Second Tour Begins! Slovenia and Austria

---

Second tour! I ws really excited about this one because two of the girls from my first trip were going to e on it too, and we were alredy friends! Our tour guide was Carla and our driver was Nate. The drive was nice enough, but first guide and driver were awesoe and too hard to beat. By the end, I really didnt care for Carla at all. However, like two weeks later, I randomly ran into her Munich, even though i hadnt seen her since Prague! Small world, isn't it!

Our first night was in a Croatian city called pag. It is mostly famous for all the salt it produces, and the specula way it cures it's ham. The Adriatic sea is sooo salty (I noticednit sheen diving, but I thought I had just forgotten how salty salt water is!) that they can leave raw meat out and the air cures it, lol. They are also famous for their cheese and wine. So our first night we had a nice wine and cheese tasting and it really was good.

For them to get the salt, ,they have these large field type things that look like rice paddies. The water slowly evaporates, and then they fjust collect the salt crystals. Then they flood it again, and repeat.

The next day we went into lljubljana. I had already been there on a prevues trip, bit it was nie to see again, for sure. This was our first taste of not liking Carla. We only had about hour in the city... But because of a bike race, we had to park farther than normal, so it was a 10 minute walk. Thn she talked to us for about 10 minutes and told us we had 30 minutes before we had to go back. Rlly? 30 mins for the captal of a country? I know we had to walk farther, but she could have given us more time, especially since it was owur lunch stop. Zoe had never been before, so istayed at the restaurant to wait for the food so she could have a quick look around. We ate and left and went straight to meeting place... An we were still late and Carla got mad at us. Yea, sorry I was late, but this is my vacation and I paid good money!

The funny thing about slovenia, is that it is super beautiful and lush. Literally 2 mins after crossing the border, everything went fro stony grey mountains to luscious greenery everywhere. So wee got to enjoy that and carlas passive aggressive talk about being on time all the way to Bled.

Lake Bled is beautiful too. It is a lake with a tiny island with a tiny church on it, surround by tall, green mountains. It is also famous for having a tasty cake. I had one but it was pretty sweet! By the end of it, everyone looked like we had just one cocaine because of all the powered sugar. I def recommend to try it, but I also highly recommend to share it.

Something that happens at almost every hostel we go to, is a wwelcome drink. I don't remember this from my previous trips, so it is either a new thing, or a Busabout thing. But I have been to hostels without bus about and got free drink there too, so I dunno. Bed's welcome drink was unique though. Many places had strong ones that I discreetly was able to pour out or give to someone else to not offend ( I don't like coughing after a drink, thank you so much. Does that make me a wuss? Maybe, but why drink if it isn't pleasurable? I like the taste of silly girl drinks and wine, so that's all I want to drink! Anyway,,,) the drink we got in bled was house made. Two choices: raspberry or b lueberry. What was unique about it though, is that theere were tiny pieces of fruit at the bottom and maaaan were those fruit pieces strong! I could barely stomach the one, and a some people had two!

The next day was awesome.... Bled adventure day! We got picked up in the morning and were taken to a few different places for short hikes and stunning views. Some hikes were a little harder than others, but I think they were all worth it! Besides our group, there was also a little Asian family. Theyhad a little boy who was super cute, until he threw up in the van..... Four times,.... Luckily, not in my van! Theree is a group of 4 ditzy American girls, and they were the ones stuck with him lolololol. Carla called them team America, but I was never included in that. It bummed me out at first, until I got to know them. Theywere pretty dumb, and I found out later they went to Harvard! Crazy.

The second part of adventure day was whitewater rafting! It was so fun! The sun was pretty hot, but the water was cooooold! Theree were three rafts and whenever we passed each other, wwe had water fights. I'm pretty sure my raft won each time! Not necessarily because of me, lol. There was a spot where if we paddled well, our boat would do a 360. The first boat only got half way around. The third boat went around once. My boat went around 3 times. Just saying 😊 the whole time on th river was so pretty. On both sides are impossibly high mountains of a rich green, and the water was an ice blue. At the end of the run, we got to jump in the water and swim the rest of the way... Over rapids! He neglected to tell us. They would be so rough! I was hurtling down the river straight at a rock! I kicked off and spun around and got pulled under when I wasn't expecting it. I got water in both my eyes and couldn't see anything because the water had moved my contacts. After initial freakout and then I was able to see, I started laughing, because it really had been fun.

On the way back, we stopped at this waterfall tucked back in a cove. I wanted to go swimming in there, but it was just tooooo cold! Two of the crazy boys did though. At our next stop was a bridge you could jump off. I believe it was about 36 feet up. The two crazy boys jumped off, as well as one of the Harvard girls in a bikini. Now that was a surprise! Our last stop was pretty cool. We drove our van onto a train! It was open air so we got to see the sites as we traveled. We went through a few small tunnels, but when we went throguh a really long one, we had to shut the windows. The air quality was so bad, that by the time we got through thet tunnel, my eyes were red and itching so bad I wanted to cut them out!

The next day we got to go to the island church. Apparently what happened was a widow wanted to give the church a bell in honor of her hubby. But on the way, a storm hit and the bell sank. The distraught woman joined a convent and the pope donated a bell for her. Now if you ring the bell, it is supposed to be good luck. You can also get luck another way! Theree are 100 steps! If a groom can carry his bride up them, they will have a happy marriage! I'm not sure if that's true though, or if tehybjust stay together because the man will alwys point out he did that for her, lol. one of the crazy boys carried up one of the short girls which was funny, so we pronounced them married. They divorced later when we found out there were only 99 steps, and she only signed up for 100 lol.

From bled, we went to Salzburg. We went to a schnapps (it's a form of liquor) farm for schnapps tasting and all you can eat rib dinner. Te farm is the owners house so we got to play with his two young sons and hang out. He had a beautiful yard. He also had a sort of..... Roomba lawn mower. Room bas are those robots that zoom around the house and auto vacuum? Well, he had a lawnmower one! It was coo!

The ribs were amazing. I havent had any that good since my grandfather made them when he was still alive. There was a rib eating contest.I had six and thought I twas going to die io was so full. The girl that was carried up the stairs had 9 and here stomach was so big she said she had a rib baby lol. The girl I met on the first tour won, with 13 ribs! One of the crazy boys got second with 11. And those ribs were thick! The week before someone broke the record at 17. No sir!

The next day in Salzburg, I went on the sound of music tour. Ihad never seen the movie, but a few of my friends on the tour were so excited about it and made it sound good. I knew the songs of the movie, and I also knew that when I do see it, if I like it, I'll kick myself for not having gone. Now, I can say it wasn't that great, but I still hjavnt seen the movie. It was kinda cool seeing things like the house and the gazebo she danced in. Turns out the house was really two different houses, so I saw the front and back of the houses, where they got married (not the same name as they said in the movie), and whe they supposedly escaped. Turns out it is mostly based on a true story, but things were changed for dramatics. Fair enough!

The tour ended late, and everyone wanted to see miracle gardens ( also in the movie) so we did slight tour to do that. We practically ran the rest of the way. It just sucks though because we were supposed to meet her at 145, it was a 10 min walk, and the bus dropped us at 140! So we got no time to see Salzburg, because then we were on our way to Czech republic. I think the tour should've head two nights in Salzburg so we could've seen main city too. Ah well.

---