This is an old favourite of mine and apparently for many Brits as well as during my short visit there saw countless UK reg cars on the roads.

The Savica waterfall is part of the Sava Bohinjka river which is joined by the Sava Dolinka near Radovljica to form the Sava river. That in turns flows into the Danube at Belgrade which discharges into the Black Sea.

The 71-metre waterfall is fed by the Triglav Lakes and flows into the Bohinj lake.

Bohinj lake and the Goldhorn statue	Bohinj lake and the Goldhorn statue
Bohinj lake and the Goldhorn statue	Bohinj lake and the church or St. John the Baptist
Zgornja Sorica	The Savica falls

These were some of the photos from my latest trip to Slovenia.

Ostrovica – Hochosterwitz
Gospa Sveta – Maria Saal
Blejski vintgar
Kope in Huda luknja

Ever since I moved to Wales 2 years ago I had a quiet wish to climb the highest peak in this country – Snowdon. Last weekend was showing to be a perfect opportunity to fulfil that wish. I was working only till 12 pm and the forecast was for sunshine and high temperatures stretching way into the following week. Getting some good literature, so you know what your are doing, is very advisable.

View from Garnedd Ugain: to the right is Snowdon and to the left is Y Lliwedd with its three peaks ) from left Lliwedd Bach, East peak and West peak. Any similarities with Triglav are strictly coincidental

If you are based in southwest Wales it is a good idea to head up there on the day before you are climbing as the road trip takes you over three hours. There are no motorways or even dual carriageways between the south and north parts of Wales! Instead of going for a more expensive option of a hotel or B&B (the decision to go to Snowdon was make pretty late and the hotel accommodations were either not available or very pricey) I opted for a campsite. The last camping I did was for a skydiving tournament that was held in my “home” DZ in Prečna near Novo mesto a few years back and I was a bit worried I might forget to bring along something essential. Hold that thought.

See the full photo gallery here.

There was a slight snag with camping in this part of Wales. I looked at the weather forecast and the low day temperatures were very, very close to freezing – and I mean 0° or 1°C. This was the forecast for Llanberris. So instead I went for campsites a bit closer to the sea and, of course, the warmth. I found one close to the town of Penrhyndeudraeth called Barcdy. Would recomend it, but it is a bit more pricey then others: it cost £10/person/night for a tent – other campsites were around £6 or £7. The additional problem you might have to contend with is kids – there was a family that came to the camp after me and they put up their tent right next to mine and, you guessed it, had a bunch of very noisy kids with them. Don’t seem to be a big fan of them, but would maybe feel different, if they were mine – and I stress – MAYBE .

Coming back to the issue of forgetting things – by some strange reason I forgot to take my sleeping bag with me – when I returned home on Sunday it was there, sitting on the floor in my bedroom, waiting to be taken along. I put all my camping stuff on one big pile to pack in the car and somehow I missed it. Thank god for sat-navs and Tesco Extra. I found one in Bangor that was open 24/7 and had a good selection of camping gear. The other unpleasant thing that happened was my car. At about 2 or 3 am it decided it is being attacked or stolen and the alarm went off. Now usually I wouldn’t be that upset about it but it was parked just outside the tent about 2 m away from my head with not much soundproofing in-between (if you can consider a tent wall soundproofing, that is).

[umap id="34149" size="t" alignment="left"]The following morning I set of quite early and arrived at the Pen-y-pass car park at about 7am as the parking spaces were just running out. Some trekkers were already returning from the summit! Come to think of it, it might have to do with the parking as there were no parking attendants at that time in the morning. Just a word of warning – bring enough change. The parking is a pay-and-display and it is quite expensive, especially if you are staying longer than 3 or 4 hours as the parking is about £6 and the machine does not take notes. At that time in the morning there is nowhere to get change so you have to bring enough along. I, of course, did not have enough but an angel appeared in a form of another climber who saw my predicament and just gave me the missing three pounds in coins – just like that. I couldn’t believe what happened, I was in shock. I quickly realized I did have a £5 note and I ran after him and caught him on the parking lot just before he set off to the summit, gave him the £5 note and thanked him for about the fifth or sixth time. Really, why should he be out of pocket, I did had the money but just not in coins. See, there are still some nice people going around who will help you when you need it. I don’t know his name but I am sure his good deeds will be rewarded sooner or later.

The trek itself started off on a reasonable steep incline, with the morning sun warming my shoulders. I started on the Pyg track and then turned right on top of the pass to continue on the Crib Goch path. Now I would not recommend this route for beginners or young children – it can be very tricky. The majority of the track runs along the Crib Goch ridge and in some places is only about a metre wide with sheer cliffs on either side. Then you also have to contend with the wind trying to blast you off the cliff. If you have fear of hights then give this route a miss. You also might freeze on that ridge from fear and getting you down could prove to be very tricky. The route is also not recommended as a descend from Snowdon. I was surprised how much climbing was actually involved, much more than I was used to in mountains in Slovenia. This took a toll on my legs and I had to stop a few times, even on the descent, to relive the cramps in my upper legs.

