Next destination - Morocco

It has finally been decided. The destination of our this year's main vacation will be Morocco. An interesting and incredibly diverse country in North-western Africa.
I reserved airplane tickets just a couple of days ago. M. and I are going there for three weeks this October. This time it is going to be just ourselves and our backpacks - a new experience for us in this part of the world.

I can hardly wait! M. on the other hand isn't completely sure whether to be excited or maybe a bit worried about our plans. The feedback we have been getting from various people who had been to Morocco recently, is not completely positive. She would be happier if we chose an option more similar to our Egyptian Adventure last year. Nevertheless I am still pretty sure we made the right decision to go there and just try to enjoy the diversity of Morocco by ourselves.

We visited the Land of Pharaohs with Oskar Travel Agency. They obviously liked what I posted about the trip, because they have a link to my blog on their main page (unfortunately, their web page is only available in Slovenian).

No matter how nice it was to travel with them, this time we have decided to try such a trip on our own. You can look forward to a bunch of beautiful photos once again.

So far I have been mostly browsing through the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Travel Forum.
If you know any other useful web sources that could help a backpacker going to Morocco, feel free to share them with me.

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Hiking in the Slovenian region of Primorska

A couple of weekends ago I accompanied M. on a hiking trip to Vremščica. It was a day trip with a choir she sings in. I occasionally tag along for company and not because of my (non existent) singing abilities. It has been a while since I went on such a trip with them. You can read about the last time before this, when I joined them on a trip to the land of Teran and pršut.

Hiking was not the main theme of this trip. Vremscica rises 1027 meters above sea level and is situated in the Slovenian region of Primorska. Even thou it is not very high, it offers a great view of the surrounding area all the way to the Adriatic sea. It is an easy hike to the top. For the lazy ones there is also a road leading almost to the top. One just has to walk the final 20 minutes to the top.

We made quite a few stops on our way to the top. It was because of those extra delicious strawberries growing by the path.


When we reached the top, a singing session followed. A group of random hikers was quite excited about it and rewarded our eager singers with a loud applause.

Before the descent, we also visited a church just under the top of Vremscica. It is still under construction. We were told that a local priest and stone mason (both in one person) has a great part in building the little church. I guess if you know all this, you can not be surprised when you see it is mostly put together from local stone. In fact I couldn't see any other material that would have been used so far.


It is gonna be a cute little church when it is finished.

After another round of singing it was time to descend to a farm run by the Veterinary Faculty. We ate something at a simple inn which was also a part of the farm. They offer only a few dishes (mostly traditional food), but everything was very tasty.


Before we went home we also took advantage of the offer of fresh cottage cheese and some other cheese products. It wasn't very cheap, but really fresh and very good. If I go by there again, I'll definitely stop by and buy a piece of cheese.

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Rain drops in the garden

You don't need to travel to a far away country to take photos like these. A stroll around your garden or a nearby park will do just fine.


You will have the best chance of taking nice photos if you catch the morning dew, before it vanishes back into the air. Usually also the light is just right at that time of day.

If you are not one of those early birds and have never seen the morning dew before, you might also wait for some rain.
That is just what I did. I waited inside until it stopped raining and then went photo-hunting in the garden. Sun came out from behind a cloud just at the right time.

If you live in a place where you could get really old waiting for rain, you can also use some water to create your own rain. All you have to do is sprinkle it on a leaf and create a perfect composition. I know some photographers do it with spiderwebs and get stunning results. I have to try that someday.


When you find a proper motive, you just need a photo camera with a macro mode (usually marked with a flower) and some patience. I believe anyone can do it.

For the best result I suggest that you take some extra photos. Usually it is hard to see if everything is the way you wanted from your camera display. I suggest you pick out the really sharp photos later on your computer.

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