Serbia and Slovenia in 2017
A year ago three colleagues of mine and I traveled to Picos de Europa in Spain to hike in the mountains for four days. Everyone of us enjoyed the trip so much that we decided to try hiking together again. This time we had quite an international meeting because Harri and Henkka flew in from Finland, Turo drove from Italy and I flew from Bucharest to Belgrade and from there to our final destination, Slovenia.
In Slovenia our hiking destination was naturally the Triglav national park that is well known not only for the highest mountain in Slovenia but for its relatively untouched mountain landscape with numerous steep mountains, colorful lakes and big forests. We were in Slovenia with Inna on Easter in 2013 and it rained almost constantly during that trip. Unfortunately the weather forecast didn't look any more promising this time around either...
Princess Ljubica's Residence might not look very special outside but its oriental interior is impressive!
Before making it to Ljubljana I had to fly to Belgrade where I had a nine-hour layover. I used the layover to finally get to see Serbia a bit more (I've driven through the country twice in a bus). Belgrade surprised me with it's unique architecture and green parks. Even after the blasting heat waves in southern Europe the city managed to appear fresh and alive. I spent the hours I had by visiting the most famous buildings in the center of Belgrade and by walking around the Kalemegdan park where the famous Belgrade fortress stands. I didn't get to see everything Belgrade has to offer but with the amazingly low prices they have I might pay the city another visit!
For some reason Switzerland was advertising its tourist destinations in the Kalemegdan park and it was nice to see that we had visited pretty much all of them during our stay there :). There was also a photo exhibition with photos from all over Russia that was very interesting. I think many people think of Moscow, St. Petersburg and perhaps Siberia when someone mentions Russia, but the country is so huge that you can find almost anything there. The size is also a big challenge: you can't possibly see everything during one trip!
There's still a lot of tension in the Balkans
Vegans have found their way to Belgrade
After meeting my co-workers Harri, Henkka and Turo at the Ljubljana airport we drove towards one of the entry points to the Triglav national park, hoping to find a place where we could pitch our tents. The weather forecast had looked absolutely horrible before with a lot of rain, sleet and snow. It was raining cats and dogs as we got closer to the last parking lot but thankfully the weather got a bit better just before we arrived. At every parking lot there were signs reminding us of the fact that camping is forbidden both at the parking lots and in the park itself. It was around midnight when we arrived at our destination so we didn't worry too much about anyone complaining about our tents and pitched them next to the road not far from the last parking lot.
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