For dinner Saturday night we decided to try out the only restaurant in our guidebook advertised as vegetarian, Glo. They had all kinds of wraps, salads, rice bowls, and other good stuff, plus you could add chicken to any of it. We both liked our meals and it was the most affordable meal we'd had yet so we decided we should probably come back for another meal before we left. Before heading back to the room we stopped a market to get supplies to make breakfast and pack a lunch for the next day. We also picked up milk and hot chocolate mix for a treat later.
Our golden circle tour was scheduled for the Sunday morning so we went to bed early. The weather was a bit stormy and we were concerned that our trip might get cancelled, but I hadn't received an email saying anything one way or the other so we just hoped for the best. The storm got worse overnight as we could hear the wind and snow pelting the windows. Neither of us slept very well that night.
I'd set my alarm early so we could have enough time to cook and pack lunches. Kat made eggs with toast and our purloined butter while I made a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the tour. After cleaning up we packed and headed to the bus stop to catch our shuttle. It was colder than the day before and still windy.
The shuttle arrived as we got to there, but as we were getting on the driver told us both our golden circle and northern lights tours had been cancelled due to inclement weather. I was upset I never got an email letting me know, but there wasn't anything I could do about it at the time so we rode the shuttle to the main bus station and rescheduled our tours for Monday, our last day in Iceland, to try again.
We walked back to the room because it turned out my camera needed to be recharged and I wanted to change out what I was carrying around in my backpack. Unfortunately when we arrived our room was being cleaned, because we thought we were going to be gone all day we'd put the "please clean" sign out. Not wanting to disturb the housekeeper we opted to go get a hot drink somewhere instead. Keep in mind it was still stormy out this whole time and we were bundled up in two jackets and all our warmest stuff.
We found a cafe that was open and tried to plan the rest of our day. We considered an escape room, but it was very expensive for just the two of us. In the end we took the tour company's suggestion and discount coupons to go see the much-hyped ice cave exhibit at the Perlan Museum in town. It didn't look too far on the map so we figured we could just walk there and hunt pokemon as we walked. Unfortunately my phone had been acting funny lately and would randomly shut itself down even with plenty of charge left. I was getting frustrated with it and I will probably need to get the battery replaced when we get back to the states.
Our walk to Perlan was quite a trek with biting wind blowing stinging snow into our faces the entire way. By the time we got there the wind was so strong it was blowing us sideways so we were glad to take shelter inside the museum. It was very busy, probably in part due to the cancelled tours, but also because several school groups seemed to be on field trips as well.
The main exhibit was a replica glacial ice cave preserved by keeping it very cold, about 14 degrees Fahrenheit. I had high hopes, but it turned out to be very small and slightly disappointing. It took us almost no time at all to explore the entire thing and the fake photo-op backgrounds really took me out of the experience. After wandering through the caves and spending some time with the slightly more interesting interactive panoramic maps display we decided we were done.
The weather had only gotten worse since we had been in the cave so there was no way we were going to walk back. Thankfully they offered a free shuttle service that would take us back to Harpa downtown, but we didn't know exactly what we were looking for at first because there were many vans, taxis, tour and school buses coming and going from the parking lot. People were huddling near the entrance but still getting pelted by snow and blown around by the strong winds. We stayed inside until it looked like people were moving toward the shuttle, but because we had hung back we missed out on seats for the first one. It was getting late now, I was hungry, and we didn't want to miss the next bus so we ate a couple of our packed sandwiches and stood outside to be the first on the bus. The next one came about a half hour later and we pushed and shoved our way on board.
It was a short ride back to Harpa, but it was still quite windy out. We both needed a drink and Kat wanted something warm to eat, maybe some soup, so we went looking for a soup place she thought she remembered seeing on one of our walks. I couldn't recall it, but we tromped up and down and around the streets in search of it to no avail. I still think she imagined it. We eventually gave up the search and opted for a pub instead, but the English and Irish pubs were both full to bursting with people watching football, who had had their flights cancelled or were otherwise snowed in. The only option left was the tacky-looking "American Bar". There were plenty of seats available there.
Kat got a Gull and I ordered a Guinness along with some nachos to share. The nachos were close but not quite right, as if someone had described nachos over the phone after having seen them once but never tasted them. The chips were triangular but definitely not tortilla chips and instead of salsa they were covered with something more like tomato paste from a can. In any case we ate it all and were happy to be out of the weather for awhile.
We were both pretty done for the day, even though it was early afternoon, and headed back to the apartment. The wind had died down a bit while we were at the bar so the walk back wasn't so bad. Once we got back I got in bed, watched a little of the Olympics on TV, and then took a long nap. I only woke up long enough for a light snack and to blog. Hopefully our trip doesn't get cancelled for tomorrow.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Reykjavik, Iceland, Feb. 9-10, 2018
Friday night we had dinner at the Isleski barinn (Icelandic bar) downtown. Despite the unassuming name it was quite nice and cozy. Kat had a barbecue chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries and a lager. I had a stout and some traditional fish stew, which was kind of like a cheesy shepherd's pie, and a plate of mixed meat bites including pieces of ram testicles, pickled whale, lamb, and various sausages. Kat tried the whale, but said it was too fishy. I shared the rest of my testicles with the two nice ladies at the table next to us. They shared some of their whale jerky and puffin meat with us. Kat didn't like the whale jerky any better than the pickled whale.
After dinner we wandered down the main drag again looking at some of the shops and did a little grocery shopping before calling it a night. We got to bed around 10pm and since we really didn't have much planned for the next day we slept in a bit. In the morning I showered and washed some of my underwear and socks. The hot water here is really hot and naturally heated by geothermic action but smells like egg farts. The cold water is mountain run-off and clean and delicious.
On Saturday the conditions were much more icy, windy, and cold so we bundled up in multiple layers of coats. We walked to Mokka for breakfast since the guidebook mentioned they had waffles. Kat wanted syrup but they only had jam and whipped cream for the waffles. We needed some butter for our toast at the apartment and we didn't want to pay $5 for a tub of it at the grocery store so I managed to score couple extra individually wrapped pads of butter from the cafe, ostensibly for our waffles although we packed them away in our bags and then shuttled them back to our room fridge. We were pretty proud of our frugality and considered becoming butter barons. Along the way we noticed several patches of yellow snow on the sidewalks, hopefully left by pet dogs and not people.
Our plan for the rest of the day was to do a bit more exploring, some shopping, and hit a couple of the museums. Along the way I stopped to take pictures of some of the cool graffiti wall art decorating many of the buildings. The first museum stop was at the Icelandic Phallological Museum, were we looked at preserved penises of all types of animals and even a human one. They had lots of interesting artwork and knick-knacks all within the same general theme.
Once we'd had our fill of penises we headed back toward the Old Harbor district to hit the Saga Museum. Along the way we stopped at The Nordic Store where I found a Icelandic wool sweater I liked and that wasn't too expensive. We pressed on through snow flurries and finally reached the Saga museum which consisted of a short series of dioramas inhabited with creepily life-like mannequins depicting the somewhat brutal history of Icelandic settlement. Kat listened to the audio tour while I took some dimly lit pics. At the end of the exhibit they had a dress-area with a couple of cheerful stuffed characters as scene setters. I got a pic of Kat wearing a big helmet and wielding a spear twice her size.
After our saga was complete I was feeling a bit peckish and we both wanted to sit with a beer so we went in search of something nearby and preferably not too expensive. Most of the fancy restaurants on the harbor were quite spendy, but we found a decent fish and chips place not very far from Ramen Momo. The fried fish and beer were just what I needed. Kat wasn't as hungry as I was so she just shared some of my fries.
Kat did a little research on her phone and located a flea market nearby that sounded interesting so we went to go check it out. We wandered around the market for a bit but resisted the urge to buy anything. There turned out to be some cheaper sweaters in a few of the stalls, but I was still happy with my earlier purchase.
Next we stopped by a grocery store and picked up some peanut butter and jelly with which to make sandwiches for our lunches on our excursion on Sunday, and some hot chocolate mix for later back at the apartment. We headed back to the room and settled in for a relaxing afternoon break with hot chocolate and nature shows on the tv as a storm began blowing outside.
After dinner we wandered down the main drag again looking at some of the shops and did a little grocery shopping before calling it a night. We got to bed around 10pm and since we really didn't have much planned for the next day we slept in a bit. In the morning I showered and washed some of my underwear and socks. The hot water here is really hot and naturally heated by geothermic action but smells like egg farts. The cold water is mountain run-off and clean and delicious.
On Saturday the conditions were much more icy, windy, and cold so we bundled up in multiple layers of coats. We walked to Mokka for breakfast since the guidebook mentioned they had waffles. Kat wanted syrup but they only had jam and whipped cream for the waffles. We needed some butter for our toast at the apartment and we didn't want to pay $5 for a tub of it at the grocery store so I managed to score couple extra individually wrapped pads of butter from the cafe, ostensibly for our waffles although we packed them away in our bags and then shuttled them back to our room fridge. We were pretty proud of our frugality and considered becoming butter barons. Along the way we noticed several patches of yellow snow on the sidewalks, hopefully left by pet dogs and not people.
Our plan for the rest of the day was to do a bit more exploring, some shopping, and hit a couple of the museums. Along the way I stopped to take pictures of some of the cool graffiti wall art decorating many of the buildings. The first museum stop was at the Icelandic Phallological Museum, were we looked at preserved penises of all types of animals and even a human one. They had lots of interesting artwork and knick-knacks all within the same general theme.
Once we'd had our fill of penises we headed back toward the Old Harbor district to hit the Saga Museum. Along the way we stopped at The Nordic Store where I found a Icelandic wool sweater I liked and that wasn't too expensive. We pressed on through snow flurries and finally reached the Saga museum which consisted of a short series of dioramas inhabited with creepily life-like mannequins depicting the somewhat brutal history of Icelandic settlement. Kat listened to the audio tour while I took some dimly lit pics. At the end of the exhibit they had a dress-area with a couple of cheerful stuffed characters as scene setters. I got a pic of Kat wearing a big helmet and wielding a spear twice her size.
After our saga was complete I was feeling a bit peckish and we both wanted to sit with a beer so we went in search of something nearby and preferably not too expensive. Most of the fancy restaurants on the harbor were quite spendy, but we found a decent fish and chips place not very far from Ramen Momo. The fried fish and beer were just what I needed. Kat wasn't as hungry as I was so she just shared some of my fries.
Kat did a little research on her phone and located a flea market nearby that sounded interesting so we went to go check it out. We wandered around the market for a bit but resisted the urge to buy anything. There turned out to be some cheaper sweaters in a few of the stalls, but I was still happy with my earlier purchase.
Next we stopped by a grocery store and picked up some peanut butter and jelly with which to make sandwiches for our lunches on our excursion on Sunday, and some hot chocolate mix for later back at the apartment. We headed back to the room and settled in for a relaxing afternoon break with hot chocolate and nature shows on the tv as a storm began blowing outside.
Friday, February 09, 2018
Reykjavik, Iceland, Feb. 7-9 2018
The flight went well and we were able to get a decent upgrade to economy plus so our seats were comfortable and we got a decent meal on the plane. We also got access to the lounge at SEA-TAC before the flight, which was nice. Since we had a long layover in Seattle we had a chance to leave the airport, take the light rail into town, and meet our friends Bob & Mandy for brunch at a bakery near University St.
It was a 7 hour flight and we left around 3:30pm. Despite the nice seats neither of us really slept on the way. We arrived at the Reykjavik airport around 6:30am local time and found our bus that would take us to the Blue Lagoon, which Kat had pre-reserved. We got there at opening time around 8am, so about 1am Oregon time. Sunrise wasn't due for another hour so we stored our backpacks, got showered and changed into our swimsuits and went out into the below freezing weather and took a dip in the hot springs. From time to time we were showered with hail as we soaked, but it didn't bother us too much. It was gloriously warm and beautiful and peaceful and quiet since it had just opened. We drifted around, put on mud and algae masks, had a smoothie, and just relaxed as we watched the sun rise. By 10:00 it was getting quite busy as more tour buses arrived. We really didn't have anything else planned for the day so we stayed until about 11 before getting out and finding a bus to take us back to Reykjavik.
