroom and finally Ballincollig.

Long trip, stressful for my Supercar, but one of the best I’ve taken!

From Kraków we went to nearby UNESCO world heritage site Wieliczka salt mine. We thought it should be just 30 minutes visit as we were rushing home. But guide told us just inside, 324 stairs bellow the surface, that it would take 2 to 3 hours… At least it was much wormer than outside – with plus 16 degrees centigrade the difference was 24 degrees! Cathedral built underground in the mine is just unforgettable (very nice acoustics by the way).  Definitely place to visit, and you will walk the same tunnels Copernicus, Goethe or Pope John Paul II walked. (www.wieliczkasaltmine.net)

I wish Slovak tourist attractions were such well presented as these two places…

But wait, this is still not free…! Ok, ok, so, let’s get started revealing the answer to question: Can you really get free alternatives to graphics editing dinosaurs? And I mean free also for commercial use!

Inkscape

Starting with vector graphics, Inkscape is the best possible solution when you’ve got no money to buy Illustrator or CorelDRAW. With its interface more resembling CorelDRAW (or Xara Xtreme which is also free but just for Linux platform) it is very easy to use and you will learn basic functionality of the program very fast. Support for multiple platforms and languages makes it convenient application for everyone, which can be installed also on portable device like USB drive.

Native file format Inkscape uses is open SVG standard although the program can’t handle SVG animations or fonts. But you can also import Adobe Illustrator, CoreCRAW, AutoCAD, Windows metafiles, PDF, EPS and other file types including bitmap formats of course. Surely saving capabilities are not that wide and export offers PNG file format, which is sufficient enough.

As Inkscape is a vector graphic editor, you can create and manipulate all the basic shapes like rectangles, ellipses, polygons (stars) and text. Converting these objects to paths and subsequent editing possibility is a must for vector editor. Inkscape is also capable of creating more advanced objects with 3D cube, spiral, freehand or path tool. Gradients, patterns, extensive color spectrum (also using color palettes) can be used to fill drawn objects or their borders.

Objects on canvas can be transformed (moved, scaled, rotated), masked, clipped to other object, cloned, made transparent or aligned with each other or entire page. On vector objects you can do boolean operations. Working with layers is a matter of fact and, to make it even better, Inkscape also includes large collection of filters and extensions.

The major drawback for this incredible application is its print capability which is way far from being perfect. I personally deal with it by printing program’s exports.

Inkscape is my favorite graphics application and I’m using it almost for everything, including webdesign. You can download it in fresh new 0.47 version from www.inkscape.org.

GIMP

Probably the best free raster graphics editor currently is GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program). Unlike with Inkscape, even untrained eye can immediately see that 3-windowed user interface of GIMP is completely different compared to its proprietary counterpart Photoshop, and therefor you will need some time to get used to the application. The same like Inkscape, this program is multi-platform and multi-lingual and exists in portable version too.

GIMP is suitable for every photographer or graphic designer looking for retouching photos, creating photo collages, drawing new pictures or putting together website layouts, for example. Wide variety of selection tools and also very basic (compared to Photoshop) path tools let you apply any filter effect or other changes to areas on multiple or single layer. You can widen possibilities of GIMP with plug-ins and extensions, or installing new brushes, even Photoshop ones. One of the greatest packs of GIMP extensions is GIMP Paint Studio.

The application supports loading and saving to large number of different file formats (including Corel Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop images, ICO Windows icon images, SVG files), although GIMP’s native format is XCF. You can also create animated GIF pictures. Imported can be Adobe PDF documents and even raw digital camera’s image formats. Just to mention an interesting feature, using specialized plug-in it is possible to export the picture in ASCII Art – image representation in text characters.

Surely also this application has its dark side, which in this case is impossibility of CMYK and color management essential for professional prepress work. Also learning curve of GIMP is not very steep, but because it is the most popular free graphics editor, you will have no problem to buy an instructional book about the program or, thanks to large community around the application, find the solutions on Internet.

All in all I recommend this program for every home photo enthusiast. Grab it from www.gimp.org.

Paint.NET

Although Paint.NET is very neat free application suitable for beginners, it lacks functionality standing next to GIMP. Despite of this it is really powerful and easy to use tool capable of working with layers, transparency, filters and plug-ins. As the name suggest you will definitely need Microsoft’s .NET framework to run the program.

