Ljubljana

While Sue woke up cheerful with a smile on her face ready to face the day,  Janna quickly remidied this by senidng Sue on a run back to return the rental car key.  (4 miles + @ ~85 degrees)  Janna woke up sweating and groggy.. .  and remained this way for six hours (until her nap).  The morning was quite warm, but not hot, yet Janna was in a full out sweat before we could get to the first gelato stand (1 block away. )  We had a nice breakfast of pastry and gelato.

Sue at one of the three bridges in the town square.

Janna sweating near the river.  The smile was a show for the camera.

Only in Ljubljana can peeling old buildings feel "charming"

Right by the river felt like Vennice, while away from the river was a lot like Prague.

More amazing peeling buildings.  Great ambiance.

Send your mumu  orders via self adressed stamped envelope to : slovenia, care of ljubljana.  This was the huge outdoor market.  Fish, meat, cheese, produce, mumus. 

Step right up at the market for raw unskimmed cow's milk.  Illegal in the  U.S. a treat here.

Most of the back streets are old and shop-lined like this.  Lots of outdoor restaruants.  Shop early.  Everything but the late night eating places close around 6:00 pm. 

We took a nap hoping to escape the heat, but went back out when our room got too hot to bear.  We tried to go shopping, but everything was closing up for the evening.  We were shocked that things would close that early.  We walked halfway across the city for a vegetarian restaurant that we never found.  We came back to the center of town and settled for a veggie pita, tuna salad, and french fries.  Please note the continued adhearance to the cheese and bread fast. It was surprisingly good.

Lucky for us, things perked up again at about 8:00.  The evening was beautiful.

Watch this video of the atmosphere in Preseran Square.  Yes, that is a Beetles song.

The Julian Alps - You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

On Tuesday night we ran into two Canadian girls at the Post Office (both teachers in fact) and they told us about this Excursion they went on the day before that was absolutely the BEST part of their trip.  Called the Emerald River Adventure, they traveled to the Alps and went rafting and swimming and hiking and saw all of these amazing things.  They were trying to convince us to do the Adventure, as it was so amazing.  So, Tuesday night as we ate our pizza and Cream Cake by the lake we debated and agonized over whether or not we should do it.  We are uptight, and have a plan for our trip and it wasn't in our plans....and we had planned to rent a car the next day and drive through the Alps to end up in Ljubljana.....so after much debate, we stuck with our plans.  But, we vowed that we were going to have our own "Emerald River Adventure."  And we did.  Details below.

Lake Bled in the morning- the first day we saw the mountains in the distance without clouds.

We hit the ground running pretty early and had already  broken a good sweat by the time we got in our rental car.  The rental car guy said that it was supposed to be 37 degrees C.  We later found out that that is precisely body temperature.  98.6 degrees..  This picture (abo ve) is just outside of Bled (near Zasip) where we pulled ovet to eat breakfast.

45 minutes into the drive we got our first real glimpse of some intense Alps. 

This was our first pullover- a crystal clear pond.

Behind the pond, an old river bed.  The rocks are white from talc which makes a lot of things beautiful and makes the water (rivers and lakes) an emerald green color.

Then, we commenced climbing Vrsic pass- a very high pass through the Alps comprised of 24 intense driving switchbacks.  Throughout the drive there were amazing views, Alpine meadows, wandering cows and crazy bikers doing the clmb.  The road was built during WWI by Russain POWs to supply troops in the Soca Front (see Hemingway's book "A Farewell to Arms" for more about the region and the war.

An idea of scale: there  is a hole in the mountainside shown on the right side that is big enough for the Statue of Liberty to fit through.

Cows and cobbled switchbacks for better traction.  The car had to be in 1st gear to make the turns.

View from cow switchback.

Our first hike, from the top of Vrsic pass.  This was a very steep endeavor (maybe 1500 feet straight up).  We are resting and eating 1st lunch here.  Janna is a happy hiker.

We continued on from our lunch spot and saw real mountainclimbers attacking the rockier mountaintops.

Janna still a happy (but hot) hiker.

Because of the time of day, the faster we hiked to a higher altitude, the better we avoided the increasing heat down below.

We turned back here because our Adventure had only just begun.

