How wide is this alley? I think I'm Bledding.

Day 5 - Oh Italy, I will miss you so!!! It's hard to say goodbye but the trip must go on. We had our coffee, stocked up on food, packed up the car and started on our journey to Lake Bled, which according to an article that was read by Mike's parents is one of the 12 most beautiful lakes in the world. This was the only destination that we didn't have printed directions to so getting there was a little more challenging.

A little outside of Sezana, Slovenia we came upon a tiny wine producing village and took a wrong turn. We ended up facing a street that was not only narrow but also had walls on both sides and turned. I don't know if you guys know this, but we rented a car with a manual transmission for this trip, which is challenging in the best of times. At first the boys were sure that we would be OK driving through it but once the car only had 6 inches on either side and it looked like the alley was getting narrower we went to plan B - reversing a car that is facing down a steep hill with no room on either side of it. After several attempts the car started smoking so we let it cool of for a bit before continuing. Jessica seemed nervous, but the rest of us were having a great time since the place was indescribably beautiful and all you could see were rolling hills with grape vines and old sprawling houses. I think all in all we spent about 30 minutes getting the car back up the hill and turned around but we were still lost so we drove around the area a little more. We saw an old man watching us and when he saw Olichka he kept screaming "Bella Donna" so we managed to get pretty good directions and were on our way once more.

Our trip took us through Soca Valley which made for an incredibly beautiful journey. This is when I decided that Slovenia is more beautiful than Switzerland. The roads we were on ran parallel to the Soca River which has the clearest, bluest water I have ever seen outside of the Carribean. We made a stop at a lookout point to take a couple of pictures and stretch our legs and it was breathtaking. Poor Mike was driving so I don't know if he got to stare at our surroundings nearly as much as the rest of us did, but it was awe inspiring.

Our journey continued through the Julian Alps which seemed like a pretty challenging drive with sharp turns and narrow roads. We stopped off at Podbrdo to eat some food and relax and met a really nice man who was running a small cafe there and potentially a hostel. He was super friendly and gave us some mountain spring water along with a knife and cutting board for us to make sandwiches out of our remaining food. I am sending him some major warm fuzziness.

We arrived at Lake Bled at around 5pm, changed by the lake Russian style and enjoyed a swim with some swans. The water is crystal clear and the place is breathtaking, although in all honesty I do think that Lake Atitlan in Guatemala is more beautiful. There was a rope for us to swing into the water on - which I have always wanted to do, and Yanik took plenty of pictures. When it started getting dark we changed back into our clothes (russian style again) and went to celebrate Yan's birthday at a nearby restaurant. Again - delicious food that was overindulged in badly. I didn't have room for dessert but I hear it's exceptional.

We arrived at Ljubljana at around 11 or so and had to make a couple of circles since half of their streets are blocked off in the old city part where our hostel was. We ran into some friendly locals that told us where to park for free. some of us carried the luggage to the hostel from there and Mike and I stayed with the car. There was a cafe owner who was closing up for the night that seemed friendly so Mike asked him if he had Coke (meaning the soft drink). The man's reply: "One line or two?". Welcome to Ljubljana!!!

Caves, underwear soiling, and midnight swims

Day 4 - I will just stop telling you about any of our meals unless they are spectacular or somehow significant and we will pick up the story when our heroes arrive at the Skocjan Jama through which the river Reka flows. The river gets formed from the melting of a snow cap named Lednik. In case you didn't pick up on this yet, the Slovenian people are not the most imaginative namers in the world. I have never been in a cave and Mike told me that this experience has ruined any hope of me liking any other cave, since this one was spectacular and nothing will be on the same scale. Rather than talking about it just click here for some pictures. According to wikipedia: "Due to its exceptional significance, Skocjan Caves was entered on UNESCO's list of natural and cultural world heritage sites in 1986". We were told that this is the larges cave in the world, but Wikipedia maintains that it's one of the largest underground canyons in the world. Just a little something extra in case anyone is interested.

We booked the trip through the caves and the surrounding park which was also amazing. We saw some beautiful caverns, and waterfalls, and krapiva that was Russian style. After this trip I am convinced that Slovenia has some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. I know that some will disagree, but it puts Switzerland to shame. I am again a little lost because nothing that I will say will describe the beauty of the nature that we saw. You will just have to go there and see for yourself.

On our way back I was determined to find the way to the hostel that was described by google and got us into a bit of an adventure. I don't know if you had ever driven through Italian towns, but if you haven't the streets are ridiculously narrow, the turns are sharp, and the speed that the other drivers travel at is quite excessive. We got on to a street that we thought was one way until we saw a car coming straight for us. Mike tried to pull our car over as far as was humanly possible and in the process we slashed our front passanger tire and dented the rim. We managed to roll the car down the hill a little bit so that no one hits us, and then I, yes I (with an assist from Jessica Ogulnik), changed the tire. There will be proof somewhere on facebook at a later date :). The spare was a little flat so Mike continued to navigate the mean streets of Trieste for another 15-20 minutes until we found a gas station. By the time we got there I believe that everyone needed a fresh pair of underwear. Oh yeah.

