Shalom and Au Revoir

This was our last day in Israel. The Canadian branch of the family went to the airport and we decided to start walking around in Old Jaffa. It was the four of us and Mike's aunt Marina for a little while. We started off walking right by the port and then went a little inland and drank the best orange juice that I have ever tasted. It was a pleasant and relaxing day.

Mike's two cousins and his great aunt came and joined us. We left the aunt with Lena and Marina and went walking around Tel Aviv's Neve Tsadik neighborhood. I tried to remember where the Israel apartment was from the last time I was in Israel, but since we didn't take the beach I could not find it. If anyone remembers where it is, I would love to know. We went as far as Allenby before turning around. The day was bittersweet for me. I love Tel Aviv, and didn't really get a chance to show Mike what I liked about it when I was there last. I will have to come back with him at some point and just spend a couple of days there.

Our airport experience was thankfully pretty painless and were slept all the way to Brussels this time. With five  hours at our disposal, Mike and I separated from Lena and Ann and just walked the streets by ourselves. We got to see the Grand Place without anybody else there. We tried to go to Parking 58 again, and again it was closed.

*** Apparently, Brusseliers (or Brusselians as Mike likes to call them) drink like fish and are the nastiest partiers in all the land. As Mike and I walked around the old city, we saw a large amount of groups stumbling around clearly dressed in previous night's clothing. At 7-7:30 in the morning I find that to be record setting. People were getting greasy breakfasts, falling into ditches, having dramatic tear stained fights and making up. Color me impressed. Also, the amount of trash on the street was ridiculous. Shop owners were hosing off their business areas and street cleaning machines were in full swing. The streets were covered in (as Lena delightfully put it) piss and puke. By the time we were leaving for the airport, most of this had been washed off and the streets smelled more appetizing.

After our second defeat at Parking 58, Mike and I went south and walked the southwest part of the old city. The sun was slowly warming the street and everything looked peaceful. I felt that this was a proper goodbye for us. We walked around until about 8am and then ran to Mokafe located in a pretty cool indoor mall. Lena and Ann were already there eating waffles. Use-It recommends the waffles at this place, but I think that they are better at Le Paon, however, the crepes here - are from a different planet. I had the crepes flambe and Mike had the banana chocolate crepes. Oh. My. God. Throw in two great cappiccinos and the world is a wonderful place. After our wonderful breakfast we tried to go to Parking 58 and got rejected for the third and final time. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Au revoir Brussels!

Israel and Almost Jordan

The next days of our trip took on a completely different feel. Mike and I had an uneventful flight to Israel and got to Ashdod relatively early. Lena and Ann were still sight-seeing in Jerusalem so we just hung out with the rest of the family until they got in. I really only have one amusing anecdote of the day. I was having a side conversation with Ann, when in the lull I heard Mike's aunt say "A vy znaete zapah Shafrana?" .... silence ... laughter from me, Mike and Lena. Apparently, saffron is pronounced as "shafran" in Russian, and Mike's aunt Ira was talking about spices that get added to teas. The poor woman didn't understand why her seemingly benign comment got such a reaction, but was a good sport about it when we explained what happened.

The day of the wedding, was otherwise uneventful. Ann and I went and got pedicures from a Russian lady who disapproved of us in different ways. When I asked her to paint my toes  pale pink, she refused and told me that the color was ugly. We compromised on a different color, mainly because I was so amused. The wedding itself, was a lot of fun, the food was delicious, the music blasting, the dancing abundant, and the bride and groom looked like they had a blast. I loved that there were no toasts. Everything was just easy and relaxed.

The four of us went to Eilat the next day. We tried to go to Timna Park, but it was closed by the time we got there. Our hotel was a shit hole located right off the runway of the Eilat airport. DO NOT EVER STAY at Dalia Hotel. Eilat was very different from how I remembered it. It's basically a giant mall with restaurants sprinkled in. Russians have taken over and you hear more Russian than Hebrew when you walk down the street. We found a restaurant recommendation in Frommer for Denise Restaurant and after a bit of a walk found it and had the best dinner I have had in a while. I don't think that what happened the next day was in any way related to the restaurant because we all shared our food.

The day of our trip to Jordan, I woke up feeling a little off. When I went to get breakfast I started feeling nauseous and opted out of going to Petra. This was probably the best decision of my life. I will spare you the details, but I have never been this sick. Day lost.

The next morning, while I felt much better, I was not 100%. We checked out of our hotel and had brunch at cafeCafe. Everyone loved their food. I had some tea and a croissant and I thought it was pretty good as well. We managed to get into Timna this time, but the dirt roads did me in and we didn't go everywhere that the rest of the group wanted to go, or spend as much time there as we would have otherwise. I feel a little bad about that, but considering that at one point I broke down into tears while there, I feel like I did all I could. We spent the evening with family again.