On the way back down- the mountain took the slightly crooked picture.

After descending the pass via more switchbacks, we pulled off for another little hike.  We climbed (very steeply) to the head of the Soca River.  Look how happy Janna still looks.

Just before we reached the source, the only way to walk was holding onto the cables.  Very exciting.

Here is the source of the river.  The picture might be decieving, but the water is really clear and you can probably see 30 or 40 feet below.

It should be noted that we ate our second lunch here.  Bread, cheese, mustard.

Later, further down the Soca river, this is a picture from a very rickety suspension footbridge.  Probably 50 feet down to the water.

Rickety bridge.  See above.

Old WWI military post on the Italian border.  We snapped a picture out the window, too tired to get out and walk around.

This is on our third and "most adventurous" hike.  We were attempting to see the Boka waterfall.  When we arrived at the pulloff, we saw lots of happy kids in bathing suits and were very excited to swim in teh beautiful emerald green river.  Needless to say, we took the wrong path and after 30 minutes of very vertical climbing (in our bathing suits and flipflops), we realized that the swimming area is probably at the bottom of the waterfall, not the top.  Luckily for Sue, it was Janna who kept insisting that this was the right path (despite Sue's voiced inklings to the contrary).  Once we got to the bottom (1 sweaty hour later) we were so disgusted that we got in the car and continued on our journey rather than swimming.  The picture above is before the hike gets really steep.  You should keep in mind that this waterfall is Slovenia's second highest waterfall...and they have a LOT of high waterfalls.

In the car, recuperating from three major hikes, drinking "Cockta", the Soviet answer to Coca-Cola and eating Paprika Chips (which are very good).  Janna drove Sue to drink soda and eat chips here.  Even Sue is tired now.  Note:  still wearing bathing suits.

Hike number 4.  After stopping at the WWI museum (which was very interesting, though we had trouble focusing our tired eyes on all the pictures and captions) we were determined to still get a swim in.  So, we tried to find a "hidden gem" of a waterfall whose name I can't come close to spelling.  We did find it, but it required another mile of hiking in each direction to reach it.  The river was very green and the waterfall was very cool, but when we reached it there was no way to get to the pool to swim in it, and it was quite cold in the caves where the waterfall was.

A WWI cave we saw on our way out from our non-swimming waterfall hike.

Suspension bridge over the Soca river near the waterfall.  Note the amazing water color and the distance above the water we are and therefore the reason we were unable to swim in it yet again.

The rest of our Adventure, sans pictures. 

At this point, it is 7:30 pm.  We left our hotel at 8:00 am so needless to say, we are quite tired.  We have a 2 plus hour drive in front of us so we get moving through the beautiful tiny hilltowns of Slovenia.  Slovenian roads are very narrow and very windy and Slovenian drivers are not super concerned about that pesky "dividing line" in the middle of the road.  It was a breathtaking experience, driving those roads, but we survived.

We stopped for pizza somewhere in the middle of nowhere (note that this is three days in a row with pizza for dinner).  We ordered the "Vegi" pizza from the nice Slovenian waitress, and when we opened it up in the car we found that here a veggie pizza consists of crust, cheese, tomatoes, green olives, zucchini and mustard for sauce.  Interesting.  Not bad.

Finally we got to Ljubljana, figured out how to get petrol (more than 5 euros per gallon) and tried to return our rental car to the specified place.  For the life of us, we could not find a drop box for the key...and we were very very tired from our day.  We decided to lock the car, write a note, and take the key, to return in the morning....We hailed a cab (this is a big deal for us, first time really!), and ten euros later and some intense English language swearing by our cab driving about getting lost, we arrived at our hostel.  Phew.

Love the Alps.

Tomorrow we will be on a pizza, cheese and bread fast.  None allowed for the whole day.

Lake Bled = walk until your feet bleed

As a warning, we had to seek out public internet today, and the keyboard is not EXACTLY what we are familiar with.