We got back to the city by 1pm and we were fading fast and looking forward to finding our apartment and dropping off our heavy packs. Kat napped on the bus and I tried to stay awake to take in some of the scenery. As we were dropping people off at bus stops around town we were treated to a show as one woman got very upset at the bus driver for having seemingly lost her bags somewhere along the way. I'm not sure how it happened, but they ended up rendezvousing with another bus that supposedly had her bag and making the exchange. It delayed our arrival for quite some time.
Once we got off the bus and found our bags (thank goodness) we had a short hike to where we were going to stay, Castle House Luxury Apartments. Thankfully our room was ready and we were able to get the keys right away. It's a small studio apartment on the ground floor, but around a corner and away from the street. It's cozy and warm and the bed is comfortable. We dropped off our stuff and we were both very sleepy, but we decided we should go find some food before we crashed since we hadn't really eaten much since the meal on the plane.
We went for a short walk and found a main drag with lots of options and ended up at a gastropub and tapas bar where we shared a few interesting dishes including some puffin meat. Food and drink is very expensive here. After our late afternoon meal we dragged ourselves back to the room and were in bed by 6pm. We slept until 8 the next morning.
Friday morning we got ourselves up and out the door by 10am. The weather was cold and a bit windy, although the sun was peaking out from time to time as well. We had come prepared however and we were plenty warm in our new winter gear. We grabbed a quick breakfast of chocolate crepes and coffee & chai latte at Cafe Babalu on Skovalorthurstigur then wandered down to see Hallgrimskirkja. Then we wandered around checking out various shops filled with hand-knit sweaters and other souvenirs.
Eventually we ended up by the cultural center, Harpa, then wandered along the water to see the viking-ship like sculpture Sun Voyager, or Solfarith. Turning around we headed back toward Harpa and the Old Harbor district. I had read about a ramen shop in the area and wanted to go try it out so we went in search of it. We got there around 1pm and we were ready for warm bowl of soup and noodles. It was very tasty and the shopkeeper was friendly and fun to talk to as we sat at the counter eating. He was born in Tibet, lived in India and New Zealand for awhile and then moved to Iceland to help a friend run the shop.
Satisfied and full of noodles and gyoza we were ready to head back out into the cold and do a little more exploring. We followed the winding streets and Kat found a neighborhood cat to pet. We wandered through some small parks and past the Parliament building and looped back around to large duck pond that our apartment was located near. We decided to go ahead and book a couple of bus tours for the following days and to schedule our airport transportation while we were at it.
We followed a busy road to the main bus station where we were able to take care of everything. Before leaving we decided to grab a couple hot chocolates from the attached cafe for the walk back. They were spendy, tiny, and ultimately disappointing, but at least they were warm. After all the exploring we were ready for a short break so we headed back to the apartment where we could sit down and recover until it was time to go out for dinner.
It was a 7 hour flight and we left around 3:30pm. Despite the nice seats neither of us really slept on the way. We arrived at the Reykjavik airport around 6:30am local time and found our bus that would take us to the Blue Lagoon, which Kat had pre-reserved. We got there at opening time around 8am, so about 1am Oregon time. Sunrise wasn't due for another hour so we stored our backpacks, got showered and changed into our swimsuits and went out into the below freezing weather and took a dip in the hot springs. From time to time we were showered with hail as we soaked, but it didn't bother us too much. It was gloriously warm and beautiful and peaceful and quiet since it had just opened. We drifted around, put on mud and algae masks, had a smoothie, and just relaxed as we watched the sun rise. By 10:00 it was getting quite busy as more tour buses arrived. We really didn't have anything else planned for the day so we stayed until about 11 before getting out and finding a bus to take us back to Reykjavik.
We got back to the city by 1pm and we were fading fast and looking forward to finding our apartment and dropping off our heavy packs. Kat napped on the bus and I tried to stay awake to take in some of the scenery. As we were dropping people off at bus stops around town we were treated to a show as one woman got very upset at the bus driver for having seemingly lost her bags somewhere along the way. I'm not sure how it happened, but they ended up rendezvousing with another bus that supposedly had her bag and making the exchange. It delayed our arrival for quite some time.
Once we got off the bus and found our bags (thank goodness) we had a short hike to where we were going to stay, Castle House Luxury Apartments. Thankfully our room was ready and we were able to get the keys right away. It's a small studio apartment on the ground floor, but around a corner and away from the street. It's cozy and warm and the bed is comfortable. We dropped off our stuff and we were both very sleepy, but we decided we should go find some food before we crashed since we hadn't really eaten much since the meal on the plane.
We went for a short walk and found a main drag with lots of options and ended up at a gastropub and tapas bar where we shared a few interesting dishes including some puffin meat. Food and drink is very expensive here. After our late afternoon meal we dragged ourselves back to the room and were in bed by 6pm. We slept until 8 the next morning.
Friday morning we got ourselves up and out the door by 10am. The weather was cold and a bit windy, although the sun was peaking out from time to time as well. We had come prepared however and we were plenty warm in our new winter gear. We grabbed a quick breakfast of chocolate crepes and coffee & chai latte at Cafe Babalu on Skovalorthurstigur then wandered down to see Hallgrimskirkja. Then we wandered around checking out various shops filled with hand-knit sweaters and other souvenirs.
Eventually we ended up by the cultural center, Harpa, then wandered along the water to see the viking-ship like sculpture Sun Voyager, or Solfarith. Turning around we headed back toward Harpa and the Old Harbor district. I had read about a ramen shop in the area and wanted to go try it out so we went in search of it. We got there around 1pm and we were ready for warm bowl of soup and noodles. It was very tasty and the shopkeeper was friendly and fun to talk to as we sat at the counter eating. He was born in Tibet, lived in India and New Zealand for awhile and then moved to Iceland to help a friend run the shop.
Satisfied and full of noodles and gyoza we were ready to head back out into the cold and do a little more exploring. We followed the winding streets and Kat found a neighborhood cat to pet. We wandered through some small parks and past the Parliament building and looped back around to large duck pond that our apartment was located near. We decided to go ahead and book a couple of bus tours for the following days and to schedule our airport transportation while we were at it.
We followed a busy road to the main bus station where we were able to take care of everything. Before leaving we decided to grab a couple hot chocolates from the attached cafe for the walk back. They were spendy, tiny, and ultimately disappointing, but at least they were warm. After all the exploring we were ready for a short break so we headed back to the apartment where we could sit down and recover until it was time to go out for dinner.
Sunday, May 08, 2016
Welcome Home, Jerk
Saturday May 7th: The alarm went off at 4:00. Our flight was at 6:20. I hadn't slept much during the night. My clothes were set out and I'd done most my packing the night before so at least it didn't take me long to get ready to go. I decided against wearing contacts because I hoped to get some sleep on the planes. We had 3 flights to take: Berlin to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Portland, and Portland to Eugene.
The first shuttle to the airport was leaving at 4:45. By the time we got outside it was 4:30 and there was already a line waiting for the driver to arrive. I hadn't counted on that. We counted back and we were 9 and 10 in line. I knew the van only held 7 passengers. We'd wouldn't be the first ones there. Kat was getting nervous and we considered calling a cab, but it really was a very short distance to the airport and we had our tickets and didn't need to check the stupid rolling bag anymore so I was betting we'd be fine.
The driver arrived in a taxi at 4:45 on the nose and started loading luggage and people onboard. As predicted we didn't make the first group, but he returned in 10 minutes for us. We got to the airport by 5:00, found our terminal and started through security. Kat seemed to breeze right through, but I was having more difficulties. I kept fumbling and dropping things and generally making everything harder than it needed to be. I blame it on being tired.
I finally got myself put together enough to get through security and on to our gate. I thought I might have some time to blog, but it was already time to board. Our breakfasts consisted of whatever snacks we had left in our snack bags and a weird cheese sandwich we were given. The flight went by quickly enough, I may have even nodded off for part of it, and soon we were in Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam we needed to print our boarding passes for the rest of the journey. We found a transfer terminal soon enough and managed to get our tickets without any problems. However, since our next flight would be with Delta and going to America we had to start the crazy security gauntlet. Our gate was listed as D1, but it was more of a mock gate. It was just a boxed off room which served as the first passport check and interrogation. When we came out the other side we were told our true gate was D7. To get there we had to go through security again, which I wasn't looking forward to given my lack of coordination up to this point. I think it was here that the elastic of my money-belt started to unravel and catch on things.
I got through though and we found our gate and sat down for a few minutes. We even had time to go get a drink and a pastry from the nearby Starbucks and I was able to make a quick update to the blog, but the wifi was too slow to get any pictures uploaded. Before long it was boarding time.
The plane was similar to the one we'd come over on, with the touchscreens on the back of the headrests. I was hoping that no one would be tapping the back of my head this time, and luckily it turned out that the seat behind me was empty. Kat and I decided to watch the Revenant together along the way. It got to the brutal bear attack scene and I was completely engrossed so I didn't notice when right next to me Kat was starting to have a fainting epsiode. I eventually turned and looked to see her starting to slump over toward me. I caught her and held her for a moment as she twitched briefly and then started coming to again. I was pretty freaked out by it, but she seemed to recover okay even if she was freaked out by it too. The intensity of the scene had triggered something in her and she started feeling like she was going to throw up and her vision blurred and she couldn't really talk or get my attention very well. This kind of thing has happened before and she never knows what will trigger it. It seems related to low blood pressure and can sometimes happen when she stands up too fast. She'll start to get dizzy and then grab onto something, usually me, to steady herself until her head stops spinning and her vision returns and she can talk again.
We took a break from the movie, had a little something to eat and drink, and tried to calm down for a bit. We did eventually get back to the movie though and the rest of it wasn't so intense. It's a good movie and I recommend it, just watch it while laying down or something. Later we watched some more movies on our own, but nothing too intense. I watched some Bollywood melodramatic 3 hour epic with English sub-titles. After enduring that the 9 hour flight seemed to go by relatively quickly.
We were given customs forms to fill out on the plane before we landed. I had to estimate the value of our fashion scarves and the little piece of art we had brought back from Europe. When we got off the plane and were herded through the customs line, yelling at us all to turn off all our scary electronic devices again, they took the form and threw it away without looking at it and instead directed us to these fancy new automated customs machines. You had to scan your passport and get your picture taken again, oh and you were told you couldn't wear glasses or hats so of course I was blind and couldn't see the buttons on the screen. What a hassle. So you take the receipt it prints out with your new pic and go stand in another line to have somebody look at both pictures and you and see if you're the same person. This guy had me take my glasses off again just for giggles. After that they direct you to another line to have someone else do the passport check again and interrogate you. After all that they didn't even want to know how much my fashion scarves cost. Welcome home, jerk.
I think there was one more security check after that where I had to unlock my bags, get out my laptop, take off my shoes and belt, empty my pockets, and get scanned and patted down all over again. Once I'd got myself finally put back together again we went in search of our final gate. Before that though I had one last chance to convert all my leftover euros, forints, crowns, and zloty. We found a currency exchange booth that was still open and got that all taken care of. We had just about a half hour to wait for our next flight.
As we were boarding and finding our seats on the plane I heard someone ask, "How was your trip to Europe?" I looked up and didn't recognize the guy at first and instead of asking "How did you know we just got back from Europe?" all that came out of my sluggish brain was "What?" He repeated himself and the voice was familiar so it finally dawned on me it was Jared. We hadn't seen Jared in ages and he looked completely different. Plus there was no way we expected him to be on our plane sitting in the seat behind us. Once I recovered and we greeted each other properly we chatted for most of the flight home. He was flying out to load up some stuff that was stored in Eugene and U-Haul it back to Reno the same day. He hadn't expected to see anyone, let alone us. It was a nice, but far too short reunion. If I had only been more alert and not so strung out after a full day of travel I'd have been able to give him my full attention and made more of it. As it was we said our goodbyes when we reached the ground in Eugene and parted ways with a hug and a promise to see each other again sometime.