More Waffles and Beer please

We slept for 12 hours before finally getting up at 1 pm on Sunday and we needed it. Everything looks so much better with a little sleep. The day started with more waffles. This time, we opted for the Brussels waffle and went to a place right on the Grand Place called Le Paon, which had the best restaurant waffles (and the worst service) in all of Brussels. I recommend coming here anyway. At first glance, this place looks tiny, but it holds at least 4 floors of the building and has a very nice atmosphere and a true rude Belgian wait staff.

After our very leisurely lunch, we decided to go on what's known as the "European Walk" in the Use-It map. I highly recommend going on this walk, as it brings you a different flavor, than the old city. We walked through many cute streets and gardens. In order to even get to the beginning of the walk from the old city you have to go through the Brussels Park. It is a beautiful green haven with fountains, sculptures, and joggers running right past the no jogging signs. Is located across from the Royal Palace so it's a pleasure to walk to (and through). I saw a "Dinner in the Sky" setup right in front of the park and I have just one question.... what do you do if you have to go to the bathroom?

After walking through the park I recommend going to see "The Sequence" by Arne Quinze, which is a breathtaking public art installation made out of planks of wood. Some of you might be interested to know that Arne Quinze also created an installation for Burning Man. I don't think the picture does justice to the work, but it just grabs you and demands attention.

We were only a block or two from the beginning of the walk and were very pleased to see what marks the actual beginning :). I don't know how well you can see this, but these cars are giant flower pots!

We walked towards the art nouveau area filled with cute old buildings and wrought iron balconies. Even though it was raining, it was still very beautiful everywhere. I noticed that the shutters that close-up businesses were painted and took a couple of pictures.

We also passed by a lake surrounded by beautiful houses. Apparently, back in the day, the whole area was swamp land. The swamps were all drained and paved over and only one lake remained. The city ordered that any house overlooking the lake would have to have a beautiful facade in order to keep real estate prices high.



Another notable destination on our walk was museum park. There was some kind of a festival going on, so we didn't linger too much, but apparently the park holds three of Brussels' largest museums: Autoworld, The Army Museum, and the Royal Museum of Art and History. Stop by if it's your thing. the park is another one that is very pleasant to stroll through with tall trees and wide alleys. I was a little disappointed, because I thought that this is where mini Europe was located. It turns out that mini Europe is not in the European quarter as expected, but in a completely different direction. I guess I will have something to come back to (or see more real Europe instead).

At this point, we were a little tired and a little hungry so we went to Maison Antoine for some fries. the fries are all about the sauce. We tried curry ketchup, Brazil (curry mustard), and Andalouse sauce (mostly mayo). Besides fries, Antoine's sells a variety of junk food including egg rolls, and sausages on a stick. Along with our fries we also got some Mergez. This place is open till the wee hours of the morning, so if you happen to find yourself in the European quarter and in need of some greasy delicious food, Antoine is your man.

Thoroughly satisfied with life, we headed back to the old city again. Our path took us through Leopold park. The park used to be a zoo, until all of the animals died suddenly. I found this fact to be very strange and could find nothing else about it. The closest bit of information I found, was that the zoo was badly mismanaged and went bankrupt. No where does it talk about the death of the animals. Our final destination was the European parliament. Mike and I both found the following choice of port-a-potty placement troublesome. (Yes this picture is straight)

Mike and I had a choice to make at this point, we could either go to our hotel and take a nap before our 3 am flight, or power through. We opted to go to our hotel, change and get right back out there. We had dinner at Le Fiacre, and tried a little beer there. Mike had rabbit (surprise, it tastes like chicken) and I had some hind of fish. Neither of us was particularly impressed. after our dinner we wanted to get a good view of the city and went to Parking 58, but were minutes late for being able to go up and check out the view. Our final destination was Le Archiduc, a 1930's jazz bar with a cool vibe, and a small cozy feel. Unfortunately, we missed the live show, but still listened to some great music and had cognac (Mike) and beer (Chimay Bleue for me). Bon jour Brussels, Shalom Tel Aviv!!

Waffles and Mussels in Brussels

I was completely exhausted by the time we arrived in Brussels. Even the excitement of finally being here could not overshadow that fact that it felt like someone put sandpaper in my eyes. We found it pretty easy to take the train from the central station and then rolled our suitcases right into Grand Place. After a little scrambling we found out how to get to our hotel (Alma Grand) and dropped off our bags.