There were not many climbers on the Crib Goch path but once you reach the 3m marker stone you joined the rest of climbers from the Pyg and Miners track and there were loads of them on that beautiful day. On this weekend it was like downtown Haverfordwest – full of people. The remainder is a short walk up to the summit walking by the Snowdon railtrack.

The Snowdon Mountain Railway goes right to the top of the Snowdon summit edit Delete caption

The descent on the Miners Track was a bit tedious and still quite stressful on the legs – it is almost completely covered by rock slabs and that does not make a very comfortable walking surface. In other places you have smaller stones and there you have to watch you dont sprain an ancle. There are some nice views of the lakes (see photo gallery) and the end part of the track is very easy – like a walk in a park

At the time of my trek on May 30th the top railway station was closed for renovations and there were no refreshments or toilets available. I was surprised not to see a local entrepreneur selling us drinks and snacks – I remember seeing someone at the top of Triglav and there definitely weren’t as many people on that summit as there were on Snowdon.

Glaslyn lake

This walk seemed the muddiest of them all, in fact I am wandering how exactly to wash my walking shoes and the washing machine is getting to be the favourite. This is the walk no. 32 and can easily be combined with no. 33 (Treffgarne Gorge) as they both start from the same point. That was actually my plan but my walking shoes got filled with lots of lovely mud hindering any furter hikes that day. OK, I admit, am being a bit of a wus, but I was lucky this happened towards the end of the walk.

The hike starts from the Nant-y-coy Mill and takes you on the right side of the valley north-westerly. The first part worth seeing is the valley in about mid-way into the hike – around the farm at North Hill. The path after that is a bit different from the one mentioned in the book as the Pembrokeshire County Council approved some modifications to the public path. These were made in September 2008. It now takes you round the farm to the left and then joins the original route at the top of the hill – the Great Treffgarne Mountain. That is the most spectacular part with great views in all directions. There are also these peculiar stones dotted on the top of the hill, each some way from another.

After that the path became very unpleasant as one farmer completely ignored the fact there is a path there. It was changed to a mud-bath instead of a field. At one moment, thinking I was stepping onto a reasonably solid mixture of mud and cow poo, I instead stepped into something much more liquid-like making my foot sink way beyond ankle deep. My left foot got completely soaked and my right one didn’t fare much better. Grrrrrrrr!!! I thought the farmers were supposed to be more considerate about the public paths – in fact it seemed that in that area the farmers trash the paths to discourage hikers from using them.

I was later told they have no such obligations and the paths are of secondary importance to their ownership of the land the path is on. I feel a bit nostalgic for the days in Yugoslavia (Slovenia) where a lot of land was nationalised for the common good.

Hmmm, gives me ideas

See the gallery here.

I was very surprised to hear that the British Queen Elisabeth II. is to visit Slovenia soon.

The official press release can be seen HERE.

The original press release on 26-Jun-2008 read:

Buckingham Palace press releases

ANNOUNCEMENT OF STATE VISITS TO SLOVENIA AND SLOVAKIA

26 June 2008

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will pay State Visits to: Slovenia, at the invitation of President Dr Danilo Tuerk; and Slovakia, at the invitation of President Ivan Gasparovic, during this Autumn.

Background
This will be the first visit by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to both Slovenia and Slovakia.

The links in the press release were added by myself and are not part of the original press release.

According to a press release on the Slovenian President’s website the visit will take place from 21st to the 23rd of October 2008.

This post is just an extension of the comment I gave on on the blog of Michele Neubert, an NBC news producer who has just completed a visit to Ljubljana, Slovenia on the occasion of George W. Bush’s visit to the EU-US summit.

I used to live in one of those blocks of flats on the edge of the city and they are not as bad as you think. The views of the mountains was sensational and it took me a lot of self control to keep my head in my books while studying to be a vet in the local university.
These buildings is where we live and we are not Switzerland or Austria. Even better, we are Slovenia and these buildings are just one part of our history and architecture and shouldn’t be removed just because they are not picture perfect. They are a part of the history and it would be realy stupid to move everybody out and build them new sightlier accomodation just because the block of flats is to pig ugly. I may be a bit silly but close to Christmas the evening view of the Bratovseva ploscad, where I lived looked a bit like a giant Christmas tree

Ljubljana – on its way to primetime?
Bollocks.
If you ask me, it’s already there.

After being back in Slovenia for only three days I have to go back. Not that there is some urgent business I have to attend to but that is just all the time I had available during the Christmas/NewYear holidays. Tomorrow I have to be back at work where I already have appointments waiting.

And not that I had a bad time. I had the pleasure of meeting somebody really nice for the first time and I also was able to speak to some of my friends although there wasn’t really time to see them all. That will have to wait for my next visit, that will be hopefully be longer than this one. I don’t know when that will be as my next travels will take me to Florida from mid February till the first week of March.

This travel back home will be slightly different than the ones so far as I won’t be going through London (Stansted) but through Bristol, which is just on the English side of the Welsh/English border near the river Severn. The drive from there takes only about two and a half hours instead of over 5 hours from Stansted.

I will hopefully also sort out the problem of my dead PC as I will be bringing some of my equipment from Slovenia to Wales which should allow me to connect to the internet once again.

