Ljubjana Solvenia

Ljubjana (LOO-BLEE-ANA) Solvenia was SPECTACULAR!!!  It is a true hidden treasure that not many people know about, much less have ever even heard of.  This was a business trip for my husband and a pure pleasure trip for me as a tag along.  I was the only spouse who went on this trip, therefore, I spent 3 days all to myself wandering around the streets of Ljubjana.... which just so happens to be "the safest" city in the world!  NO KIDDING!!!  The last bullet fired from a policeman was 5 years ago and it was shot up in the air.... there is practically zero crime in this area and they all speak some English...... which is good because all their words look like this....... ljzchjzbjai..... and sound like this..... scha, bla, zcha, blah, blah, blah.... all their words sound alike and sound like a mouth full of marbles!

On day one we (the whole business group) had a guided tour from this SUPER HOT young man (he was in his late 20's, early 30's).... who had this amazing thick curly/wavy hair and who spoke with the most delicious accent.... he rolled his R's alot, and I found myself just wanting to hear him talk... didn't care what he said, tried to pay attention to the details.... but those R's kept distracting me!  But I did remember his remark about Ljubjana being the safest city in the world and the citizens are quite proud of that fact.

There is proof in the pudding that I was totally drooling over this young man when we got home and were looking at the photo's we had taken.  I am not the photographer (I tend to cut people's heads off in every single photo.... probably cause I'm sooo short), but my husband Joe loves taking and looking at photo's.  He thought it was too funny to sneak a picture of me totally absorbed (and drooling) while this young man spoke... no one else was around.... and there I am.... gawking up at him with this HUGE smile on my face!  This picture is posted on FB for any of you who want to go take a look.  Juan (pronounced yawn) took us on a walking tour all over the city and up the gazillion steps to the top of the city castle where we had a 180 degree view of the entire city.  WOWZERS!!!!  At the end I did ask him if I could take him home as a souvenir.... which of course he obviously did not take me up on!

Because of that wonderful walking tour, I was able to maneuver myself all over the city alone.  I took a book with me and sat at an outside cafe reading and people watching, I shopped and I went to the cathedral everyday to light candles and say prayers.  It was one of the most beautiful places that Joe and I have seen in all our travels around the world.  I can't believe more people don't know about this little gem of a place.

The business conference ended on Friday, so Joe and I had all day Saturday to ourselves to explore the area more.  We hit the streets early (8:00 am) and wandered down to the fresh market where we saw people setting up for a big festival that was taking place later in the day.  They had these HUGE vats that they were preparing some sort of stew in.  These vats were as big as me and they sat over an open fire and it was sooo cool watching the stew being prepared.  We met another tour guide at 8:30 and drove an hour with him to the city of Bled.  This fella was equally as nice, but no where near as eye appealing, nor did he have the delicious accent, but.... he did a wonderful job as well.

We first went to the castle of Bled, which sat on top of this HUGE solid and steep rock.  We took several photo's of the view from there.  The castle over looks this pristine clear lake (it's 7 miles around the enite lake) that was formed from a melted glacier, and in the middle of this lake there was this teeny tiny island... big enough only for the church which sat upon it.  You had to take a boat over to the island and since there are no motors allowed on this lake, the boat was rowed by a single fella who stood on this small platform at the back of the boat and he rowed standing up!!!  SERIOUSLY!!!  It was incredible!  Since it was just the 3 of us (Joe, me and our guide) we joined a church tour bus of Hungarians.... they didn't seem to mind one bit that we were amongst them.  The church on the island was very quaint and everything inside was gilded in gold and of the baroque style.... BEAUTIFUL!!!  If you rang the church bell three times you were allowed to make a wish.... so of course.... I rang the bell.... which you had to do by pulling on this long rope hanging from the ceiling.  LOL  I'm so small that when I was yanking on the bell cord it actually picked me up off the ground and I was dangling up in the air!  And yes.... Joe has a picture of that too!

On our boat trip back to the shore, the Hungarian church group broke out in spontaneous singing of Hungarian hymns...... it was such a gorgeous day, the lake was sparkling, the sky was as blue as a robins egg, the Alps were in the distance, and it felt like we were suddenly in a scene from "The Sound of Music".... I kid you not.... you could not pay for an experience like that!  The two boats were competing with their singing, they were clapping and smiling, and laughing and it was absolutely delightful!  And then...... cue the swan.... out of no where, here comes this one lone, very regal swan gliding past our boat.  The Hungarians were all in the mid to late 70's and they made us feel like we were with my Mom and Aunt and their church group.  After our tour of Bled our guide took us for coffee/tea and their famous creme cake, which is a layered dessert they are known for (they take claim of actually creating this dessert) and the layers are this amazing vanilla custard with this amazing pastry creme on top, sandwiched between to flaky layers of thin pastry dough..... YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY in our tummies!

After Joe and I returned to Ljubjana we went back to the market and the festival to see the activies going on.  The stew we saw being prepared earlier in the day was now ready for eating, so.... Joe and I bought a bowl to share and it came with two slices of fresh rye bread.  OMGOODNESS was that stew DELISH!!!!!  So delish that we couldn't slurp it down fast enough and sop up the gravy with that wonderfully fresh bread.  They had a live poka band playing and poka dancers and it made us feel like we were back in Cincinnati attending the Oktoberfest.  You could say this was truly a "perfect" day!

But alas..... all good things must come to an end..... so at 4:00 am on Sunday morn (10:00 pm Saturday evening Cincinnati time) we started our journey back home and arrived back home at 7:00 pm Sunday night..... 22 hours of traveling..... I can't believe I'm actually sitting here typing this blog because I'm so jetlagged I absolutely feel drunk!  Any typo's or spelling errors I blame completely on the jetlag!

As amazing of a trip that this was...... there truly is no place like home (heel click, heel click), there's no place like home (heel click, heel click)..... home again, home again jiggity jig!