Blogs from Upper Carniola, Slovenia, Europe - page 43

After getting on my early morning train from Budapest (basically hoped it was heading for Slovenia as no signs were on the train and no train people seemed to speak English), we travelled through what was mainly boring farmlands. This was almost to a tee until we hit Slovenia! Gorges formed and we were travelling by the strikingly blue/green, Sava River and it only got better as the sun began to set offering a pinky orange colour pervading over the mountains. Getting into Ljubljana, I headed to Celica Hostel, which is a converted prison and still has rooms that are cells, so effectively your living in the slammer. I got into my room, and almost at once an army of Australians also checked into this 12 bed dorm. Geelong, Adelaide, Perth, Tassie, they kept coming all ... read more

... The title above is a quote by my beloved flatmate Maria. Its amazing the way our calm little house of women can sometimes explode into beautiful laughter when something like that gets said! I don't think I've talked much about my roommates, so here goes... There is my actual roommate, Ira. She is from the northern Slovenian town of Maribor, where she goes home to every weekend to work and spend time with her boyfriend and family. She is really a great roommate, and even brought us a little TV, although it doesn't get used much since there is ALWAYS something to talk about with all the women in this house! Ira is very beautiful, and always has great advice for me on the many things that have plagued my spirit here, from home-sickness to ... read more

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! So, tonight I fly to London and tomorrow I catch a noon flight to JFK. ETA in NYC 3:00pm. Crazy shit. Slovenia is quaint. It is like kind of like all of Europe crammed into a small space with a population of only two million. There are alpine cottages in the Alps reminiscent of those in Switzerland and Austria, and an Adriatic coastline in the south, and it used to be part of Tito's Yugoslavia so it still has a little of that "Eastern Europe" feel to it. Locals seem to have a complex about the size of Slovenia. "Everything is small here..." "Slovenia is so small that we run around the whole country in the morning" I've spent most of my time here in Ljubljana but yesterday I went to Bled. It ... read more

Today I headed North, making my way through some beautiful places in this amazing country. On the way I stopped in Kranj to meet some of my slovenian relatives for the first time. We couldnt understand eachother, as we spoke different languages, however, Matjaz and Barbara speak both Slovenian and English, so they became our personal translators for the day! I was then able to go and visit the house where my grandpa grew up, which was quite amazing...but apparently it has changed alot since he lived there! Later that day I made my way to Bled. It is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Lake Bled looks like it belongs in a fairytail. It is a big lake with clear water, with a small island in the middle, and a ... read more

Fur Elise. My veins are still tingling from the excitement, from the enchantment of mingling with such culture. Like an estranged vulture it descended upon us, spawning into a jaw-popping, eye-dropping night of something too scerene to be called art, to extreme to be called culture. Like a dream we floated through the evening's mind, filling in as spectators for unconnected scenes. And the threads that guided us have provided more than a service, they have unnerved us to this city and proved our pre-clusions wrong, they have taught us to tighten our lips and listen, they have grown our hands together in a futile effort to repay those by whom we have been blessed. But we could never repay, not even if we were to sever our hands and give them away. For how ... read more