Istria

Off to Istria. Shared by Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy, it is peppered with hilltop villages that were said to have been put there by giants. It is famous for its food, particularly truffles. The region had a quiet, almost abandoned sort of feel to it that was refreshing. I was often the only person around other than the locals. I didn't spend much time there: it was sort of a whirlwind tour of the northern half. 

 The on-and-off rain made the road steamy

The giant hole in the middle of Istria that is Pazin. I'm talking about the cave featured in the photo. I stayed here for the night with some really nice Couch Surfers on a very short bed. 

Driving back to Bavaria I came across this giant chair. 

Dolomites

Croatian Road Trip-Day 15-Dolimiti Mountains, Italy + the road home

I had to take the shortest way possible back from Koper because I was short on cash and I know that I can only get about 450 kilometers out of a half tank of gas, which is all I could afford. And forget about taking tollways. So I messed with the GPS until it gave me the shortest route, which went directly through the Dolomite mountains (Dolimiti) in Italy. It was a treat, although it took a very, very long time to drive the direct route. Normally, it would only take 4.5 hours to get back from Koper. In this case it took 10 hours. But as you can see by the photographs, it was a lovely route.




Dolimiti, Italy







A waterfall I happened upon.


"To work, too old.
To die, too young.
To vacation, in perfect shape!"

Mühlbacher Klause.

A possible clue to where the following fortress is because I have no idea what it's called (yet).





And that was my trip! I hope you enjoyed the photographs. Stay tuned for more adventures and don't forget to click on "Older Posts" to see the full series. Thanks!


Photos are available for download in higher resolution here.

Hopfensee + Alatsee Revisited

Sunday my friend Chris (who was visiting from the states) and I took a hike up to Salober Alm, an hour's hike above the Alatsee. Then we attempted to hike to the Falkenstein ruins, which are about two hours further. The trail started out nice enough, but quickly became engulfed in leaves as we left the Alm (grassy mountain hill) and entered the forest. The trail became more and more difficult to navigate, until finally we got to a point where it seemed to end. We'd just seen a sign confirming the trail about fifteen minutes before, but we were stuck. Chris really wanted to just wing it and find our way somehow. After some trepidation, I agreed. We noted our spot and plodded on. Like I said, there was no trail so we tried the best we could to traverse the hills, which were covered with slippery, dried leaves. There were a couple of points where I protested, but we continued, even though the ominous, yet beautiful sight of the countryside loomed distant in the bare spots of the foliage. In other words, we were damn high up. I really didn't want to become "the girl" and make a stink, but at a certain point I looked down and started to panic. Sure, we could slide down on the leaves, but what lay below? Would we reach a spot where we couldn't move anymore? Chris insisted that we wouldn't, but after awhile I just had to fight my point. So we went back.
No doubt, I'm disappointed that we didn't get to see the ruins at Falkenstein. And sure, I wonder if we would've made it down okay. If we did, it would've been a memorable achievement. I just wasn't willing to take that risk.

Alatsee (yes, again!):


Chris and the Alatsee:



Last week, I took a ride out to Hopfensee to climb up to the ruins again. The last time I went, the weather wasn't that nice so my photos were substandard. Not this time!



The Säuling from a different perspective than my balcony for once:




We had our first snowfall of the year Tuesday night. What a nice sight to wake up to:

I love a pink sky:


That's all for now.