It was the highest and the most real mountain among my EVS hiking. :-) We (Ani, Janis, Andrea, Matjaž and me) chose a perfect day for Storžič, the day of the golden season of the year.

There are some of my memories about our Storžič experience: early waking up, a few wrong ways up, magical sticks, great views since the beginning, Andrea’s jokes, unreal clouds passing next to us, beautiful Edelweiss white Alpine flowers, falling stones, wild birds above us, the time of relaxation on the peak of Storžič, fog, a bit of climbing, a fall, being drunk from just one good shnops in a very expensive mountain hut, pain in knees on the way down, dark forest, 8 hours of hiking, a lot of sweat and dust on us, great Italian lasagna in the late evening and pain in all muscles for the next few days.

P.S. If I could turn back time I would do this hike again! :D

The Škocjan Caves were entered on UNESCO’s list of natural and cultural world heritage sites in 1986. The caves are also recognized as one of the natural treasures of planet Earth. Inside of the caves tourists were not allowed to take pictures, so I found a photo gallery on the main site of Park Škocjanske jame.

On the way back we passed one of the most ancient, beautiful and cozy villages in Kras region – Štanjel. Nowadays this place is very poplular for weddings.

On the way to Graz we passed Maribor the second biggest town in Slovenia. Some people say that Maribor is nicer than Ljubljana, but it’s not true at all :). In Maribor I took a picture of the oldest grapevine in the world, they still make vine from it.

Then was Graz, which is the second biggest town in Austria. Nice and a bit posh, especially I liked its roofs and Austrian sausages, which I finally tasted. :)

After delivering them to their destination we went to see Velenje, Solčava and Logarska dolina (one of the most beautiful Alpine glacial valleys in Europe as they say) with Rinka waterfall. The way back home was through Austria (just a few km), so there are also some views of Austrian landscape on the pictures.

In this trip we also have been to Kneža and Tolmin, mountain pass Vršič and Kranjska Gora in Julian Alps, also I finally saw Ruska kapelica – Orthodox chapel, built by Russian prisoners war during the I World War.

Here are photos of the trip with old and new EVSes who came to Škofja Loka just for 2 months project in Ostriga.

Ana Furlan and Nejc Jemec invited me to join them in doing Sunday afternoon hike. The way was not hard but very different from all my hikes in Slovenia for the present moment. Mountains there are rocky and look like real Alps (indeed :). On the way we found a few bushes of borovnica (blueberry) which I adore and never tried before Slovenia, we saw little Bambi (a deer), Alpine cows, sheeps and horses. Also we made a little stop next to the lake Jezersko and almost hit by a car a really big deer, luckily for it and for us, it runs fast, so “No animals were harmed”.

Thank you, Ana and Nejc, invite me more! :)

The trip to ?tajerska was absolutely unplanned (as usually :). Erhan and his friend from Turkey needed a ride from the middle of nowhere – Lendava, the closest Slovenian town to the border with Hungary. No busses, no trains, no traffic of any kind. Solution was needed… So Matjaž and me drove to pick them up on Friday evening. It would be a big crime to cross more than half of Slovenia and not to make a stop in this beautiful region – ?tajerska. We’ve been to nice Maribor during the night, which reminded me Vienna; the “heart” of Štajerska :) – Šentjur, where Matjaž’s family weekend house is; abandoned castle Podčetrtek; Slovenian Versailles – Štatenberg; Ptujska Gora; ruins of Žiče Charterhouse.

As a bonus to our trip we had a glass of tasty vine just for 50 cents, saw a concert of Croatian band from Dalmatia and we passed by a traditional fireman party in one small village. To be continued. :)

Cres is a wonderfully beautiful place, I’m convinced once again that Croatian sea coast is one of the best in Europe. Matjaž, Janis, Dasha (my 20 year old new friend from Russia, whom I invited to spend 1 week in Slovenia after our 3 days staying in Italy :) and me spend a night on the beach close to Lubenice. We needed to hick down the hill to come to this deserted beach, there we met a hippie from Germany – Illias, who decided to live his life with as little money as possible.

Sunset, starry sky, bonfire, guitar, songs and an empty beach in a cozy bay with little caves… that was a cool night. But next morning a lot of tourists came by boat there, so for us it was a sign to leave this nice place. We had to hike the hill: 1 hour up in the middle of the day, I didn’t have a lot of hopes that we would survive but by my surprise we did it! :-)