Day 79-82: i feel sLOVEnia

Sunday, April 4, 2010

On Easter morning, we were allowed to sleep in a bit before waking up for the day ahead of us. After getting dressed, I went downstairs to help Mateja prepare breakfast. Sašo's mom had lent us some of her brand-new dishes that she did not have room to store at their current apartment. I unwrapped a brand-new frying pan to scramble some eggs in for us. I was shocked by how quickly the eggs cooked up! I think I getting too used to the horribly old dishes that we have to cook with in Verbs. I deemed the pan, "the magic egg pan". The eggs themselves were really tasty, as they were from the chickens that Mateja's family raises in their own yard. We were also surprised when Sašo walked in with Easter gifts from his mom. She had made us each a bag with a hand-painted hard-boiled egg, chocolate egg candies and an orange! It felt just like Easter morning!

After we finished cleaning up breakfast (which included throwing the food scraps and egg shells out the window!), we got ready to go out for the day. Although it was slightly overcast, we had planned to go hiking in the morning up Bistirca Gorge, right in Mateja's backyard! It was a really nice walk through the Slovenian hills. We walked by creeks, through fields and ascended the hill all the way to the top where we saw the gorge. We also stopped for a bit to explore the Roman quarry lodged in the hills. Further up the mount, we got a nice view of the Sum waterfall. It felt just like a typical Easter morning, as the last two I have spent climbing Stone Mountain in Atlanta for the sunrise service! It was really awesome to get outside and do some hiking in Slovenia, as the country is known for its nature and great outdoor activities and trails.

We met up with Furman, Mateja and Sašo's mutual friend, while climbing up the mountain. He was super-friendly and as Mateja had said, he spoke really good English, so it was easy to converse with him. We all stopped for awhile on the way down the mountain for a snack before heading all the way back to Sašo's house for lunch.

Mateja made us a true Slovenian feast complete with bread dumplings, frankfurters, and cabbage (compliments of Sašo's mom!). We enjoyed tasting the scrumptious food and resting for a bit after our morning hike. For dessert, Mateja had us try a Slovenian delicacy, potrotna potica, which is a layered cake that they enjoy. It was good!

After lunch, we got ready to head out again for the afternoon. Mateja had made a schedule for every day that Bali and I were in Slovenia, and she was prepared to keep us busy and show us as much of her country as she could in five days! We headed to her home where we planned to meet her family briefly and use the internet (as Bali and I had been denied proper access up to this point!).

We were excited to meet Mateja's mom, grandmother, younger sister (Nadja) and brother (Natje). Mateja's mom was so sweet and gave us all Easter gifts- a huge Milka (chocolate) bar, pens and notepads. As we were preparing to leave, Mateja's mom invited us into their kitchen for a snack. She had made a whole spread of pretzel sticks, juice, cakes and fruit. Nadja found Mateja's cat, srečko (which means "Happy" in Slovenian), who we petted and played with for a few minutes. We chatted with Mateja's mom and snacked for a bit before heading out.

Back in the car, Sašo (our chauffeur) drove us to a nearby mountain where we got out and climbed a bit to see the famous Easter flower. This is a flower that is unique to this one spot in Slovenia. It grows no where else in the world. It is almost lavender in color and appears very hairy. It was really beautiful to see on Easter morning itself!

Then we hopped back in the car and drove for a bit more to reach another area of the mountain. Mateja was super-excited when we reached our next stop, as the chocolate shoppe that she loves was actually open (despite the fact that it was Easter!). She had to translate what was in the various chocolates sold in the shoppe, as it was all in Slovenian. I picked out a few little treats including a cinnamon chocolate and a champagne chocolate. Mateja and Sašo purchased some chocolate muffins that they insisted we try while in Slovenia, as they were one of their favorites. They were, indeed, quite good!

Afterward, we visited a very old monastery and pharmacy. It was really interesting to see, as these structures were so old, but in such good condition. The pharmacy is still functioning and we enjoyed reading about the various remedies they offered for things. We also got to go inside the church next door, which was really splendid.

After visiting these sites, we hopped back in the car for our next stop, "The Cottage by the Witch". I am not exactly sure how to explain this, but it was basically a small outdoor park for children that depicted various fairytale characters. Everything was made out of recycled or natural materials, as it was all outside. We saw Adam and Eve, Cupid, Pippi Longstocking, Pinocchio, and many other fairytale characters. Some were unique stories to Slovenia, so we enjoyed listening as Mateja and Sašo told us all about these funny children's stories. Mateja and Sašo hadn't been to the park since they were about ten years old, so they really enjoyed seeing it again too! We all felt like big little kids :)

We began to descend the mountain as we headed to our final stop for the day- the Deer Ridge. Saso parked the car and we all got out to walk over to see the deer. They seemed so peaceful grazing on the hills. As we were about to head out, we heard a call. It seemed as though someone that worked at the ridge was calling the deer, something like "keekee, coco". Suddenly, all of the deer stuck their heads up and began walking towards the man that was calling them. It was really cool to see the deer listening to the voice of a human like that. They all filed over the rolling hills over to the fenced in area that the man was standing in. It was like nothing I have ever seen before!

