Alps

Mountains and glaciars

Hiking up the wrong route!

On top of Colle du Grun

Bees nesting in an abandoned car

Too beautiful to be edible

The last part of our summer vacation was spent in the French Alps hiking and climbing. To be more exact we were in the valley of Valgaudemar in the Ecrins national park. I have to say we were really lucky because it stopped raining when we arrived and it did not rain (much) for the whole week while we were there.

Every day consisted of a different activity. We went hiking up mountains and saw lots of animals (cow, sheep, marmots, and an ibex). We looked for raspberries and made a pie with them. We went mushroom hunting. We (actually not me) found some genepì and made genepì liquor (I actually did the easy part).

I was a really nice week and I can't wait to go back!

Food

Grilled eggplants with mint

Stuffed tomatoes

Marinated sardines

Just a few pictures of some typical italian antipasti. These were made by one of my mother's friends who happens to be a really good cook. They were delicious!

Egyptian Museum

Reading hieroglyphics

Very very old bread

Eyes to see the river

Cats!

Crocodile

On the way to the museum

In 1824 the king of Italy Carlo Felice founds the Egyptian Museum in Turin with 5628 Egyptian artefacts gathered by Bernandino Droveretti. The museum is entirely dedicated to Egyptian art and artefacts. The visit begins in the black statue room. Here it's possible to see Sphinxes and imposing statutes against a dark background. The visits proceeds upstairs, where mummies and artefacts are kept in 19th century cases. One of my favorite exhibits has always been the mummified cats and animals.

Italy

Ivrea, Italy

Lago Sirio

Bus in Turin

Piazza San Carlo, Turin Italy

Gelateria popolare at night

Traffic signs around Turin

Via Barbaroux, Turin Italy

This year the first two weeks of August were spent travelling between Italy and France. The first stop was at my mom's house in Turin, Italy. Finally after weeks of bad weather, the sun was out and we were able to walk around the city and we found lots of traffic signs with these little men pasted onto them. It was quite cute. As always I have to go and eat ice cream at my favorite ice cream place: la gelateria popolare.

Qatar

Curry mix

Beans!

Just a few pictures from Souq Waqif (a market) in Doha, Qatar.

The last of the holiday pictures!

Vespa in the rice fields.

Sacred source.

Temple detail.

Kois in the sacred water.

Rice fields near Ubud, Bali.

Monkeys!

The last few days of our vacation were spent near Ubud Bali. We found a nice room overlooking the rice fields. It was very quiet during the day, but as soon as night fell there were tons of frogs and toads just singing the night away.

The area near Ubud is know for traditional crafts and nice landscapes characterised by terraced rice fields. We rented a scooter and roamed around the country side. We visited a sacred spring, where the locals go to pray and bathe (no pictures allowed).

Before leaving we decided to visit the very touristy Monkey Forest. The name says it all... it's a forest and there are monkeys.

Our vacation was over and it was time to spend half a day in Doha Qatar.

Sekoton, Lombok

Fishing boat.

The beach somewhere in the Sekoton peninsula.

The same boat at sunset with Balt's mount Agung in the distance.

Low tide.

Desert point Lombok.

Punky the monkey.

Makaki bay, we were the only people there.

Our ride.

Mount Agung at sunset view from Senggigi.

Our trip throughout Lombok took us to the Sekotong peninsula. This is a region of Lombok rarely visited by tourists. So it's a bit hard to get there and there aren't many places to sleep, but once you are there you get to have entire beaches to yourself. This is a place to go if you want peace and quiet.

While we were there we witnessed some spectacular sunsets. It's possible to see Bali's volcano from this part of Lombok.

After only two days there it was time to head back up to Senggigi and back to Bali.