One day we were walking down the main drag in Old Town and a guy on a bike went zooming by. He was wearing a red sweatshirt that said Woo Pig Sooie on it! On the front, it had a hog picture and I think it said Arkansas.
There's a lot of graffiti in Ljubljana, but don't let it scare you. It's not like NYC or Detroit. Some of it seems to be political, and there's a lot of students, too. But I could see many Americans freaking out about the graffiti, thinking they were in a gang area. You're not.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Day 9: Heading Home
We had to leave at 5 am to get to the airport for our flight. This one was Adria Air, I think that's the Slovenian airlines. I somehow managed to set off the metal detector. I'm guessing it was all the metal in my bra. That's all I had. The plane ran about 15 minutes late, but that wasn't bad. The plane itself was one of those small ones, but it had plenty of legroom and room for our bags under the seat.
So, we got to Munich, and then had to take a bus to the terminal. We were in Terminal 2 (I think) and needed Terminal 1. The airport dude told me I could wait for the bus (about 15 minutes) or just walk it in 10 minutes. My feet felt okay, so we walked it.
Apparently, "walking it" meant leaving the security area. Because there was no other way that we could find to get between terminals in the secured area. Unless the bus did that.
So we walked and walked. There were some amazing looking restaurants along the way! We finally got to the terminal and the Delta counter was right there, so we went there. And the woman was like "Why did you come here if your luggage is already booked?" We said we were told to come here for our boarding passes, which is what the Adria guy had told us in Slovenia.
Then she had to ask us a lot of questions like "Who packed your bags? When were they packed? Has they been out of your possession? Did anyone ask you to carry anything?" Etc. I hadn't heard those in forever. In the US the airports play messages over and over telling you to keep track of your bags and stuff like that.
We finally got through our next security and then to our gate. This section was really a crappy little section of the airport with 1 cafe and 2 stores. The women's bathroom was up here, but Frank had to follow a bunch of signs downstairs and through several hallways to get to the men's room. Weird. And when I bought water and candy at the store, they had to scan my passport. Maybe for customs, like Duty Free? I'm still not sure why.
When we went to board, it was more questions. I was kind of confused. The woman asked me if I'd bought anything. I said yes, I bought water at the store. Then she asked if I'd received anything. I said, yes, the water I bought. I really hate questions like that, because I feel like they're supposed to be easy questions but I'm just not getting it. Am I thinking too much about them?
The flight back was on a 767, which mom hates, and I now understand why. The seats were small. Our bags barely fit under the seats, too. They fit fine on the tiny aircraft, but not the 767? The only thing good about this flight was the food. The flight attendants were nice, and I'm guessing since the only food source was Europe, they couldn't give us crappy food. We got several snacks. The main meal I had was chicken with rice and peppers in a nice sauce. The cheesy salad came with an olive oil-balsamic dressing. And they had bread and cheese.
They had fewer movies, which meant I couldn't finish watching the Lupin the Third movie I'd fallen asleep during on the flight out. Crap.
We got to Atlanta, and started the whole customs process. It's all electronic now and went fairly fast. Then I got some Chick-fil-a. Then we headed to our gate to eat and relax.
So, our flight was delayed 17 minutes. Then another 5 minutes or so. It gets here, we get on it, and head out to take off. But we can't take off. There's bad weather to the north. We're taking off to the east, but some of the planes in front of us in the line are taking off to the north. So we have to wait. And wait. I slept through most of this, until Frank poked me when the stewardess brought around snacks. Then back to sleep. Apparently we spent an hour in line. I didn't wake up until we were landing at XNA.
So, we're home, the dogs are home, and it's all good! I'll try to get pictures up later.
So, we got to Munich, and then had to take a bus to the terminal. We were in Terminal 2 (I think) and needed Terminal 1. The airport dude told me I could wait for the bus (about 15 minutes) or just walk it in 10 minutes. My feet felt okay, so we walked it.
Apparently, "walking it" meant leaving the security area. Because there was no other way that we could find to get between terminals in the secured area. Unless the bus did that.
So we walked and walked. There were some amazing looking restaurants along the way! We finally got to the terminal and the Delta counter was right there, so we went there. And the woman was like "Why did you come here if your luggage is already booked?" We said we were told to come here for our boarding passes, which is what the Adria guy had told us in Slovenia.
