Slovenian Paradise

Well, I think we have both officially decided that Slovenia is paradise on Earth. We spent 3 wonderful days in the capital city, Ljubljana (it is not as hard to say as it looks - the j is pronounced like a y here). Anyway, we have not seen a single other American since we got to Slovenia, but just about everyone here speaks perfect English. We have tried our best to speak broken Slovenian, and i think most people appreciate that we are trying. But usually they just start speaking English.

Anyway, we spent a day exploring Ljubljana, which is probably my (Jill's) favorite city in the world at the moment. It was situated on a river, with a castle on the hill in the middle of town. The river is lined with cafes and restaurants where people just lounge all day long and into the evening. The food was good and inexpensive. The coffe was STRONG, but hit the spot. Most of the old town is pedestrian only, which we loved. It was all around just a beautiful place. We also had lunch at Bosnian restaurant where we had a pile of delicious meat (I won't ask what kind of meat it was - but it was delicious).

We took a day trip to Lake Bled, which was absolutely gorgeous - totally picturesque, complete with a cliff-hanging castle and a church on an island in the middle of the lake. There is a 4-ish mile path around the lake that passes by Tito's (the former Yugoslavian president) old country villa. Just beautiful. However, it didn't stop raining on us once we got off the bus. So we didn't get to enjoy much of it - just the views of the mountains.

We also took a day trip to some caves and a castle that is tucked away in a mountain. It is Brian's new favorite castle. And the caves were huge! Way bigger than Ruby Falls :)

Yesterday we headed to the coast. We are in a small town called Piran, which sits on a promontory right on the Adriatic. The weather is perfect, the water is clear (you can see down at least 20 feet), and Brian feels like a kid in a candy store with all the topless sunbathers. He hasn't stopped lamenting that American women are so much more uptight about their bodies than Europeans :) Though we have also seen our share of women he wishes had chosen to keep their tops on, and lots and lots of speedos!

In the morning we head to Croatia by boat. We will keep you all posted! So far, the former Yugoslavia is a can't miss spot for anyone loooking for quiet and relatively untouristed (especially by Americans) cities. We highly recommend Slovenia, and will let you know about Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro...

Love to all!

Jill + Brian

---

---