Austria, Slovenia and Croatia Update

Well, we are on Day 16 of our trip. It is crazy to think we are over the halfway point.

This last leg of our trip we have traveled through Salzburg Austria, Ljubljana Slovenia and Zagreb Croatia (mouthful, hu?). Our one night in Salzburg was spent visiting Mozarts house, which was HUGE by the way, and eating giant chocolate covered pretzels. We also met some very nice people from Great Britain at our hostel and learned all about the English higher education system. Natasha pulled a Sandy and asked a bajillion questions about their culture and how they did things. All in all, very enjoyable time.

The last three days have been spent in Ljubljana (pronounced LOO-BLAH-NAH) Slovenia. Its a very nice city for being the countries capital. This was the first place, however, that everything I had scheduled didnt go to plan. We had booked a hot air balloon ride for SUPER cheap months before we left and were really looking forward to it. We went to the tourism office the day before the flight and everything just to make sure all was in order. We got to the meeting spot at 6:45 in the morning to meet our tour guide.

And we waited...and waited...and waited. For two hours we stood in front of the building we were supposed to meet him at and no one came. At 8:30, the tourism office opened and we went in to find out what had happened. They didnt know and said they were sorry for the inconvenience, but we werent going to be able to go up in the balloon. They are refunding us our money, so at least that is good. We were disappointed, but we made the best of the day and had a lot of fun anyway. To ease some of the pain from missing the balloon ride, I had wild boar and deer goulash that night for dinner that I scooped out of a pot with a ladle and everything.

This paragraph is named "Croatia According To Natasha." Croatia....oh what a day. Well our train was 30 mins late to arrive in Ljubljana so we made some friends from Wisconsin. They were delightful people and learned all about this family and adventures on our two hour train. In this two hour train ride we had our tickets checked three times, our passports stamped twice, and a call in to someone on the other side of their phone checking for who knows what...

WE ARRIVED! 45 mins late but excited to start, then we realized our train leaves to return us to our safe haven in Ljubljana is in 1 hour! we made a mad dash for information and then found we had to exchange money into whatever they use down there. A quick trip to the money exchange turn our 5 $ into 30 whatever they use! Feel empowered with wealth (something that has not happened on this trip) we sprinted for the city!

We were off....20 steps later we were in the city at some park and a statue that meant something because it was on the post cards. We cheered! Then explored about 5 more blocks with a very intense walk that probably would have scared anyone who saw. With satisfaction in our hearts, we turned and started back. Just then a pastry stand caught my eye. There it was, all alone, calling to me. We stopped and looked, it read: Reykkejvekjskl.....Jekkavskes.... at least that is what I could make out. I had to have whatever this amazing word that filled that mouth was. I looked at the lady, pointed and nodded. Then she handed me this little turnover thingy that looked like heaven. I looked at her, at levi, and then down at me hand... paused...and then shoved the thing in my mouth......It was ok, I think it was a cherry turnover....Then we walked back to the train station spent the rest of the money on lunch and got back on the train. It was a good day. And that is our day in Zagreb according to me...Natasha...that is right, I wrote something!

Back to Levi....

I dont think I can compete with that, so I will sign off and promise pictures will be coming soon.