Slovenia is Wonderful!

(I apologize in advance for the tzpos -- Ićm typing on a Slovenian keyboard!)

As we caught the flight to Ljubljana Tuesday morning, I was a little nervous. Although all the guidebooks made it sound heavenly, we had never talked to anyone who had been here. What if it turned out to be dismal?

We need not have worried. As the little prop plane (ugh) descended and we got a first look at the country, it was staggeringly beautiful: snow'capped mountains, forests, fields dotted with sheep. That was two days ago and it was a perfectly apt introduction to this wonderful place. The people are friendly and speak great English (although I,m having lots of fun trying bits of Slovenian -- mostly please, thank you, good morning and excuse me.)

In the middle of Ljubljana is a huge ( hundreds of acres!) park called Tivoli, which includes a giant swath of forested hills, so we did a big hike yesterday. It almost could have been the Superior Hiking Trail in Northern MN. We also did the Ljubljana zoo -- my favorite thing on the trip so far. It,s one of the oldest zoos in Europe, but most of the animal enclosures are very modern: big, with lots of water and stimulating activities for the animals (very few small cages).

The city itself is charming. The guide books did it justice: it does indeed feel like a tiny version of Prague. Everything is easily walkable. We strolled through Old Town last night along the Ljubljanica river and will head over there again this morning.

Tomorrow, we catch a bus to Piran on the Adriatic coast -- about two hours from here. Luckily, we,ve been told that it,s much warmer there (it,s been remarkablz cold here). We,ll spend three days there, and although we originally planned to do day trips from there to Venice and Trieste, we,ve noticed that our itinerary feels a little rushed (five cities in three countries, all in two weeks? That,s a lot of running around), so we may save those for another trip and instead relax a bit more and enjoy being at a place with a private balcony right on the sea. We,ll also investigate whether we can do some horseback riding -- M is particularly excited about that.

Slovenia may seem like an odd destination, but I would absolutely recommend it to anyone. It,s friendly and beautiful, and can be relaxing or hopping depending on what you want. It,s turned out to be a perfect choice for us.

Ciao!