Then she had to ask us a lot of questions like "Who packed your bags? When were they packed? Has they been out of your possession? Did anyone ask you to carry anything?" Etc. I hadn't heard those in forever. In the US the airports play messages over and over telling you to keep track of your bags and stuff like that.
We finally got through our next security and then to our gate. This section was really a crappy little section of the airport with 1 cafe and 2 stores. The women's bathroom was up here, but Frank had to follow a bunch of signs downstairs and through several hallways to get to the men's room. Weird. And when I bought water and candy at the store, they had to scan my passport. Maybe for customs, like Duty Free? I'm still not sure why.
When we went to board, it was more questions. I was kind of confused. The woman asked me if I'd bought anything. I said yes, I bought water at the store. Then she asked if I'd received anything. I said, yes, the water I bought. I really hate questions like that, because I feel like they're supposed to be easy questions but I'm just not getting it. Am I thinking too much about them?
The flight back was on a 767, which mom hates, and I now understand why. The seats were small. Our bags barely fit under the seats, too. They fit fine on the tiny aircraft, but not the 767? The only thing good about this flight was the food. The flight attendants were nice, and I'm guessing since the only food source was Europe, they couldn't give us crappy food. We got several snacks. The main meal I had was chicken with rice and peppers in a nice sauce. The cheesy salad came with an olive oil-balsamic dressing. And they had bread and cheese.
They had fewer movies, which meant I couldn't finish watching the Lupin the Third movie I'd fallen asleep during on the flight out. Crap.
We got to Atlanta, and started the whole customs process. It's all electronic now and went fairly fast. Then I got some Chick-fil-a. Then we headed to our gate to eat and relax.
So, our flight was delayed 17 minutes. Then another 5 minutes or so. It gets here, we get on it, and head out to take off. But we can't take off. There's bad weather to the north. We're taking off to the east, but some of the planes in front of us in the line are taking off to the north. So we have to wait. And wait. I slept through most of this, until Frank poked me when the stewardess brought around snacks. Then back to sleep. Apparently we spent an hour in line. I didn't wake up until we were landing at XNA.
So, we're home, the dogs are home, and it's all good! I'll try to get pictures up later.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Day 8: Our last hurrah
So, it's our last day in Ljubljana :( We're taking it easy and packing things up. We left the apartment about 10 am to head towards a good restaurant we'd looked up: Sokol. We got there about 10:20 and the church bells across the street were ringing, so we headed inside.
Inside looked kind of like what you'd think a German restaurant would look like, with lots of wood, and the light fixtures were clay pots hanging from thick rope.
I got a Coke and Frank got a house beer, then we settled down to the menu. My goodness, there were a lot of choices! Frank decided to get an appetizer, but I wanted a dessert, so I didn't. He got the Mushroom Soup in Bread Bowl.
It tasted amazing! And there were at least 6 different types of mushrooms in there, including fungus.
Frank got the Country Feast for lunch. It had sausage, black pudding, "bacon," roast pork, dried pork chop, sauerkraut, pickled turnip, buckwheat mush, and bread dumpling. He made a mighty dent in his meal and finished all the meats!
I got the Venison Goulash in Bread Bowl. Mine was in a rye bread bowl and it was delicious! I could only eat about half, though, because I got full. This bowl was shorter than the mushroom soup, but a lot bigger around.
Sorry for the crappy picture. This was my dessert - Gibanica. It has become my nemesis. As I type this, it is sitting next to me, staring me down, daring me to eat more of it. Frank was so full he refused to help me, so the Gibanica followed us home and may even be here tomorrow.
After that, we walked back via the flea market and took a nap. Now it's time to pack.
Inside looked kind of like what you'd think a German restaurant would look like, with lots of wood, and the light fixtures were clay pots hanging from thick rope.
I got a Coke and Frank got a house beer, then we settled down to the menu. My goodness, there were a lot of choices! Frank decided to get an appetizer, but I wanted a dessert, so I didn't. He got the Mushroom Soup in Bread Bowl.
It tasted amazing! And there were at least 6 different types of mushrooms in there, including fungus.
Frank got the Country Feast for lunch. It had sausage, black pudding, "bacon," roast pork, dried pork chop, sauerkraut, pickled turnip, buckwheat mush, and bread dumpling. He made a mighty dent in his meal and finished all the meats!
I got the Venison Goulash in Bread Bowl. Mine was in a rye bread bowl and it was delicious! I could only eat about half, though, because I got full. This bowl was shorter than the mushroom soup, but a lot bigger around.