No one can blame us for wanting a waffle in the middle of Grand Place. The smell makes undeniable demands on your stomach. We sat in the outdoor portion of a cafe and people watched while drinking our coffees and eating delicious delicious waffles. I will go into an aside on waffles in Brussels here, it just must be done. There are two kinds of waffles that you can get in this wonderful city: the street waffle and a cafe waffle. The street waffle is round, crispy, and very sweet. It gets its crunch from the fact that the sugar inside the waffle caramelizes as it cooks and it feels that god himself has prepared this in his own kitchen. (Mike liked the other kind better, but for me, this is it). The Brussels waffle is softer and is square or rectangular in shape. It is not as sweet, but has a light airy quality to it. it is also amazing and I have no idea how they achieve these results with simple earthly ingredients. In both cases, I recommend only whipped cream (or nothing at all) as the topping. Coffee gave us a little jolt, and as we still were not able to check in, Mike and I went for one of the walks recommended by the locals in Use-It, "The North Walk".

We had a promising start at the Botanique, which is a beautiful park a little away from the old city.

Parts of it have an English garden feel and plenty of locals were picnicking, relaxing, and sobering up in the park. Honestly, this was my favorite part of the walk so I wish we had saved it to the end. Then next part of the walk just had us walk toward the north train station. Along the way we stumbled into the red light district, set up in the same way as the one in Amsterdam (although I found the Dutch women prettier) and a busy Turkish market district which sold everything from food to flip-flops and gave me the feeling that I was in Chicago in Devon.

The rest of the walk was pretty blah. We went through a part of the business district, which was empty due to the fact that this was Saturday, walked by the Citroen museum and by le petit chteaiu which apparently currently houses refugees waiting to hear if their request for Belgian citizenship has been approved. By this point, I couldn't keep my eyes open, so we had more coffee at a corner cafe and crawled back to our hotel for a well deserved long nap.

Even after our nap we were extremely tired. We had mussels and other assorted sea creatures at a cafe close by and walked around the old city looking for comic murals. We stumbled upon the city symbol during our walk, so we felt justified in going home shortly after. There are several legends as to why this There are several legends about the peeing boy:

is the city symbol. I have copied this passage from Wikipedia: There are several legends behind this statue, but the most famous is the one about Duke Godfrey III of Leuven. In 1142, the troops of this two-year-old lord were battling against the troops of the Berthouts, the lords of Grimbergen, in Ransbeke (now Neder-over-Heembeek). The troops put the infant lord in a basket and hung the basket in a tree to encourage them. From there, the boy urinated on the troops of the Berthouts, who eventually lost the battle.
Another legend states that in the 14th century, Brussels was under siege by a foreignpower. The city had held its ground for some time, so the attackers conceived of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy named Julianske happened to be spying on them as they were preparing. He urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city.
Another story (told often to tourists) tells of a wealthy merchant who, during a visit to the city with his family, had his beloved young son go missing. The merchant hastily formed a search party that scoured all corners of the city until the boy was found happily urinating in a small garden. The merchant, as a gift of gratitude to the locals who helped out during the search, had the fountain built.
Another legend was that a small boy went missing from his mother when shopping in the centre of the city. The woman, panic-stricken by the loss of her child, called upon everyone she came across, including the mayor of the city. A city-wide search began and when at last the child was found, he was urinating on the corner of a small street. The story was passed down over time and the statue erected as a tribute to the well-known fable.

Another legend tells of the young boy who was awoken by a fire and was able to put out the fire with his urine, in the end this helped stop the king's castle from burning down.

Finishing the trip with a sore butt and Hell-stinky

Day 10 - Mike and Jessica left this morning :(. We will miss you guys. Thank you for sharing in this wonderful time. It's a bittersweet day since it's the last one for Budapest and the group is no longer complete. Olichka and I decided to go on the 4.5 bike tour of both Buda and Pest and made it there by the skin of our teeth.

The tour is one of my favorite things about Budapest. I wish we did it sooner and I wish I had more time here. Our tour group consisted of me, Olichka, another girl and the tour guide. it was very well paced and we stopped at monuments and got a little of the history. Our guide was very nice and very knowledgeable about all things Budapest. He even took us back to Szechenyi and had us drink the sulphurous water. We had a choice of hot or cold(lukewarm) and Olichka was a hero and asked for hot. You are a better woman than I am, miss Balbekova. There is nothing like drinking warm water that tastes like a rotten egg. After this form of torture and biking around for a little bit more we stopped off at a local restaurant and had amazing goulash. five stars for the goulash and the paprika spread that it comes with. I will remember this soup on cold winter nights and sigh to myself.

