Vanapagana Pühajärv

At the small lake. A moment to think of the passed 3 weeks.
Maria managed to catch really nice moments and interesting faces on her photos

25h Budapest-Tallinn

... including all the road works in Latvia


Crash in Poland, just before Lithuanian border

Budapest, Sziget festival

This is my second time to be here at Sziget festival.
The place is good very good, but after a long vacation being tired of traveling it is hard to get to right mood.
Finally I succeeded :)
This year only one day at the festival.

Already on the main land

Being a local in Split. This is the place where football fans are gathering before the game to have a beer get to the right mood and then move on to watch the game.


Some photos from Plitvicka Jezera national park

In between the 2 towns of island Vis

It is a military island with all the secrets that military usually leaves behind when it leaves. A story tells that is possible to go from one side of the island to other thought the underground tunnels, crazier version even tells, that it is possible to transport a ship from one side to other through the tunnels.

First attraction of the day is to visit the tunnel that is built to hide a big war ship, back there is our small boat




Second attraction of the day is to repeat the fun we had 2003 in Omiš to surff behind the boat.


Third attraction: visiting Drazen’s parents in the middle of the island. Having a very good lunch and drinking Vana Tallinn. Singing with the village singer who was on the way home to have a dinner but got attracted to visit our dinner. He was caught by his wife later on cause we started to sing and his wife heard us and got extremely angry. Aah, these things happen :)

Lunch at Villa de Drazen. Behind there is the only filed of the island, called The Field. During the war times they were able to turn it into airport within 24 hours.

Fourth attraction: visiting the other town Komiše where there was the annual fisherman’s day. Way too many people, very good smells of grilled fish. But we were so full after eating at Drazen’s, so we could only drink. As Drazen told, visiting the fiesta is very simple: you take a beer drink it and walk along the main street to the one end of the village. Turn around, drink some beer and walk back. And this way several times. So this is exactly what we did. At one point witnessed the fireworks, but continued our walk. Finally we were nice & drunk. Around 3 o’clock in the morning it was time to start going back to home – to the other town on the island that was 10km away.
Drazen said as we didn’t drink that much it is ok to drive. Hmm, I was rather drunk and if I remember correctly Drazen was drinking more than I did. We took the old road with all the curves, as the police will most probably be on the main road. Demn, these were fast curves! I was thanking the car we caught up, cause we were not able to pass it, so it slowed us down to 80km/h :)

Unique dinner at Senko’s place

By the way Senko is a Croatian writer.
Usually in the restaurants you will order what you like. At Senko’s place you will get the dishes he is making for this particular day. Actually to be able to eat in his place you have to be invited.
To be honest Senko’s place is his small house by the sea. For getting there are 2 ways: by the sea, we didn’t take this way cause our boat’s (the boat of our host) lights were not working, so it would have been very dangerous to return in the evening. Or with a car and to leave it up the hill and then a 30 min walk to the house.
A small house without an electricity. Haven’t ready any of his books, but have tasted his cuisine, this is something extraordinary.
Starter: sardine with beach,
Soup: a sea weed soup
First main course: pasta penne with beans
Main main course: octopus cooked with potatoes + something more.

All of this was just excellent!

Beach (rocks) next to Senko's home


Senko's kitchen

On the beach

Slovenia - Italy (20min in Italy) - Ljubljana - Zagreb - Split - island Vis

During the Yugoslavian period Vis was occupied by army. For many years it was closed for non Yugoslavians.
Island has 2 small towns and some small villages. We stayed in a villa with a view to the main town Vis and its harbor.


View from the balcony at night

Biking in Slovenia

In Maribor we had to cancel the planned trip due to our medical condition
In Bohinj we were riding in the mountains. Though it is not allowed in Triglav National Park. Old tree leaves on the very narrow steep and rocky paths made riding extremely dangerous.
Also we were riding around the lake Bohinj, of course this was also forbidden. How else! :)
In Kranska Gora on asphalt to the top of Višic. On the way back to camp we found a dry river bed to ride.
In Bovec the ascent from 400m to 2100m on asphalt.

Overall impression: Julian Alps are really not that good place for mountain biking. At least the places we went. It is asphalt and if you finally find a nice small track it is guaranteed that within 50m you will notice sign where is a bike with a biker and a red stripe on both of them.

To the Mangart 2100m

The grande finale of this trip. We wanted to ride on the highest road in Slovenia. The ascent will be from 400m (Bovec) to 2100m (Mangart) on asphalt. The weather is foggy and a bit rainy, it remains like this during the whole way up. Only few cars passing by most of the time we are “climbing” on over own, thinking our own thoughts. And there is plenty of time to think. To make this 31km up to the hill it takes around 6 hours. This includes a tea and apple pie break in one lonely cottage just few kilometers before the top.


In a tunnel

Rest before the final climb

Finally we are up, it is sunny above the clouds. And we are like at the end of the world: one side is the road with all the serpentines. Other side is a drop to emptiness. Sharp down and time to time from between the clouds we can see some lake and forests somewhere far down.

You can imagine coming down from there – all the clothes we had with us on, as the temperature was just a bit above 10 degrees. Speed 60 or more. Coming from daylight to black tunnels seeing nothing but just a white dote at the end of tunnel, still speed.

Over the edge