We are off to go Slovenia for two weeks! Been wanting to go here for a while since it’s a kind of under the radar European destination full of stunning alpine scenery, lakes, and cute little European towns. We’ll be renting a car and doing a road trip all around!
Day 1 – Ljubljana
My day started off not too great. I had realized that my drivers license will expire a few days before the end of the trip. Not the end of the world, but I was worried about the rental agency having a problem with that if they notice. So, while frantically packing and doing other last minute shit, I put myself on the waiting list to go to the DMV. When my time comes up, I drive down there and enter to a mob of people and mad lines everywhere. It’s a total hell scape and I had just missed my number being called. I have to go beg someone to let me still get my license renewed, and he is not thrilled… “Seriously, dude? Your flight is in a few hours and you want to do this now?”. I beg some more and he agrees. I do all the things, the eye test, etc and just when it looks like I’m in the clear, he tells me that there is a hold on my license from Arizona. Whaaaa? I guess I’m now screwed and went through all this for nothing. Later, while packing, I am on hold w/ the Arizona DMV for 25 minutes to find out that I got a speeding ticket in Arizona in 2001, and I paid it, but there is some dumb $10 fine outstanding. You gotta be kidding me.
The flight is also a mess. We’re sitting next to some weirdo on the flight and get very little sleep. Plane arrives in Frankfurt late and we have to run, I’m not kidding, for 1 mile through the airport in multiple directions to try to catch the connecting flight that is about to leave. We barely make it and get on the flight drenched in sweat from running so much.
Anyways, all that aside, we finally arrive in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It’s a small town as far as capitals go (less than 300k people), and is an incredibly charming place… cobblestone streets, a river winding through it, and a laid back vibe. For lunch, we try some of the local food. Slovenia is squished between Italy, Croatia, and Austria, and the food is kind of a mix of all of those. We try some Strukli, which are kind of like sheets of pasta, rolled up, and sliced into fat discs. These come either savory or sweet. We also try some other meat dumplings with a tasty sauce.
There’s a castle on top of a hill in the middle of town, and we wander up there on the tree lined streets. We explore a bit, and then have some wine, taking in the awesome views of the city below. While food, coffee, cocktails here are all normal priced (slightly cheaper than SF), wine is dirt cheap and you can get a nice glass of wine for like 6 Euros. While having wine, Yana and I have a long conversation about the fact that I am about to get a Whippet puppy, and my some insane coincidence, someone sits down at the cafe with two Whippets. Crazy. As we leave the castle, and night is falling, we see tons of bats fluttering through the sky… a truly surreal nighttime castle scene.
We get dinner at this amazing Slovenian tapas spot on the river. Everything is super delicious, one of the dishes being raw crab, which I’ve never tried before. Afterwards, we hit one of the only cocktail spots in town, and I have this crazy cocktail that has pistachio ice cream in it. Yum.