Sorry for the crappy picture. This was my dessert - Gibanica. It has become my nemesis. As I type this, it is sitting next to me, staring me down, daring me to eat more of it. Frank was so full he refused to help me, so the Gibanica followed us home and may even be here tomorrow.
After that, we walked back via the flea market and took a nap. Now it's time to pack.
DeltaSucks Update
You may remember my saga with DeltaSucks. Well, I filled out an online complaint in Paris, and I finally heard back from them. The gist of it is, We're so sorry. But they also sent me gifts. I just filled out the forms and hypothetically I should be getting a $50 and $150 Amazon gift cards in the mail. Huzzah! I'm still pretty mad but I'm slightly mollified. Only slightly. I'm still concerned about the trip home. The last time I flew DeltaSucks (before this trip) my luggage got home a day later than I did. And no one could tell me where it was until it showed up someplace.
Day 7: Posting about posting
I slept in today and took a shower, while Frank decided to head out to the Post Office and send some postcards. I'm guessing we may get home before they get there.
Most stores seem to open mid-morning so we went out then and did a little shopping for family presents. Found a few cool things. I picked up a neat looking journal at the "flea market" set up on our side of the river.
We had heard about a falafel place past the market, so we kept walking thataways. I was kind of hurting, but not too bad. I wore some easy slip-on shoes for the airplane ride out of XNA, never thinking I was going to be running the Atlanta airport in them or tromping all over half of France looking for my concourse. So I got a huge blister between my toes and the ball of my foot. Once we got to Ljubljana I switched to my sandals, but I was walking funny because of the blister, so I developed another blister on the side of my foot from that. Sigh.
So we walked and walked. We knew approximately where the falafel place was, but not exactly. Eventually we turned up a lane to head back and stopped at a cafe for a bit. We asked the waitress and the falafel place was about 100 feet down the road on our new path.
So we finally get to the falafel place. It had 2 tables outside, and some stools inside. Basically, you ordered at the front and a few people could sit at a bar on either wall. Very tiny. We got the basic falefel sandwich for 3.50 Euros.
OMG! She took the "dough" and made the falafels fresh while we waited. Then they were wrapped up in a huge sandwich with lettuce and onions and turnips and sauce. They were incredible! The falafels literally melted in your mouth. We'd been reading reviews saying how good this place was, and it really is that good.
After falafels we decided to head towards the City Gallery again. I really wanted to see it. Our Ljubljana cards are expired, but since they were closed when we tried to get there, I thought maybe I could convince them to let us in. I never made it that far. We took a slightly wrong turn off the plaza - there's like 6 roads leading off of it. We stopped in a park to rest my feet and decided to head back. Luckily, a Kavilir appeared!
The city had these little electric golf cart thingies driving around Old Town that you can flag down for a ride. This one was empty so we got on. We had to make a few stops and pick up some other people, but that let us see more of what was going on. It's Saturday, and Old Town was packed. There was even a wheelchair basketball exhibition by the market area.
We got to the end of Old Town and got off, and I made it back to the apartment. I also picked up a few Bounty bars. They're 43 cents at the grocery. In the US, they often charge $2 for them!
I'm taking a class at NWACC corporate which started Monday. Luckily, all I had to do is read and take a quiz. Argh! I finally finished the darn quiz. Some of the information in the book is out of date, and some of the quiz questions were confusing. And I'd swear one or two were just wrong. But I finally got enough correct answers that they wanted, so I'm done until next week! Yay!
After a rest, it was time to figure out supper. I didn't want to walk too far, after our long walk this morning, so we settled on Indian, which wasn't too far away. It was pretty good. There was a lot of food and the naan was huge. After that, back to the apartment. Tomorrow we'll start packing up so we can start the voyage home. Hopefully there's less drama than on the way here.
Unfortunately, we're on Delta again, from Europe to XNA. Frank made a complaint and heard back from Delta. I made a complaint and all I got back was the auto-response. So who knows what's going on with that.
Most stores seem to open mid-morning so we went out then and did a little shopping for family presents. Found a few cool things. I picked up a neat looking journal at the "flea market" set up on our side of the river.
We had heard about a falafel place past the market, so we kept walking thataways. I was kind of hurting, but not too bad. I wore some easy slip-on shoes for the airplane ride out of XNA, never thinking I was going to be running the Atlanta airport in them or tromping all over half of France looking for my concourse. So I got a huge blister between my toes and the ball of my foot. Once we got to Ljubljana I switched to my sandals, but I was walking funny because of the blister, so I developed another blister on the side of my foot from that. Sigh.
