beautiful slovenia!

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Originally uploaded by Phantomai.

Well, slovenia has been wonderful...but first I have to go back to Venice...so hold your breath!

Venice was a madhouse but something you have to see! It is truly amazing and beautiful, but the crowds and the heat made it hard to realize in the moment...luckily I have a horrible memory and it now seems like a wonderful place! Although there were a million people and pigeons (why do people feed them...disgusting) in the main areas and so many tour groups with the leaders holding up flags and umbrellas and such to herd their sheep, it was still a magnificent place.


what did I do? I went to the Doge;s Palace which was ok, St. Marks Basilica (sorry, i cant find the apostrophe) which despite having quite a line was really beautiful...the mosaics were beautiful and I love that the venetians gave the Vatican the finger and built it in the Orthodox style because of their connection with the east! I also went to some other random place where I stared at some paintings by some guy and finally left because despite my stubbornness at having paid 4 euro, i realized i was just dreaming of gelato which I had 4 of in my few days there! yum. I did the peggy guggeinhem, which I liked especially the magritte stuff (the emperor of light was cool, if you can find it online), and I took the waterbus down the grande canal and out to Murano, the island for the famous glass which I was really excited about but the boat ride was really the highlight...as with most travels, the sights were not the highlight, rather the wandering and seeing the place! I had a great dinner out with a Korean girl and had no more weird hostel incidents...overall, venice is a must do and nicely burned in my memory...never to be visited in the summer again!

On to Slovenia! Ive been working out really hard how to describe this place in my head, and having trouble. It feels both like a blend of its slavic, italian, central european, and alpine roots, but also have the feeling you get from and isolated island -- this is the hard part for me to describe, but I think the intensity of its culture despite its small size is what is the striking island-esque thing. Can you imagine if New Hampshire (which it is the about the same size as) had its own language, beers, food, ice cream, etc. I think I just expected to come to a place that was more of a mix and less on its own. Granted, I have never been to austria, switzerland, or croatia, but the fact that they have their own ice cream brand -- quite good! and dont just bring stuff in says enough!

The hostel that I am staying at is the one with the link on the side -- it has been really good, met lots of people to spend the days with(although I seem to be losing the urge to really meet people, nice to have company, but actually making a connection is too much work for a one day encounter), and enjoyed the free internet and bar inside! the bar isnt free, though, sadly...

The HIGHLIGHT of slovenia and perhaps my trip was a sight seeing tour I took up through the alps...I was hesitant to do one of these packaged things, but it was great. Me and an australian couple were driven around by a really fun slovene who answered all our silly question about this bizarre place to some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen and definitely the most idyllic settings (quait villages with cows and goat roaming in the meadows full of wildflowers with alpine backdrops). Throughout the day we jumped off a 10m bridge into a river (yeah, I have bruises on my thighs and my neck hurts a little...hmmm, probably not the smartest idea), went rafting down this river in the picture (the color of the carribean), went over the alpine pass, sat in a traffic jam cuz of the german and italian holidays, and went through these crazy tunnels that were hand dug in WWI -- this was the sight of one of the worst battle fronts in history.


Otherwise I have just been spending time in Ljubljana (ha, pronounce that!) which only has 300,000 people but a great cafe culture and distinct architecture by this famous guy Plecnik. oh, and eating more ice cream...dont worry, ive walked it all off!

And now the internet is being waited on by others...I hope I expressed this the way I wanted, I feel an attachment to having found this gem (which is of course not that hidden) and want to get it out right, but not sure if you can ever get it out just right...

and in exciting news, I should have some pics up from portugal soon (man, that seems like ages ago!) ...Im off to florence tomorrow...I was seriously debating going around central europe, but without eurrail it is just too much...so now I need to find a place to stay tomorrow night -- I guess once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator! love to you all!