Ljubljana on a sunny October day 
Well, apparently only saturday was bad (and that was a day for a trip to Italy). Otherwise is sunny, albeit a bit cold. Still… Ljubljana in autumn… 
Well, most of the travellers spent at least a few hours sleeping some of the hourse in the airport terminal. Some strive for the most comfortable, others for the most silent place. Its not easy always to find the best and the safest place.
If you plan to spend a night in the airport, here is one useful page… http://www.sleepinginairports.net/
Sleepinginairports.com’s top five
1. Changi, Singapore: Free Internet access, reclining chairs in designated snooze spots, a luxury spa and lounge so quiet that students visit just to study for exams.
2. Amsterdam Shiphol, The Netherlands: Comfortable chairs and a casino to while away the hours.
3. Auckland International, New Zealand: Few announcements, couches and a mini-theatre.
4. Helsinki-Vantaa. Finland: Showers, couches and Internet.
5. Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong: Overstuffed chairs, children’s play area , courteous staff.
Top of the pops at the worst end is Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), an airport in which one of the contributors for Sleepinginairports.com witnessed 7 seven being killed in a gang shoot-out. When in Port Moresby, be sure you’re wearing your bullet-proof vest and run. Others getting honorable notion are Bombay and Delhi (India), Cairo (Egypt), Boston and Chicago (USA).
My experience is… Munchen was a place where i spent long hours this year… And it was fine… safe and quiet (ok, mind the occasional “echo of high heels” due to the echo friendly structure). In Frankfurt you can also find nice benches to sleep on. Dubai is also popular with sleeping… though it can get really crowded, and the best places are taken early… I remember there were also nice comfortable chairs in Manaus (Brazil) airport – unfortunately i had to spend most of my time on the toilet… damn… On the other side, i would pass Ljubljana airport to sleep… small, nothing to do and not really comfortable chairs. Probably at least Dar es Salaam should be added to a negative list… where a traveller doesn’t feel to safe, but ok, if you don’t fell asleep, it could still be a nice night… An award for the smallest place that looks like a small bus station (ok, i heard that they enlarged it recently) in opinion goes to the Treviso airport (Ryanair calls it Venice airport – yes, if only it wasn’t some 40-50km away).
Well, i think i need to write something about the travel photography. I love to travel and to take nice photos. So, i often get a question. What kind of equipment is the best for travelling, what camera, …
Basically, there is no clear answer. Equipment depends on several factors. Whether somebody wants to travel light, whether focus is on taking photos, location, time, and not the least money. Analog/digital? Compact/SLR??
My travel equipment depends on location and how i will travel. If i’m backpacking, i will surely pack less equipment than when staying with someone or travelling with a group.
My basic digital gear consists from:
- Canon 20D
- Canon 28-135IS
- a few CF memory cards
- Image tank 40gb
- an extra battery with charger
- small tripod (very light)
Almost always I will add something wide. If I want to travel really light, my kit lens, but since I have 17-40, thats my companion. When going to safari, tele zoom lens is indispensible… For low light photos 50/1.8. I only rarely take with me my Sigma flash. But at the end of the day, most of my photos are taken with 28-135IS… Surely, I have a really good backpack for photo equipment, Lowepro Compu trekker. But, as i usually travel quite light, i don’t take this backpack when going out of Europe.
So, here are a few links…
http://www.danheller.com/tech-travel.html (Dan Heller is one of my favourite travel photographers)
http://www.fodors.com/focus/
http://www.photo.net/travel/traveltips
http://www.photographers.co.uk/html/travel-camera-gear.cfm
http://www.photosecrets.com/p00.html
And by the way, if you are still travelling with analog equipment and using films, read this warning!
Rim… no, pravijo da vse poti v Rim. Zato je bilo treba končno tudi obiskati večno mesto… Mesto zanimivo, malce kaotično, tipično italijansko in seveda zato tudi privlačno. Hrana odlična, seveda glavna dieta je bila pizza, običajno tudi kakšni špageti. Pravzaprav me je mesto presenetilo, poleg tega je ravno prav veliko tako da se da veliko kar prehoditi… Kaj pa je negativno? Definitivno cene prenočišč… za manj kot 100EUR na noč je praktično nemogoče kaj dobiti, razen če se ne spi nekaj kilometrov iz centra (kar pa je škoda)…
Link: http://matty.breg.si/photo/europe/italy/rome/index.htm
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Eternal city of Rome. Actually, one of the few famous european capitals that still (until last weekend) avoided me. Yes, it was so close, yet too close to visit…
Its nice, worth a visit for more than a weekend. City is a bit chaotic, but thats Italy. Food is excellent, so is wine. Probably the only drawback are the prices of accomodation, as it is difficult or even impossible to get anything under 100EUR. But still… this city got to be on the intinerary of every traveller in Europe…
