Ciao, lepo te je spet videti:) All the slovenian lessons are slowly paing off. The best feeling is when I’m talking to a stranger and actually don’t need to mention »ne govorim slovensko«, filling me with pride. Let’s come back to the story. So I was on that trip with my sister and the last thing that happend was me and her standing at the edge of the road in the complete dark and rain, starving and freezing. But then that car stopped. The austrian couple was just on the way to a restaurant and offert to take us there too, which was more then generous. And that’s how two wet and sweaty poodles ended up sitting on a stylish Tesla on the way to a fancy restaurant. Of course, in a restaurant like this it was not allowed to order less than 3 courses.
But when we went to pay, to our biggest confusion, we were told that the bill had already been paid by none other than the two people who had brought us and were now beaming and shouting happy birthday to us. What was happening? Us being still in disbelief we’ve been brought back, where the next surprise was waiting, as we entered the room and instead of finding a dorm, standing in a private room directly above the lake (probably because of the bad weather). The following morning we wanted to ski on “Vogel”, but they told us that there was too much water on the slopes, reason why they closed. But whatever plan gets to my head once, stays there, so we took the cable car up anyway, full of good faith and optimism, but ended (as we could have imagine) only having a drink and good food, met some funny people, as well as a majestic cat with Alzheimer’s, and came back down. Fail. In the evening we tried out a capsule hotel in Ljubljana. But since the battery on my cell phone, which had the entry code on it, was about to die and my email account suddenly decided I was a robot and to not let me in, the whole thing felt more like a real-life escape room, only in reverse. Lately, escape rooms seem to have taken up residence everywhere in my life. Fortunately, we cracked the code at the last second – yes! I don’t know why, but in the inside of those compartments it gave me the vibe of being in a science fiction movie. Not to mention the heat. After showering in the 40-degree bathroom, we just wanted to have a normal meal in a fast food restaurant and to make sure nothing went wrong, we even made a reservation there. And it was true. Definitely nothing went wrong, but it shouldn’t become normal either. When we arrived, the waiter told us that based on our reservation we could decide whether we wanted to sit there or in a private VIP room (huh?). Of course you don’t say no. So 2 seconds later we entered in a special dining room a few doors down, that we had all to ourselves and the best part: We could play our own music through a speaker. I honestly don’t know how all this can happen in just a few days, it’s crazy. I’m so grateful for all those helpful and lovely people I met. There are also other things that Slovenians do, that is unusual for a Belgian like me, such as bus drivers, that just let you pass when you forget your bus card or passers-by that pick you up when you wait for the bus or missed it, but all this, wow, Belgians could take a leaf out of their book. Finally leaving the capsule again the next morning turned out not to be so easy, as the cleaning lady decided after a grip in my sisters hair, that she can’t leave with wet hair. Alright, let’s blow-dry it then, the plan was not to stay here forever, Epi is callinggg. But as soon as I got back to work, it was time for another visit, another very exciting one. Being in a long distance relationship isn’t that easy, which is why I was happy like a little child to see my boyfriend again. After I showed him around the coast (the weather got way better luckily) we went to Ljubljana, took breakfast next to Bled and did some hikes around and stuff.
Then we stayed one day in a very cute wooden house of a Glamping called “Ribno Alpine” if I remember well. In Ljubljana I then discovered my favorite Café “Cafe Capri”. It’s a very small blue/white house in the center with a terrace and the atmosphere is very simple and lovely, just like the food and the waiters.
Basically fell in love. The last evening we spent watching the sunset before he had to leave again on Monday, the day when the holidays for the Slovenian kids began. Our vacation program in Epi consisted of a mix of walking, playing, gardening and cooking.
And of course eating:)
I really enjoyed the week with the children and was kind of sad when it was over. Since my afternoons were free, I decided to go running with Emilie even though me and jogging are not the best of friends. Surprisingly, I managed to keep going and have to admit that next to the sea it isn’t that bad. Sea air apparently works his wonders everywhere. If I can run, I can go swim in February too (I thought). So we decided to pack our swim suit and went to Piran. But I got cold feet, I’m sorry… I mean the sun was going down soon and then it would get cold and yeah you know how it is right;) But don’t worry, my time is coming, even if this evening turned into a lazy evening on the other side of the water surface.
We also finally made it to Koper one evening because we wanted to see an event at the youth center there for a long time but never really found the time to go. It was a chill and funny karaoke night, where students from different countries were performing famous songs of their countries.
Another weekend we went for some more hikes. One of them together with Ana, a previous volunteer and Jan, a guy from Koper and in the evening we went to Medvode to go for another hike the next day with some volunteers. We got up early to discover more of Triglav national park (one thing that was high on my Slovenia-bucket-list). First we walked to Pericnik falls, which were amazing and it happened to be the first time in my life, that I was able to walk around a waterfall.
Then, after the way back, we we also visited Zelenci.
The turquoise-colored spring lake with footbridges in the snowy landscape was beautiful, even though it was reached by only a 5 min from the main street, which I didn’t expect to be honest. In my imagination it was somewhere in the middle of nowhere, only reached by a long walk through some mountains and forest. But I didn’t complain, as I felt my legs going limp slowly after two active days. Being active is what I love as you can maybe say after this time, so exhaustion is just what goes with it, and it’s totally worth it after all those amazing experiences you have in return!
And that’s it for now, next part is coming! Can’t wait, see you soon:)