Krakow, Zakopane, Polen

Many of you were curious where we were going to move, as my wife's 3-year expat contract expires now in early October. It's back to Stockholm!
It has been amazing 3 years here in UK with its stunning scenery, hiking and animal experiences. Before moving here I did not know that UK would be this incredibly beautiful and had so much to offer. I will definitely miss it.
Anyway the flat is going to be packed this Monday and shipped. Which means that it might take a while before I make another post.

Back to this post now. Couple of weeks back we were off to a wedding in Poland, Zakopane. As you might know its a rather popular ski resort in southern Poland.
We landed in Krakow and had a half-day strolling ahead of us. Very positively surprised with that fantastic city with its old buildings, the cathedral and the main square with the market.
In Krakow we tried tradional Polish dumplings (a kind of small pasties) in a cozy little restaurant just around the corner from the main square. Very tasty but to be fair all Polish food is good :) and one of the favourites is Golonka (ham shank).
Later that afternoon we were off to Zakopane with the bus. Very cheap! As everything else is in Poland, for us at least compared to UK or Sweden. To arrive to Zakopane was like coming to an alpine village with all the nice log house and mountains in the background.
One slightly 'negative' part of it was the incredible amount of tourists. Thought this would be inbetween two seasons, but it seems its always peak season there :)
Zakopane region is famous for their smoked cheese which is really good and salty, perfect with the beer. Of course as the rest of that part of Europe, also everything made of wool is a big thing.

The wedding was amazing. Great tasting food served every two hours, and inbetween having a cold cuts table available with everything you can think of. Nothing wrong with that :)

We enjoyed the trip a lot, and will definitely come back as we unfortunately did not have time to hike even though we took the cable car up to one of the mountain top to get to experience some of the amazing nature there.

Until next time..
                                                                          

                   

Cairngorms NP, Scotland

The weekend after coming back from Croatia it was time for next adventure. We have been waiting for good weather and this is one of the trips that we want to do this year, preferably before it gets to cold.
The trip started already on Friday with a drive up to Glasgow, to continue early following morning to Breamar where our hike started from Linn of Dee.
Around 11 o'clock the first day's hike started, planned to be around 13km. Forecast said it would be showers throughout the day, and apparently that means constant rain in Highlands. It was windy and rainy, but as we were approaching the tenting location we had luck as there was a small cabin there. So unexpected and welcomed! We could get dry and not get more stuff wet :) During the evening a couple from Czechs joined us and brought in even more warmth. The second days hike was to go through the most secluded and wildest part of the UK. Weather wise the day started with overcast but couple of hours in the sun came through and it all cleared up. Lucky us as the plan was to climb the three peaks in the area of which the highest was Ben Macdui with its 1309m, the second highest in the whole UK. The other peaks were also above 1000m, so it was a rather tough day for the legs. AS total we walked around 25km that day.
On Ben Macdui we saw some snow buntings which is always a nice break in a rather harsh environment.  I've never seen that kind of bird before. They were not so timid so I actually could take pics from just  1m away.
Third and final day we had only 7km left to the car. It was now flat as we had come down from the mountains the previous evening. Considering all the steep walking up and down the hills and ridges the day before, the flat terrain was appreciated. Now, the route took us through the Scottish pine forest that is a little different from the Swedish once. I do not know why but I like them, maybe just because they're different. On the first day we passed a perfect place with waterfalls and heather, but because it was raining I couldn't take any pictures :( 
Anyhow, it was a amazing trip and well worth all the walking and car driving.

We have unfortunately just couple of weekends left here in UK, but I hope to be able to share with you at least one more post from this amazing country that has been our home for the past three years.
                                                                          

The nice little bothy

 

Mountain lake

 

Salmon river

 
 

Path to the car park

 

 

Caledonian Pine tree forest

 
 
 

One of the tops

 

The view from Ben macdui

 

Snow bunting

 

Another view from the top of Ben macdui

Croatia

Home again after 4 amazing weeks in Croatia. I did a lot of building on the summer house during these weeks and its was worth every minute, the house is looking great.
Of course I also had time for a week of just pure holidays.
During the last week in Croatia couple of friends visited and of course we wanted to both explore but also show some of our best places. One of the places we visited was neighboring Montenegro and the city of Herzeg Novi with its rather nice old town. We have actually never been there ourselves before so it was a bit of a gamble, and surely there is a difference between Croatia and Montenegro, the later being more worn and generally messy.
Another excursion was of course to Dubrovnik with its wonderful old city. While the others were exploring the city (we had been there countless times) me and the wife spent most of the day in a coffee shop watching tourists. To be fair we ate few scopes of ice cream too, which is highly recommended! :)
Beside that, we did some wine tasting on the Peljesac peninsula (known for its strong red wines, mainly Dingac), lots of bathing and eating.
4 weeks passed by too fast as usual.

Dubrovnik

 

Stradun in old town Dubrovnik

 

Old town in Dubrovnik

 

Milky way

                                                                         

One of many nice doors

 

Tengmalm's Owl

Montenegro

Montenegro

mussel farm and nice houses on a island near ston

Milky way

Yummu food, black risotto

Village of Dingac and peljesac peninsula

Matusko wine cellar

Herzeg novi, Montenegro

Sparrowhawk and Badger

I have last couple of days been trying to photograph the badger. One of the first evening, I managed to find them and also get some photos even though it was pretty dark where they come out from their hole. I had to use high ISO 20 000 and manual focus because the camera had difficulties to focus being that dark.
Yesterday I went there too but actually neither saw nor heard them. To be fair, the whole area is pretty big and badger burrow is very large with lots of exits. When I was almost back home, I see a badger trot across the street :) The camera was though safely packed away.
This morning just outside the window, lucky me, a sparrowhawk landing in a tree. It stood there for a while in the morning sun, trimmed his feathers and just generally gazed with his 'angry' yellow eyes.

This Thursday I will be going again to the summer house in Croatia and spend four glorious weeks there doing some odd jobs on the house, swimming and of course photographing. I do feel like the 'photographer-block' is passing.

See you soon with new photos!!
                                                                  

Long weekend in Brecon Beacon National Park

I know, I know, it has not been that many posts lately. I'm finding it extremely difficult to motivate myself and photograph right now.
Anyhow, last weekend we were off to South Wales and a National Park named Brecon Beacons.
It has southern England's highest peak, Pen y Fan which is at 886m. Maybe doesn't sound that high, but it is rather impressive so close to the sea and as far south. We managed with two hikes, one called The Horseshoe and it passes 3-4 highest peaks in the area of course including Pen y Fan. The walk is easy with some steeper inclines that felt in the thighs :) Still about 15km long.
The first day's was the so called Waterfall Trail. A really nice path through the forest and it felt a bit like walking through a rainforest with all the water, all the green and moss everywhere. This hike would also be at about 14-15km but we had a bad map and a poor reader (me) ;) so that ended up being about 20km instead.
This weekend, we were meant to go to the Cairngorms NP in Scotland. Unfortunately it seems the weather is going to be bad, so we lets see if south England offers something instead again.