SLOVENIA...

So I spent 2 lovely awesome weeks in Slovenia and pretty much saw all of the country. For those that don't know where Slovenia is it's bordered by the following countries: Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. It's not a very big country and like Estonia I never would have visited it if it wasn't for Ollerup.

Anyways I stayed with Gregor (in Izlake, half an hour from the capital Ljubljana) and his family who looked after me so well. Their hospitality and kindness was too much. I can't thank them anough. THANKS A MILLION!

Hmmm... in the first week we didn't really do much. Had a party the first night I arrived and Mariano (Argentina) was still there which was really nice, nice to see him again. Though it was only for a few days and one day was all sleeping recovering from a hangover =p anyways we made a trip to Bled and Slap Savica (waterfall) as it was Mariano's last day in Slovenia. The weather was definitely not on our side but we had to go anyways. So we drove 1.5 hours to Bled and just walked around. There is church on an island that Bled is famous for but we didn't go, but we saw it! We walked along the streets of the city and then went to Slap Savica (to me this name sounds almost like slap-a-pizza, so the joke started and remains from now on). The rain started as we were making our way up to the waterfall. The sign said 20mins walk but after an hour of walking up and up this hill we didn't seem to get any closer. We were in fact on our way to a cottage on top of the hill which was a 2.5hr walk... oops! we had to walk all the way back down and then saw the entrance to the waterfall... completely looked passed it! so after another 20mins walking up steps in the rain we finally made it to the waterfall. I couldn't take good photos due to the weather and the view was covered by clouds so. but at least I got to see it. Oh yea and we were completely wet all over!

Anyways (I seem to like this word, use it way too many times!), spent a day in Ljubljana seeing the main sights and walking around the city with my lovely Gregor. We went to the castle and up the clock tower where we saw a beautiful view of the city. Walked along the Dragon Bridge and one of the famous 3 Bridges. Saw the main square and markets and we went to the international restaurant for lunch, yeps... McDonalds! It was a nice day just walking around the city and seeing the beautiful old buildings and architecture.

A singstar birthday party was attended with homemade cocktails which went straight to my head. I started with a mojito and then who knows what else but each one I had was different and I had like 5 of them. Did not feel too good the next day... and hey I'm only a small person and can only consume so much alcohol! Gregor and I also got new haircuts. We went to his hairdresser that he always sees and he just got a shorter cut and I went shorter but with a slight fringe. It's not too bad, I haven't had a fringe since primary school! I think!

Gregor's family have a summer house that they are still working on. We spent a few days there just chilling, partying, picking mushrooms, eating (well that was more my time there, Gregor was working on the house a lot with his dad). But it's a really nice and cosy place. I met a lot of his family while I was there, almost all of them (relatives) except for one aunty I think. It was a bit overwhelming at first but then it was fine as they are so nice. Their english wasn't very strong but they always tried which was great and I also learnt quite a few words and phrases in Slovenian. I can count to 100! =p

Anyways other places we went to were Čemšeniška Planina which is like a hill, 1120m high. Took us 30mins to climb to the top and although it was a lovely sunny day the view was not very clear. It was a hazy day but all is good. Oh and it was only us 2 there as we found out they close on Mondays (the cafe) but it was nice. We climbed a bigger hill, maybe we can call it a mountain, another day. It was called Kum and it's 1219m high. Took us 50mins to get to the top and going down is not my specialty. I kept slipping on all the rocks and had to hang onto Gregor the whole way down so he could hold me up. On the way down we picked hazelnuts and found 3 big mushrooms! What I like so much about Slovenia is that there are fruit trees in every garden, people grow their own vegetables and there are nut trees everywhere! I have never seen nut trees before, I've only ever seen nuts in bags in the supermarkets!

Moving on... we also went to visit Roman (the other Slovenian from Ollerup) who lives really close to the border of Croatia. We were going to cross over but I didn't think to bring my passport! Oh wells, there is always another time. So Roman drove us around his city of Brežice and also where he used to live. It was a nice catch up and we had the traditional cream cake, it was so good I was so stuffed afterwards and I had to get Roman to help me finish it! After visiting Roman we went to see the famous caves of Slovenia, Postojna Caves. It was quite beautiful but we weren't allowed to take photos inside but I managed to snap a few on the train back at the end of the tour. Oh yea and it was only 8 or 10 degrees in there and I was so not dressed for it. Had shorts on but had a jacket with me so it was just the bottom half that was freezing and they had coats for hire but I'm too stingy for that. After the caves we visited the nearby castle (called Predjamski Grad). It's a castle in the cliff, quite beautiful but we didn't go in. Anyways that whole day was like 6 hours of driving going from one place to the other.

Finally the last sight of Slovenia I saw was the seacoast. It's not much but at least they have something. The main town on the coast is Portoroz. Gregor's dad had a tennis tournament there so the whole family went. It was a big tournament with over 200 participants and Gregor was really itching to play. We had free food (really good food) and drinks (including alcoholic) for the whole day! Watched Gregor's dad play and cheered him on (this tournament was mainly doubles, there were singles too but not big numbers) and then Gregor and I walked along the coast and swam a little bit in the sea. Then we sun-baked and slept in the sun for a couple of hours. It was such beautiful weather, perfect and relaxing. Oh yea we also went on a boat trip along the coast which was organised by the tournament. Once again we enjoyed the sunshine.

So I think that pretty much summed up my stay in Slovenia. It's such a beautiful country, surrounded by great scenery of mountains and forests. It's just green and wonderful. Gregor's view from his window is like this... my view is the neighbour's fence, not very interesting. Anyways I'll definitely be back again. Love it too much!