Slovenia

13 October 2008
Ljubljana, Slovenia
                The train passed over into Slovenia without us really noticing.  There are no real border crossings within the EU (European Union).  We arrived in Ljubljana at 2:15 pm, on schedule.
                Getting off the train we followed a Polish guy we met on the train, Michael, towards downtown.  He was going to show us where to catch the bus to the Penzion we had made a reservation at.  Walking towards the street to catch the bus we decided to let Michael take the bus, and we would walk.  It was such a beautiful sunny day we wanted to walk outside.
                After walking about another 15 minutes we arrived at Penzion Pod Lipo.  The waiter at the restaurant downstairs assisted with calling someone to check us in.  The guy said it would be about 15 minutes, so we sat down for a drink.  Anna and Debra had a glass of wine, and Doug had his first Slovenian beer.  The wine selection was pretty good, and Doug’s beer was light as most countries standard beer are.
                About 30 minutes went by, and someone came to check us into the Penzion.  It turned out our room wasn’t really ready so we dropped off our bags and headed into the touristy part of town.  Arriving in old town we all got a gelato and walked around for a while looking at some of the sights.  After a couple hours we headed back to the room for a short rest before going to dinner.
                While walking around earlier we had looked at an Italian restaurant’s menu, and went back there for dinner.  After sitting down we all ordered our meals.  Anna and Debra had a glass of wine, while Doug ordered his beer.  The meal was decent, not the best we had ever had, but not the worst.  After dinner we went back to the room for the night.

14 October 2008
Ljubljana, Slovenia
                The morning was a bit slow, because the day before had begun so early.  We got ourselves up and ready by mid-morning, and headed out to the city.  First we went to the Farmer’s market to see if there was anything new out today.  Anna and Debra selected some vegetables for dinner, along with some fruit to snack on. 
                The next stop was the castle.  Doug and Anna walked Debra to the funicular (a train/elevator), and then they walked up the hill, meeting her at the top.  The castle overlooks the city below.  After meeting up, we explored the castle grounds for a while.  There was a little café inside of the grounds.  Anna and Debra had a coffee, while Doug had a beer.  It was nice to sit outside with the warm sun shining upon us.  Anna and Doug hadn’t been in warm weather like this since China. 
                After the drinks we wandered down the path back to the city.  There was a street our guide book recommended to check out.  We hung out in town for another couple hours, got a gelato, and admired the unique architecture of the old town.  Then it was back to the room for a short rest.      
                Before dinner we went out to see a Tivoli Park.  The sun was just starting to go down as we reached the park.  At the park there was an exhibit.  None of us could really figure out what the exhibit was for, but it was interesting to look at the different photos taken over different years. 
After the park we wanted to find where we were to pick up a car we were renting the following day.  The street to where to pick up the car was close to the park.  We walked up and down this little street, and finally decided to go into this five star hotel, and see if the Avis rental office was inside.  Sure enough this is where we were to pick up the car the next day.  It was back to the room for dinner.              
                Debra made a good dinner of potatoes (Anna assisted), and sausage.  For dinner we also had some wine (of course).  After dinner we cleaned up our dishes, and headed out to find some gelato.  We walked around for about 20 minutes before headed back to the room.  After a long walk we finally found a restaurant with half melted gelato.  Then it was back to the room for the evening.

