Saturday

Amazing what some sun (after a long day of rain), a phone call with a close friend, a glass of wine and the prospect of yummy food can do on a lazy Saturday.

Feeling a lot better right now. Time to head into the kitchen for that lasagne.

Mountains

High Tatras
Originally uploaded by macchi.

I was talking about mountains yesterday, right? Some of these is what I had spent the day around.

Pictures aren't great. But that day convinced me of my holiday plans for next year: a mountain hiking trip to see a bit more of this. The trail I was following basically headed straight into this picture.... but I didn't think it was a very good idea to do that by myself even if there was a mountain cottage at the end of it.

But next year.....

So, if anyone has some suggestions on organizations to look at who offer these type of holidays, I'd love to hear! (I'm not sure if I will be able to find friends to do this with, so then I will resort to joining a group).

Travelling for one

[uploading some short thoughts from Slovakia]

Sitting on a terrace on a mountain of the High Tatras, looking out over the flat land stretching out at the foot of this mountain range, I feel really happy.

I'm enjoying a beer with a great view after a day of hiking in some of the best mountain scenery I've seen. And, it didn't even rain.

These moments, or rather days, are what make me go travelling by myself. I don't mean that this is something I could only do by myself - quite the opposite: I would probably have seen even better mountains. What I mean is that finding a travel partners - with the same style of travelling, same interests, same flexibility etc - is actually quite hard. And I don't want to miss days like today and views like those in the Tatra mountains.

That is why I do travel by myself and am quite happy doing so. There are so many places in the world which I want to see, and just the lack of a travel partner is not going to stop me from seeing those places.

Quite selfish really...

Water

I spent the day on the Kagerplassen with some good friends on a sailing boat. They did pretty much all of the sailing. I provided some food, and company :-)

And can you see the touch of blue in the left hand corner. Yes, we actually managed to get some sun today.

Good day.

Slow travel

I am just home from four days of very slow travel - walking along the Dutch coast. A trip that took two hours on Monday by train, has added up to nine days of walking.

We've speeded up life so much - because this was a regular train. Two hours by highspeed train will get you much further. Two hours by plane will take you further still, which I'll find out soon as well.

But I have come to really enjoy going slowly. Going at the pace of your own legs, how quickly they will go and how far they will take you. Taking in your surroundings as they slowly move past. Enjoying the view while relaxing on a hill top or at a beach cafe.

*sigh*

It was a good week. To see the result of those nine days, and a little more, go here