Fueled up by the soup we made the somewhat challenging trip up to Castle hill on our bikes. I don't think I will be able to sit down for a couple of days. Cobblestone roads for 4 hours + biking uphill = pain. All the pain is completely worth it for the view of Buda and Pest that you get once you are up there. Breathtaking. The ride down is pretty fun too and really really fast. Just a quick stop at the Market and we are done with our tour. I highly recommend it to anyone going to Budapest. Our guide's name was Matte, but I doubt you will get him since he is moving to Amsterdam for 2 years while he is getting his graduate degree. He is responsible for a lot of the love I feel towards Budapest. Thank you Matte.

After having some coffee one last time in Budapest Olichka and I met up with Yan and Smazo and we shared a ride to the airport. Yan forgot his I phone on the plane, but otherwise we flew without incident. (things lost = 4). Goodbye Budapest, Hello Helsinki.

By the time we arrived to City Center is was about 12:30 am and the place looked deserted. we opted to walk to Olichka's hostel and at least leave our bags there. Our original plan was to party at night but walking through the city it didn't look like there were a lot of places that we could do that. Thankfully the hostel had a triple room available which we happily booked. We were checked in by 1:10 and the bars in Helsinki close at 2. It just wasn't worth going somewhere for 20 minutes when we were all exhausted.

Day 11 - the weather was cloudy and gloomy and maybe this is why I hated Helsinki so much. We had a couple of hours to kill co we went to Callio which is supposed to be the happening place to be. Everything was closed. and the buildings are gloomy and uninteresting. Even the parks have gravel instead of grass. The couple of monuments and ornamental buildings that we did see were only remarkable due to how huge they were in comparison to the other buildings. They are build on a disproportionate scale. Other than that, I have nothing to really say. I am glad that we didn't have more time here, but our trip was so packed with fun and goodness the rest of the time that I don't really mind.

Yanik and I said our goodbyes to Olichka and flew back to Chicago. I found out this morning that Finnair recovered Yan's cellphone (things lost = 3) so he will get it back once she's in the states. Thank you to Mike Livschiz, Yan Pritzker, Jessica Ogulnik, Olya Balbekova, and Stan Mazo for a great vacation. It's been amazing.

Do you smell eggs?

Day 8 - Nothing super exciting really happened today. We had a breakfast where Yan proceeded to inform us that he lost the umbrella that he bought the day before (things lost = 2) and then immediately left a whole bag of vitamins and supplements at the table when we left Ljubljana (things lost = 3). The drive was looooooong and uneventful and once in Buda we got back into our amazing apartment again. Smazo was still in the area so he met us for a super fancy meal and crashed at our place. Everyone was pretty much exhausted so that's really it for today.

Day 9 - We slept in since we have been feeling like zombies and rolled out of bed around noon. Jessica made us an awesome and might I add meat eater friendly breakfast of eggs and sausage along with different rolls, butter, cheese, nuttella, and sliced bananas. Much love Ogulnik. Much love.

Yanik and Stan separated from us to walk around more slummy areas and take pictures, but the girls and Mike went to the Szechenyi Baths. The building is a little old but very nice and the baths consist of a few outdoor pools, some dry saunas and inside pools of all different temperatures. Some of the pools are filled with the sulphurous water from the hot springs that are under Budapest, smelly but good for you. It's great fun and great people watching. Guys - if you feel the need to buy a white Speedo, don't, I've seen what it looks like and it's just not right. Some things really should be left up to the imagination.

We spend several hours at the baths ditching the bike tour we were originally going to go on. Jessya even managed to get the massage she wanted while we were there. I was a little sad for Mike since it was his last day and I wanted him to see the city, but what are you gonna do, we just took too long in the morning. We had a Dinner cruise on the river booked, but the weather was against us and the ships windows fogged up. Rain and fog do not make a great sunset dinner cruise weather. In terms of the whole dinner cruise concept, I would avoid it all together. just walk around the city and eat at a regular cafe outside. The cruise has buffet style food - pretty good, but not worth $50 a person, and live music of not the greatest caliber. Kind of a tourist trap all in all. We toasted to our last meal as the 5 of us and enjoyed it anyway.

Once the cruise was over the sky cleared up a little bit and we froze taking pictures from the bridge. A quick metro ride and a not so quick change of clothes and we were ready for our last ruin pub. This one was called "Instant" and had a grotesque creepy theme and a good DJ. Smazo joined us again and we had a great time on our last night. As it was his last night, Mike walked the streets till about 5am, but I did not join him because he is insane.