Kat had organized a cab for us and it pulled up just as we stepped out into the parking lot. A few moments later we were finally home. The lawn was wild and overgrown, but otherwise everything looked to be in order. In fact when we got inside we found that our house-sitters had left the place cleaner than when we turned it over to them. The cats eventually all came out from hiding and we had a nice reunion with them before they all went back to pretending nothing had happened and that they hadn't missed us at all. I threw my things down and promptly went to sleep for the next 12 hours.
That finally brings us up to date. Today was spent catching up on laundry, bills, voting, booking a flight out to South Carolina in two weeks, and wrapping up my blog. I don't know when are where we'll go next, but I could sure use a break from vacation for now.
The first shuttle to the airport was leaving at 4:45. By the time we got outside it was 4:30 and there was already a line waiting for the driver to arrive. I hadn't counted on that. We counted back and we were 9 and 10 in line. I knew the van only held 7 passengers. We'd wouldn't be the first ones there. Kat was getting nervous and we considered calling a cab, but it really was a very short distance to the airport and we had our tickets and didn't need to check the stupid rolling bag anymore so I was betting we'd be fine.
The driver arrived in a taxi at 4:45 on the nose and started loading luggage and people onboard. As predicted we didn't make the first group, but he returned in 10 minutes for us. We got to the airport by 5:00, found our terminal and started through security. Kat seemed to breeze right through, but I was having more difficulties. I kept fumbling and dropping things and generally making everything harder than it needed to be. I blame it on being tired.
I finally got myself put together enough to get through security and on to our gate. I thought I might have some time to blog, but it was already time to board. Our breakfasts consisted of whatever snacks we had left in our snack bags and a weird cheese sandwich we were given. The flight went by quickly enough, I may have even nodded off for part of it, and soon we were in Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam we needed to print our boarding passes for the rest of the journey. We found a transfer terminal soon enough and managed to get our tickets without any problems. However, since our next flight would be with Delta and going to America we had to start the crazy security gauntlet. Our gate was listed as D1, but it was more of a mock gate. It was just a boxed off room which served as the first passport check and interrogation. When we came out the other side we were told our true gate was D7. To get there we had to go through security again, which I wasn't looking forward to given my lack of coordination up to this point. I think it was here that the elastic of my money-belt started to unravel and catch on things.
I got through though and we found our gate and sat down for a few minutes. We even had time to go get a drink and a pastry from the nearby Starbucks and I was able to make a quick update to the blog, but the wifi was too slow to get any pictures uploaded. Before long it was boarding time.
The plane was similar to the one we'd come over on, with the touchscreens on the back of the headrests. I was hoping that no one would be tapping the back of my head this time, and luckily it turned out that the seat behind me was empty. Kat and I decided to watch the Revenant together along the way. It got to the brutal bear attack scene and I was completely engrossed so I didn't notice when right next to me Kat was starting to have a fainting epsiode. I eventually turned and looked to see her starting to slump over toward me. I caught her and held her for a moment as she twitched briefly and then started coming to again. I was pretty freaked out by it, but she seemed to recover okay even if she was freaked out by it too. The intensity of the scene had triggered something in her and she started feeling like she was going to throw up and her vision blurred and she couldn't really talk or get my attention very well. This kind of thing has happened before and she never knows what will trigger it. It seems related to low blood pressure and can sometimes happen when she stands up too fast. She'll start to get dizzy and then grab onto something, usually me, to steady herself until her head stops spinning and her vision returns and she can talk again.
We took a break from the movie, had a little something to eat and drink, and tried to calm down for a bit. We did eventually get back to the movie though and the rest of it wasn't so intense. It's a good movie and I recommend it, just watch it while laying down or something. Later we watched some more movies on our own, but nothing too intense. I watched some Bollywood melodramatic 3 hour epic with English sub-titles. After enduring that the 9 hour flight seemed to go by relatively quickly.
We were given customs forms to fill out on the plane before we landed. I had to estimate the value of our fashion scarves and the little piece of art we had brought back from Europe. When we got off the plane and were herded through the customs line, yelling at us all to turn off all our scary electronic devices again, they took the form and threw it away without looking at it and instead directed us to these fancy new automated customs machines. You had to scan your passport and get your picture taken again, oh and you were told you couldn't wear glasses or hats so of course I was blind and couldn't see the buttons on the screen. What a hassle. So you take the receipt it prints out with your new pic and go stand in another line to have somebody look at both pictures and you and see if you're the same person. This guy had me take my glasses off again just for giggles. After that they direct you to another line to have someone else do the passport check again and interrogate you. After all that they didn't even want to know how much my fashion scarves cost. Welcome home, jerk.
I think there was one more security check after that where I had to unlock my bags, get out my laptop, take off my shoes and belt, empty my pockets, and get scanned and patted down all over again. Once I'd got myself finally put back together again we went in search of our final gate. Before that though I had one last chance to convert all my leftover euros, forints, crowns, and zloty. We found a currency exchange booth that was still open and got that all taken care of. We had just about a half hour to wait for our next flight.
As we were boarding and finding our seats on the plane I heard someone ask, "How was your trip to Europe?" I looked up and didn't recognize the guy at first and instead of asking "How did you know we just got back from Europe?" all that came out of my sluggish brain was "What?" He repeated himself and the voice was familiar so it finally dawned on me it was Jared. We hadn't seen Jared in ages and he looked completely different. Plus there was no way we expected him to be on our plane sitting in the seat behind us. Once I recovered and we greeted each other properly we chatted for most of the flight home. He was flying out to load up some stuff that was stored in Eugene and U-Haul it back to Reno the same day. He hadn't expected to see anyone, let alone us. It was a nice, but far too short reunion. If I had only been more alert and not so strung out after a full day of travel I'd have been able to give him my full attention and made more of it. As it was we said our goodbyes when we reached the ground in Eugene and parted ways with a hug and a promise to see each other again sometime.
Kat had organized a cab for us and it pulled up just as we stepped out into the parking lot. A few moments later we were finally home. The lawn was wild and overgrown, but otherwise everything looked to be in order. In fact when we got inside we found that our house-sitters had left the place cleaner than when we turned it over to them. The cats eventually all came out from hiding and we had a nice reunion with them before they all went back to pretending nothing had happened and that they hadn't missed us at all. I threw my things down and promptly went to sleep for the next 12 hours.
That finally brings us up to date. Today was spent catching up on laundry, bills, voting, booking a flight out to South Carolina in two weeks, and wrapping up my blog. I don't know when are where we'll go next, but I could sure use a break from vacation for now.
Last Day in Ljubljana and Last Night in Berlin
Friday May 6th: On our last day in Ljubljana we put on our least smelly clothes and packed all of our bags yet again before heading down for breakfast. There we saw our buddy again and he thanked us for the travel tip because he had had a really nice time at Lake Bled. We shared our great experience in Piran with him and then said our goodbyes, but then awkwardly ran into him again minutes later as we were all checking-out at the same time.
Our flight to Berlin wasn't until 18:20 that evening so we had lots of time to burn in Ljubljana. We stashed our big packs at the B&B and went for one more walk around town. We just needed to be at the bus station by 15:10 in order to get a ride to the airport which was an hour away.
We started off with walking the markets again. It being Friday and having the nicest weather yet the markets were packed with stands and people. It was the busiest we'd seen them since we'd been there. There we so many food stalls and most of them were very fancy. It seemed every major hotel and high class restaurant in town had a stall set up, plus some fancy bars were serving up cocktails as well. We wanted to eat and drink all the things, but first we needed to earn our calories.
Retracing our steps we found ourselves back in Tivoli Park. We'd barely started exploring it the other day and decided it would be a good place to fritter away the hours until we could justify eating again. Starting at the grand Tivoli Palace we followed some paths off into the woods and started climbing some hills. Soon we had both soaked our clothes with sweat. The city map we had didn't show this part of the park so we weren't exactly sure how far these trails went or where they would take us. Occasionally we'd find trail maps, but it's hard to judge the distance on them. Regardlessly, we got lost a few times and soon our feet were aching and we were ready to eat again, but we still had to find our way back.
Along the way we managed to stumble upon a ski-jump center which was shut down for the off-season. It looked like a professional setup, making me wonder how the Slovenians do in the Winter Olympics (I looked it up, and they've gotten 15 medals in skiing and snowboarding related events). Later we ran into more wild herds of school children swarming over what I figured must be an old fire watch tower. When the kids finally left we got a chance to check it out. It was eerie and cool all at the same time. I couldn't find a way to climb up it though, but that's probably a good thing because it looked like it was about to collapse.
After the tower we found another trail map and got back on track. By the time we got back to old town we were ready to sit down for a beer and a solid meal. We decided on Paninoteka right near Cobblers' Bridge which was one of the places on my list. They served up delicious burgers, fries, and beers and we even managed to avoid smokers for the most part. We were joined by some friendly little birds while we sat outside and ate.
Burgers weren't enough and we needed another gelato fix. We felt like we'd earned them though after all that hiking. There were many gelato stands to pick from back in the old town market. Kat got a scoop of mint chocolate chip and I had nutella flavor. We nibbled on gelato as we wandered old town once more, always finding new things to look at.
Then it was back to the B&B for our bags and then off to the bus station once again. A little over an hour later we were at the airport and going through security. I'd figured since it was just a small flight from Ljubljana to Berlin that security would be a breeze, but I came off as not being very prepared as I kept dropping and forgetting things. I had to go through the scanner twice because I'd forgotten about my money-belt which still had leftover zloty, crown, and forint coins in it. At least the Slovenian security folks were nice. We had about an hour before the plane boarded so we grabbed a soft drink and sat for a bit while I blogged on the slow but free wifi. I was struck by the gorgeous views of the woods and the mountains from the airport. Slovenia really is a remarkably beautiful place.
It was a quick flight to Berlin's Tegel airport where we planned to print our boarding passed for the next day's flight. Although still early it was fairly dead at the terminals and we had trouble finding our check-in counter for KLM airlines. After walking all around the airport we finally asked the info desk and they directed us to terminal D which was in a separate building we hadn't checked yet. It was also empty, but at least there were self-service kiosks where we could print our boarding passes. We could only get our passes to Amsterdam so it looked like we were going to have to go through the same process again when we got there.
Boarding passes in hand, we returned to the info desk, requested a shuttle to our hotel, and I grabbed two day passes for public transportation just in case we wanted to go into town for dinner that evening. On the way to the hotel we chatted with the English bloke who had been waiting in the shuttle for me while I was getting the bus passes. He warmed up a bit and he seemed genuinely interested in hearing about our travels.
At the hotel we got checked-in by a nice lady who told us our room number and then said don't get lost because the room numbers are a little strange. We'd stayed on the ground floor before where the room numbers were in the 100s so we assumed we could figure it out. We went to find our room and immediately got lost by taking the elevator to the wrong floor. In our defense it was weirdly numbered with the 200s on the 1st floor, 300s on the 2nd floor, etc, so her warning was warranted. Once we found our room we showered and decided where to eat. It seemed fitting to go to dinner where we had our first dinner in Berlin 3 weeks earlier, Dicke Wirtin.
We took our favorite bus, #109, into town and walked to Savigny platz. It was quite a bit busier than the last time we were there, but we got a table and soon had our traditional schnitzel and currywurst. We learned that "Dicke Wirtin" meant "Fat Landlady" so their mascot made more sense now. We also learned they had a smaller location around the corner called "Kleine Wirtin" or "Skinny Landlady" which we went to take a look at after we ate. We'd loved to have had a drink there, but it was late and we had a very early flight in the morning so it was time to get back to the hotel and into bed. Good old bus #109 got us there quickly and efficiently.
Our flight to Berlin wasn't until 18:20 that evening so we had lots of time to burn in Ljubljana. We stashed our big packs at the B&B and went for one more walk around town. We just needed to be at the bus station by 15:10 in order to get a ride to the airport which was an hour away.