15 October 2008
Ljubljana/Lake Bled, Slovenia
                Check out time was 10:00.  We all gathered our things together, checked out, and headed towards the Avis rental car place.  Along the way a pit stop was made for coffee (not Doug, he supervised).  Then it was to the Avis rental. 
                Arriving at the office, there was no one inside (surprise).  Doug went to the front desk and had them make a phone call.  It turned out Avis no longer worked out of that office, but they would bring the car to us within the next 10 minutes.  Well 10 minutes turned into 30 minutes.  Just as Doug was going to have the front desk make the phone call, the Avis guy showed up.
                The necessary paperwork was filled out; we loaded our bags into the car, and headed out of the city.  Anna was attempting to navigate Doug out of the city, while Debra supervised.  We ended up on a main road for a while before finally finding the express way, and were able to speed up the car. 
                The drive to Lake Bled was beautiful, and short.  We arrived at the Lake an hour later.  The hostel we were staying in was at the other side of the lake, and easy to find.  After arriving at the hostel, we checked in, and dropped off our bags.
                Now it was time to eat.  Walking down the hill a Mercado was spotted.  We went inside, and purchased some sandwich fixings, a bottle of water, some stale pretzels, and chocolate.  This was the perfect picnic!!!  (According to Anna it was perfect, except for the stale pretzels)  We took our picnic down to the lake, and sat on a bench enjoying the sun.  While eating we had some visitors swimming in the water.  The ducks and a couple geese graced us with their presence.  Doug and Debra began feeding the birds the stale pretzel mix, along with some of their left over bread.
                The next thing on the list was to visit the castle.  We walked up the little path from the lake.  It was steep but short.  Arriving at the castle Doug, and Debra went inside to explore.
                After the castle we went back down to the lake, looking around at some of the different shops.  While shopping Debra went inside a shop, and found some cute short sleeve shirts to buy.  She was expecting much colder weather, and didn’t have anything cooler to wear.  Doug then wanted a scoop of gelato.  The guy selling us was not the most pleasant on the block.  He was irritated that we were only buying one scoop of, and handed him 20 Slovenia bucks.  While Doug ate his gelato we headed back to the room to rest before dinner.
                For dinner we decided to go to The Pizzeria Rustico.  It was right down the hill from the hostel.  Arriving at the pizzeria we sat down, and ordered.  Again (you will see some repetition here) Anna and Debra ordered vino, and Doug ordered a half liter of beer.  We all decided to share a pizza, and salad.  The salad came out first.  It was a grilled chicken salad, and surprisingly it was really good. (Even Doug had some of the salad)  The pizza soon followed, but it was uncut.  This was unusual, we are used to luxury in the States with the cook or waiter cutting it for us.  We managed, and cut it ourselves. 
                Once dinner was over we headed back to the room for the evening.

16 October 2008
Lake Bled, Slovenia
                We all eventually got up, and had our showers.  The hostel had breakfast included with our room, so we had our free breakfast which was actually quite good.  The breakfast included cereal, milk, yogurt, fruit, bread, meat, cheese, juice, and coffee.  Once our stomachs were filled we headed out for a road trip to another lake close by, Lake Bohinj.
                The drive to Lake Bohinj was a little slow.  Anna thought we had passed the turn off, and hadn’t, then we made another u-turn headed back towards the correct direction.  Arriving at the lake we decided to drive towards a waterfall hike. 
                Arriving at the trail head Debra was a little skeptical about the hike, but in the end decided to do it.  The hike was beautiful and gradual but went up 553 steps.  But the leaves were falling, and the colors were flourishing within the forest.  It was breathtaking.  Once we arrived at the top we were greeted with a beautiful waterfall, flowing into a blue green pool of water.  We took the necessary photos, sat for a few minutes, and headed down the trail.
                At the bottom of the trail there was a small café.  We decided to have a coffee, hot chocolate for Doug, and share a dessert.  It was nice to sit watching the leaves fall around us.
                After our little break we drove to the lake, and had a short walk around looking at the scenery.  We have been in many cities, and it is always nice to be away from the tourists able to hear yourself think for a minute.
                Once we hung out at the lake for an hour or so we went back to Lake Bled for lunch.  The guide book suggested a local restaurant to visit.  Along the way to lunch we made an appointment for Debra to get a massage later that evening.  Our guide book had the restaurant marked incorrectly on the map and Anna could not guide Doug to the restaurant.  We ended up back at the hostel to park thinking that a pub close by had food.  They didn’t have food.  So we began driving around again, and passed the restaurant we were looking at. 
                The restaurant had license plates lining the ceiling.  It was really cool to see license plates literally from around the world, many included were from the States.  For dinner Anna and Doug shared a bowl of mushroom soup (it was awesome), and a cheese/meat plate.  Debra ordered a chicken plate, which was covered with a divine white cream sauce.  The meal came with a large basket of homemade bread, and to finish blueberry schnapps.  The meal was GREAT!!!, and perfect for the day.  Unfortunately, it was starting to rain outside, and get cold. 
                After lunch we went back to the hostel for a short break.  Then we wanted to walk back down to the lake.  Debra had this fabulous idea to go back to the restaurant and have another schnapps (Doug declined, and supervised).  The guys at the restaurant thought we were hilarious, and didn’t charge us for the drink. 

17 October 2008
Lake Bled, Slovenia
                After our free breakfast we finished packing up our stuff and hopped in the rental car and drove back to Ljubljana.  It was pouring rain and we were glad today was a “travel day.”  Doug dropped Anna and Debra at the train station with all the luggage and then he dropped off the rental car.
                Anna went on a “cheesy bread” run across the street and then her and Debra had a couple coffees while we waited.  After a couple hours of waiting we went to our platform and caught the first of our three trains.  Our second train was waiting for us when we arrived.  After we jumped on we headed towards the border.  A police officer and border official walked through the train and inspected our passports, and for the first time in about 10 border crossings, we were stamped out of the European Union.

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