After we finished watching the deer, we hopped back in the car, tired from a long day of climbing and sightseeing. Sašo drove us back to Slovenska Bistrica. On the way back home, Sašo and Mateja pointed out the Croation border to us. We were surprised to find out how strict the border control is, since Croatia is not an EU member. They told us that there were people actually hiding in the bushes on the other side with guns to stop anyone who tried to cross illegally. It was really interesting to see and hear about.

Back at Sašo's house, we rested for a bit before Bali began preparing supper. She had planned to make her famous pineapple rice that she has made for us several times at home in Tilburg. We helped her a bit with the cooking and enjoyed eating her delicious cooking! This was Sašo's first time eating the pineapple rice, which he really enjoyed (although he said it could use some sausage!). We enjoyed watching Mateja pick the raisins out of her rice and place them on Sašo's plate. So cute!


Exhausted, we cleaned up the dinner dishes and headed upstairs for the evening.

Monday, April 5, 2010

On our second full day in Slovenia, we woke up early and started the morning with a nice breakfast. After everyone finished getting ready, we hopped in the car and our lovely chauffeur, Sašo, drove us all the way to Ljubljana (the capital city of Slovenia). This is also the city where Mateja attends University when she is at home; she studies Journalism there.

On the way to Ljubljana, we stopped for a quick break at the Slovenian donut place, Trojane, on the highway. Mateja and Sašo were anxious for us to try this Slovenian favorite and I was also excited to see how donuts differed in Slovenian from those back home! We went inside and I was impressed by the immense size of the donuts. We each chose one and went back outside to the car. First we walked around a bit, as there was a gorgeous view of the Slovenian Alps in the background of the donut stop.

Back in the vehicle, we began to feast on our donuts while Sašo continued driving us. We arrived a bit later in Ljubljana. Its funny that everything in Slovenia is within two hours of everything else, as it is such a small country! Ljubljana is only about 1.5 hours from where Mateja lives. When we arrived, we got out of the car and began to walk around the city a bit. Mateja and Sašo, our Slovenian tour guides, pointed out some of Ljubljana's most famous buildings. We saw the parliament building, the library, and a cool old monastery called Plečnik. All the shoppes and things were closed today, as it was a public holiday (Easter Monday).

After our walking tour, we headed into La Petit Cafe, one of Mateja's favorite places to go with her schoolmates in Ljubljana. We each ordered a drink; I had the la petit coffee, which is FAR from petite! We enjoyed sipping our drinks and relaxing for awhile before we headed out of the cafe to our next stop in Ljubljana.

We walked back through the city to reach the mountain that the Ljubljana Castle is on. We walked to the top of the mountain, which gave us a really nice view of the whole city. I was mesmerized by how different this city looked from above than some of the other cities we have seen from significant height. Slovenia is definitely the most different country architecturally than the others I have been to so far. We enjoyed the view and looking around the Castle premises before descending back down the mount.

On the way down, we took a different route and happened upon a small playground on the side of the hill meant for small children. We took the opportunity to let out our inner child-selves and played for a bit on the playground. We enjoyed swinging and see-sawing with each other before continuing our descent down the mountain.

Back on level terrain, we walked through the city again to get back to the car. We passed by the three bridges, many Slovenian shoppes and even a Slovenian McDonald's! I decided that the Slovenians "really like the 'j' here". For example, the word 'horse' in Slovenian is 'konj'. Point proved :) During our walks through the city of Ljubljana, we ran into some famous people! Mateja discretely pointed out to us as we passed by a Slovenian TV host, actor and member of Parliament. Just shows how small Slovenia is! On the car ride to our next destination, we passed the Croatian border again. Bali made another funny comment, "But can't the Slovenians and Croatians meet each other in the water?". This made us all laugh as we discussed the boundaries of the border control.

We reached Bled mid-afternoon. Here we had a nice picnic lunch with the sandwich-fixings that Mateja had prepared and brought for us. We fed the crumbs from our lunch to the ducks and walked down towards the water.