We started off with walking the markets again. It being Friday and having the nicest weather yet the markets were packed with stands and people. It was the busiest we'd seen them since we'd been there. There we so many food stalls and most of them were very fancy. It seemed every major hotel and high class restaurant in town had a stall set up, plus some fancy bars were serving up cocktails as well. We wanted to eat and drink all the things, but first we needed to earn our calories.
Retracing our steps we found ourselves back in Tivoli Park. We'd barely started exploring it the other day and decided it would be a good place to fritter away the hours until we could justify eating again. Starting at the grand Tivoli Palace we followed some paths off into the woods and started climbing some hills. Soon we had both soaked our clothes with sweat. The city map we had didn't show this part of the park so we weren't exactly sure how far these trails went or where they would take us. Occasionally we'd find trail maps, but it's hard to judge the distance on them. Regardlessly, we got lost a few times and soon our feet were aching and we were ready to eat again, but we still had to find our way back.
Along the way we managed to stumble upon a ski-jump center which was shut down for the off-season. It looked like a professional setup, making me wonder how the Slovenians do in the Winter Olympics (I looked it up, and they've gotten 15 medals in skiing and snowboarding related events). Later we ran into more wild herds of school children swarming over what I figured must be an old fire watch tower. When the kids finally left we got a chance to check it out. It was eerie and cool all at the same time. I couldn't find a way to climb up it though, but that's probably a good thing because it looked like it was about to collapse.
After the tower we found another trail map and got back on track. By the time we got back to old town we were ready to sit down for a beer and a solid meal. We decided on Paninoteka right near Cobblers' Bridge which was one of the places on my list. They served up delicious burgers, fries, and beers and we even managed to avoid smokers for the most part. We were joined by some friendly little birds while we sat outside and ate.
Burgers weren't enough and we needed another gelato fix. We felt like we'd earned them though after all that hiking. There were many gelato stands to pick from back in the old town market. Kat got a scoop of mint chocolate chip and I had nutella flavor. We nibbled on gelato as we wandered old town once more, always finding new things to look at.
Then it was back to the B&B for our bags and then off to the bus station once again. A little over an hour later we were at the airport and going through security. I'd figured since it was just a small flight from Ljubljana to Berlin that security would be a breeze, but I came off as not being very prepared as I kept dropping and forgetting things. I had to go through the scanner twice because I'd forgotten about my money-belt which still had leftover zloty, crown, and forint coins in it. At least the Slovenian security folks were nice. We had about an hour before the plane boarded so we grabbed a soft drink and sat for a bit while I blogged on the slow but free wifi. I was struck by the gorgeous views of the woods and the mountains from the airport. Slovenia really is a remarkably beautiful place.
It was a quick flight to Berlin's Tegel airport where we planned to print our boarding passed for the next day's flight. Although still early it was fairly dead at the terminals and we had trouble finding our check-in counter for KLM airlines. After walking all around the airport we finally asked the info desk and they directed us to terminal D which was in a separate building we hadn't checked yet. It was also empty, but at least there were self-service kiosks where we could print our boarding passes. We could only get our passes to Amsterdam so it looked like we were going to have to go through the same process again when we got there.
Boarding passes in hand, we returned to the info desk, requested a shuttle to our hotel, and I grabbed two day passes for public transportation just in case we wanted to go into town for dinner that evening. On the way to the hotel we chatted with the English bloke who had been waiting in the shuttle for me while I was getting the bus passes. He warmed up a bit and he seemed genuinely interested in hearing about our travels.
At the hotel we got checked-in by a nice lady who told us our room number and then said don't get lost because the room numbers are a little strange. We'd stayed on the ground floor before where the room numbers were in the 100s so we assumed we could figure it out. We went to find our room and immediately got lost by taking the elevator to the wrong floor. In our defense it was weirdly numbered with the 200s on the 1st floor, 300s on the 2nd floor, etc, so her warning was warranted. Once we found our room we showered and decided where to eat. It seemed fitting to go to dinner where we had our first dinner in Berlin 3 weeks earlier, Dicke Wirtin.
We took our favorite bus, #109, into town and walked to Savigny platz. It was quite a bit busier than the last time we were there, but we got a table and soon had our traditional schnitzel and currywurst. We learned that "Dicke Wirtin" meant "Fat Landlady" so their mascot made more sense now. We also learned they had a smaller location around the corner called "Kleine Wirtin" or "Skinny Landlady" which we went to take a look at after we ate. We'd loved to have had a drink there, but it was late and we had a very early flight in the morning so it was time to get back to the hotel and into bed. Good old bus #109 got us there quickly and efficiently.
Day Trip to Piran
Thursday May 5th: We felt more refreshed than ever in the morning after slowing the pace down and catching up on sleep. At breakfast we struck up a conversation with a lonely-looking guy who was by himself. He said he was a New Yorker who had been working in Austria and on a short vacation and turned out to be another Rick Steves disciple. We told him we were going to Piran that day, but recommended that he take a day trip to Lake Bled if he had time and he said he'd think about it.
Outside it was cold and rainy and the forecast was for more of the same all day in Ljubljana, which is why Kat had planned for us to be in Piran where it was supposed to be warm instead. The rain didn't stop us from wearing our beach clothes while we wandered old town as we waited for our bus. Old town was as dead as we had seen it so far. There was hardly any market to speak of and it seemed like maybe it was delivery day because there were trucks everywhere. We cut our stroll short and headed to the bus station to get our tickets.
While at the station we ran into our friend from breakfast. He'd decided to take our advice and had booked the next seat to Lake Bled. We wished him luck and pretty soon it was time to leave for us as well. We'd briefly discussed the idea of stringing together a trip to one of the caves along the way to Piran for a quick tour, but it seemed a bit too complicated and time consuming using public transportation so we skipped the caves and headed straight to the coast.
Slovenia has a tiny section of coast along the Mediterranean sandwiched between Italy on one side and Croatia on the other. The country is kind of shaped like a chicken running East and the town of Piran is situated on the heel of its back foot on a small spit of land sticking out into the sea. The ride there took 2.5 hours and I got some time to read a little bit of my book on my phone. Kat was excited to see and maybe even stick her feet in the Mediterranean before vacation was over.
Soon we were dropped off in Piran with no map, no plan, and scariest of all no Rick Steves! Our guidebook barely mentioned Piran and we didn't really know what to do without his steady guidance. Luckily Piran is a tiny little town and if you get lost you'll find the sea again soon enough. Mostly we wanted to know where we should eat. We tried stopping by the first tourist agency along the main road, but it was closed for lunch. At least the weather was nice and warm and we were in the mood for a stroll. We started wandering along the waterfront and would detour into the narrow crooked back streets whenever the mood struck us. When you got out of sight from the chain restaurants and other tourists it was easy to imagine you were in a secluded secret romantic getaway.
Without our favorite guide we had to guess on where to eat. After wandering the busy waterfront and scanning prices we moved deeper into town and eventually found a spot that seemed affordable and had more than just fish on the menu. We ordered beers and Kat wanted some risotto without fish, but ended up having to settle for truffles and noodles again, and I had spaghetti bolognese. It ended up being okay, but not amazing. I'm sure if we'd spent more time we could have found a better spot, but we were both hungry and just wanted to eat something and get on with our exploring.
After lunch we stopped by the tourist agency again and it was open. The laid-back guy running it gave us a free map and said it's best to just go get lost. He was right and that's pretty much what we were already doing, but I just feel better having a map in hand. Using the map for the general layout we managed to find our way through the back streets up to the top of the town where there were some old towers and parts of the old town wall still intact. It was free to climb up them so we did. The stairs were steep and the doors were very low and narrow. The combination of heights and tight spaces was a bit nerve-racking for me but I got through it by thinking about the great views and pictures waiting for me at the top. It was great and we're pretty sure we could see Italy and maybe even Croatia from up there.
Working our way down the other side of the hill I spotted a trail that looked like it would lead down to the water so we followed it. It eventually did and we took the stairs down to a somewhat secluded rocky beach. I say somewhat secluded because I didn't see anyone down there, but when we reached the bottom and turned the corner there was a naked guy laid out flat on his back on the rocks sunbathing. He blended into the buff colored rocks and he might have even been part chameleon he was so hard to see, but once you saw him you couldn't unsee it. I tried to steer us away from the guy before Kat could see him, but she was curious why we couldn't go that way and when I tried to explain she got even curiouser. I don't know if she ever saw him though since he was so well camouflaged.
We found a spot a little ways away where Kat could take her shoes off and walk into the water. She did and told me it was kind of slimy. I didn't want to walk around in slime covered feet so I opted to stay on shore and just document the event.
When she was all done it was time for more gelato. We hiked back up through town and before long we'd found a gelato stand in the main square. Kat got a lemon scoop and I got strawberry flavor. We'd done just about everything we'd hoped to do already so we figured we could take the next bus back to Ljubljana which was in 45 minutes or so. That was enough time to go have a glass of white wine by the water.
We caught our bus and I didn't have any trouble with the driver this time. It was another 2.5 hour ride and I fell asleep for part of it. Overall we probably spent 5 hours on the bus and only a little bit over 4 hours in Piran, but I think it was still worth it. When we got back we took a short break in the room before heading back into old town for dinner.
That night we opted for a quick meal at Kolbasarna where they served up delicious sausages, yummy turnip soup, and canned beers. It was just what we were looking for. Since it was our last night in Ljubljana we celebrated with a piece of chocolate pie at a cafe called Marley and Me. The pie was good, but the service was agonizingly slow. We finally got out of there and headed back to the room and called it a night.
Outside it was cold and rainy and the forecast was for more of the same all day in Ljubljana, which is why Kat had planned for us to be in Piran where it was supposed to be warm instead. The rain didn't stop us from wearing our beach clothes while we wandered old town as we waited for our bus. Old town was as dead as we had seen it so far. There was hardly any market to speak of and it seemed like maybe it was delivery day because there were trucks everywhere. We cut our stroll short and headed to the bus station to get our tickets.
While at the station we ran into our friend from breakfast. He'd decided to take our advice and had booked the next seat to Lake Bled. We wished him luck and pretty soon it was time to leave for us as well. We'd briefly discussed the idea of stringing together a trip to one of the caves along the way to Piran for a quick tour, but it seemed a bit too complicated and time consuming using public transportation so we skipped the caves and headed straight to the coast.
Slovenia has a tiny section of coast along the Mediterranean sandwiched between Italy on one side and Croatia on the other. The country is kind of shaped like a chicken running East and the town of Piran is situated on the heel of its back foot on a small spit of land sticking out into the sea. The ride there took 2.5 hours and I got some time to read a little bit of my book on my phone. Kat was excited to see and maybe even stick her feet in the Mediterranean before vacation was over.
Soon we were dropped off in Piran with no map, no plan, and scariest of all no Rick Steves! Our guidebook barely mentioned Piran and we didn't really know what to do without his steady guidance. Luckily Piran is a tiny little town and if you get lost you'll find the sea again soon enough. Mostly we wanted to know where we should eat. We tried stopping by the first tourist agency along the main road, but it was closed for lunch. At least the weather was nice and warm and we were in the mood for a stroll. We started wandering along the waterfront and would detour into the narrow crooked back streets whenever the mood struck us. When you got out of sight from the chain restaurants and other tourists it was easy to imagine you were in a secluded secret romantic getaway.
Without our favorite guide we had to guess on where to eat. After wandering the busy waterfront and scanning prices we moved deeper into town and eventually found a spot that seemed affordable and had more than just fish on the menu. We ordered beers and Kat wanted some risotto without fish, but ended up having to settle for truffles and noodles again, and I had spaghetti bolognese. It ended up being okay, but not amazing. I'm sure if we'd spent more time we could have found a better spot, but we were both hungry and just wanted to eat something and get on with our exploring.
After lunch we stopped by the tourist agency again and it was open. The laid-back guy running it gave us a free map and said it's best to just go get lost. He was right and that's pretty much what we were already doing, but I just feel better having a map in hand. Using the map for the general layout we managed to find our way through the back streets up to the top of the town where there were some old towers and parts of the old town wall still intact. It was free to climb up them so we did. The stairs were steep and the doors were very low and narrow. The combination of heights and tight spaces was a bit nerve-racking for me but I got through it by thinking about the great views and pictures waiting for me at the top. It was great and we're pretty sure we could see Italy and maybe even Croatia from up there.