Food Orgasms and Reality TV

Day 6 - There is something magical about Ljubljana. It's not really anything you can put your finger on exactly, but something in the air. I know what you're gonna say, "that's very very lame", but it's also true. Waking up in a supper shitty yet at the same time super awesome hostel room and going to have breakfast in a cafe on the river is ridiculous. I love it. We immediately realized that we needed more time here, so I pushed out our Budapest apt. reservation one more day.

After walking around the city for a bit we went on a boat tour where the driver went on a beer run prior to departure. The ride was very fun and very relaxing, but then again it might be the beer talking. we passed by an otter swimming in the river and the boat driver told us that there used to be an otter farm by Ljubljana and a couple of the otters escaped and now there are thousands of them around the city. I thought that was really cute :)

As we walked around the city for a bit after the boat ride we saw a guy selling one of those wooden puzzles that you need to figure out how to take apart and then put back together again. Girls 3, Boys 0. MVP for the girls team = Olichka for doing both of those things first. I am putting this to paper so I have documented proof. Feel free to argue later about who is smarter Mike Livschiz and I will whip this baby out in three seconds or less. Just saying.

One of the things that we had booked for Ljubljana was dinner at an underground restaurant. The basic concept is that someone cooks for you in their house and you give them "donations" in return, but there is no zoning, no liquor license, no rules, just food. The meal was ridiculous - 5 courses of pure awesome. The dessert was so decadent that if I write about it I would have to make this blog rated XXX. AAAAHHHHHHHH

We capped our night by going to Metelkova, which is the area in Ljubljana where the cool crowd hangs out at night. You will have to check out some of Yan's pictures of this, but here is a sampler from google. For some reason a lot of the bars were closed but we did meet a Russian chick who had lived there for 18 years, but who was really excited about meeting us. We broke it down for us in terms of what to expect here. It's a really cool place with guitar playing and people singing in the courtyard and bars that all play different music to suit any taste around. The buildings and walls are decorated in weird graffiti and sculptures and the whole place has a really nice vibe to it.

Day 7 - We decided that this will be a day when we separate and just meet up for dinner and night activities. Because we originally didn't book our hostel for this day we had to check out and find other accommodations. Mike and I ended up staying at Hotel Center, which was very reasonable, clean, comfortable and very reasonably priced. We started off our trip by checking out the hotel and then walking up to the Castle. The walk exposes amazing views of Ljubljana, and you can really see all of it once you get to the castle. I found the castle itself to be underwhelming, as there is a lot of new pieces to it done in a modern style. It houses art galleries of a grotesque and creepy nature, an old chapel, and not much else of historical value.

While we were there, we saw people with microphones and cameras and Mike asked what was going on. Apparently there was an episode of Coach Trip being filmed in the castle that day. Coach trip is a UK reality TV show where contestants get voted on and off and have challenges that they do in teams of two. The challenge for today was having the contestants practice with professional clowns and putting on a clown show. The clown theme was due to a Clown festival that just ended in Ljubljana. Mike and I decided to grab a bite and watch them for a bit. When we sat down we asked about portion sizes since the restaurant served large and small portions. The waiters reply: "The small portions are tiny, and the large are still not big enough". Love it.

After coming down from the castle, we decided to grab our bags, walk them over to our hotel, and maybe take a nap, but we got a little lost and the nap was no longer an option. We met everyone at Foculus for some pizza and were shocked when we learned that they saw EXACTLY THE SAME THINGS AS WE DID. This group is so in tune that even on our day apart we did exactly the same sight seeing. I can't believe we didn't run into each other.

The pizza was alright and I did go back to the hotel for an hour long nap while the rest of the group had coffee in a nearby cafe so that I could enjoy the rest of the night. The one thing that has been missing from this trip for sure is sleep, and all fun and no sleep makes Kathy a mean girl. There was an art festival going on in Ljubljana that night so we went and saw a fire show that was put on in a park area. We were a little worried since it was raining, and even bought umbrellas, but the show just started at 10:30 rather then 10pm and was fine. It was industrially themed and amazingly cool. Firemen were standing by in case they were needed, but all went off without a hitch. Once we were put in the right frame of mind we went back to Metelkova and this time the bars were open and hopping. We went in to one of the bars and partied for a while, but it was really smokey so we eventually escaped into some fresh air.

To cap off the night Mike, Olichka, and I found a 24 hour food place that served AMAZING kebabs at 3am as well as highly decent pizza and gorged ourselves prior to calling it a night. I was apparently enjoying our Kebab so much that I was stopped on the street and asked where I got such deliciousness. Foodie or no foodie, sometimes a 3am kebab is all a girl needs.

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.