Photo Essay: Art in the streets of Ljubljana

While randomly walking around Ljubljana we discovered that this city hosts a lot of public street art and graffiti. Pretty much everywhere you walk to – you come across either a beautiful mural or an interesting installation or a unique sculpture. There are certain areas such the Metelkova district, former military barracks, that has now become a self-declared autonomous culture place to gather for alternative / underground artists. The entire area is full of huge murals, installations and bits mosaic work. We felt that Ljubljana has such an underlying creative energy or feel that you cant help but return inspired to create your masterpieces.

Sharing these beautiful pieces of art via a photo essay with you below –

My favorite graffiti in Ljubljana – Books Books everywhere

5 reasons why you should plan for a picnic by Lake Bled

Bled is a nature lovers paradise with numerous things that you can visit or activities that you can do – you can visit the Vintgar Gorge, or Hike in the Triglav National Park or try one of the many options available in adventure sports. But for lunch I recommend packing a picnic basket and spending an entire afternoon in the gardens that surround Lake Bled. Guide books say that this lake was formed at the end of the Ice Age after the recession of the Bohinj glacier. And makes a stunning sight.

The many shades of green at Lake Bled, Bled

A Traditional Slovenian Vegetarian Lunch in Bled

During our day trip to Bled , from Ljubljana, we had a lovely time walking upto and around the Vintgar Gorge – Walking amidst rainbows at the Vintgar Gorge. But all this walking left us pretty famished and we started looking for a good place to eat some traditional Slovenian cuisine. But finding vegetarian food in these traditional meat eating countries, although not difficult, can be rightly described as being a bit tricky. But after numerous trips I have grown wiser and have devised my own mini questionnaire that helps me find restaurants where I can get some vegetarian food. And in Bled, while randomly walking around, we chanced upon a local traditional Slovenian restaurant called the Gostilna Murka.

Gostilna Murka, Bled, Slovenia

Spending a Night “Homeless” on the streets of Hungary

Any trip or a holiday creates numerous memories, memorable anecdotes and photographs. But travel stories are created when your best laid plans go haywire. All good stories start with an element of the “unexpected” – getting lost in a city, taking a wrong train and arriving somewhere else altogether, missed connections, getting deported are a few of such unexpected elements and I am sure you get my drift. My travels are self-planned budget trips and despite a lot of research there have been many occasions wherein all that could go wrong has gone wrong and in return many memorable stories created. But my favorite so far is being “Homeless in Hungary”.

At the start of our journey in Budapest

Photo Essay – Walking amidst rainbows at the Vintgar Gorge

Travels take you to many beautiful places and shows you many new sights – each vivid, unique and stunning in its own right. But occasionally you come across some places that are so stunningly perfect that you just conclude that it has to be a dream. And Vintgar Gorge situated in the Triglav National Park is definitely one such place.

Vintgar Gorge, Triglav National Park, Bled

Taste of Europe: Bled’s Kremna Rezina or a Cream Cake

No matter which part of the world you visit one of the most important elements of that visit is sampling the local food and cuisine. So much so that it warrants in-depth research and also a significant allocation from the travel budget. For me though, more than the food, its coffee and deserts. I have a major sweet tooth and no travel research is complete without a thorough analysis of the local deserts and a short list of “must haves” from the local ‘specialty stores’.

Bled Cream Cake at Hotel Park. Pic courtesy – Hotel Park website

Exploring the underground world of Škocjan Caves in Slovenia

Any trip to Slovenia is incomplete without a visit to one of the most impressive underground cave systems in the world – the Postojna Caves and the Škocjan Caves. While planning for our trip we read a lot about these caves and were quite intrigued by it. But since we had limited time we could only cover one of these two, and after some research, we decided on the Škocjan Caves.

Škocjan Caves, Slovenia

20 Reasons why Slovenia must be on your travel wishlist for 2015

“S-LOVE-nia”; a small country that just like the spelling in its name
makes you fall hopelessly in love with it at first and in every sight.
It’s a small country cozily tucked amongst Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia but somehow is one of those rare places that has the best of everything and something for every visitor. It’s also one of the few countries in Europe that’s very young – both in terms of creation and age of the local population. It was part of erstwhile Yugoslavia but it got its constitution in 1991 and only became a part of the EU in 2004. Hence it should be on every travelers “cheat” wish-list to Europe – as it offers all experiences that are European (with flavors from all its neighbors) while retaining its own charm and flavors.

And elaborating from above, please find below my 20 reasons why this country should be on your travel wish-list for 2015 –

1. Live your own fairy tale – Visiting Slovenia is like being
transported into your own fairy tale where you see castles nestled
amongst clouds atop green hilltops, rivers flowing along your paths
and verdant green forests as far as the eyes can see. Frozen 2 can
actually be shot here 🙂

Triglav National Park, Slovenia

My Reflections on 2013 and Expectations from 2014

As I sit down to write this post today, I can’t help feeling that 2013 has just flown by. It seems like one minute I was penning down my travel targets and resolutions for 2013 (you can read more on it at 2012, the year that went by and 2013, the year to come) and suddenly it’s time to plan for 2014. But a year has definitely gone by and a lot has been achieved, many lessons learnt and many stories collected. When I had set my targets my 2013, I was so focused on travel that I set all my targets and energies just around it, but in the real journey I actually ended up learning so much more and meeting so many amazing people that I feel I have grown as a traveler and a person.

Chinese Fishing Nets of Fort Kochi, Kochi, Kerala

And it’s time for Europe again

I have been fascinated with Europe for a while. It all started in 2004 when my BFF, P first moved there and started sending postcards and sharing stories of a gorgeous world full of snow-clad mountains, fairy tale castles, scenic lakes, etc etc. All her stories created an image of a wonderland in my mind and I resolved to visit it as soon as I could collect some money. And as Paulo Coelho said in The Alchemist “if you truly want something, then the entire universe conspires in helping you achieve it” – well, mine sure did. After numerous failed plans, my first international trip was to Spain in 2006. And with this trip, the fascination increased.

Italy