Working our way down the other side of the hill I spotted a trail that looked like it would lead down to the water so we followed it. It eventually did and we took the stairs down to a somewhat secluded rocky beach. I say somewhat secluded because I didn't see anyone down there, but when we reached the bottom and turned the corner there was a naked guy laid out flat on his back on the rocks sunbathing. He blended into the buff colored rocks and he might have even been part chameleon he was so hard to see, but once you saw him you couldn't unsee it. I tried to steer us away from the guy before Kat could see him, but she was curious why we couldn't go that way and when I tried to explain she got even curiouser. I don't know if she ever saw him though since he was so well camouflaged.
We found a spot a little ways away where Kat could take her shoes off and walk into the water. She did and told me it was kind of slimy. I didn't want to walk around in slime covered feet so I opted to stay on shore and just document the event.
When she was all done it was time for more gelato. We hiked back up through town and before long we'd found a gelato stand in the main square. Kat got a lemon scoop and I got strawberry flavor. We'd done just about everything we'd hoped to do already so we figured we could take the next bus back to Ljubljana which was in 45 minutes or so. That was enough time to go have a glass of white wine by the water.
We caught our bus and I didn't have any trouble with the driver this time. It was another 2.5 hour ride and I fell asleep for part of it. Overall we probably spent 5 hours on the bus and only a little bit over 4 hours in Piran, but I think it was still worth it. When we got back we took a short break in the room before heading back into old town for dinner.
That night we opted for a quick meal at Kolbasarna where they served up delicious sausages, yummy turnip soup, and canned beers. It was just what we were looking for. Since it was our last night in Ljubljana we celebrated with a piece of chocolate pie at a cafe called Marley and Me. The pie was good, but the service was agonizingly slow. We finally got out of there and headed back to the room and called it a night.
Saturday, May 07, 2016
Ljubljana: Blistered, Burned, and Smelling of Sweat
Wednesday May 4th: In the morning we were both definitely suffering from the effects of our vacation. My feet hurt and I think one foot was made entirely out of blisters at that point. Kat had developed some sort of scaly skin rash and had tweaked her neck so she could barely move it. I think I'd gotten a bit of a sunburn from the previous day. Plus we both reeked because there was only so much you could do wearing the same few clothes for three weeks straight and washing them in the sink from time to time. I think we were both about ready for vacation to be over and we were looking forward to getting back to our cats soon, but we had three more days to get through.
We didn't have anything in particular slotted for this day so we spent in Ljubljana. Because I'd been up late I almost slept through breakfast, but we made it just in time to boil an egg and eat the last of the croissants. The day was warmer than we had expected and Kat broke out her fancy chrysalis cardigan I got for her and wore it as a dress, which looked very good on her. We started with wandering the markets again as we liked doing. There were sausage stands with samples so we tried some bear sausage, which was pretty good, but we avoided the horse sausage.
There were only a few things left we hadn't made it to yet in town. First on the list was hiking up to the castle. I know, how many freakin' castles are there in Europe? Turns out quite a few. I blister-stepped all the way up the uneven path and we were rewarded with some nice views of the city. The hill was busy that day with many wild herds of school children on outings, families with babies in strollers and dogs on leashes, and packs of runners on all the trails. We weren't really all that interested in paying to go inside the castle, which had been converted to a museum, so we just wandered the grounds and got a little lost which was just fine. Kat was pleased when she spotted some lizards along the trail.
After we found our way back down the hill we headed back to old town center for a refreshment. We stopped at a cafe along the river that we'd eyed earlier because it advertised chai lattes and had a cat on the sign. We grabbed a table near the water and ordered some wine, but as it goes in these parts the best seats are usually where the smokers hang out and this was no exception. Pretty soon we were surrounded by clouds of smoke and Kat's eyes were watering. I tried to flag the waiter down so we could pay and leave, but getting their attention is a challenge sometimes.
Once that was over we continued checking things off our list. Next up was a wander through Congress Square, past the parliament building, a quick tour of some Roman artifacts in an outdoor exhibit near a museum, a brief stroll past the cutest US embassy in Europe, and then through an underpass to reach Tivoli Park, a massively sprawling green space on the edge of our city map. There we wandered aimlessly until we grew tired and both of our blistered feet couldn't take any more.
I found a route back to the B&B and it was time for more blogging and a nap. Kat woke up around 15:00 and we decided a late lunch / early dinner was just the thing we needed. This time we wandered all the way past old town and into the garden district to the South. We found an awesome little restaurant off the beaten path and had one of our best meals of the trip with fresh buckwheat soup, gnocchi, pork chops with figs, and fine wines. Kat was still craving that chai latte she'd seen earlier so we wandered back through old town to go to the cat sign place again to have our hot drinks while trying to avoid the smokers.
By the time we got back to the room it was only 19:00, but we felt like we'd had a full day already and deserved a bit of a break. We decided that tomorrow would be a good day for a trip to Piran on the coast and maybe we could even squeeze in a spelunking tour along the way. I did some laundry in the sink and Kat went right to bed. I stayed up listening to sort of jazz ensemble playing in the cafe downstairs and the sweet sounds of Kat snoring next to me as I uploaded pictures and tried desperately to catch up on my blog posts.
We didn't have anything in particular slotted for this day so we spent in Ljubljana. Because I'd been up late I almost slept through breakfast, but we made it just in time to boil an egg and eat the last of the croissants. The day was warmer than we had expected and Kat broke out her fancy chrysalis cardigan I got for her and wore it as a dress, which looked very good on her. We started with wandering the markets again as we liked doing. There were sausage stands with samples so we tried some bear sausage, which was pretty good, but we avoided the horse sausage.
There were only a few things left we hadn't made it to yet in town. First on the list was hiking up to the castle. I know, how many freakin' castles are there in Europe? Turns out quite a few. I blister-stepped all the way up the uneven path and we were rewarded with some nice views of the city. The hill was busy that day with many wild herds of school children on outings, families with babies in strollers and dogs on leashes, and packs of runners on all the trails. We weren't really all that interested in paying to go inside the castle, which had been converted to a museum, so we just wandered the grounds and got a little lost which was just fine. Kat was pleased when she spotted some lizards along the trail.
After we found our way back down the hill we headed back to old town center for a refreshment. We stopped at a cafe along the river that we'd eyed earlier because it advertised chai lattes and had a cat on the sign. We grabbed a table near the water and ordered some wine, but as it goes in these parts the best seats are usually where the smokers hang out and this was no exception. Pretty soon we were surrounded by clouds of smoke and Kat's eyes were watering. I tried to flag the waiter down so we could pay and leave, but getting their attention is a challenge sometimes.
Once that was over we continued checking things off our list. Next up was a wander through Congress Square, past the parliament building, a quick tour of some Roman artifacts in an outdoor exhibit near a museum, a brief stroll past the cutest US embassy in Europe, and then through an underpass to reach Tivoli Park, a massively sprawling green space on the edge of our city map. There we wandered aimlessly until we grew tired and both of our blistered feet couldn't take any more.
I found a route back to the B&B and it was time for more blogging and a nap. Kat woke up around 15:00 and we decided a late lunch / early dinner was just the thing we needed. This time we wandered all the way past old town and into the garden district to the South. We found an awesome little restaurant off the beaten path and had one of our best meals of the trip with fresh buckwheat soup, gnocchi, pork chops with figs, and fine wines. Kat was still craving that chai latte she'd seen earlier so we wandered back through old town to go to the cat sign place again to have our hot drinks while trying to avoid the smokers.
By the time we got back to the room it was only 19:00, but we felt like we'd had a full day already and deserved a bit of a break. We decided that tomorrow would be a good day for a trip to Piran on the coast and maybe we could even squeeze in a spelunking tour along the way. I did some laundry in the sink and Kat went right to bed. I stayed up listening to sort of jazz ensemble playing in the cafe downstairs and the sweet sounds of Kat snoring next to me as I uploaded pictures and tried desperately to catch up on my blog posts.
Friday, May 06, 2016
To Bled and Back Again
Well, we're starting the long process of getting back home. The first step was getting to the airport outside of Ljubljana where we will take a short flight to Berlin and spend the night. I've got about an hour to scab some free wifi before we start to board.
Tuesday May 3rd: We woke up early to the soothing sounds people stomping around up and down the stairs on the other side of the wall and of construction right outside our windows. Despite my hopes the scaffolding was there for a purpose. It seems things are always in various states of construction and I imagine there's a booming business in erecting and tearing down scaffolding all over the greatest cities of Europe. We got dressed and headed down for breakfast, which was a fairly simple spread and had a little pan where you could boil your own eggs. When we left the building we saw that they'd even pulled a huge crane up right in front of the stairs to the entry.
Our bus to Lake Bled was leaving around 11:00 so we had a little time to wander old town. We strolled through the market again and it seemed a bit busier and with a few more booths than the day before. The weather was nice and it was supposed to be even nicer at Lake Bled so we were in our warmest weather outfits with our legs and arms bared. We slathered ourselves in sunscreen and then again when we got to the bus station to wait.
The ride to Bled took about 1.5 hours. There was construction on the main road where they seemed to be replacing the entire bridge along one section. The delay was only 15 minutes though. The country side was awe inspiring with fantastic views of the mountains as we got closer and closer. We arrived in the tiny village of Bled around 12:30 and soon started our climb up to the castle. We had made reservations at the castle restaurant at 13:30 because Rick Steves had given us the great tip that if you had reservations at the restaurant you could avoid paying the castle admission. The climb consisted mostly of a long series of switch-back staircases with views of the lake peeking through the trees. We reached the top around 13:00 and the admissions person reluctantly let us in when we told her we had reservations.
We wandered the castle grounds and oohed and aahed at the spectacular views of the mountains and the lake from the top of the walls. Lake Bled was breathtakingly beautiful from just about every viewpoint. I was so happy we had made time for it in our travels. We got seated for lunch a bit early and enjoyed a couple glasses of wine, some pasta with truffle sauce, and I had something called sea devil tail with saffron and smashed vegetables. It was good, although a bit overpriced, but getting free admission sort of made up for it.
After lunch we went back down to the lake and found a couple bikes to rent. It was about 16 euros for the rest of the day. Kat's bike was a little too big for her and she had to lean far forward to reach the handles. It was also built like a man's bike so she had to be careful of the crotch bar, which she wasn't used to. As for me I felt like my bike was a tad too small and that I couldn't fully extend my legs with the peddles. That along with the big squishy tires made the bike feel slower than I'm used to when riding at home. It was probably a good thing though since I needed to set a relaxed pace so I didn't leave Kat behind.
We worked our way back to the lakeside path and started our circuit of the lake, stopping to take pictures along the way. Rick Steves had mentioned an interesting bee farm in the neighboring village of Selo that sounded interesting and Kat wanted to go check it out. It would be a small detour off the lake, but we felt like it would be fun and we had plenty of time. We climbed a long hill and reached some open farmland growing young green wheat and with several of the iconic hayracks you see everywhere in Slovenia. The road dipped toward a cluster of farm houses and we coasted past a sign next to a dirt track that looked like it might be the bee place. We didn't really know where the bee farm was supposed to be located so we turned around and took a closer look. From the road we could see the brightly colored bee houses that Rick mentions so we guessed this must be it. After wandering around for quite some time in what felt like private property and not finding anyone there to talk to I decided to just take a few pictures and call it good.
We climbed back up the hilly road and took a water break where it leveled off. There were plenty of mountains, farm fields, and hayracks to look at and the whole area had the earthy smell of cow poop. After our break we peddled back to the lake, coasting all the way down, and continued around. About halfway around the lake we got to the closest spot to the island where you can rent a rowboat. We locked up the bikes and rented a boat for an hour for about 15 euros. Kat climbed in the navigator's seat at the back and I took up the oars for the trip to the island.
