View from the top of the tower of the castle in Llubljana
View from the tower of the castle in Llubljana
View from the top of the castle on Llubljana
View from the church on the island at Lake Bled
The island with the church at Lake Bled
Me rowing the silly dingy boat on Lake Bled. Check out the beard haha.
The castle on top of a hill in Lake Bled
Blaze looking cheerful on the dock at Lake Bled
Lake Bled, on the island in the middle of the lake.
Venice
Venice
Bridge in Venice
The fresco painting inside Il Duomo
A very old hostpital in Siena.
Piazza del Campo
It has been a whirlwind of a few days. Yesterday, we were in Florence when we woke up, Venice in the afternoon, and Llubljana (pronounced something like "loobyahna", Slovenia at about 1am this morning via train. Our last couple days in Florence were really great. I am definitely leaving a piece of myself in that city. I even started learning some basic Italian and was able to ask basic questions and order food etc after 4 days of being there. We ate again at Nuti our last night and it was once again awesome. On our last day we actually climbed Il Duomo and saw some of the other must-see sights of the city. We basically took it easy our last couple nights thought, just kind of soaking it all in and mentally preparing for the travel-by-train assault that was about to come.
Yesterday, like I mentioned, was very fast paced. We left Florence by train at around 9am and arrived in Venice around 12:30. When I first stepped foot off the train station into the city, I thought I was in some sort of Italian disneyland. There is no way that this place can be considered a practical city. More like a tourist play-land with a few good sites and definitely some good vistas fitted into it. It was incredibly hot as we started out on our usual trek/grind throughout the city.
We ate at a funny restaurant right along one of the canals. There was a little chihuahua dog that was basically the sentinel watch for the entrance to the interior of the restaurant. Almost every woman that walked by would ooo and ahh and pet the dog. Once, a fellow that knew the employees of the restaurant was walking past and he yelled hello to everyone inside and kept on walking. The dog started yipping and growling furiously, and the waiter said "le ofeso! le ofeso!" meaning "you offend him, you offend him!" The walking man then had to acknowledge the dog with an offering of hand to nose and after that he walked off and the little sensitive dog was silent and satisfied. Pretty funny.
We then walked along the grand canal, saw some cool churches and went to the main plaza of the city. It was all quite scenic, but you can notice the extra wear that all the moisture and other complications that arrive from being practically right on the sea have on all the buildings and statues. Venice is a very pretty town and a cool place, but I'm glad we didnt spend more than 8 hours there. Its all you need.
Around 8pm we returned, stinky and stickier than ever, to the train station to catch our 9pm night train to Llubjlana. We rode in some really old rickety cars, sat next to an old man and another young backpacker, and arrived in Llubljana around 1am. Luckily the hostel was very close to the train station and we were able to cash in around 1:30.
Today was amazing! Slovenia has a totally different feel to it than any of the other places we have been to so far. It has a much more alpine feel, the air is cooler and cleaner, the smell of the mountains. This morning we took a bus to Lake Bled. What a beautiful place. I feel totally refreshed from visiting such a clean, crisp, green and blue place after being in bustling cities for so long. There was actually buoyed race course for rowing regattas on the lake! How I would love to row in that kind of a lake... We did end up renting a small row boat and took it out to the island with church in the middle of the lake. We performed the obligatory ring of the church bell, I made a wish =).
After we arrived back in Llubljana, we visited Llubljanski Grad (Llubljana castle). We have pretty much climbed everything we could in every place we have been so far, and this was no exception. The tower on top of the castle provided the most exceptional vista so far on this trip, in my opinion. After getting the view from up there, you can get an idea of the geographical situation that Llubljana is in. It is basically situated in a very large valley with mountains on all sides. The alps are to the north. I am pretty sure you would have to calculate curvature of the earth in determing the amount of distance we were able to see in all directions from the top of that tower...It was incredible.
Well we just showered up after a long day and are planning to meet up with my sister's friend and former teamate, Ana. She is from and lives in Llubljana and is going to take us out for dinner and drinks and will show us around tonight. Its nice knowing people in different places of the world =). Tomorrow, its off to Budapest. Each day, I continute to break the record for the furthest east I have ever been. After Budapest, we essentially turn around and start heading back, but there is much more to do and see awaiting us, of course.
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