Many things happened in 18 months. We were to Azores in summer of 2010. In November long awaited Marko came. This was a happiest moment of our lifetime. 2011 we were on a short spring break in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, then in Copenhagen for great 5 days staying at warm home of Maja and Tomaz. July 2011 ended on a hot Greek island of Crete. Luckily Marko is tough baby.
Winter is alway time for big plans. Always we contemplate about rough winter treks to our beautiful mountains, short city brakes around Slovenia. Well we made it to Bratislava this winter, but mountains were somehow low on our list. Winter is harsh, heavy snow, avalanche danger seem not to subside. Anyway, we managed to Debela Peč, easy accesible peak close to Triglav. Still winter is not over yet.
My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe -
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go! ...
From the poem My Heart's In The Highlands by Burns, 1789
Resisting Slavic music is difficult. This is nowhere else more evident than when it comes to Rachmaninov or Tchaikovsky. Well, to us at least. It wouldn’t matter if it was music itself, without a dance, Swan Lake would still be one of greatest artistic achievement. Combine that music with dancers, excellent costumes and passionate performance and you get a spectacular event.
Patagonia has been long time on our wish list. Jagged peaks ofMonte Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre and like, lakes, glaciers, broad and arid landscapes, wild and remote Tierra del Fuego, Cape Horn, penguins, fiords etc. had this misterious attraction we needed to travel. In most cases Patagonia lived up to our expectations, especially its severe winds. But at the end of the day we found out again that Slovenia is nice too.
Velika Planina (direct translation would be something like Great mountain, though it is not really regarded as mountain, but a shepherd’s plateau) lies in Kamnik Alps in northern part of Slovenia. It is a very photogenic place with great surroundings. Highest peaks of Kamnik Alps (Grintavec, Kocna,…) are just a glance away towards north.
Malta is a perfect weekend getaway in winter time. They say it is terribly hot and overcrowded in summer, but in winter months it seems a pleasant place for a week long country browsing. Excellent public transport, reasonable prices, easy going atmosphere and some interesting places make Malta and Gozo islands a very nice trip.
Dubrovnik and Plitvice lakes are on the top of the list what to see in this exYugoslavia country. Masses of tourists are brought to Dubrovnik, beautiful old city on Croatia cost, by giant cruisers from all over the world. Also off season you can see Japanese, Peruvians and like wondering around so called Pearl of Adriatic. Plitvice lakes, part of a national park are true jewel of nature. There are more than dozen small lakes, with water running from one to another through numerous small waterfalls. It is one of the most beautiful places you can see in all Balkans.
Julian Alps are most definitely one of the most beautiful parts of Slovenia. One must not necessarily love mountains to see it as an overwhelmingly charming and pristine natural wonders. There is so much to see, if you take care to take some time and simply enjoy and observe.
The valley of Triglav lakes is in the heart of Triglav National Park (TNP) and is the only Slovenian national park. The park was named after Triglav, the highest mountain in the heart of the park, and also the highest summit in Slovenia (2864 m).
There are seven Triglav lakes and at least half of them are basically small ponds of water left from glaciers.
As a preparation for Gran Paradiso ascent in Italy, we decided to conquer Mangart.
Mangart is a giant (2677 m) of Julian Alps and shows a darring image, no matter which side you look from. It is located in far north-west of Slovenia, on a border with Italy.
Few people, who actually do not know eachother gathered and decided to go there.
As Gran Paradiso is regarded as one of easeier 4000 m climbs, we thought, why not. My wife's coworkers and myself started in Ljubljana, Slovenia 5am on hot summer morning.
Land of a thousand hills, country of a massive population growth, amazing vistas, people sometimes rude, sometimes awfully kind, mountain gorillas...
All that is a beautiful reminder who we are and where we all are coming from.