Greetings from Arcadia,
I forgot how much I liked traveling with the one and only Daniel Altenritter until I saw him standing in front of the Ljubljana airport, looking completely out of place, but handsomely so. After plans to meet up in France in May had to be aborted because of a last-minute business trip to China, I signed him up for a non-negotiable, non-refundable two week vacation with me in Slovenia, of all places. He submitted to this with as much grace as any reluctant traveler would, understanding, I think, that he married a woman who has previously and probably always will drag him to strange corners of the world against his express wishes to be left to his own devices (which include playing around with motorcycles and grappling with other sweaty dudes at the gym). Slovenia was a place I had meant to visit while I was in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany this past June, but didn’t end up reaching on my trip through the Alps. I’m thankful now that I didn’t do a quick swing through this beautiful country, because it deserves to stand on its own. Two weeks in Slovenia felt like the right amount of time to see all it has to offer, and to give us time to relax and reacquaint ourselves after so much time apart this year. The day before we left this beautiful place, we talked about how we would like to come back to Slovenia, and hoped that if we did so 20 years from now, we hope it won’t have changed too much from the charming, hospitable, naturally stunning, but quaint country that we got to explore in 2018.
You guys know me by now…I’m take to the big city in the same way that a goat escaped from the farm might…largely by wandering around looking bewildered, bumping into people, and eating random things that look tasty. Which is to say, after countless cities on various continents around the globe, I still don’t feel like I’m good at exploring them properly. But thankfully, this didn’t matter in Ljubljana (pronounced Loo-blee-ah-nuh), Slovenia’s capital and a city after my heart. It’s not too crowded, it’s a pedestrian paradise (in the car-free central city), and there’s not much to do except walk around and try all the food from dozens of great restaurants sprinkled around the banks of the beautiful river that flows through the center. And they have really good gelato. We had three full days to wander around doing just that, eating as much gelato as possible, and sitting at little cafes sipping on something cold, enjoying the sunshine and the feeling of being together again.
We also embarked on a food tour that took us to some of the more hidden restaurants to try local specialties like the delicious sausage Kranjska klobasa served with mustard and grated horseradish, bread dipped in pumpkin seed oil, traditional minced meat and spinach štruklji, and locally made goat and sheep cheese, kozovč. We also tried several of the delicious Slovenian wines (our favorite being the light, summery Zelen), and some bites that are influenced more by Slovenia’s neighboring countries, like Italian gnocchi and Croatian calamari. Our food tour compatriots were a fun bunch – a young couple from Perth and an older couple from New Zealand – so after the tour we all went to the brewery to chat and while away a glorious summer afternoon in Ljubljana.
Our final day in the city concluded with a trip to the “Open Kitchen” (or Odprta kuhna, if you’re fluent in Slovene, which you’re probably not since there are less than three million native speakers), which is a food stall market open every Friday during the summer. Restaurants prepare tastes of their best foods on offer, so we hopped from one stall to the next, trying bits of samosa, chicken kebab, falafel, strudel, sangria, and even something that very closely resembled a Philly cheese steak.
Wheels up, we headed out of town toward our cabin at the edge of the only national park in Slovenia, Triglav, named after its highest peak (9,396 feet). We pretty quickly discovered that the roads here were not going to be any easier on my stomach than they had been in Georgia. In the mountains of Slovenia I even had to stop a few times to let my stomach settle while I was driving, which has never happened to me when I’ve been behind the wheel previously. European mountain roads – 1,867; Me – 0. We stopped at Hofer (which I’m 92% sure is the Slovenian equivalent of Aldi’s, same logo, same layout, different name?) to stock up on popcorn, chips, and various supplies that would allow us to feed ourselves in the cabin, and spent our first night breathing in the misty mountain air while taking in the view over the valley in Podmelec.
The next morning I woke, went downstairs from the loft of our beautiful little restored barn cabin to make myself a cup of tea, and was greeted by a rather large scorpion scuttling across the wall of the kitchen and looking nonplussed when I turned on the light and let out a shriek. After rousing my sleeping husband to wrangle the scorpion (a brief conversation that ended with “NO, I’m not kidding”) and frantically Googling ‘Scorpion, Slovenia???’ we succeeded in pushing him out the door by wielding a stick and the doormat to good effect. Then spent the next nine days keeping a wary eye on the doorstep, as if he would feel welcome back after that treatment, and shaking out our boots before putting them on.
The following few days we spent alternately hiding away from the incessant downpour, venturing out to check out local sites like the Tolmin Gorge, or enjoying a paddle around the beautiful Lake Bohinj on our one and only clear, sunny day in Triglav. We also visited Lake Bled, which is infinitely more touristy than Lake Bohinj, but nice for a walk and a dinner overlooking the green waters. We were caught in a deluge walking back from dinner, and we drove the twisty roads back from Bled whilst trying to dry our soaking wet clothes. Since we were only a 40 minute drive from the Italian border, we also went for a day trip to Trieste, a coastal city that turned out to be much bigger and more crowded than I had anticipated. We ate a hasty lunch and departed rather unimpressed with the city, and specifically Italian drivers (though I am determined to return to Italy to do it properly one of these days).
One of the main reasons to make your way to the western half of Slovenia is to experience the Soča River in person. To say it’s the most beautiful river in the world doesn’t really give you the understanding of seeing it in person, the mesmerizing feeling of sitting on a dazzling white rock, watching the crystal clear water flow around you, and wondering how it’s possible for water to be both completely translucent yet brilliant green and blue at the same time. The river is simply stunning, and clean, and cool, and I could have sat there for hours watching the sparkling water flow by on it’s journey down the Soča Valley. When we come back to Slovenia in 20 years, this is the place that I hope looks exactly the same, completely unaltered by the tourists and the noise of the modern world. Which is why national parks exist, I suppose, to ensure that I’ll be able to bring my kids to this place someday, to see the most beautiful river in the world and drink a handful of the best water they’ve ever tasted.
Slovenia ended up being the perfect destination for us weary travelers, a place we could feel like tourists some days, or stay in and just watch Netflix the next. Dan got to spend some much-needed time away from the hectic schedule and pressures of his job, and I was proud to say that he fully embraced the chance to relax, not check his work email, and get some distance from the daily grind. I remembered that he can be silly, and playful, and I was so happy to see that side of him return for a little while. I got to have a couple weeks of staying in the same bed, not constantly packing and unpacking, and have a break from traveling solo, which I was very happy to give up for a little while.
We wrapped it up on a rainy morning, driving back to Ljubljana and saying a reluctant goodbye at the airport before he headed west, and I headed east, in search of a few more days in Arcadia before the comforts of home pull me back for good.
See you in Soča,
Sarah