Slovenia

One of my goals in coming over here is, obviously, to check a few more countries off "my list." You know, that list of countries you've visited...well my list has only changed twice in the last three years, and that is not a ratio I like! But in the six weeks I have been here I have yet to check off a single new country. Since I had a four day weekend last weekend, I knew I had to take advantage of it. Luckily my friend Daniel W. [not to be confused with Daniel L. who I went to Oktoberfest with] was up for the adventure as well.

We agreed to go somewhere Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon finally decided that place would by Ljubljana, Slovenia.

My dad has now asked me twice why Slovenia. And the only answer I have is because its close and I had never been, both of which seem reasonable!!

Before I left to go on this trip I knew two things about Slovenia, both of which I learned from House Hunters International: its beautiful and it has great fly fishing [which means that obviously Josh and I will be back...because he is now SUPER jealous and ready to be in Slovenia fishing stat!!]. While I can't actually testify to how the fishing is, I can tell you it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. And I can say that even though it was stormy the whole time we were there. Its just that incredible.

So now the stories:

Daniel and I left St. Gallen Friday morning and took the train to Munich, where we spent the day [more on that in another post, I promise]. Then we woke up at the crack of dawn on Saturday for a 6 hour train ride to Ljubljana.

And this is pretty much what the scenery was the WHOLE way!! 

When we got to Ljubljana, the first thing we had to do was check into our hostel, Hostel Celica. Which just happens to be a former military prison, and still has the bars on the windows and the room doors. 

Another thing, they gave us a room with a loft for the beds. In fact, it was just a loft with two itty bitty twin mattresses. Being that I'm petrified of heights, this was quite the adventure! 

Making the bed was also an entertaining experience that I let Daniel take the lead on. 

From there we decided to just walk around the city a bit and explore on our way to the Slovenian Natural History Museum.

 Wooly Mammoth!!! 

 We also happened to be in town on the day of the Ljubljana marathon. Which was kinda fun to watch. 

Kebabs are so good. And so cheap. And so we had them at least once a day...

 The city of Ljubljana

That first night was cold and rainy and it got dark late so after the museum and our kebab dinner, we just went back to the hostel and read our books and drank good, cheap Slovenian beer.

The next morning we decided to go the Ljubljana Castle. Daniel loves castles, so it was a no-brainer. To get up the hill to the castle, you have to ride in a funicular. Fun word...fun idea...less fun for someone afraid of heights. Especially since someone thought having a glass floor was a good idea!! NOT COOL!!

I did manage to keep my wits about me enough to take a couple pictures.

 Ljubljana 

Looking out over the city 

The Castle courtyard [I told you the weather was no good!]

Glass viewing hole in the floor. Really pretty wood design 

View from the castle tower

Lots of spiral stairs up and then down the tower. Freaked me out! 

Castle chapel 

Art gallery that was in a rock cave thing in the castle. Really cool! 

After the Castle, we just walked around and explored Ljubljana some and then posted up at a bar on the river to drink Slovenian beer and read our books.

This one that DW ordered is called Human Fish. And on the back of the cup it says "Slightly Evil Beer." It was pretty freakin' tasty too!!

That night we decided to go out for a good, authentic Slovenia meal. The restaurant we went to is called Gostilna Sokol. And it was beyond delicious.

When we sat down they brought us pear schnapps with a pear in it. Always a good way to start a meal!!

Then we had onion soup. But it wasn't like a broth with onions in it like French Onion soup, it was a creamy onion soup in a bread bowl.

Biggest bread bowl ever!!

Mmmm Hmmm Good

For our main course, we split the Game Plate, which is: "deer medallions with sour cherry sauce, stag steak with porcini mushroom sauce, wild boar with green pepper, cheese rolls, dumpling, polenta"

Before

Almost done

After wiping the plate clean with the bread leftover from our bread bowls 

Without a doubt the best meal I have had in Europe. After this we went back to our hostel, watched some NFL games on the Slingbox, drank some more Slovenian beer, and enjoyed our food coma. 

One more thing about Slovenia. There is graffiti EVERYWHERE. Here are two gems I saw: 

And we will end with another beautiful picture from the train ride back to Munich [why couldn't the weather have been like this while we were in Ljubljana!!!]

Yeah I can imagine Josh fly fishing there too...