The gas station attendant told us that there is a tire shop that might still be open (it was after 6pm) and gave us a general direction to drive in. We actually found the tiny shop and it was still open. I wonder why our vacation luck is always so good, and my general luck is always so bad.... The owner took a shot, hammered out our rim, and changed and balanced our tire all for the bargain price of 100 Euros. All in all not too bad. While this was going on Jessica, Olichka and I went to a nearby cafe and each got a glass of wine. Oh Italy, how I love you!!!

In the evening we repeated last nights programme of eating crazy amounts of delicous food followed by walking the streets of the city. I have to say that Italians know their seafood and they know if well. We had actopus again for dinner and again it was grilled just right, not too tough, and spiced to perfection. Bellisomo!

Upon arrival to the hostel Mike and I decided to skinny dip in the ocean. It was much colder than we through so we were the only ones that went for the actual swimming while the rest of the people stayed on the pier. Note to self - never go skinny dipping next to 3 photographers who have their cameras with them. Although they promised not to look while we were getting in (and I think they might have even kept that promise) once we were in the water all bets were off. Yanik got so brazen as to tell us where to be and to come closer as he was photographing us. Olichka did not tell us to pose, but managed to take quite a few pictures herself. Major gratitude is sent to Jessica Ogulnik who did not take any pictures of her naked friends, although she didn't discourage the other two villains nearly enough.

Stealing Old grapes

Day 3 - we were a little late getting out of the hostel and the owner got a little pissy with us. i understand where she is coming from, but still don't really like the tone. we packed up the car and went walking some more around Maribor since it was such a pleasant little town. We got lucky and got a Cuban waiter at the cafe that we sat down at so ordering was not a problem. Deliciousness was consumed in mass quantities again. Highlight of the meal - Cuban waiter telling us that he likes Tupak over Eminem and saying "Thug 4 Life" as we were leaving the cafe.

Our final stop in Maribor was to visit the old vine museum. Slovenia has the oldest grape vine in the world (over 400 years old) and that vine is wrapped around a house known as "the old vine house" that is basically like a vine museum and tasting room. There is also a vine festival that happens every year and a vine queen that gets elected. We didn't really feel like a tasting so we didn't stay too long, but on the way our Mike and Jessica ILLEGALLY ripped and ate some grapes off the oldest grape vine in the world. I thought that we would all get arrested.

There is nothing that can follow the taste of a stolen grape quite like some paprika Pringles and fish and tomato pate obtained at the gas station somewhere around Ljubljana. Yummmmm. we managed to make it to Trieste without incident and even through we missed the turnoff that our directions referenced we managed to somehow get off the highway and manage to find our hostel which is located right on the water. YAY to swimming in the Aegean sea and being discussed by older topless Italian women.

A word about Europeans and the crazy expensive utility bills that they pay and how they deal with it. They love motion sensor lighting in bathrooms. Not only that, but the timer is set for about 10 seconds. Now you might say to yourself, what's the big deal? you're in the bathroom, the light goes off, move around, everything is fine, right? Not if you are taking a shower and shaving your legs and have to periodically open up the tiny cabin with one hand and start waving while trying to keep the shampoo out of your eyes and your legs from slipping on the floor. Everytime one of us would take a shower you can guarantee swearing to be coming from the bathroom at 10 second intervals.

We went out on the town kinda late but it was still fun. On a whim we went into a really narrow ally that opened up onto a delicious restaurant, Chimera Di Bacco, where we over ordered again (are you sensing a pattern here - yeah). Dinner was amazing and such amazingness needs to be walked off for hours which we happily did. Olichka was looking for a place to dance but we couldn't really find anything that would do. We did stop by a gay? bar for a drink and some dancing to Britney Spears. We have a feeling that we were in a boys town kind of area anyway cause the only other bar we saw only had men in it too. Oh well. I don't really mind since just walking around in Italy is like a party for the senses, and walking around tipsy is twice as good. We got home around 1 am and I was out, but the rest of group went for a midnight swim. Goodnight Trieste, see you in the morning.

Owned by a 10 year old

Day 2 - Waking up is hard to do when you go partying till 3 am on your first day in Europe so we left it up to Yan and Jessya to wake up early and pick up our rental car (Thanks guys :))Olichka, Mike and I got snacks, packed and checked-out of the hostel. Our snacks were not sufficient however so when Yan and Jessya got back with the car we went to a nearby cafe for brunch. as we walked in to the cafe a little girl was sauntering (yes sauntering) out, with her hands in her pockets like a little cowgirl. As she passed Olichka and me in the doors she authoritatively slapped us both on the ass. Needless to say that the rest of the group died laughing. 2 Days in Europe and already owned by a 10 year old.