Mateja, Bali and I decided to take the boat ride to Bled island, a small island in the middle of this lake area with an old Church and museum on it. It was a nice, short ride to Bled. When we reached, we were told that we had 45 minutes to look around before we needed to be back at the boat. Bali, Mateja and I went into the Museum and looked at the interesting exhibits they had displayed. There was one that depicted all the traditional wear in Slovenian. We even found the traditional dress from the region that Mateja is from! There was another exhibit that had nativity scenes made out of all kinds of different mediums. I really enjoyed that one too! After visiting the museum we wandered the island, took some pictures and pretended to hijack a boat...typical :)

My favorite part of Bled was the amazing view we had of the snow-covered Slovenian Alps, especially from the island. They truly were picturesque...words cannot describe! I was so blessed to see this amazing sight, and with such good company!

We grabbed a cup of coffee and hopped back in the car to our next stop on 'Tour de Slovenia'. Sašo drove us this time to another lake/mountain area nearby called Bohnij. Here we unpacked the car and spread out a blanket on the hillside by the lake. The sun began to peak out from behind the clouds where it had been hiding all day. We were super happy for the added warmth and laid out on our blanket to enjoy the sun! The scenery here was literally breathtaking as well! Bali and I napped for a bit, while Sašo and Mateja walked down to the lakeside. We also got to witness one of their "fights" which was in reality just Mateja beating up Sašo :)

After a nice nap on the hillside, we packed up our things and headed for the next leg of the day's journey through Slovenia. We were headed to meet up with Polona for coffee at her home, but stopped for some supper first. We went to this yummy pizza place, Nekropolis, that Mateja and Sašo knew of for a cheap and yummy bite of dinner. After dinner, we went over to Polona's where we met her sister and enjoyed coffee. Polona's sister had made a Slovenian specialty for us, sirovi struklji. This is a cottage cheese filled dumpling covered in sugar. It was pretty good! Bali and I used the internet at Polona's to check our Italian train times for part III of our trip before we said our good-byes for the evening and headed back to Slovenska Bistrica.


Tuesday, April 6, 2010

We woke early on Tuesday for our big day in Maribor. Mateja had arranged for her friend Mitja to drive us to the city (about half an hour away) since Sašo had to work that day. We arrived quite early for the big event of the day- going to listen to the Dalai Lama address Maribor! To kill time, we went into several shoppes in Maribor, including H&M, and New Yorker. We each bought some things before heading to a nearby cafe that Mateja really likes to go for a cup of coffee or tea called čajek. It was really good! I had coffee and a croissant, while Bali and Mateja ordered this special spring tea that smelled AMAZING!

Afterward, we left and went to get some errands done. We went to the ATM so Bali and I could replenish our euro and then to the train station to purchase our tickets for Italy. The people at the train station told us that we should just wait until we  got to Italy to buy the tickets, as they would not go up in price. On our way walking back to meet Mitja, we stopped by the tourist information center to see a bit more about what Slovenia has to offer. Then we met Mitja and headed over to the Dalai Lama's speech!

It was really an awesome thing to hear and see the Dali Lama for the first time in Slovenia! While I do not agree with everything that he says and stands for, I enjoyed listening to his words of wisdom and took some things from his address. Mateja had explained to us beforehand that he is really  interested in addressing and communicating his knowledge to young people, and that this speech was especially for youth and young adults. We listened carefully, as the Dali Lama spoke in English and a translator relayed his words in Slovenian. One of the points that I really found interesting from his talk was when he said that women really need to play a bigger role in leadership, due to their better understanding of emotion. As a woman's college attendee, this excited me :)

We left his speech tired and hungry and headed back into Maribor city centre for a bit. We were supposed to go to the spa that evening, but instead of trying to rush to get there and back, we just decided to hang out in Maribor until Sašo got off work to pick us up so that we could see more of the city and enjoy it! We were pretty hungry after the long lecture, so Mateja took us to this delicous little Serbian restaurant where we had a nice lunch of these filled stick pastries. They were super cheap and totally delicious! We feasted on ones filled with spinach, cheese and minced meat. After lunch we headed to the Maribor public library to use the internet on the computers so that I could register for classes back at Agnes Scott as it was my assigned day to do so for the Fall 2010 semester. I got all registered and we headed to another one of Mateja's favorite places in Maribor, Ilich, where we each had a massive dish of icecream. I tried 'cookies' along with Mateja. It was super yummy!

Next we headed to the water to catch a glimpse of the river and the vineyard. We walked alongside the water and got to see the oldest vine, Stara Trta, in the world, which is conveniently located in Maribor. It was really neat! Apparently the wine made from this 400-year old vine is super expensive as it only produces like 20 bottles of wine per year!

