Hiking in Scottish Mountains

 

Some photos from a short hiking trip in the mountains next to Almaty

What I like most about Norway?

What I like most about Norway?

Egalitarian social system.

Very nice people (most of the time).

High standard of living.

Alcohol policy... NOT! :) (I can't buy a bottle of wine after 15:00 on Saturdays and not at all on Sundays - I feel being treated a irresponsible kid by the society as whole, but, well, that's not the focus of this blog post) :)

There are even more things about Norway I like. But most of all - by far - I love the nature in this country. The fjords and mountains are so magnificent, the lakes so colourful. There are so many breathtaking views all around the country - and I have only seen a small bit of it.

Norway belongs to the TOP 3 countries for me in terms of the nature. All three are those I have lived in - Norway, Croatia and Kazakhstan. Norway has a great combination though. It is both not so much densely populated (there is a lot of untouched wild nature over here) and it has great infrastructure for hiking (marked paths, simple tourist accommodation, updated maps, safe roads etc).

My latest trip was to the area of Voss which is not too far away from Bergen - below are just some of the snapshots speaking for my love affair with the Norwegian nature (and the tiny lovely settlements around).

Trip to the western coast of Norway - Geirangerfjorden

The last weekend I had chance to visit the Western coast of Norway again - this time the famous Geirangerfjord. The small town of Geiranger was a sort of the tourist nightmare - plenty of cruise ship travellers from Germany and England. But the moment we went farther from the town towards the nature, I started to truly enjoy the trip. Me and my wife (I got married this summer) walked the way from 0 to 550 meters above the sea on medium-challenging hiking path.

The new Gartner hiking boots proved to be a good investment (as well as tent from Helsport and the air-mattresses from artiach). We put up a tent on the picturesque hill from which we had a magnificent view on the fjord. An amazing place to have a self-cooked dinner and breakfast in the nature!

We were also lucky with the weather. The western coast of Norway is famous for its rainy climate. Yet we did not experience any rain and in the second half of the second day we even had  a sun.

All in all, it was a very fulfilling trip - the best during this year so far.
 

Visiting the fjords area in the Western Norway

Almost exactly one month ago I had an incredible luck to visit a fantastic area of the fjords in the Western Norway. That is the region where my friend Sveinung comes from - who was kind enough to invite me and Sergio, the common friend of ours to visit his home area.

Only now I sat down to write a little bit about it and put out a few pictures from this trip.

We spent there just three days. Very intensive days these were!

Day 1: Sailing in the fjord

Day 2: Wind-surfing in the ocean

(the first time in my life I was surfing - I almost manage to stand up on the board) :)

Day 3: Climbing a mountain next to the bay where we had surfed the day before

I must admit that I enjoyed climbing the most - I love mountains, I love hiking atop of them.

And, once again, I realized how incredibly beautiful is the nature of Norway.

Beautiful Estonian nature

I spent a wonderful holiday in Estonia in June. One great part of it was a four-days-long hiking trip in South-Eastern Estonia with four friends of mine. We spent very quality time together - as we haven't seen each other for a long time - hope to be able to repeat such trips every year! We had a lot of fun, some good deep conversations and truly enjoyed the sights of beautiful nature around us.

Here are some snapshots of what we saw around us:

Nature vs. Civilization - 1:0

People around the world (at least in the territories that call themselves "civilized" world like Europe) are used to be in a driver's seat. We are used to be able to govern what is happening around us. You want to go on holiday? No problem - you book the ticket in the Internet, pay for it with your credit card, take a place - and you're there.

Not this time, however. I am one of those thousands unlucky ones who couldn't take off from or land to many airports across Northern and Central Europe due to eruption of the volcano in Iceland and subsequent spread of the ash from it. My flight from Oslo to Turkey could not happen today. My 1-week holiday has been cancelled and with it - a certain shared joy that I have been waiting for.

However, I have been surprisingly calm about it. After all, people are spoiled with the false belief that they can control everything. The Mother Nature is mightier than us and I - as a big admirer of the Nature on our planet - feel just humble about it.

Beauty of the mountains

Mountains - this is something, which makes the heart of every Estonian beating faster, when he sees them. There is no mountains in Estonia. And that is one of the greatest thing, which I love about Almaty - mountains.

Hiking trip to the swamps

Last weekend me, Siim Säinas and one more guy from our homw-town Valga went to the 2-days hiking trip to the swamp area next to Peipsi Lake (Emajõue Suursoo Kaitseala).

Here are some visual highlights of the trip, which was both relaxing and impressive.


Modest, yet beautiful and surptising Estonian nature is something, which we are really proud of!



The total area of marshes and swamp forests is over fifth (around 22%) of Estonia's territory.


Me and old fishermen-boat







The old wooden house we spent a night in

Heroes of the nature :)