I was chatting with a friend last week when she sighed that she was happy that this year is almost over and that she hopes the new year will be better. I thought about how many people think in a similar way – hoping that the old (bad) year will be over soon and waiting for the better new one. I realized that I was looking at life in a different way. I’m embracing and trying to keep in my memory all the good things that have happened to me. Like everyone, I have good and bad days, but I’m trying to stay positive and grateful for the love and happiness I have within my family. One of the good things that happened to me was also becoming a part of the Hive community. Right today I’m celebrating my first anniversary and I thought it was the right time to tell you something about myself. I know it is quite late, and that I should enter the Hive community with this pot, but I find it difficult to write about myself. However, better later than never.🤔 It is easier to write about my traveling experiences and my cooking aspirations, but I hope that even through my posts you were able to discover something about me.
Before I move on, I would like to specially thank the person who introduced me to our Hive community. He helped me and advised me on my very first steps. Big thanks to you, 
I find Hive like a window into the world. Here I can visit interesting places that I didn't even know existed. I meet people from all over the world and learn about their culture. I learn about recipes that inspire me and I have to prepare them the very next day. I appreciate all the comments and all the curation work. I am learning and growing with Hive every day.
Just briefly scrolling through my posts, you will notice that there are two things that I’m passionate about: food and travel. Luckily, I found a life partner that shares the same interests, and we are sharing our passions also with our son.
Looking back, I think that my passion for traveling started when I was at university but got a bigger swing when I met my love. When we were still students, we had a smaller budget and we travelled mostly around Europe, while later on we were able to add also some overseas destinations.
We are both lucky to have jobs, where we can also do some business trips abroad and whenever is possible, we add some leisure visits as well.
When we were still in our early twenties, we loved the summertime in Greece, and I think that over the years we’ve visited around 10-12 of the Greek islands. We fell in love with the crystalline water, the hot summer, friendly locals, and excellent cuisine.
Traditionally, we love to spend the Christmas holiday with our families and most frequently we spend the new year with our finds, we rarely decide to travel during this period of the year. A bunch of years ago we had the opportunity to visit Egypt, to do Kairo and a cruise on the Nile. Even if many years passed since then, me and my wife, we both agree that it was one of the most memorable trips. Beside the fact that it is an amazing country, with incomparable history and culture, there was something more that I can’t explain. I guess that we were just in the right place at the right moment.
Our first overseas travel as a couple was to Sri Lanka and Maldives. It has a special place in my heart, maybe because it was the first overseas trip, maybe because it was just beautiful, the fact is that we returned to Maldives a few years later with our son.
I’m often asked which was the best trip we did, but I can’t answer that question. I love every single travel experience that I had, there were also some unpleasant situations, but overall, they were just small obstacles on a great trip.
Looking back, I realize that my travel habits have changed over the years. When we were younger, we took many last-minute decisions, while now we are planning quite in advance. Of course, it is all connected with our work and the school obligations of our son. My wife is a “freak of planning” and with years is getting worse. 😊 😊She is that kind of person that needs to have everything planned in advance, which reflects quite well our traveling, as she organizes all essential things in advance (transportation, accommodation, and so one). So, I can enjoy my trip hassle-free ha ha ha….
And yes, our traveling habits changed a bit when we became parents. While he was still a baby, we had to reconsider some of the “logistic parts” of the travel, like the duration and timing of the drive. He was ok when he was sleeping in the car, but when awake, he got bored quite quickly, so we were doing the long drives during the nights. He was nicely sleeping in his seat, we were driving. But he has grown up, and when I’m thinking about the last ten years, I know we have an “easy-going son”. Traveling with him is a pleasure. He is very curious, he shows interest in knowing new countries and new people, and he is rarely tired and bored.
Of course, we are always including some of the activities that are interesting for kids as well and we leave him time for playing. We even did a trip that was just for him. We went to visit Santa Claus in Lapland…. I admit, this was a big, fat lie 😜. The trip to Lapland, was on my wife’s Bucket list, for a long time and she just “used, the kid as an excuse” to organize the trip.
Living in Europe gives us a big advantage, that we don’t depend on flights, but we can travel around Europe by car or train. One of our beloved destinations is, and I think will remain forever, Italy. We have the privilege to live very close, and we can daily drive to the nearby Italian cities, but we did travel quite a lot all around the country. We love Italians, their music, culture, way of live, and of course their food.
It is not just traveling abroad, but we are also in love with our home country, Slovenia. The green and small country in the heart of Europe. It is a true paradise for outdoor activities. We have both mountains and sea, crystal-clear rivers and lakes and the melancholic Pannonian plains. We know Slovenia quite well, we’ve been to many places, but there are still a few undiscovered corners that we have to visit and there are many more where we always like to return.
In my head traveling and food go hand in hand. What is a better option to know a culture if not through their food? There is no better way to talk with locals, if not over a glass of wine, or taking a delicious coffee at the bar counter?
I can fairly say that we are tree foodies. We love to try local food and bring home some typical products and ingredients. And then, whenever we have time, we try the recipes at home. I like cookbooks, I have few of them at home. Sometimes in the evenings my wife sat down on the couch saying: “tomorrow we can cook something good or something new…!”.
Long winter days are also ideal for family cooking or baking, when we involve our son as well. It’s funny to be all tree in our small kitchen and to do some mess😊.
We love meat, fish, vegetables... from sweets to salted dishes... fruits are always in our kitchen…we try to master the Asian cuisine and we are quite good at the Italian one. I also love to experiment with sourdough.
To finish this post I will share with you one of my favourite quotes: “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” (Saint Augustine). I’m on the right way, I’m reading the book, but I still have many pages in front of me 😉 . The only problem is that I think I will have to buy a new fridge. While we start collecting fridge magnets (we bring home one from each travel) and I hope that quite soon I will need to buy a bigger one 😋.
Thanks for reading,
feel free to leave a comment, I will be glad to reply.
Best regards, 