As it was nearing time to meet Sašo, we headed across the bridge to the large indoor shopping mall where we looked around for a bit and went into a grocery store to buy some food for the next day. We went to several nice shoppes before meeting up with Sašo and heading back to Slovenska Bistrica.

Back at Sašo's house, we heated up some leftovers for supper and relaxed a bit. Later on in the evening, Furman (who we had met Sunday morning) and Petra (Mateja's female cousin) came over for a bit. We enjoyed their company  over some drinks. We all sat upstairs in the cozy space on the other side of the room that Bali and I were sharing. Sašo poured me a glass of Slovenian wine and Bali and I split a chocolate muffin from our trip on Monday. We all chatted for a bit and I showed everyone the pictures that Bali and I had taken so far on our trip on the giant TV. We also made plans with Furman for the next morning to go to Piran, as he would drive us there.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

On our final day in Slovenia (sadness!!), we woke up early to get ready to go to the COAST! We were super excited to hop in the car with Furman and drive down to the Adriatic Sea coast at Piran. Itty bitty Slovenia is proud to boast its 46km (about 28.5 miles) of coast, and we were happy to explore it for the day. It was so nice to back at the beach! Our first stop in Piran was the bus station where we checked the time for the afternoon bus to Trieste, Italy, as Bali and I would be taking that in the afternoon to get to our next destination. Afterwards, we hopped back in the car and drove to the coast to park.

Furman doesn't like to pay more than necessary, so we skipped the rip-off parking garage and took the cheaper route by parking behind some overgrowth on a hill facing the coast. From here, we had a great view of the water below us and a nice area from which to enjoy our picnic feast that Mateja had brought along for lunch. Furman surprised us by pulling a small table and chair from the back of his car...wow! We enjoyed the view and the food before packing up and heading down to the water.

As it was still rather chilly, we were not much into actually getting into the water. Rather, we walked along the coastline and enjoyed the view of the Italian coast on the other side. It was funny to think that in just a few short hours, Bali and I would be on the other side...in ITALY! But for now, we were enjoying the Slovenian coast! We walked through the small town of Piran. It looked more like Italy to me than Slovenia, I guess because it is so close by. It is also a rather touristy part of Slovenia, but it was still REALLY nice!

I was surprised by the beach here. It was much different than the beaches I am used to at home in Florida. This was not a sandy beach. Instead, it was a rocky beach, which was a first for me to experience. I really like it though! A much different feel. Mateja and I were brave enough to take off our shoes and climb out onto the rocks to stick our toes in the water. Yikes! It was cold!

After enjoying our day in Piran soaking up the sun and admiring the coast, it was time to head back to the bus station and say good-bye. We thanked Furman for driving us so far and spending the day with us. We hugged Mateja good-bye, knowing that we would see her again in just a few days back in Tilburg. They drove off to meet some friends that evening in Ljubljana, while Bali and I waited for our bus to Trieste. We had a bit of time to kill, so we walked over to the indoor shopping center for a bit and got a snack for later.

Finally we got on the bus to Trieste. I busted out the Italian To-Go language guide that I had printed and began to brush up on my Italian, while Bali rested her eyes. About an hour later, we were in Trieste, Italy! We disembarked the bus and wandered around trying to find the train station. It was on the other side of the bus terminal, so we found it rather quickly and purchased tickets for the next train to Mestre (the mainland near Venice). We waited for a bit at the Trieste station before boarding the train to Mestre. It was a nice train journey through Italy. When we reached Mestre, we got off and had to figure out how to navigate the buses to get to our hotel. We had a quick bite of dinner and boarded the bus to take us to our hotel.

After a bit of searching, we found our hotel. It was super-cheap, but impressive for the price we paid! We were thankful at this point in the trip to have our own room (and bathroom!) where we could spread  out and rest! The man at the reception desk was super friendly, and although they had no tourist information and no wifi or internet, he was helpful in giving us some basic information to start our day off in Italy. We were bummed that we could not use a computer to check out some things to do in Venice, but glad that we were where we were supposed to be. We ended up calling it an early night and getting some rest for our first full day in Venice in the morning.

I really enjoyed Slovenia! I think it was my favorite part of the trip. It was so fun to stay with good friends, learn so much about another culture, and explore a totally new area to me! Sašo and Mateja were so good to us and we were so appreciative to them for hosting us and planning the whole trip around Slovenia for us. They showed us so much of their country and shared so much with us about their way of life. They also taught us quite a bit of Slovenian: Zxivjo (hello), Hvala (thank-you), Adijo (good-bye), and Me Veseli (nice to meet you). Plus we got acquainted with č, ž, š, my new favorite letters :)

I will never forget the time I spent in this small chicken-shaped country, and plan to return sometime in the future to visit Mateja (and explore some more!).