It was a cute little boat. I've never been much of a seaman and getting the hang of the big awkward oars was difficult, especially since I kept hitting my knees with them. I eventually had to stick my legs straight out in front of me. Thankfully it wasn't very far to the island. We floated a little bit to take some pictures and then Kat guided me into a spot between the other boats at the tiny dock on the far side of the island. A large swan followed us all the way in, climbed up on the dock as I tied up and then stood watch over the boat as we went to explore. I didn't even tip him.
The island is very small and the church takes up most of it. We wandered around for a bit, took some pictures, and had a gelato break at the little stand at the top. We read that you could go ring the church bell and you were supposed to make a wish or something, but it cost like 5 euros or something like that and that was just too much for a wish.
When we were ready we back to the boat and the swan was still there. Someone else threw him some bread so he was distracted enough that we managed to sneak past it, into our boat, and shoved off the dock. This time Kat was driving and I got to give directions. She thought I made rowing look so fun that she wanted to try too. She learned pretty quickly that it wasn't all that fun, but we got to shore without too much trouble, and with plenty of time left on our rental.
After returning the boat we hoped back on our rental bikes and completed the rest of the loop around the lake. At the start we had considered extending our outing and maybe riding out to a nice sounding gorge for a hike, but by the time we reached the turn off we were already feeling pretty beat. We'd already had a great day so far so we didn't feel too bad about skipping the hike. When we were almost back at the bike rental place Kat nearly crashed her bike. There was steep concrete ramp and a slightly less steep dirt track right next to it. I was behind her and thought she was going to take the dirt track that I was aiming for too, but at the last minute she gunned it for the ramp. She got about halfway up before stalling out and started to tip over onto the dirt path. I slammed on the brakes so I wouldn't collide with her and she managed to jump safely off the bike before it fell over. She was a bit embarrassed by the mishap but otherwise seemed fine, although she managed to tweak her neck the following morning which might have been aggravated by her sudden reflexive leap off the bike.
In any case, we made it back to the rental place in one piece and turned the bikes back in. It was nearly 17:00 and we knew there would be a bus going back to Ljubljana soon. We felt like we'd done everything we'd wanted to in Bled and decided we wouldn't mind having the rest of the night back in the city. First though we had worked up quite a thirst and a beer was in order.
One of the recommended places was just called "Irish Pub" which sounded interesting. It was well hidden under an ivy covered stone embankment and didn't look anything like what Kat and I had imagined when we found it. We had our beers outside on the raised deck and I managed to drop some coins down through the cracks when I went to pay the bill. It was only about 20 cents so I didn't bother to go scrounging around under the deck.
When we'd finished our beers we had a few minutes left to get to the bus station, which was practically across the street. There wasn't anywhere to buy tickets at the station, but that was okay because we knew we'd just have to buy the return ticket from the driver. Our bus arrived a few minutes late and we climbed aboard. The total came to 12.60 euros. I tried to hand the driver a 50 and he rolled his eyes at me and shook his head because he apparently didn't want to make change. The rest of my small cash came to only 12.45, because I had dropped the rest of it under the pub deck, and I handed it over saying it's either that or nothing. He rolled his eyes at me again and waved us onto the bus.
We got back to Ljubljana around 19:00 and went straight back to the room for a break. I think I fell asleep for an hour or two. Then it was time for a late dinner again. We got ourselves dressed up and hit the town. This time we ended up at a place called Cafe Romeo, for some margaritas and chicken burritos right on the river. It was very romantic. After burritos we had dessert at Fetiche Patisserie where we had two different slices of cake. I had mine with an espresso, but they told Kat that they only serve hot chocolate in the Winter, which seemed odd.
We finally went back to the room and Kat went straight to bed while I stayed up late blogging that night. It had been one of our greatest days on the trip so far and the trip was almost at an end.
Tuesday May 3rd: We woke up early to the soothing sounds people stomping around up and down the stairs on the other side of the wall and of construction right outside our windows. Despite my hopes the scaffolding was there for a purpose. It seems things are always in various states of construction and I imagine there's a booming business in erecting and tearing down scaffolding all over the greatest cities of Europe. We got dressed and headed down for breakfast, which was a fairly simple spread and had a little pan where you could boil your own eggs. When we left the building we saw that they'd even pulled a huge crane up right in front of the stairs to the entry.
Our bus to Lake Bled was leaving around 11:00 so we had a little time to wander old town. We strolled through the market again and it seemed a bit busier and with a few more booths than the day before. The weather was nice and it was supposed to be even nicer at Lake Bled so we were in our warmest weather outfits with our legs and arms bared. We slathered ourselves in sunscreen and then again when we got to the bus station to wait.
The ride to Bled took about 1.5 hours. There was construction on the main road where they seemed to be replacing the entire bridge along one section. The delay was only 15 minutes though. The country side was awe inspiring with fantastic views of the mountains as we got closer and closer. We arrived in the tiny village of Bled around 12:30 and soon started our climb up to the castle. We had made reservations at the castle restaurant at 13:30 because Rick Steves had given us the great tip that if you had reservations at the restaurant you could avoid paying the castle admission. The climb consisted mostly of a long series of switch-back staircases with views of the lake peeking through the trees. We reached the top around 13:00 and the admissions person reluctantly let us in when we told her we had reservations.
We wandered the castle grounds and oohed and aahed at the spectacular views of the mountains and the lake from the top of the walls. Lake Bled was breathtakingly beautiful from just about every viewpoint. I was so happy we had made time for it in our travels. We got seated for lunch a bit early and enjoyed a couple glasses of wine, some pasta with truffle sauce, and I had something called sea devil tail with saffron and smashed vegetables. It was good, although a bit overpriced, but getting free admission sort of made up for it.
After lunch we went back down to the lake and found a couple bikes to rent. It was about 16 euros for the rest of the day. Kat's bike was a little too big for her and she had to lean far forward to reach the handles. It was also built like a man's bike so she had to be careful of the crotch bar, which she wasn't used to. As for me I felt like my bike was a tad too small and that I couldn't fully extend my legs with the peddles. That along with the big squishy tires made the bike feel slower than I'm used to when riding at home. It was probably a good thing though since I needed to set a relaxed pace so I didn't leave Kat behind.
We worked our way back to the lakeside path and started our circuit of the lake, stopping to take pictures along the way. Rick Steves had mentioned an interesting bee farm in the neighboring village of Selo that sounded interesting and Kat wanted to go check it out. It would be a small detour off the lake, but we felt like it would be fun and we had plenty of time. We climbed a long hill and reached some open farmland growing young green wheat and with several of the iconic hayracks you see everywhere in Slovenia. The road dipped toward a cluster of farm houses and we coasted past a sign next to a dirt track that looked like it might be the bee place. We didn't really know where the bee farm was supposed to be located so we turned around and took a closer look. From the road we could see the brightly colored bee houses that Rick mentions so we guessed this must be it. After wandering around for quite some time in what felt like private property and not finding anyone there to talk to I decided to just take a few pictures and call it good.
We climbed back up the hilly road and took a water break where it leveled off. There were plenty of mountains, farm fields, and hayracks to look at and the whole area had the earthy smell of cow poop. After our break we peddled back to the lake, coasting all the way down, and continued around. About halfway around the lake we got to the closest spot to the island where you can rent a rowboat. We locked up the bikes and rented a boat for an hour for about 15 euros. Kat climbed in the navigator's seat at the back and I took up the oars for the trip to the island.
It was a cute little boat. I've never been much of a seaman and getting the hang of the big awkward oars was difficult, especially since I kept hitting my knees with them. I eventually had to stick my legs straight out in front of me. Thankfully it wasn't very far to the island. We floated a little bit to take some pictures and then Kat guided me into a spot between the other boats at the tiny dock on the far side of the island. A large swan followed us all the way in, climbed up on the dock as I tied up and then stood watch over the boat as we went to explore. I didn't even tip him.
The island is very small and the church takes up most of it. We wandered around for a bit, took some pictures, and had a gelato break at the little stand at the top. We read that you could go ring the church bell and you were supposed to make a wish or something, but it cost like 5 euros or something like that and that was just too much for a wish.
When we were ready we back to the boat and the swan was still there. Someone else threw him some bread so he was distracted enough that we managed to sneak past it, into our boat, and shoved off the dock. This time Kat was driving and I got to give directions. She thought I made rowing look so fun that she wanted to try too. She learned pretty quickly that it wasn't all that fun, but we got to shore without too much trouble, and with plenty of time left on our rental.
After returning the boat we hoped back on our rental bikes and completed the rest of the loop around the lake. At the start we had considered extending our outing and maybe riding out to a nice sounding gorge for a hike, but by the time we reached the turn off we were already feeling pretty beat. We'd already had a great day so far so we didn't feel too bad about skipping the hike. When we were almost back at the bike rental place Kat nearly crashed her bike. There was steep concrete ramp and a slightly less steep dirt track right next to it. I was behind her and thought she was going to take the dirt track that I was aiming for too, but at the last minute she gunned it for the ramp. She got about halfway up before stalling out and started to tip over onto the dirt path. I slammed on the brakes so I wouldn't collide with her and she managed to jump safely off the bike before it fell over. She was a bit embarrassed by the mishap but otherwise seemed fine, although she managed to tweak her neck the following morning which might have been aggravated by her sudden reflexive leap off the bike.
In any case, we made it back to the rental place in one piece and turned the bikes back in. It was nearly 17:00 and we knew there would be a bus going back to Ljubljana soon. We felt like we'd done everything we'd wanted to in Bled and decided we wouldn't mind having the rest of the night back in the city. First though we had worked up quite a thirst and a beer was in order.
One of the recommended places was just called "Irish Pub" which sounded interesting. It was well hidden under an ivy covered stone embankment and didn't look anything like what Kat and I had imagined when we found it. We had our beers outside on the raised deck and I managed to drop some coins down through the cracks when I went to pay the bill. It was only about 20 cents so I didn't bother to go scrounging around under the deck.
When we'd finished our beers we had a few minutes left to get to the bus station, which was practically across the street. There wasn't anywhere to buy tickets at the station, but that was okay because we knew we'd just have to buy the return ticket from the driver. Our bus arrived a few minutes late and we climbed aboard. The total came to 12.60 euros. I tried to hand the driver a 50 and he rolled his eyes at me and shook his head because he apparently didn't want to make change. The rest of my small cash came to only 12.45, because I had dropped the rest of it under the pub deck, and I handed it over saying it's either that or nothing. He rolled his eyes at me again and waved us onto the bus.
We got back to Ljubljana around 19:00 and went straight back to the room for a break. I think I fell asleep for an hour or two. Then it was time for a late dinner again. We got ourselves dressed up and hit the town. This time we ended up at a place called Cafe Romeo, for some margaritas and chicken burritos right on the river. It was very romantic. After burritos we had dessert at Fetiche Patisserie where we had two different slices of cake. I had mine with an espresso, but they told Kat that they only serve hot chocolate in the Winter, which seemed odd.
We finally went back to the room and Kat went straight to bed while I stayed up late blogging that night. It had been one of our greatest days on the trip so far and the trip was almost at an end.
Wednesday, May 04, 2016
Crazy Train to Ljubljana
Monday May 2nd: It was a little sad packing up and leaving Budapest that morning. It had treated us well and we felt that we could have used another soak in the baths, done a pub crawl through the ruin pubs in the Jewish Quarter, and definitely ate and drank our way through a number of enticing cafes and restaurants that we hadn't had a chance to try. However, we were excited to see what Slovenia had to offer since it hadn't even been on the radar until a few days past when our original plans of going to Poland had fallen through. We'd be missing Warsaw and Krakow, but I have a feeling that there will be another chance someday.
After breakfast we strapped our packs on and took the metro line 2 to the Budapest Deli train station which we hadn't visited yet. With some help we found our platform, train, and car, but when we found our seats we thought there must be some mistake because the whole car was filled with students on some sort of field trip. I didn't see the little slips of paper on the seating chart outside the cabin door that usually marked reserved seats so I figured we had gotten on the wrong car somehow, but after bothering two train attendants we were eventually directed back to the same place. Kat and I steeled ourselves for a crowded and noisy ride. The only non-student in our cabin was a business-looking guy who stared at his phone the entire time. We pushed ourselves past a tangle of legs and I hefted our backpacks into the storage racks above the seats, shoving aside other miscellaneous items to make room for our stuff.