After eating waaaayyy too much food we finally left Budapest and drove to Maribor Slovenia. Our hostel was pretty nice and there was only one other person saying there, an Aussie who is travelling for a year. After we changed and showered we went out for a night on the town. We specifically went to Maribor because they are in the middle of a Lent festival (Lent being a neighborhood not a religious holiday) and there was music coming at us from several places in the city.

We started our walk by climbing Pyramid hill opens up BEAUTIFUL views of the city from the top. There were fruit trees on our path so we indulged a little in some Russian style sour cherries. On the top of the hill we met a man who seemed very tickled to meet us. We communicated with him using a mix of Russian, English and maybe some German for the couple of words that he new. He was floored that were were all from different parts of the soviet union and know each other. It really amused him. He was also really surprised that we were all in our late 20s early 30s which got me thinking that maybe people in that area age faster than people in the US. If anyone knows please comment.

Once we have walked up a little appetite we went back to the city, through the main area to a restaurant that was recommended to us by the hostel owner but it was closed. I think we were all surprised at how cute and European the city looked. the buildings were all clean and cute and the feel of the street was very European with a lot of stone paved streets, cafes, and gorgeous bra less women walking around in skin tight clothing and heels. (Well maybe the last part was kinda Russian style, but the women managed to pull it off without looking skanky, so more power to them). Since our only known dining option was unavailable to us, we went down to the Lent festival to grab something to eat. They have basically makeshift restaurants right on the river with all sorts of different food prepared in the open air right in front of you. by the time we found something that everyone was OK with we were starving and inhaled a lot of delicious Slovenian food that we chased with some Slovenian beer. After dinner some of us still wanted ice cream, or sladoled as it is called in Slovenian, we we stopped by for ice cream and coffee at a cafe and slowly made our way home through the gorgeous streets.

Penis Cream, and Ruin Pubs

Day 0 - So here I am again after a PROLONGED absence in travelling abroad. I have been excited about this trip for roughly 4 months and was really excited that Mike decided to go with me. Because he got on to the trip later than the other people (Jessica, Yan, and Olichka) he was flying a different flight and as I was leaving him at the gate to wait for his own departure I yelled through that crowd: "Don't forget your penis cream!!!" (That will teach him to vacation with me).

Day 1 - Other than that, our flight was pretty uneventful and everyone got in to Budapest on time and without incident. We cabbed it to our apartment in Buda (after Yan had left his jacket at the airport *** total of things lost = 1) and the rest of the guys opted to nap while Mike and I walked around and got some snacks. It was a little strange to see how few people were outside in the daytime. I have to mention the apartment building that we had stayed at because these were by far the nicest accommodations we have had on this trip. I booked Agape Apartments for 5 people and it was clean, pleasant, and looked like IKEA attacked it. The only weird thing about it was that the deadbolt turns 4 times so its UBER safe (or unsafe if they felt the need for a heavy duty lock like that). I would highly recommend booking with them because the location is right where the night life is and right off the Blaha Luzha metro stop.

After our meal we realized that we were tired after all and napped for a few hours while the others explored the city. Slightly refreshed by our nap we went out for food and fun. We ended up eating at a cafe and people watching for a while and waited for Smazo. He has been travelling around and happened to be at Budapest at the same time. We went and got desert at a really pricey cafe right next to the opera house and then went out on the town. The cafe had live music and I honestly felt a little under dressed for it but decided not to dwell on this too much. I completely stopped worrying about it when Jessya, who I think has a slight case of pyromania, set her hair on fire while playing with the candle that was burning on our table. No one got hurt, except for the image of American tourists in Budapest. You're welcome. Also our waiter was really funny because when we asked for a particular dessert he dissuaded us saying that there is a new chef and he is still not so good. Hilarious. For some reason I feel french waiters would be like this, but they are probably not. Yan has read up on ruin pubs, so that was our next destination.

The first ruin pub we went to had a lounge area with some couches and a pool table in one of the rooms, a courtyard with a bar and a ping pong table in the "garage". We decided on drunk ping pong and had ourselves a blast. The game we invented was doubles relay ping pong in which you run to the next position after you hit the ball. We might have been a little loud :). Once we tired of the ping pong we went to the next ruin pub, Szimplakert. This one is my favorite because of the variety of what you can do. There are two stories that you can go to in this bar, the top being more loungy with less noise and less people and the bottom having a giant TV screen, a DJ, an open air bar, and smaller cosier rooms including one with hookahs in it. we drank more and then chilled in the hookah room and indulged in some late night pizza. i feel that I will not do this bar justice so I am including a link to pictures. I think we were out till about 3 am which I feel is a very respectable first day :).