So, we left Salzburg yesterday without seeing any actual Sound of Music sites.  We literaly ran out of time. We took an amazing train to Bled that went through the Alps. Literally. We spent a lot of time in tunnels.  We were shocked at how amazing the mountains were.  We had no idea that they would be so large.  They are huge! And amazing.  Halfway through we realized that we hadnt taken any pictures from the train.  When I tried to protest that pictures wouldnt look good from the train Sue said "who told you that?  Was it Shellee?"  Lets just say that we ended up getting just a few pictures from the train.  The problem is that a picture can in no way actually capture just how amazing the Alps are. 

The train ride was long, so we were playing cards.  At one point, the train slammed on its brakes and the cards flew across the table and onto the floor and under the seat.  This prompted us to get to know our seatmate, Herbie, a very nice and interesting Austrian man.  Herbie guides tours all over Europe so had a lot of information and advice to share- his English was almost impeccable.  He is from a TINY Austrian town in the mountains.

We arrived in Lake Bled which is amazing and and clean and wonderful.  It is at the foot of the Alps.  We walked around the lake on a paved path (approx 4 miles.  When the walk was started, Janna obviously didnt realize how long the walk would be) and had a quick swim.  We got some pizza for dinner and went to bed exhaused. 

This morning we spent walking.  A lot of walking.  First we hiked up to this castle that overlooks the city and had breakfast (a picnic in the King's courtyard).  There was a very cool museum on medieval life which had lots of artifacts they found around Bled, and some very fascinating rocks.  We both were enthralled by the museum (though no one else really was- they all spent about 5 minutes in it).  Our original plan was to have a nice restful day so we were going to take a break after the castle.  Somehow, that didn't happen, and we decided that we were already on the right side of town to walk to the Vintgar Gorge, so we may as well keep walking. 

The walk to the gorge was a little longer than we expected, but it was really beautiful.  We walked through a bit of Slovenian countryside and a few real Slovenian villages, which were very interesting and pretty.  We quite enjoyed the walk.  All along the road there are these giant wooden racks, and we could not figure out what they were for; finally we did and realized they were haydrying racks.  In this picture the drying rack is behind with the slats.  In the foreground are a family harvesting a small crop of wheat with sickles, by hand.  Crazy.

By Slovenian standards the gorge was packed, but it was really quite plesant.  The walk along the gorge is pretty flat and there are several bridges where you cross the river.  The water was perfectly clear, and you could see fish all over in the water, some quite large. (18 inches?)

From the gorge (note that at this point we have walked approximately 5-6 miles already) we hiked up and over a small mountain back to the town.  The trail was well marked and our guidebook (trusty Rick Steves) told us it was good.  The hike was nice, through a beautiful forest.  Near the top, we chanced upon some meadows where hay cutting was done and a beautiful view over the surrounding valleys.  We ate lunch (finally) and then headed down the hill through the town of Zasip and back to Bled.  In the final stretch, from Zasip back to Bled, Janna ran a good bit of the way (if Janna chooses to run it is because she is more than DONE with walking).

This walking lasted from about 8;00 until about 4;00.  That is a lot of walking/hiking.  We arrived at the lake and took off our shoes and soaked our feet in the very wonderful cold water and snacked on "gusto pizza puffs" that we grabbed on our way into town at the grocery store (Mercator).  A little boy was feeding swans and a whole family of swans swam within 2 feet of us.  We held deathly still for fear that the mom would attack us.  By the way, they say a fair number of baby swans get eaten by fish in Lake Bled.  Imagine the size of fish that would eat a baby swan.

After sufficient rest we got our bathing suits and did more lake swimming.  And Janna took a  nap by the lake because she was so exhausted from the day's activities.

For dinner, pizza again (this time by the lake), followed by Cream Cake.  Cream Cake is Lake Bled's specialty- and it is delicious.  It should be noted that we spent as many euros on dessert as we did on dinner.    Tomorrow morning we leave for a day of driving through the Julian Alps enroute to Ljubljiana (the capital city)

Feuerwehrzufahrt Abschleppzone

Janna learned some really interesting sociological facts about Austria today. As we were flying in, Janna was supposed to watch for Alps because she was in the widow seat. She was scanning the ground, and doing a very thorough job. Just then, Sue pointed to the horizon, where the alps were extending far above the clouds. Oh. The Alps are big. Really big.


