So, we met early Friday morning around 7:30am and departed on two buses around 8:30am. We slept, listened to music, played cards... the usual bus activities. Interesting law here - when we stopped at a gas station, I was wondering why we were all hanging out for so long when we should've just been getting back on the road. I found out that bus drivers have to take a 45 minute break every 4 hours of driving. Can you believe it? How do they make it anywhere?
This is Anthony and me making fun of Ben sleeping on the way there! ha
We eventually got to Ljubljana (capital of Slovenia) around 3pm and quickly had to head to our hostel and then meet at a restaurant for lunch/dinner. All 150 of us showed up at a restaurant that wasn't ready to serve us. ESN had made reservations for us, but apparently they had no idea. Come to find out, a restaurant with the same name actually had our reservation and was waiting for us with all 150 meals ready. We didn't know that until after the restaurant we were at quickly busted their butts to serve all of us. After our meal, we headed to a tour guide office to take a tour of the city. It was supposed to be during the day, but by the time our meal was over it was already dark outside. I thought it would be pointless to do a night time tour, but I actually really enjoyed it and the tour guide did a wonderful job! Slovenia has a total population of 2 million people; it's tiny! Ljubljana was such a gorgeous city, though - it was extremely clean with a beautiful river running through it. We walked over a few bridges during our tour, went inside a church, and walked the entire city in a short amount of time.
Locks on one of the bridges. People who got married would put the lock on the bridge and throw the key in the river - awesome idea!
River in Ljubljana
Building during our night tour
After the tour, we all walked around on our own and went to a grocery store to stock up on food/drinks. All grocery stores in Ljubljana close around 9pm and most restaurants are closed shortly after. All of us are used to having 24hour markets and food places in Budapest, that we were shocked we couldn't find anything opened really after 11pm. Small town lifestyle. We went to a club Friday night called Cirkus, and it was a little creepy, not gonna lie. There were people dressed up... clowns, penguins, and superman and they would come up to us and just freak us out. We tried to stay away from them. I almost legitimately punched the clown in the face because he kept scaring me.
Saturday morning, Amanda and I woke up earlier than everyone else so we could walk around the city more and get some coffee before we headed to Lake Bled. We walked around the Saturday morning market (fruits, veggies, cheese, purses, and shoes for sale) and I bought some delicious strawberries that I ate while drinking an espresso at a coffee shop. It was drizzling a little in the morning, and continued to rain pretty much for the rest of the day. Lake Bled was only an hour away, so it was a quick bus ride to get there. On our way there, we got to enjoy the swiss alps:
We hiked up to a castle at Lake Bled that overlooked the lake and the small island in the middle of the lake. Google pictures of Lake Bled, Slovenia to see what it looks like. Most pictures are of when it is green and sunny. Since it was raining when we went, we had a different view of it, but still beautiful nonetheless. And the snow capped swiss alps in the background made for a beautiful view! Here are some pictures...
After taking a bunch of pictures at the top of the hill, we walked around inside the castle that was up there! It was a tiny museum with artifacts particular to Slovenia. After about thirty minutes in the museum, we were all starving and only had an hour before needing to be back on the bus to head back to Ljubljana. We found a mexican restaurant (yes! Haven't had tex mex in a while!). It ended up being a major ordeal when there were eight of us at a table getting served twenty minutes after a table of 5 of our guy friends who showed up fifteen minutes after us and ordered pretty much the same thing as us. We complained and ended up getting a 15 percent discount. The waiter said it wasn't his problem and I wanted to ask him then whose problem is it.. ours? But, I just let it go. Amanda told him it would have been nice if he could have given us just a heads up that our food would take longer, and the waiter just didn't understand that concept. Difference between here and the United States service.
After lunch we got back on the bus and headed back to the city. When we got back, Amanda and I climbed to the top of a hill in the city where there is a famous castle. We had a great view of the city from up there:
We walked around a little up there and took some pictures and then came back down and got ready to head to dinner. On our way from the hill to the hostel, we ran into a protest. Apparently, the previous majority had been overthrown by a different majority? Not really sure why or for what reason, but I snapped this picture to remember it.
We had to take our buses to dinner - only a ten minute ride. We had to waiters - one who could speak English and another who couldn't. The funniest thing about Saturday dinner was when one of the ESN organizers was talking to the waiter who could speak English and was complimenting him on his efficiency as a waiter and then said he should get rid of the other guy (saying how rude he was, etc) and then the waiter said, "It'd be nice, but that's my father!" hahah the ESN organizer felt terrible, but we all got a laugh out of it.