As the train left the station it was like the recess bell had rung. Kids began running up and down the passageway, chasing and shouting at each other, their few guardians and handlers attempting to stay well out of the way. Not that long into the ride I began to smell the distinctive odor of urine coming from somewhere. I later discovered the reason was that both WCs in our car were broken and did not flush. I found out the hard way when I went to use one and lifted the seat to find a full to the brim toilet sloshing about as the train bounced and jerked along the tracks. I almost added to the contents by losing my breakfast. Apparently this didn't stop the kids from using the bathrooms and they would track stuff on their shoes all over the train car which accounted for the terrible smell.
After that we chose to retreat to the dining car. It was going to be a 9 hour trip and we were ready to stay right there for the whole time if we had to. Although it wasn't even noon yet we both ordered beers to nurse while I worked on blog posts and Kat read on her Kindle. Thankfully we had free WiFi while still in Hungary. We were a little bit nervous leaving our bags unattended for long stretches of time, but felt it was worth the risk rather than braving the chaos.
Several stops later we noticed that the student group had reached their destination and was disembarking. We returned to our assigned cabin which was now empty, made sure our bags were still there, and then Kat sprayed it all down with febreze which managed to take the edge off the smell. For the next few hours we were alone and at peace. As we crossed into Slovenia Kat and I practiced our Slovenian phrases on each other: "Hello", "Dobre dan", "Thank you very much", "Hvalah lepah", "You're welcome", "Prosim". I watched the countryside became ever more eye catching and wonderful as fields of green grass and yellow flowers turned into gently rolling hills and the grew into more rugged, forested, and mist covered crags and valleys. Tucked into nooks and crannies of the landscape were little farming villages with their iconic hayracks and clinging to the cliffs were abandoned stony fortresses. So far Slovenia was putting on quite a show.
At one of the stops we picked up a couple of passengers who decided to share our cabin with us. The woman spoke enough English to understand us and be understood, but if the guy understood he didn't let on. Not long after they got on the guy put his earbuds in and started listening to his collection of Slovenian electro speed metal at such a loud volume that I was surprised he wasn't bleeding from the ears. The earbuds did practically nothing to dampen the sound so Kat and I were subjected to a never ending stream of tinny noise radiating from the man's head as he obliviously thumbed at his phone. His companion appeared to be so accustomed to this behavior that she didn't seem bothered in the least as she read and flipped through some sort of paperwork. Kat and I briefly considered retreating once again to the dining car, but mutually decided to defiantly tough it out. We were nearing the end in any case and I was betting that his phone's battery life wouldn't hold out that much longer.
Either the phone died or the man finally lost his hearing because he turned the music off when there were still a couple of stops left. We reached Ljubljana on scheduled and we loaded up our packs once again and set off on foot. It was a short enough walk to our B&B which was situated about halfway between the train and bus stations and the center of old town. We found the building it was in just fine since it was clearly labeled "Slamic", but finding the entrance was a little bit harder. The stairs were around a corner and between two buildings and were partially hidden by some scaffolding wedged between the narrow gap in the buildings. I hoped deep down that it was just there for show and not any indication that we'd be hearing construction noises throughout the day.
We got buzzed in and met Mika at the office to get checked-in. He was friendly and helpful, but warned us when we asked about getting dinner that many places would be closed since it was a national holiday as was the day before and a couple days before that. When I asked if we were all good for the rest of the week or if there were more national holidays I should be aware of and he said we should be fine for a while.
Our room was small but clean and at least wasn't a giant dance hall like the one in Vienna. We'd learned our lesson though and requested a "Do Not Disturb" sign for our door to avoid any unnecessary cleaning and entry. I looked out the window and straight at the scaffolding I'd seen earlier. I hoped again that maybe it was just an elaborate prank or that they'd be taking the rest of the week off in observance of the previous national holidays. We got ourselves situated and then headed back downstairs to go see if we could find old town and some dinner.
The first thing I noticed when we reached the busy commercial street leading to old town was that the same smug model we'd seen in Vienna had followed us here. She was plastered on all the billboards, but this time at least she wasn't caught in an infinite video loop. Soon we were past her judging looks and in to old town proper.
Ljubljana's old town center is a pedestrian paradise. An old castle with a remodeled clock tower sits on the top of a hill overlooking the town. The river bend circles the hill and is criss-crossed by numerous small bridges, each with their own distinct character and colorful name. The river front is lined by a myriad of exotic cafes, restaurants, bars, boutiques, and a long elegant colonnade which becomes a busy market almost everyday. Old town is packed with little details in every corner to catch and delight the eye. An accordion player plays a jaunty tune in the middle of Preseren square, his song carrying throughout the streets and alleys of old town. Despite being a touristy town it doesn't feel jaded or gimmicky and the people are still friendly in a matter-of-fact kind of way without being pushy or fake. In a very short time I felt we had made a good pick for the end of our vacation and knew it would be one of the highlights of the trip.
That evening we strolled through old town, sampling its sights and getting the lay of the land. We stopped for pizza, because we couldn't really make a decision on anything else, and were presented with a menu containing over 100 types of pizza to choose from. The waiter seemed surprised that we attempted to read the entire list. We chose #39. After dinner we walked the many bridges and stayed until it was late and ended up grabbing a treat of tiny cakes, hot chocolate, and espresso before calling it a night.
After breakfast we strapped our packs on and took the metro line 2 to the Budapest Deli train station which we hadn't visited yet. With some help we found our platform, train, and car, but when we found our seats we thought there must be some mistake because the whole car was filled with students on some sort of field trip. I didn't see the little slips of paper on the seating chart outside the cabin door that usually marked reserved seats so I figured we had gotten on the wrong car somehow, but after bothering two train attendants we were eventually directed back to the same place. Kat and I steeled ourselves for a crowded and noisy ride. The only non-student in our cabin was a business-looking guy who stared at his phone the entire time. We pushed ourselves past a tangle of legs and I hefted our backpacks into the storage racks above the seats, shoving aside other miscellaneous items to make room for our stuff.
As the train left the station it was like the recess bell had rung. Kids began running up and down the passageway, chasing and shouting at each other, their few guardians and handlers attempting to stay well out of the way. Not that long into the ride I began to smell the distinctive odor of urine coming from somewhere. I later discovered the reason was that both WCs in our car were broken and did not flush. I found out the hard way when I went to use one and lifted the seat to find a full to the brim toilet sloshing about as the train bounced and jerked along the tracks. I almost added to the contents by losing my breakfast. Apparently this didn't stop the kids from using the bathrooms and they would track stuff on their shoes all over the train car which accounted for the terrible smell.
After that we chose to retreat to the dining car. It was going to be a 9 hour trip and we were ready to stay right there for the whole time if we had to. Although it wasn't even noon yet we both ordered beers to nurse while I worked on blog posts and Kat read on her Kindle. Thankfully we had free WiFi while still in Hungary. We were a little bit nervous leaving our bags unattended for long stretches of time, but felt it was worth the risk rather than braving the chaos.
Several stops later we noticed that the student group had reached their destination and was disembarking. We returned to our assigned cabin which was now empty, made sure our bags were still there, and then Kat sprayed it all down with febreze which managed to take the edge off the smell. For the next few hours we were alone and at peace. As we crossed into Slovenia Kat and I practiced our Slovenian phrases on each other: "Hello", "Dobre dan", "Thank you very much", "Hvalah lepah", "You're welcome", "Prosim". I watched the countryside became ever more eye catching and wonderful as fields of green grass and yellow flowers turned into gently rolling hills and the grew into more rugged, forested, and mist covered crags and valleys. Tucked into nooks and crannies of the landscape were little farming villages with their iconic hayracks and clinging to the cliffs were abandoned stony fortresses. So far Slovenia was putting on quite a show.
At one of the stops we picked up a couple of passengers who decided to share our cabin with us. The woman spoke enough English to understand us and be understood, but if the guy understood he didn't let on. Not long after they got on the guy put his earbuds in and started listening to his collection of Slovenian electro speed metal at such a loud volume that I was surprised he wasn't bleeding from the ears. The earbuds did practically nothing to dampen the sound so Kat and I were subjected to a never ending stream of tinny noise radiating from the man's head as he obliviously thumbed at his phone. His companion appeared to be so accustomed to this behavior that she didn't seem bothered in the least as she read and flipped through some sort of paperwork. Kat and I briefly considered retreating once again to the dining car, but mutually decided to defiantly tough it out. We were nearing the end in any case and I was betting that his phone's battery life wouldn't hold out that much longer.
Either the phone died or the man finally lost his hearing because he turned the music off when there were still a couple of stops left. We reached Ljubljana on scheduled and we loaded up our packs once again and set off on foot. It was a short enough walk to our B&B which was situated about halfway between the train and bus stations and the center of old town. We found the building it was in just fine since it was clearly labeled "Slamic", but finding the entrance was a little bit harder. The stairs were around a corner and between two buildings and were partially hidden by some scaffolding wedged between the narrow gap in the buildings. I hoped deep down that it was just there for show and not any indication that we'd be hearing construction noises throughout the day.
We got buzzed in and met Mika at the office to get checked-in. He was friendly and helpful, but warned us when we asked about getting dinner that many places would be closed since it was a national holiday as was the day before and a couple days before that. When I asked if we were all good for the rest of the week or if there were more national holidays I should be aware of and he said we should be fine for a while.
Our room was small but clean and at least wasn't a giant dance hall like the one in Vienna. We'd learned our lesson though and requested a "Do Not Disturb" sign for our door to avoid any unnecessary cleaning and entry. I looked out the window and straight at the scaffolding I'd seen earlier. I hoped again that maybe it was just an elaborate prank or that they'd be taking the rest of the week off in observance of the previous national holidays. We got ourselves situated and then headed back downstairs to go see if we could find old town and some dinner.
The first thing I noticed when we reached the busy commercial street leading to old town was that the same smug model we'd seen in Vienna had followed us here. She was plastered on all the billboards, but this time at least she wasn't caught in an infinite video loop. Soon we were past her judging looks and in to old town proper.
Ljubljana's old town center is a pedestrian paradise. An old castle with a remodeled clock tower sits on the top of a hill overlooking the town. The river bend circles the hill and is criss-crossed by numerous small bridges, each with their own distinct character and colorful name. The river front is lined by a myriad of exotic cafes, restaurants, bars, boutiques, and a long elegant colonnade which becomes a busy market almost everyday. Old town is packed with little details in every corner to catch and delight the eye. An accordion player plays a jaunty tune in the middle of Preseren square, his song carrying throughout the streets and alleys of old town. Despite being a touristy town it doesn't feel jaded or gimmicky and the people are still friendly in a matter-of-fact kind of way without being pushy or fake. In a very short time I felt we had made a good pick for the end of our vacation and knew it would be one of the highlights of the trip.
That evening we strolled through old town, sampling its sights and getting the lay of the land. We stopped for pizza, because we couldn't really make a decision on anything else, and were presented with a menu containing over 100 types of pizza to choose from. The waiter seemed surprised that we attempted to read the entire list. We chose #39. After dinner we walked the many bridges and stayed until it was late and ended up grabbing a treat of tiny cakes, hot chocolate, and espresso before calling it a night.
Budapest: Buda Sights, Race Cars, and Baths
We're about halfway through our third day in Ljubljana right now, just taking a break back at the room. Tomorrow we might spend the day at the coastal resort town of Piran where it's supposed to be nice, although Rick Steves doesn't cover it in this guidebook so we'll be without our safety net which is a little bit nerve-wracking.
Sunday May 1st: On our second day in Budapest we planned on crossing the bridges over to the Buda side, but not before we did some homework. We were leaving the next day and although we had our train tickets in hand we had yet to book a room for our stay in Ljubljana. I went through the recommendations and cast a wide net sending requests for rooms via email to 7 different hotels, b&bs, and pensions. I figured we'd check back around lunchtime to see if we got any bites. We'd decided to just get one room for the rest of the trip since we would be flying out of Ljubljana and do day trips to Lake Bled or anywhere else we wanted to check out.