See you on the other side and all the very best for the Year 2008.

P.S.: I am making a point to try to inform most of the people in the UK that our country (Slovenia) will be presiding over the EU for the next 6 months. Here is the website all about it.

Back in Slovenia for a few days and just to let you know about the temperature difference:

• Haverfordwest yesterday: 10°C
• Ljubljana this morning: -7°C

Enough said. I literally do Feel Slovenia. Mind you, it was also pretty cool to just drive over the Italian-Slovenian border without having to stop and show your passport/ID.

Image via Wikipedia

Although this time I flew instead of drove to Lubljana it still seemed like it took ages, well in fact from the minute I set of from Johnston it was 8.45 AM and it was 8,45 PM hwn I arrived in Ljubljana, well Gradišče, to be more precise. So it took 12 hours to get here.
There were quite a few traffic jams to deal with and the morning rush hour in Haverfordwest added at least half hour to my journey. The other big delay was on the M25 (duhh).
Then the plane was delayed as there was something wrong with one of the fron wheels and it had to be replaced.
The weather here is a bit colder than in Pembrokeshire and not snowy as it was predicted. Weather aside I realy look forward to meet some of my friends here, especially those I didn’t get to see the last time I was here, in September.

In Autumn 2005 my skydiving buddies started to organize a skydiving expedition to Florida that would take place in February and March of the next year. As I was a bit unexperienced and without my own equipment I could trust I had to say no.
The next year the organized it again and I, again, had to say no as I was financially and timewisw preoccuppied with my move to Wales.
Third time will be the charm! Well it will just have to be as I have made the reservation day before yesterday for the Tunnelcamp Florida February 2008 that is organized by the Slovene 4-way team SkyDragons. As far as I understand it is open to all: skydivers from Slovenia and from abroad.
I am still not sure whether I will be able to go for two or for three weeks, depending on how much time off I will be able to take at work. The plan is to do a few days of tunnel training at SkyVenture Orlando and then over a week of skydiving at the regional DZs like Titusville, Tampa Bay, DeLand etc.
Here is what SkyVenture looks like as seen on Google Maps Street View:

Ling to Google Maps Street View

I hope it all goes well, fingers crossed. The next step is to pay the deposit and then start to find a good (meaning not to expensive) airplane ticket. I was hoping for a direct flight so the only real alternatives to Orlando are from London, probably with Virgin Atlantic.

My best friend, who is a great sports enthusiasts and a professional thrips stalker (joke might say much more knowledgeable things on the matter but I decided to have my dab in it myself.

I have not been following the Slovene or any other hockey scene in recent years and I was surprised to find that two of Slovene’s biggest hockey clubs play in the Austrian league EBEL. In fact, I see they even have a Hungarian team in this season’s line-up. All they need is a Croatian team and they can have themselves a nice little Austruhungarian hockey empire .

For those who don’t know the Austrohungarian empire, it was a dual empire that included territories of many today countries like Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Germany…

But just a few days ago I was even more surprised to learn that one of our teams Union Olimpija (called Union Laibach in German) has even managed to top the ranks in the EBEL league. Now I shouldn’t spread this kind of info but I heard from many Slovenes that their first hand experience with Austrians was that they look down on Slovenes so I guess this new hockey development must be quite a bit upsetting to them to say the least.
Mind you, the Austrians always seemd to be much better than our team when they played in the Alpine league so it undoubtedly surprised many of the Slovene fans

Flash movie is shown on www.smokingbanwales.co.uk

I see that Slovenia is quite behind the smoking ban that is in the process of being inforced across the EU. I arrived in Wales on the 7th of April and that was the weekend, when the ban started here. There was no big deal, however we will see what will happen in a few months time when the temperature drops. The ban was enforced just before the summer and it was followed by a very warm period. Many smokers took refuge in having a smoke outside bars and pubs. The ban was first imposed in Scotland a couple of weeks earlier and much later in England in August 2007.

Since the ban I have had the privilege to visit a pub and not come out stinking as an ashtray. And what I saw on the Slovene TV Dnevnik today was absolutely absurd, having a smoking evening with everybody lighting up and above all the ventilation was turned off. Mad!

Photo: Siddharta / Aleksander Remec

The most popular Slovenian rock band appeared to be intending to miss the Slovene capital Ljubljana from its concert venues. They actually started their tour in Ljubljana, but only for a selected crowd of fans chosen from their online forum.
This was rectified on December 27^th 2006 with a concert on the Prešeren‘s square at 10 PM. The concert really started at 8 PM with their into bands from the Slovene tour: naio ssaion, Leaf-fat and Tide. Apparently they started at 8 PM sharp as I managed to be a bit late and already missed Leaf-fat. At least I saw the other two play live for the first time

The Siddharta part was very good and I noticed they played/sang slightly better than on their first concert at the beginning of September. Their repertoire was from all their albums but especially from the last two ones Rh- and Petrolea. The concert rocked and the only drawback were the individual drunk yobs pushing their way from the back towards the stage and nearly knocking down a whole lot of us on the way. Wished I punched someones lights out.