Then, as if to add insult to injury, she leaned over discretely as the plane was landing and asked "what language do they speak here?". Seriously. Bear in mind that one of the stops last summer was in Vienna. Austria. But to play devils advocate, she did mix up Venice and Vienna all summer long.

Food Log (FOLOG)

1. Porridge with Bananas and Maple Syrup

2. A vegetarian muffin

3. Fruit salad

4. Hot Chocolate

5. Cheese Sandwich with Orange Juice (on airplane)

6. Chocolate filled croissant. Janna was sent to get a map, and she got pastries. More trouble with the local language.

7. Pizza (by the slice)

8. Vegetable Kabob (oops it wasn't a shiskabob. That would actually have been tasty.

9. Nectarine

10. Dinner (Asian vegetarian)

11. Strudel with icecream

For the record, these were mostly shared, but what a selection. Yum.

Oh, and besides eating today, we also went to see Mozart's residence and heart a lot more Mozart that we normally would have. We saw the Von Trapps everywhere, and got a peek at some marionettes while touring the local castle (which happens to be one of the largest in Europe.)  We also did a LOT of walking becuase there were lots of lookout sites.  It appears that the translation for Funicular is "Sue will make you walk instead of riding the trolley".

For those of you who are keeping track (Peggy), that is two museums in ONE day. Bring on the culture.

Oh, and if you are thinking . . . why aren't they eating gelato. Well, that is a funny question. It is probably due to the fact that it was approximately 60 degrees and raining most of the day, and we packed light, so we didn't have anything but shorts and t-shirts. In the end, it is good that it rained, because it made Sue look a little less silly in her raincoat all day.

Enjoy the foggy, cloudy dreary pictures of Salzburg. It is actually a really charming town in a breathtaking setting. The way the mountains frame the city is beautiful and unique.

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Of course we packed light. We are staying for three weeks.

When we arrived at the airport yestereday, much to our delight, the lady at the ticket counter commented on how light and small our bags were for an overseas flight.  I was quick to reply "Of course we packed light.  We are staying for three weeks."  Considering the look she gave, she did not understand my logic.

Yesterday was a long travel day, and also a short travel day. We woke up early and left Kelsey's for the airport. We caught a cab without any significant trouble. We were very apprehensive about flying British Airways again because it had made such an impression on us before. Lets just say it lived up to our inflated expectations. Breakfast was an omelet, roll, fruit, a candy bar and cheesecake. That is in addition to the orange juice, water, and complementary beverage. Then we also got brunch before we landed. Pasta, a wrap, candy bar, ect. It was wonderful. And it goes without saying that we got a free toothbrush, socks, pillows, blankets and sleeping mask.


We got on the ground at Heathrow, and caught a shuttle to Gatwick. Other than being pricey, it was fine. We enjoyed looking at the English countryside. After leaving Boston early in the morning and taking only a 6 hour flight, we were suddenly confronted with the fact that it was already almost 9:00 (good thing, because we were exhausted from days of little sleep getting ready to go and a very early morning). We found our way around Gatwick and got a shuttle to our hotel. There was a wedding going on there, so as we walked into this fairly nice hotel, everyone else was in "wedding" clothing, and we were wearing our brightly colored rain coats, shorts and sneakers. Sue was 1 inch away from careening her suitcase into a shiny red Ferrari sports car. Convertible. By this time it was 10:15 and while one of us checked in, the other went to the bar to beg for food. Had we been just 30 minutes earlier we could have eaten fish and chips, but the fryer had been put to rest for the evening.

Again, breakfast and brunch were wonderful, but we weren't ready to call it a day after just two meals. We devoured our jacket potato with beans and cheese and a tuna sandwich while around us people were enjoying the wedding party. We fell asleep fairly easy and woke up with our feet hitting the floor at 6:00 am (this felt like 1:00 am to our bodies.) We were back to the airport for another British Airways flight. I know everyone will be waiting with baited breath to hear about the meal service on our flight. I know I have butterflies of anticipation in my tummy just thinking about the possibilities.

So, as a final thought, the primary problem with traveling in England, is our assumption that it is easier to get around because we "know" the language. We may be able to read and speak English, but that doesn't really mean that we can get around all that well. Case in point, breakfast at the Gatwick airport. We had porridge with bananas and syrup and a vegetarian muffin. The vegetarian muffin was really like an English muffin, but more like a plain muffin with eggs and cheese. There also was a sign for "pie with mash and gravy". I think we could approximate what this might be and look like, but I wouldn't take it for granted that it would something recognizable.

