Second Chances

Yesterday I gave Slovenia a second chance and went to Ljubljana for the day with a couple of the girls.  If you read my post about travelling to Rijeka, Croatia for the day, then you know I had a bad experience while driving through Slovenia to get there.  On the way home we were pulled over and ended up with €150 ticket.  I vowed never to go back to Slovenia again…

The drive there was spectacular.  We avoided most of the highway on the way there and drove all the way up a mountain… thank you Sarah for driving, there is NO WAY I could have done that drive.  I am so glad that I went on the trip.  It was a gorgeous day to explore a new city and after being in the downtown I can now officially say that Slovenia, especially the city of Ljubljana, is a beautiful spot.  We did not expect much to be open on a Sunday and were planning on only visiting the Christmas market.  To our surprise the city was bustling.  We walked around the market, took in all the sights, and had coffee while sitting in the sun at a café along the river.  Sun, it was so nice to see you again.  The Vitamin D intake from the rays was much needed by all.  Our server was even nice enough to try and teach us a bit of Slovenian.  Hello = dober dan, please = prosim, and thank you =hvala.

We continued walking and exploring after coffee and grabbed a bite to eat from a street vendor.  Weiner and fries were the meal of choice.  They have gigantic burgers and we were weary that they may be horse meat.  According to Wikipedia, horse meat is popular in traditional Slovenian cuisine and colt steak is served at many restaurants.  There is also a fast-food place in Ljubljana called Hot-Horse that serves horse meat burgers… yikes.  Apparently it is a slightly sweet meat that is tender, low in fat, and high in protein.  I don’t think I will ever knowingly be eating a horse for dinner.  Notice I used the word “knowingly” as the majority of the time I don’t know what kind of meat I am eating here.

Mystery meat?

After our late lunch/dinner we went to a few stores that were open and then headed over to Bled.  Bled is on a glacial lake bed in northwestern Slovenia and is a popular tourist attraction.  There is a beautiful castle that sits atop a hill and a cute island in the middle of the lake that is home to a beautiful church named the Assumption of Mary Pilgrimage.  I also just read that the town is known for their vanilla-and-cream pastry called kremna rezina.  Sounds delicious!

We walked around Bled until dusk and then headed over to watch the team play in Jesenice, Slovenia.  Jesenice is a steel town along the mountainside and a pretty small place.  We did a quick drive around before heading to the rink.  Sarah and Annie did a great job of talking our way into parking (which is not the easiest task when you have the opposing teams name all over your car).  Watching the game there didn’t compare to watching one in Klagenfurt.  Our fans our much more intense and there is an atmosphere in our rink that was not evident in theirs.  Just another reason we are lucky to be here!  Unfortunately, the game went into a shoot-out and our team lost.  Leaving the parking lot we were heckled by little kids as our “KAC mobile” drove by.  Oh the shame!

The KAC mobile

To sum it up it was a great day out.  I wish I could explore a new place every day of the week and I am lucky that there are other girls here to do it with.   Oh I also got a cute pic of a couple westie dogs hanging out on a bridge in Ljubljana.  I LOVE westies, and cannot wait until the day I can have my own.  Jordan if you are looking for the perfect Christmas gift…

Saying "dober dan" to each other

Merry Christmas to me!

Keltie, our family dog.  I miss her

On another happy note we bought a Christmas tree on Sunday!  It is pretty tiny but we decided to go for a real tree.  We stuck to a tight budget and chose this one because it came as a potted plant with all its roots intact.  After we are done with it we are going to plant it somewhere in Krumpendorf and forever be a part of Austria haha.  Here’s hoping I don’t kill the tree before Christmas is over.  It was a Christmasy night as we decorated, listened to Christmas music, and I watched a Muppet Christmas Carol in bed (Jordan feel asleep by this point).

Jordan stringing ornaments

The tinfoil star is not permanent

Looking forward to Christmas but missing the family