After breakfast our first priority was attempting to see the grand marketplace again, but when we got there it was still closed. We hadn't checked the signs the other day or we would have realized it didn't open on Sundays. At least we were near one of the bridges over to the Buda side, so we walked across and I took a couple snapshots of the Liberation Monument at the top of the Citadella along the way. To us the statue holding a palm leaf symbolizing peace looked like a taco so we called it the taco monument.
As we climbed the hill toward the Citadella we passed by a stand selling "hot corn" as a refreshing snack. We wandered a bit off the path and discovered the Cave Church, basically a church inside a partially man-made cave. We both thought it was pretty neat.
Outside we continued our hike up the hill. The weather was still quite nice and we were sweating by the time we got to the top. We finally got a good look at the statues on Liberation Monument and could tell it was actually a palm frond and not a taco as we had assumed. Behind the monument was the fortress or citadella. We walked the perimeter and took some panoramic shots across the river looking back at the Pest side. From there we could see some sort of activity along the bridges and wondered what it might be. It looked like they were closing them down to car traffic and putting up barricades. I didn't think much of it at the time.
As we hiked back down the hill on the other side, continuing on toward the castle we started to hear some sort of announcement on a loudspeaker echoing across the Danube, but it was in Hungarian so we still had no clue what was going on. Later as we lost sight of the river in the dense trees our peaceful nature hike was shattered by the sounds of the ear-splitting whine of car engines carrying across the water and echoing throughout the park. When we reached the next vantage point at Philosophers Monument we could see that there was a car race underway as a handful of tiny race cars zipped back and forth across the bridge and up the street on the near side, making a L-shaped loop. People crowded the railings and the bridges and the street-sides to watch the race. We just wanted to keep pushing through to get to the castle because we were on a schedule.
We eventually found our way through to the Buda castle and climbed up through the back gate. The castle itself was rather unimpressive but it did offer some grand views of the Chain Bridge. After the castle we planned on heading back across the Chain Bridge, but when we got there it seemed the race was still going and it was almost impossible to push through the sea of people crowding around to watch. We moved at a glacial pace through narrow fenced off corridors only to find when we got to the bridge that they had gated it off and were only allowing traffic coming over to Buda and would not let us pass the other direction. Kat was starting to get annoyed from being jostled about in such a large and crushing crowd for so long so I pushed a path through to where we could get some breathing room. We reached the riverside under the bridge and walked away from the crowds, not really knowing where to go. I was hungry and my foot was one giant blister at this point so I was getting a little snippy as well. We both thought it would be a good time to get some lunch and go to the Szechenyi Baths to relax, the only problem was that they were on the other side of the river and the closest non-closed bridge looked to be miles away.
About halfway to the far bridge Kat spotted a metro stop. I checked the map and indeed there was a metro 2 line stop right there that would carry us under the river. We gratefully got on board and rode it all the way back to Andrassy ut. Food was the first priority so we headed into the Ruin Pub district and finally found a Hummus Bar to get some beers, a falafel sandwich, a hummus plate, and some free wifi. The food was good, but I had to remind the guy like three times to bring us our beers. While I waited impatiently I checked my email and saw that I had many responses at least 3 options of hotels to choose from that could satisfy our requests. The best deal of the group was Slamic B&B so I accepted their offer and got it all squared away.
After lunch we pressed on, blisters and all, to the closest metro station along line 1 that would take us to Heroes Square. A few stops later we were there and I took a few pics of the sculptures in the square. Just beyond Heroes Square is the City Park where they have a zoo, a circus, a replica Transylvanian castle on a lake, and the Szechenyi Baths. Kat had read up on the process at the baths so we went in the poolside entrance, got our wrist bands and assigned cabin, rented our towels, and went in search of the changing cabin. It was a tiny little room we had to share, but we could at least leave our stuff in there while we were bathing. Kat got in her modest one-piece suit and I put on my tiny speedo and strutted out into the public baths.
We warmed up in the medical baths first, which are basically a series of hot tubs kept at different temperatures and with various different minerals mixed in that make them smell like feet. Our bodies needed the soak and we started to let some of the stress and tension melt away from our muscles. Kat and I traded calf and foot massages as we luxuriated in the baths. When we started to get a little dizzy from the heat we went out to the outdoor baths, which are still warm, but not overly so, and floated around for a bit longer. We watched people playing chess in the water, standing under the spouts, and generally having a good time until our fingers and toes began to prune. Before we left we wanted to hit the sauna as well. Neither of us could handle the stuffy heat for too long so soon we were showering, drying off, and getting dressed again. After I returned the towels, got my deposit back, and fed our wristbands into the return slot we headed back outside, feeling refreshed and a tad sleepy.
Before we retired for a nap at the room we decided it was high time to get a glass of wine at DiVino's wine bar. We took the metro again as close as it could get us, because we were pretty much done with walking by now. The last couple of times we had passed by it had been closed, but this time we were in luck and we snagged a table along our favorite square, St. Istvan's Square. After we each had a glass we decided it was nap time and headed back to the room, taking the metro again of course.
After our much needed mid-afternoon nap it was getting quite late and already past dinner time. I put on my fancy duds again and we started to head out only to find that a sudden rainstorm had appeared. We weren't prepared for that, but the front desk was able to lend us a large umbrella. We decided on a restaurant right nearby the Opera House and huddled together for the short walk through the rain.
We had a great meal at Klassz and the waiter was very fun and friendly. I had a stuffed duck breast and Kat had a braised pork chop from a special hairy pot bellied Hungarian pig. Both were delicious. We followed it up with crepe suzette with ice cream, an espresso for me because I was falling asleep at the table, and a shot of strong Hungarian apricot liquor for Kat. We finished up and by the time we walked home the rain had stopped. It was a great last night in Budapest.
Sunday May 1st: On our second day in Budapest we planned on crossing the bridges over to the Buda side, but not before we did some homework. We were leaving the next day and although we had our train tickets in hand we had yet to book a room for our stay in Ljubljana. I went through the recommendations and cast a wide net sending requests for rooms via email to 7 different hotels, b&bs, and pensions. I figured we'd check back around lunchtime to see if we got any bites. We'd decided to just get one room for the rest of the trip since we would be flying out of Ljubljana and do day trips to Lake Bled or anywhere else we wanted to check out.
After breakfast our first priority was attempting to see the grand marketplace again, but when we got there it was still closed. We hadn't checked the signs the other day or we would have realized it didn't open on Sundays. At least we were near one of the bridges over to the Buda side, so we walked across and I took a couple snapshots of the Liberation Monument at the top of the Citadella along the way. To us the statue holding a palm leaf symbolizing peace looked like a taco so we called it the taco monument.
As we climbed the hill toward the Citadella we passed by a stand selling "hot corn" as a refreshing snack. We wandered a bit off the path and discovered the Cave Church, basically a church inside a partially man-made cave. We both thought it was pretty neat.
Outside we continued our hike up the hill. The weather was still quite nice and we were sweating by the time we got to the top. We finally got a good look at the statues on Liberation Monument and could tell it was actually a palm frond and not a taco as we had assumed. Behind the monument was the fortress or citadella. We walked the perimeter and took some panoramic shots across the river looking back at the Pest side. From there we could see some sort of activity along the bridges and wondered what it might be. It looked like they were closing them down to car traffic and putting up barricades. I didn't think much of it at the time.
As we hiked back down the hill on the other side, continuing on toward the castle we started to hear some sort of announcement on a loudspeaker echoing across the Danube, but it was in Hungarian so we still had no clue what was going on. Later as we lost sight of the river in the dense trees our peaceful nature hike was shattered by the sounds of the ear-splitting whine of car engines carrying across the water and echoing throughout the park. When we reached the next vantage point at Philosophers Monument we could see that there was a car race underway as a handful of tiny race cars zipped back and forth across the bridge and up the street on the near side, making a L-shaped loop. People crowded the railings and the bridges and the street-sides to watch the race. We just wanted to keep pushing through to get to the castle because we were on a schedule.
We eventually found our way through to the Buda castle and climbed up through the back gate. The castle itself was rather unimpressive but it did offer some grand views of the Chain Bridge. After the castle we planned on heading back across the Chain Bridge, but when we got there it seemed the race was still going and it was almost impossible to push through the sea of people crowding around to watch. We moved at a glacial pace through narrow fenced off corridors only to find when we got to the bridge that they had gated it off and were only allowing traffic coming over to Buda and would not let us pass the other direction. Kat was starting to get annoyed from being jostled about in such a large and crushing crowd for so long so I pushed a path through to where we could get some breathing room. We reached the riverside under the bridge and walked away from the crowds, not really knowing where to go. I was hungry and my foot was one giant blister at this point so I was getting a little snippy as well. We both thought it would be a good time to get some lunch and go to the Szechenyi Baths to relax, the only problem was that they were on the other side of the river and the closest non-closed bridge looked to be miles away.
About halfway to the far bridge Kat spotted a metro stop. I checked the map and indeed there was a metro 2 line stop right there that would carry us under the river. We gratefully got on board and rode it all the way back to Andrassy ut. Food was the first priority so we headed into the Ruin Pub district and finally found a Hummus Bar to get some beers, a falafel sandwich, a hummus plate, and some free wifi. The food was good, but I had to remind the guy like three times to bring us our beers. While I waited impatiently I checked my email and saw that I had many responses at least 3 options of hotels to choose from that could satisfy our requests. The best deal of the group was Slamic B&B so I accepted their offer and got it all squared away.
After lunch we pressed on, blisters and all, to the closest metro station along line 1 that would take us to Heroes Square. A few stops later we were there and I took a few pics of the sculptures in the square. Just beyond Heroes Square is the City Park where they have a zoo, a circus, a replica Transylvanian castle on a lake, and the Szechenyi Baths. Kat had read up on the process at the baths so we went in the poolside entrance, got our wrist bands and assigned cabin, rented our towels, and went in search of the changing cabin. It was a tiny little room we had to share, but we could at least leave our stuff in there while we were bathing. Kat got in her modest one-piece suit and I put on my tiny speedo and strutted out into the public baths.
We warmed up in the medical baths first, which are basically a series of hot tubs kept at different temperatures and with various different minerals mixed in that make them smell like feet. Our bodies needed the soak and we started to let some of the stress and tension melt away from our muscles. Kat and I traded calf and foot massages as we luxuriated in the baths. When we started to get a little dizzy from the heat we went out to the outdoor baths, which are still warm, but not overly so, and floated around for a bit longer. We watched people playing chess in the water, standing under the spouts, and generally having a good time until our fingers and toes began to prune. Before we left we wanted to hit the sauna as well. Neither of us could handle the stuffy heat for too long so soon we were showering, drying off, and getting dressed again. After I returned the towels, got my deposit back, and fed our wristbands into the return slot we headed back outside, feeling refreshed and a tad sleepy.
Before we retired for a nap at the room we decided it was high time to get a glass of wine at DiVino's wine bar. We took the metro again as close as it could get us, because we were pretty much done with walking by now. The last couple of times we had passed by it had been closed, but this time we were in luck and we snagged a table along our favorite square, St. Istvan's Square. After we each had a glass we decided it was nap time and headed back to the room, taking the metro again of course.
After our much needed mid-afternoon nap it was getting quite late and already past dinner time. I put on my fancy duds again and we started to head out only to find that a sudden rainstorm had appeared. We weren't prepared for that, but the front desk was able to lend us a large umbrella. We decided on a restaurant right nearby the Opera House and huddled together for the short walk through the rain.
We had a great meal at Klassz and the waiter was very fun and friendly. I had a stuffed duck breast and Kat had a braised pork chop from a special hairy pot bellied Hungarian pig. Both were delicious. We followed it up with crepe suzette with ice cream, an espresso for me because I was falling asleep at the table, and a shot of strong Hungarian apricot liquor for Kat. We finished up and by the time we walked home the rain had stopped. It was a great last night in Budapest.
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