M Ljubljana

... stick shift car out to the caves. We had to go on a tour with a bunch of other people in order to explore inside. They were amazing! One part of the caves had been discovered in the mid 1800s while it took another century for the other part to be discovered. We got to hike through all of it. If anyone has seen Lord of the Rings and remembers the part when they were in the caves and Gandalf had to fight the huge Balrog (fire-y monster)on that treacherous bridge- that’s ...

... up at the castle 3 times, just for the views. <br><br>Seeing how every city I visit appears to have a need to have some a little different about it, Ljubljana had its own bizarre aspect. You can buy horse burger (&amp; I&#8217;ve since been told you can apparently get kangaroo there as well). As in an actual burger with horse meat as opposed to chicken or something normal. Needless to say I did not eat burgers in Ljubljana, just in case. I did get ...

... rainy on our first stop into Ljubljana, but that didn't stop us from checking out the quaint old town. It was eerily quiet due to the European Congress elections, but when we returned the next day, the town was lively and bustling. We climbed up to Ljubljana castle for nice views of the city below, and visited the town hall and the famous Dragon bridge.

Kay had already been in Slovenia for a few days while I was working in Belgium when I flew into Ljubljana to meet her. The tiny airport is nestled into the valley at the edge of the snow covered peaks. It is a gorgeous view on decent.<br><br>She had booked us at Slamic B&amp;B that had beautiful rooms and great little coffee shop. We spent the first night wandering down to the river front that is full of little cafes ...

... do with any tradition except that of the flute and New Age music in general. It's not bad, but no more 'Mohican' than it is Bolivian to my knowledge, the war bonnets serving what purpose I know not. I've seen similar acts in Buenos Aires and Barcelona within the last year or so, the others from Ecuador. I guess work's work, and I've even been accused of 'sacrilege' in my career as a folk art ...

... this huge and very long water slide, decided I was to old for that, juct not flexable enough for those sharp turns and staing upright. Moved on to more comforting things. Yep! just like Germany and many European Counties, the public and nude saunas. Big difference from Germany, many beautiful women, In Germany, maybe 10 or 15 to 1 male female ratio, Slovenia, maybe even more females then the men. And the saunas, outstanding, more varied and a lot more friendly people ...

... will understand what I mean), but I can assure they were great stories. Stories about taking buses in India, being robbed on a night bus somewhere in the Himalayas and the most interesting of all in my opinion, about her house in Munich and its nuclear-war-proof-bunker plus its 5,000 liters oil tank for oil! Apparently the German government subsidized these bunkers for some time during the Cube crisis in the 60's. You talk, you learn! Once in Ljubljana I went ...

... bridges to cross it or just hover over it and daydream. Tons of parks and green grassy areas to lounge away the day. Just a great, relaxing, friendly welcoming feel to the city. I wanted to stay more, and easily could have with the julian alps begging me to explore further, but alas, I decided to move on. I did one day trip from Ljubljana to a resort-style town called Bled. Although the name might conjure up some bad 80's horror flick, there really is ...

... a bit in my opinion! Another reason why we didn't opt to stay too long in the capital is that Slovenia swithced over to the Euro in the beginning of January and that bloody currency makes things expensive! Bloody Euro! One nice factor was that since we are so close to the border with Italy, I was able to get by speaking German and Italian a bit... Luckily, there are better parts of Slovenia that we discovered...

... Castle Hill is surounded by dense trees, providing a vertical park. We climbed the double helix spiral staircase to the tower for a spectacular view over town and distant fields. Beyond the core old town typical concrete block highrises are spaciously laid out with large green parks and play grounds in the center of each five or six units. Cars are parked on the far perimeter. The Communist planners did a better job here compared to Budapest or Warsaw ...