So we walked and walked. We knew approximately where the falafel place was, but not exactly. Eventually we turned up a lane to head back and stopped at a cafe for a bit. We asked the waitress and the falafel place was about 100 feet down the road on our new path.
So we finally get to the falafel place. It had 2 tables outside, and some stools inside. Basically, you ordered at the front and a few people could sit at a bar on either wall. Very tiny. We got the basic falefel sandwich for 3.50 Euros.
OMG! She took the "dough" and made the falafels fresh while we waited. Then they were wrapped up in a huge sandwich with lettuce and onions and turnips and sauce. They were incredible! The falafels literally melted in your mouth. We'd been reading reviews saying how good this place was, and it really is that good.
After falafels we decided to head towards the City Gallery again. I really wanted to see it. Our Ljubljana cards are expired, but since they were closed when we tried to get there, I thought maybe I could convince them to let us in. I never made it that far. We took a slightly wrong turn off the plaza - there's like 6 roads leading off of it. We stopped in a park to rest my feet and decided to head back. Luckily, a Kavilir appeared!
The city had these little electric golf cart thingies driving around Old Town that you can flag down for a ride. This one was empty so we got on. We had to make a few stops and pick up some other people, but that let us see more of what was going on. It's Saturday, and Old Town was packed. There was even a wheelchair basketball exhibition by the market area.
We got to the end of Old Town and got off, and I made it back to the apartment. I also picked up a few Bounty bars. They're 43 cents at the grocery. In the US, they often charge $2 for them!
I'm taking a class at NWACC corporate which started Monday. Luckily, all I had to do is read and take a quiz. Argh! I finally finished the darn quiz. Some of the information in the book is out of date, and some of the quiz questions were confusing. And I'd swear one or two were just wrong. But I finally got enough correct answers that they wanted, so I'm done until next week! Yay!
After a rest, it was time to figure out supper. I didn't want to walk too far, after our long walk this morning, so we settled on Indian, which wasn't too far away. It was pretty good. There was a lot of food and the naan was huge. After that, back to the apartment. Tomorrow we'll start packing up so we can start the voyage home. Hopefully there's less drama than on the way here.
Unfortunately, we're on Delta again, from Europe to XNA. Frank made a complaint and heard back from Delta. I made a complaint and all I got back was the auto-response. So who knows what's going on with that.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Slovenian Miscellany
Edited twice (see bottom)
I just wanted to ramble on about a few things here.
Overall, the people are very friendly. And there are dogs everywhere. Every day we see people walking their dogs. About a third aren't on a leash. So it's very dog friendly. There's also tons of strollers, too.
There are a lot of bicycles and they are usually in a hurry. So you need to stay out of the bike lane and keep an eye out for them.
Several restaurants have given us a side of bread with the meal, but none of them included butter. I guess bread is more for sopping up. But as Americans who are used to crappy bread, we would happily eat the bread with just butter on it.
The restaurants are fairly inexpensive by European standards, but they like to upsell. For instance, when we got our chicken meal at Eksperiment, the waiter asked if we wanted potatoes or french fries. That was a separate dish, not included in what we had ordered. In the US, they generally only ask you what you want if it's included. Or they'll say, did you want to get anything else with that, like blah blah blah?
This is a coffee country. Many places do have hot tea, but it's usually some kind of berry tea. It's quite good, but if you want caffeine, go for a Coca-cola. Even the supermarket had 1 package of black tea and a whole floor to ceiling shelf of berry style teas.
Edit1:
Ljubljana definitely has the cafe culture. You can sit at a cafe for an hour and that's considered normal. Because of that, the service can seem slow to Americans. Sometimes we'd sit at a cafe and it might be 10 minutes before they notice you. After you get your order, you can sit for a long time. We sat for about 45 minutes. After you finish your order, you'll probably have to flag down a server to get your bill. Even at a restaurant, they expect you to sit for a while after you eat, even if you don't get an after dinner coffee. It's really bizarre, compared to the American culture where they just want you out of the restaurant as quickly as possible. I like the cafe culture much better.
Edit2:
We've seen tourists from all over the world. There's been a handful of English-speakers, mostly American and a few Brits. Some Italians, which makes sense, considering the location. And lots of Asians. There's been several tour groups of Asians, including a Korean Airline group.