I’m sorry, but can’t say much about this software as I haven’t used it for a long long time, but it was OK for me when I was starting. You can find useful instructions on different issues on program’s wiki site so better try and decide yourself whether it’s what your heart aches for. Download Paint.NET.

MyPaint

Just to finalize image creation software I need to mention also one for real artists out there. You will agree with me that Windows’ Painter is as simple as it gets, but when you love drawing, you have to look for something else for your computer. Here is open source application called MyPaint which greatly satisfies your needs. It simulates real painting tools and also different paper backgrounds so you won’t be limited in any way. There are more good replacements for Windows Painter (like for example ArtRage Starter Edition), but you can’t go wrong with MyPaint so try and download it first. :)

Can you really get free alternative to Photoshop or Illustrator?

“GIMP does not aim to replicate Photoshop”, that’s what GIMP maintainers say. And that’s the truth basically. If you really need professional tool, you won’t get it for free. But there is a question whether you REALLY need a professional tool for big money… Too many people say they have to buy (or get other way…) Photoshop or Illustrator but when questioned what for, they describe their needs for functionality that aforementioned applications are easily capable of. And in many cases even far behind. My definite advice is to try free software solutions first and if you find something the application can’t do, go on and crash pour piggy bank!

What is your experience with commercial graphics tools and their free or open source alternatives? Leave comments…

This is my choice for picture viewer and organizer. FastStone Image Viewer is simple and powerful program available for Windows and, what is just a plus, also as portable application. It supports all major graphics formats and is able to create impressive slideshow from your photo collection.

FastStone offers basic editing functionality as red eye removing, resizing, cropping, correcting colors, drawing into picture, applying picture frames, rotating, even screen capturing and you can do most (like for example resizing) changes in batch mode on several pictures at a time which allows you also to rename the pictures and change their format.

Simple interface, possibility to edit default settings, image smoothing, multilingual support and very intuitive control makes FastStone Image Viewer a must. You can download recent version from www.faststone.org.

Photoscape

Simple image viewer and editor for people who love to play with pictures could easily be just Photoscape. At first it impress you with its unconventional main screen and tabbed interface, but what is under the facade is even more impressive.

Besides all the functionality similar to FastStone including multilingual support, it offers cool features like round cropping, facial recognition, picture combining, applying several different filters, and creating animated GIF pictures!

For more information and download page visit www.photoscape.org.

Google Picasa

Unfortunately, I haven’t had much experience with Google’s cross-platform image viewing and editing application Picasa but as it is quite popular, it is worth of giving it a try and decide yourself. First of all it looks absolutely beautifully, elegantly and cool (although it’s maybe “too much” for me already…). Besides similar functionality as two previously mentioned applications, surely, Picasa allows you to upload pictures to Picasa Web Albums if you have Google account and share them on the Internet with others. Obvious quality feature is image search – don’t forget it’s Google’s software ;)

Picasa is completely free and if you are interested or curious, download the program from picasa.google.com.

XnView

XnView is multilingual, cross-platform, popular, free image (and video) viewer, organizer and editor that supports huge amount of different image formats (reads more that 400 formats and saves in more than 50 formats). In fact this makes him stand up among competition. If you don’t like how XnView looks out of the box (like me), you might customize it and apply different skin. From basic editing functions to advanced filters and effects application there is almost nothing you can’t do with your pictures in this program.

If you prefer functionality against the look, download XnView from www.xnview.com.

That’s all from image viewers I consider worth of trying. If you have found or are using other free programs, don’t hesitate to write about them in comments!

By the way, I think you have last chance to see the ship in Cobh tomorrow, Sunday 20th September. Admission is 7€ adults, sorry, don’t know about children.

Bounty had also pretty modern companion – Irish Coastal Patrol ship LÉ Ciara. Honestly, this ship wasn’t that interesting for me in comparison to classic. But anyway there was longer queue of people waiting to see the steel than the wood. Was wondering why. First thought there is lack of romanticism in this world already, but than found out that visiting Ciara was free of charge. So I queued up too ;) I spotted something “funny” though expectable – computers inside are running Bill’s Windows 2000…

OK, enough talking, lets see what I got for you.