On our way to the Venetian seaside town of Piran, we stopped at a small church in Hrastovlje which has a very special fresco. Holy Trinity Church in Hrastovlje in southwestern Slovenia is known for its fresco called Danse Macabre or Dance of Death. From the road, Holy Trinity doesn’t look like a church, it … Continue reading Danse Macabre of Hrastovlje July 2019
Accompanied by Polish landscape photographer Piotr Skrzypiec who is based in Slovenia, I embarked on my short journey around Slovenia. We went from the beguiling capital to the fairy-tale-like Lake Bled to ancient castles to mysterious caves to the beautiful Soca River and its waterfalls to breathtaking landscapes dotted with small churches to the wine … Continue reading Slovenia Landscape Photography July 2019
Lake Bled, located in northwest Slovenia, is one of the most photographed places in the world known for the church standing on the small island surrounded by the lake. Bled Island, in the middle of the Lake Bled, houses several buildings with the main one being the Church of the Assumption of Mary built in … Continue reading Bled, Predjama, Skocjan July 2019
From Albania and North Macedonia, my summer travels continued to Slovenia which is one of the successor states of former Yugoslavia. Like its other Balkan neighbors, Slovenia had a storied past once being part of the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Habsburg Monarchy, Austro-Hungarian Empire, etc until in 1918 it formed the Kingdom … Continue reading Ljubljana July 2019
I have always been curious about Ohrid, the city nicknamed the “Jerusalem of the Balkans” and so since I am only about 2.5 hours away in Tirana, Albania, I decided to do a day trip to Ohrid in North Macedonia. The Republic of North Macedonia is one of the successors of the former Yugoslavia from … Continue reading Ohrid July 2019
About 2 hours drive from the capital Tirana is the city of Berat which in old Slavic means white city. It is also referred to as the City of the Thousand Windows. The city is believed to be an Illyrian settlement in the 6th century BC and later in the 3rd century BC became a … Continue reading Berat, Albania July 2019
My summer holidays this year began in Albania in the Balkans also known as Shqiperia, the Land of the Eagles. Albania was essentially the North Korea of the Balkans. It has been closed to the rest of the world, even to fellow communist countries like Russia and China, and tightly ruled by Stalinist leader Enver … Continue reading Tirana July 2019