The kids on our airport shuttle were laughing about the "po po" being mad at our van driver and rather than getting a receipt at the ATM we got an advice slip. . . sounds like a magic 8 ball, right? Speaking of getting to the airport, it really messes with your mind and coordination to see people driving on the "wrong" side of the road. There were signs that said, "variable speed limit". Now that is some Algebra even Shellee can appreciate.

Spoons

Our journey has begun. We got dropped off at the bus station in Bedford where we took the bus to the subway. We got out of the subway in Harvard Square, feeling confident with our small amount of luggage and our successful journey. We walked by the Border Cafe, the Harvard Coop and a few drops of rain fell. Janna asked if we should get out our raincoats. Of course we didn't need our raincoats- we hadn't left for our trip yet, and it was only sprinkling!

1 minute later...torrential downpour. Everyone scattered off the sidewalk. We ran for the cover of the nearby EMS and pulled our raincoats out of our rolly suitcases. Everyone was jealous because they didn't have their rolly suitcases stocked with raincoats with them. It is astonishing with as little as we packed that we actually had something we needed. We got on the bus and eventually arrived at Kelsey's house (our layover in Brighton enroute to our early morning flight).

We figured to begin the trip on the right note, we needed a "control"- a baseline for our gelato tasting experiments. So, with Kelsey we headed to the local Berry Freeze Frozen Yogurt shop. Amazing. Delicious. Very good. And, they ask, "what color spoon would you like?" As we had neglected to bring our camera (since we were only 40 minutes from home) we took a picture of us in our raincoats with our matching spoons upon arrival back at Kelsey's house. It should be noted that the matching nature of our spoon color and coats was entirely incidental. Really. But check the picture, it's nice.

Time for bed and anxious awaiting of British Airways!

Lessons learned from last summer

We know the title of this blog is "This summer in Europe", but as we get ready to leave again, we keep thinking of all the lessons we learned last year.  It has become painfully obvious the things we wished we had done differently.  After our trip we were going to sit down and write down all of the hard lessons we learned so that we could avoid learning them agan, but procrastination set it. . . So, here are the major pitfalls that we are trying to avoid.

1. Pack light.  It is amazing how small things add up!!!!!  We had this strange problem that we have downsized to the point where our suitcases feel strangely empty.  It is tempting to fill them up.  Right now every last thing we are taking with us (including a backpack and a small bag we wear when walking around) fits inside two very small suitcases. I keep having to remind Sue . . . .no matter how sad the cats look, DO NOT PACK THEM!

2. Buy a map. Everywhere you go.  Really.
3. Eat lots of bread.  Yum.  And Gelato.  And chocolate.  And pasta.  Eat lots of everything.
4. SLOW DOWN and take more naps.  I guess there is a reason everything closes up in the middle of the day.  Who knew?
5. Take more pictures (With a flash - right Shellee?).  At times it may even be appropriate to stop moving before we take them.  (We just thought that was why the camera we took had a "kids and pets" setting.  Turns out that feature is for moving objects in the picture.  It isn't so kids and pets can take pictures.)
6. Write down the funny things that happen.  It is amazing how much is amusing once you are out of your element.  Even trying to figgure out how to flush a toilet can be a fun adventure.
7. Prepare to sweat like you have never sweated before.  And bring sunscreen.

So, everything has been done that can be done.  We are ready for some adventures.  Although we don't fly out until tomorrow, we are leaving for Cambridge tonight so we will effectively be "going dark" (thanks Jack Bauer) at about 6:00p.m. and abandoning our cell phones.  Talk to you in August!

This summer's schedule is set

So, this post isn't too exciting. It is almost the 4th of July, and we just wanted to post our general plans for the summer. It is exciting to be getting ready to leave, and really we just wanted to be focused on beaches and fun while we are really working and studying. We are coming and going through London, but will be spending most of our time in area that was formerly Yugoslavia. We are leaving on July 17th, and plan to return home on August 9th.