Monday 26 October 2009

Hiking in Slovenian hills


Hiking is a very popular activity in Slovenia. Since mountains and also hills of all kinds can be found in every corner of the country, that is not very odd at all.
If you like hiking, you just must visit Slovenia. It simply offers countless hiking opportunities for all kinds of hikers.
There is even a Slovenian hiking web page, with hiking tips and reports from many trips around Slovenia.


As a Slovenian, I also do it once in a while. I really don't have to go far to get in touch with nature.
That's one of good things about Slovenia - where ever you are, nature is never far away. Even when standing in the center of Slovenia's capital (Ljubljana), one doesn't need to go far to get in touch with nature. With a bit of luck, after a fifteen minute drive one could find himself next to a herd of cattle.


Since I live 60 kilometers west from the capital and a forest literally starts where our backyard ends, I am used to being close to nature.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to go hiking with a few friends. Nothing special, just a morning hike up a nearby hill (next to the small village of Ledine). We had a great time nevertheless.
The whole time we were accompanied by a young beagle dog. A very curious and full of energy representative of the breed.


It took us almost 2 hours to get to the top, where we were rewarded with great views of the Idrijca river valley.
We took a different - a bit shorter path back down.

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Tuesday 13 October 2009

Budget for a three week trip to Morocco


When we were leaving on a three week trip (September 27th - October 18th) to Morocco, we didn't know exactly how expensive it is going to be. In the end we were pleasantly surprised with the outcome.


We bought 2 return flight tickets from Venice, Italy to Casablanca, Morocco in advance. Everything else we spent were admission fees, travel (bus, train and taxi rides), food, drink and accommodation expenses, various other shopping expenses (gifts, postcards etc.), a trip to the Erg Chebbi desert and some other things.

Morocco - 3 week expenses (2 persons)
Item Expenses
(daily AVG)
Expenses
(3 week SUM)
SUM 59 EUR 1.307 EUR
MyAir flight tickets (including taxes) 13 EUR 282 EUR
Travel expenses (bus, train & taxi) 9 EUR 189 EUR
Accomodation (budget hotels) 11 EUR 247 EUR
Food & drinks 16 EUR 351 EUR
Admission fees (desert trip, museums etc.) 8 EUR 167 EUR
Other (gifts, postcards etc.) 3 EUR 71 EUR


It all added up to 1.300 EUR for both of us. On average that's under 60 Euros per day!
Considering we traveled more then 2.500 kilometers (1.550 miles) around Morocco I'd say it was a bargain. You can check out a detailed map of our trip in this post.




So if you liked the report of our Moroccan adventure, I recommend you do it yourself. I am pretty sure you will enjoy it much more and spend less money if you do it without an agency.


Let me just point out that MyAir (the low cost airline we used) are not flying at the moment. They are grounded due to financial problems. That shouldn't be a problem, because there are many alternatives available out there.

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Wednesday 30 September 2009

Moroccan round trip almost complete (Day 21)


Since we liked Essaouira so much, departing hour definitely came way too early. Before we joined our Moroccan travel circle where it begun (that's in Casablanca), we still had some time left to soak in the relaxed atmosphere of Essaouira.


No matter what sort of goods you might be looking for, in Morocco it is quite possible to find it all in one shop. On some occasions you might try on a new pair of shoes and in the meanwhile buy meat for dinner. You could get some blood on your new shoes in the process, but that doesn't really matter. You're in Morocco, remember?


During our last morning in Essaouira we walked by the countless cannons lined up on city walls once again and treated ourselves with another delicious seafood meal. The last week in Morocco went by, strongly tasting of fish. We had a seafood meal at least once a day. Most of the people I know would have had enough of it much sooner, but we just couldn't resist it. It was always as fresh as it could be and usually also very delicious. At some occasions some of the fish we chose from, were still moving.


When we finally walked to the bus station, we noticed there was something wrong with one of the tires on our bus. Since we were a bit early, we figured out they would fix it in time.


Scheduled departure time got closer with every minute, but a few of the employees from the bus station just couldn't decide how to handle the situation. After some half an hour of walking around the bus and discussing the situation, it seemed something was happening at last. To my amusement I realized they all went away just to get some coffee.
When they finally got back they tried a few new things. By then most of the passengers were quite amused with the show. Obviously nobody was in a real hurry.
At last the bus driver decided that going to a nearby gas station would be the right thing to do. He was back in 15 minutes and we were ready to go. I wasn't so sure at the time, but fortunately the tire lasted all the way to Casablanca.


In Casablanca we had lots of time to spend the remaining Dirhams. It wasn't a hard task, since we didn't have all that many left.
We met some more interesting people while hanging around the city center. The most interesting were father and son from Saudi Arabia. They were in Casablanca on a business trip and were arranging some details regarding sports clothes manufacturing. They were setting up a production of various copied trademark clothes. For me the most amusing dirty detail was sowing labels "Made in China" onto the products. Obviously, various products are not being copied only in the Far East. There are others (Moroccans in this case), who copy the Chinese.
Actually when you think of it, Nike, Adidas and such products are all made in China. And to make a perfect copy, the label also has to look as genuine as possible.


After an illuminating chat with the two Saudis, it was time to catch a train to the airport. Moroccan trains are quite good - they could easily be compared to European standards. Unfortunately due to Atlas mountain range, stretching over a considerable part of Morocco and rising over 4.000 meters above sea level, the railroad network does not cover a very large part of the country. That is why we did most of our traveling by bus.


Later that same night we boarded our MyAir flight to Venice, Italy. Everything went smooth and in the morning we were met by M's sister, who took us home to Slovenia.


We really enjoyed this three week Moroccan adventure of ours, but it is nice to be home again.

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