After dinner, we went to another club that was closer to our hostel and Amanda, Sarah (from Canada) and me all left pretty early so we could get some sleep. Sunday morning, Amanda, Sarah, and I woke up early again to walk around the city some more and to get some coffee before the day ahead of us! It was still raining on Sunday, but by this point we just accepted being wet. It took us about an hour to get to the caves that we were visiting on Sunday and all of us were pretty exhausted at this point. I even told Amanda I just wish we were headed back to Budapest because I wanted to get back at a reasonable time... not 11pm. But, we did the cave tour and it was absolutely INCREDIBLE!!!! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, which I was bummed about, but looking back I'm glad I didn't experience the caves through the lens of my camera. Pictures wouldn't do it justice, anyway. I told Amanda I would have paid the entire $120 for the trip just to see the caves. I was absolutely shocked, in awe, on the verge of tears seeing the caves. I can't believe there is such natural beauty in this world, and it just proves to me how amazing and present God is. Amanda and I talked about how after seeing the extreme beauty of the caves and how amazing they were, we couldn't understand how anyone could deny God's presence. It could only be explained by the power of God; we felt so strongly about it and I can't even put into words really how incredible it was. The caves were two million years old, with the stalagmites and stalactites still growing, but very slowly. Our tour guide told us that they only grow one millimeter in 10 to 15 years. The biggest stalagmite of the cave was 15 meters tall and was still actively growing (can be seen by the white limestone on the rock). It was huge!! The second part of the cave tour was awesome - there was a river flowing through that we got to see. Our tour guide explained that the river used to run through all of the cave until it changed course and stopped running through the first part we went through. How does a river just change course? What? The river was flowing really fast and we could hear it before we even saw it - I asked the tour guide if it was always running that quickly and he said no, but since it had been raining a lot, it was running that fast. So all the rain we complained about the day before and that morning, was the same rain that made the river flow so fast and loud which made the cave experience even better! Another realization... everything happens for a reason. We had to deal with all the rain, but in the end, we got to see the river flow at incredible speed in the caves! As you can probably tell, the caves were my favorite part of the trip! We were able to take pictures after exiting the cave, so here's one of me and Anthony, and another of the river flowing outside of the cave just before it started to flow into the cave.
The bus ride home was long. The first two hours felt like an eternity because everyone was sleeping and I couldn't really sleep, so I was bored. Eventually, though, everyone woke up and we blasted some music and played cards.
Monday night I met with Foster and Leigh Ann, and Foster's parents (parents/grandparents of friends from camp) who were visiting Budapest! We had dinner together and it was lovely! I haven't had such a nice meal in a while, and I really appreciated spending time with them! Although I was happy to see them, it also got me thinking of home and camp. I must say, I'm a little homesick and campsick at the moment... but it's not a bad thing - I have something to look forward to when I have to leave Budapest in May!
After dinner with the Yeildings, I met up with friends at a bar (Morrisons 2 - every Monday people go there, but I haven't been since the first Monday I was here) to celebrate Dany's 21st birthday! We had a lot of fun just talking and dancing!
Today I went to my Resources of Viticulture class... it never fails that I'm late to that class since it's so far away on the Buda side. And every time the class meets in a different room so I spend about five to ten minutes having to find the room. Next Tuesday I will be on time! Our teacher told us that next week we will watch a movie on a vineyard in Hungary while sipping a glass of wine from that particular vineyard. How neat!
After class today, I went to a starbucks nearby to try to skype call my dad. Still not working... I was able to get it to work when I was at dinner with the Yeildings, so I thought it was just the wifi at my flat that wasn't allowing for skype calling to work. But when I went to starbucks it didn't work there either... hm. I'll just have to go back to the hotel we ate dinner at to skype call mom and dad! :)
After starbucks, I came back to my flat, worked out and did laundry, and started working on a presentation due Monday. Next week I have four midterms and a presentation. All of a sudden a pile of work thrown on me. I guess it's okay since so far this semester I haven't had too many assignments.
Sorry this blog post wasn't very interesting... I'm really tired and just kind of rushed through this one but hopefully you got the main points of my trip to Slovenia!
This weekend I am staying home in Budapest and I'm so looking forward to it! Traveling is exhausting, so I'm glad I get to spend some time just relaxing here to study for midterms!
Miss yall so much!
xoxo
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