Blogs from Ljubljana, Upper Carniola, Slovenia, Europe - page 4

So we were getting close to the end of the second leg of this journey. Ljubljana was the last destination on the list... Now only we needed to get there somehow… Unfortunately the connections between Rovinj and Ljubljana weren't that great… Either a very early bus at 5.50am or the afternoon one at 2.50pm... We were really considering the early morning one for a while, mostly thinking about Millie and the fact that she's definitely coping better with morning bus journeys rather than the afternoon ones... still the idea of waking up around 4am to catch the bus faded away quite quickly. The afternoon bus it was then... Thankfully we were able to negotiate late check-out with the hosts (another advantage of booking accommodation in the low season I guess). And we were ready to head ... read more

Picking up where we left off with the clink of coffee cups and the hum of conversation in the background, I left Split and had a bit of choice on how to get to my next conference. This meant getting to the towns of Piran and Portoroz, a lovely little spot on the tiny 40km sliver of coastline owned by Slovenia. The fact that I was there to talk about whales for two weeks was a fact that amused every Slovene I encountered to no end. Slovenia has some dolphins, and like many other populations, they're not doing as well as most would like. Anyways that gave a few options. Either go along the Croatian coast, or try to cut through along a more consistently used road. The problem was that the rational mid point stop ... read more

The day had started with a bit of a hiccup.... Woolly says – I don’t like hiccups they make my whole body bounce! ........ funny to watch though! Having queued at the main bus station for our tickets the lady behind the counter told us that we had to buy them on the bus, not a problem we thought and as we followed the mammoth through the fume laden bus garage we happily joined the line to pay. Woolly says – Having reached the front the driver informed us that we had to book online, now I know Jo can be a liability with dates and times of travel but she spends hours checking bus routes on line and no where had it said that we had to book beforehand. I looked at the driver who ... read more

Geo: 46.0546, 14.5044As I mentioned earlier, Europe transitions to Daylight Savings Time later than the U.S., and this Sunday (the last of March and the last our trip) was the day to "Spring forward." This meant that our already short night would be shorter by an hour.We originally been booked to fly from Ljubljana to Brussels, and then from there on to Washington. I called United Airlines the day of the attacks, and was told no decisions had been made about when and if the airport would reopen. By the next day, it was clear it would not open anytime soon, so I called United back to have us rerouted. At first the agent asked if we okay leaving a day later than scheduled, but luckily he was able to secure us seats on a connection ... read more

I have to be a little diplomatic here. I think there is some ongoing animosity between Croatians and Slovenes. When I told my Croatian friends I was going to Slovenia for a couple of days, they rolled their eyes or worse. At dinner in Vis with my friends' friends, one girl had brought her Slovene boyfriend to dinner and she told me that Slovenia is actually quite lovely and gave me recommendations on restaurants. So, I was very curious as to what I would find. When I got let off at the bus station it was about 11pm, so I quickly found a taxi to take to my hotel. It was very quiet and I did not feel quite comfortable wandering around by myself; also, it was noticeably cooler. So I asked the taxi driver if ... read more