Day of Disney firsts today :) First park, first character picture, first autograph, etc. And I loved every minute of it - totally re-lived my childhood all day. We had a nice breakfast (yay, free) at the hotel and then shuttled off to Epcot, to catch the Disney transfer to Animal Kingdom. And the magic begins! We went straight to Fastpass Everest (so not waiting in line when no need) and then went to the safari expedition. The line was long enough, but I didn't even mind lines today because Disney even does that right!! There are videos/movies, displays, everything is themed perfectly etc. The safari was nice - the vehicles themselves were really cool, and they let us do all sorts of crazy "off-road" experiences including nearly falling off a bridge and chasing after poachers ... read more

Early morning this morning..!! Drove down to Massena to catch the 7am flight out to Albany (on to Boston). Man, the things we do for cheap flights. The border was a ghost town, so we had fun chatting with the guard. Tracy's family drove us down, so when we gave all the passports over it was kind of like "ok who doesn't belonggggg" haha. He was good though - he joked around with us about how we're going to see "the Mouse" and all that jazz. We got to the airport before it was open, so drove back into town for coffee at McD's... which also wasn't open yet. The owner made us wait outside for 20min - we weren't too pleased considering he was supposed to open at 5am (only let us in at 5:15). ... read more

Right, well that was a tiring 48 hours. Monday morning was nice – I had a few hours before I had to bus to Ljubljana from Bled, so I finally took the time to walk around the entire lake and see it from the other viewpoints. Very pretty.... and longer thann I thought it would take! I had my leftover pizza for lunch, so I sat on the edge of the water, just people (and duck) watching. I also had a good laugh watching people in their boats. You can pay something like 20euros to take a boat to the little island, or you can rent a rowboat for 10euro... the thing is, it looked like for most people this was the first time they’d ever used a rowboat... ahahaha. They were so lost – it ... read more

I decided to hike the "quick" path up to the Castle rather than take the leisurely walk or the tourist train... yeah... that was an unfortuante choice on my part haha. The 15min walk is essentially 3min of steep gravel path in the woods, and the rest is all stairs. So many stairs. Not cool. I had a good laugh when I got to the castle though - there was a couple who had their (looked like a Lhasa Apso) dog in a rolling suitcase, with the top obv open so the dog could sit/stand. How cute. Anyway. You have to pay 8 euro for the Castle... which I'm never a fan of, but after the kajillion stairs, I wanted the satisfaction of seeing the lake from above haha. The view was quite nice, although the ... read more

Had a very lovely day today :) Checked out from Ljubljana and caught a bus north-west to Bled - it was a pleseant enough journey, driving through some small towns and farmer fields, with picturesque mountains in the background. Driving into Bled, I couldn't hlp but smile. Within 10-min I knew I was going to love it here. And after an hour or so, I was seriously questioning whether Iceland is still my favourite/most beautiful place I've been. My hostel is beyond fabulous - more about that in a later entry. Long story short, great hostess and I got upgraded from a 3-bed, to a 2-bed, by myself! Party! My stuff is now everywhere, all across the room haha. Perfect for when I need to re-pack. I went to the supermarket, made some lunch and then ... read more

I had to decide between two caves today... the easy to get to, touristy ones... or the off-the-path ones. Now, 99% of the time I'd go with the off-the-path... but having just spoken to another backpacker who spent forever trying to find the path to the off-the-path caves (haha, oh dear) I decided to play it safe. Had a wonderful lunch at the little sandwhich place across the road (paninis or sandwhich, 1.99 euro? I'm happy) and then went to catch the bus to Postojna, about an hour south-west of Ljubljana. The bus ride was nice - great scenery, passing through sleepy little towns in the mountains. One part was particularly steep with sharp curves - I really wish I had my camera out because the signs were epic - they were warning motorcyclists about sharp ... read more

I wrote this last night, on the 9th... but the internet at the hostel was down. No love. It's unedited from them Ok, I've been in Slovenia all of 5 hours and I already love it. Good thing too considering I'll be here for a week. But back to Vienna for a second - this morning I went to Stephansplatz, to the big church - very spiffy indeed. I liked their construction cover - usually there's just scaffolding everywhere, but the canvas for this one was basically a screenprint of what the church normally looks like! Love it. I also love that in front of the church there are like, 10 people dressed up in "Old Vienna"-style, with the wigs to boot, trying to sell tours. Classy lol. Anyway, the church was stunning on the ... read more