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Published: April 13th 2013
Day 51 of 146.
That leaves 95 more days of adventures! But let's talk about the last 6 days.
Last week I was in Rimini Italy, a town located right beside the country of San Marino. Regen and I chose this spot as our base of operations for exploring the mountainous town center. Rimini itself was quite the strange place, being set up as a huge party town for the hoards of summer tourists, (mostly nationals). Pubs were open to 4am as a standard throughout the week, and we definitely got the sense that the whole 'raison d'être' was just to have a crazy party. This being said this is not what we did. We took the bus into another country, San Marino to be exact, which is the oldest republic in the world that is still around today. The original town is literally built on top of a mountain, 700m higher then everything in sight. Upon getting into old town, Regen and myself were taken back by how cool of a medieval city we found ourselves in. However San Marino was not what we expected. Once we were walking up and down the old roads, we were stunned to find literally every second shop selling full replica BB guns, grenades, throwing stars (a bargain at only 2€), various other assault gear such as crossbows, daggers and swords. Everything you'd expect from a small little country right? However it didn't stop there. Throughout the day of exploration, we also came across various bodily shaped bottles full of a variety of alcoholic delights, full on nudity in ads around town, as well as a huge number of Russian speaking tourists. So many in fact that it appeared to be the unofficial second language in the country, with shop signs, infrastructure and restaurant menus alike being offered in Italian and Russian.
After the San Marino experience, Regen and I headed north to Venice. Once again out of penny pinching (for you Canadians, nickel pinching) we stayed at a camp ground in mainland Venice. Finding the campground turned out to be a big headache, and we weren't even in the maze of Venice yet. Yikes!
Our only day in Venice was eclipsed by a transit strike that essentially gave us one option to get in and out of the city.
For those of you that have not been to Venice, it is a must see city. Literally built way out in the ocean, made up of hundreds of little islands, there really isn't much else like it out there. Another thing that really made Venice special for me was the fact that it has its own history apart from the rest if Italy, and therefore is much different then every place I had previously visited. One observation was that in Venice they seem to really take pride in the idea of locally made and produced, so the shops were full of very interesting and unique things that I had never before seen. I spent the day wondering around aimlessly enjoying how lost I was and taking in everything I could. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, I would take the small little back streets just to see where I would end up. Some were so small I had to side shuffle to make it through!
After an unwilling goodbye to the floating city, Regen and I headed north east towards Slovenia. However this was not an easy journey. For whatever reason, the Italian-Slovenian border shares no train lines, and therefore Regen and I took the train to a small Italian border town, and from there literally walked across the border into Slovenia and to another train line and made our way to Bled.
Lake Bled was not something I knew about earlier, not had any plans of going, however I was glad Regen pointed it out. It almost in a way felt like we were back in Canada. Snowcapped mountains all around the lake with a small island in the middle that has a church. We spent a lot of time simply walking around the town and the lake taking in how pretty it was, and enjoying the break from the craziness earlier in the week. Mid day we rented a row boat and took it out onto the lake and did some sight seeking and explored the middle island. All was fun and games however until we discovered there was a small leak in the boat, and started to get wet feet! We hurried to shore and dragged the boat onto the beach and turned it over to drain it. Then we did the smart thing and got back in the boat and took it back to the dock. We made it just in time as upon making it back to the dock the water line was quickly approaching sock level.
It was super interesting being in Slovenia. Things are done much differently there then in France and Italy, let alone Canada. Over breakfast the morning we were departing for Ljubljana (lu-blie-ana) Regen and I turned on the tv in the hostel kitchen. We started to channel surf looking for an English program,(my slovien just isn't what it could be), we came across HD porn channels just coming in with the regular programming. So weird! As Regen put it, the hd was so clear you could almost see her parents disappointment.
And finally Ljubljana, the Capitol of Slovenia. Our hostel was an old military jail, and it was located right in the middle of a huge squatting district for artists and druggies alike. However safety was not a concern.
The town itself is very small and easily walkable. The architecture is very different then that of France and Italy, as there is also a huge influence from the former Yugoslav.
I personally found the district we were in to be the most interesting of them all, as it was full crazy out of the world art, all made by the residents of the buildings. However erie and sketchy this district seemed during the day, only got crazier after dark. We met up with a fellow Canadian studying abroad in Ljubljana and he showed us around the place. At night what you thought was old run town buildings with tons of graffiti and weird surreal carvings, turns into the happening place in town with various different bar/club things as well as good being prepped and sold. It appeared that all the students went there to hang out before going elsewhere. But never once did I feel unsafe. Even when we were offered ecstasy by the most lethargic and helpless sales person.
(No mom, we were not doing drugs)
All in all it was a great week, and it was super fun to travel with such a great friend and have a partner for the road.
This morning I left Regen as he heads into the Balkans towards Istanbul.
I am currently writing from a train in Austria, by far the nicest one I have been on, complete with free fast wifi for everyone. What a concept!
Today's destination is Budapest. I don't really know how this decision came about but yesterday it seemed like the right thing to do!
Alright, enough of this being hunched over writing a novel on my phone crap. Back to looking out the window as the Austrian countryside passes me by.
All the best to all of you!
M
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Dane
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sabados
Hola MacKenzie.....all sounds like life enhancing moments.....will provide a wider base to project yourself into your future....I'm heading off to Chewy for a final haircut of this season in Mexico and then to the farmer's market to locate a couple of baby gifts for Nelsy's future twins who are to be born in early may ....we had a squirrel ambush where the ardilla took out our transformer and caused numerous electrical issues in the house..most are resolved but more learning involved there....and we had one night where there was no social committments so reading and catching up on some spanish study....enjoy your day ....abrazos Dane