Blogs from Styria, Slovenia, Europe

Aamulla satoi. Paikallislehden ennusteen mukaan lahipaivien saa onkin sateista ja paljon aiempaa viileampaa. Piti siis kaivaa esiin sateenvarjo ja takki. Junassa oli hyvin tilaa. Mulle tuli juttelemaan itavaltalaismies, joka oli matkalla Rijekaan asti. Mariborin asemalta sai hyvin Ljubljanan junien aikataulut ja Mariborin kartan. Junia menisi joka tunti, joten ei ollut tarvetta ostaa lippua. Poikkesin menomatkalla turistineuvonnassa. Siita ei ollut suuresti hyotya. Hostellin ovella oli numero, johon piti soittaa. Sielta vastasi mies, joka kehotti minua hakemaan avaimen lahibaarista. No sielta tultiin vain avaamaan ulko-ovi, ja huoneessa odotti avaimet. Hostellin muut huoneet olivat tyhjia. Mies tuli myohemmin rahastamaan huoneen hinnan, joka piti siis maksaa kateisella. Rapussa oli tietokone, josta paasi nettiin. Kysyin miehelta myos neuvoja siita, missa kannattaisi kayda kaupassa ja ... read more

On my first Monday in Europe, after two days of settling into Klagenfurt, the team and I loaded on to a bus and drove to Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia and European's 2012 Capital of Culture. We stayed at the Dras Center, a very comfortable hotel that had a volleyball court and training facility inside. We trained twice a day for four days and ate amazing meals. Eat, sleep, play volleyball... that is what our life consisted of. Unfortunately I have no photos that prove that we trained. Instead, I will share with you some pictures of our excusion up the moutain on the ski lift and down the mountain in tabaggons. Enjoy!... read more

(Excerpts from my book OUR SUMMER IN SLOVENIA, Amazon.com) As I have noted before, a major factor in Elysee and I deciding to spend a summer in Slovenia, is it being excellently situated to enable side trips to other countries. It is possible to easily drive from Bled to Budapest in six or seven hours. In our case, being in no hurry, we took several days stopping overnight at Celje, Slovenia, visiting Maribor, Slovenia's second largest city (110 thousand) and then stopping overnight again in the Lake Balaton region of Hungary. From there we drove on into Budapest. The following day we met up with our friends from Florida, Char and Al Love, for several days of adventure. First things first. We did not begin with the intention of staying in Celje. But, as is our ... read more

Next morning D & J popped in to say goodbye as we were having breakfast - they were heading for the coast and we were off to Lake Bled. The drive to the town of Bled and the lake was only about 30km, which highlights one of the great things about Slovenia, it’s so compact. You could drive to just about anywhere from the centre at Ljubljana in couple of hours, unless you wanted to take the backroads of course which is what we often did. Lake Bled was beautiful and the Planet sums it up thus; “With its emerald-green lake, picture-postcard church on an islet, medieval castle clinging to a rocky cliff and some of the country’s highest peaks as backdrops, Bled seems too good to be true.” I’m not sure about the ‘too good ... read more

Hello from beautiful Aurora; last week we arrived home after an uneventful trip from Vienna. I like uneventful trips, especially on planes. We had a fun last few days in Europe let me tell you about them. We were traveling with the Atwood’s, Mark and MG. Luke’s parents. We drove south from Vienna and turned east at Graz and found ourselves driving through rolling hills not unlike we see in east Multnomah county heading towards the Cascade range. In fact the terrain is nearly the same. If Mt. Hood suddenly emerged behind the hills to the east we would be in Estacada. It’s very, very green and come to think of it if we substituted rock walls for grapes we would be in Ireland…beautiful. We found a nice Zimmer (hotel) on a hill overlooking all this ... read more