Most of the cafes here are also bars. And they're open at the same time. I don't mean bars, like, they carry a few beers. I mean cafe-bars like they have a huge booklet of drinks, starting with hot drinks (coffees, teas), cold drinks (coffees), non-alcoholic drinks (water, juices), then moving on to beers, wines, spirits, vodkas, cocktails, etc. Sometimes including smoothies. It's not unusual to see somoene drinking a beer at 10 am.
I just wanted to ramble on about a few things here.
Overall, the people are very friendly. And there are dogs everywhere. Every day we see people walking their dogs. About a third aren't on a leash. So it's very dog friendly. There's also tons of strollers, too.
There are a lot of bicycles and they are usually in a hurry. So you need to stay out of the bike lane and keep an eye out for them.
Several restaurants have given us a side of bread with the meal, but none of them included butter. I guess bread is more for sopping up. But as Americans who are used to crappy bread, we would happily eat the bread with just butter on it.
The restaurants are fairly inexpensive by European standards, but they like to upsell. For instance, when we got our chicken meal at Eksperiment, the waiter asked if we wanted potatoes or french fries. That was a separate dish, not included in what we had ordered. In the US, they generally only ask you what you want if it's included. Or they'll say, did you want to get anything else with that, like blah blah blah?
This is a coffee country. Many places do have hot tea, but it's usually some kind of berry tea. It's quite good, but if you want caffeine, go for a Coca-cola. Even the supermarket had 1 package of black tea and a whole floor to ceiling shelf of berry style teas.
Edit1:
Ljubljana definitely has the cafe culture. You can sit at a cafe for an hour and that's considered normal. Because of that, the service can seem slow to Americans. Sometimes we'd sit at a cafe and it might be 10 minutes before they notice you. After you get your order, you can sit for a long time. We sat for about 45 minutes. After you finish your order, you'll probably have to flag down a server to get your bill. Even at a restaurant, they expect you to sit for a while after you eat, even if you don't get an after dinner coffee. It's really bizarre, compared to the American culture where they just want you out of the restaurant as quickly as possible. I like the cafe culture much better.
Edit2:
We've seen tourists from all over the world. There's been a handful of English-speakers, mostly American and a few Brits. Some Italians, which makes sense, considering the location. And lots of Asians. There's been several tour groups of Asians, including a Korean Airline group.
Most of the cafes here are also bars. And they're open at the same time. I don't mean bars, like, they carry a few beers. I mean cafe-bars like they have a huge booklet of drinks, starting with hot drinks (coffees, teas), cold drinks (coffees), non-alcoholic drinks (water, juices), then moving on to beers, wines, spirits, vodkas, cocktails, etc. Sometimes including smoothies. It's not unusual to see somoene drinking a beer at 10 am.
Day 6: A little rain never hurt anyone...
...and is a good excuse to rest my blisters.
I slept in this morning and read my book. After a while, Frank got bored, so he set off to have some coffee and came back slightly drenched.
Around lunch I decided to brave my blisters and we stopped at the closest restaurant we could find, just around the corner from the apartment. It turned out to be Bosnian!
I had something that looked like kafta, while Frank had a half-and-half dish that was half kafta, half sausage. They both came with this huge piece of fresh bread. I don't know how to describe it. It was half of a round piece of bread. It was over an inch thick and sliced. My kafta was inside it, like a sandwich. It came with onions and butter, too.
Overall, it was delicious! All beef, yummy.
We did a little walking after that, mainly to the bakery down the road. I finally got my Bled Cream Cake! And Frank got some kind of thing with sour cherries in it. OMG! The Bled Cream Cake is amazing! It was so rich, I couldn't eat it all at once. It took several tries.
For supper we walked back downtown, and found a Slovenian restaurant (you know what I mean). I ordered a kind of goulash thing, but they were out. I ended up with a sort of sauerkraut and bean soup with sausage. Frank had sausage with sauerkraut and potatoes.
My sauerkraut was milder than I'm used to and pretty good. Frank's had almost a mushroomy taste to it. And there was some wonderful bread to go along with it.
Afterwards, it was home to rest the tootsies.
I slept in this morning and read my book. After a while, Frank got bored, so he set off to have some coffee and came back slightly drenched.
Around lunch I decided to brave my blisters and we stopped at the closest restaurant we could find, just around the corner from the apartment. It turned out to be Bosnian!
I had something that looked like kafta, while Frank had a half-and-half dish that was half kafta, half sausage. They both came with this huge piece of fresh bread. I don't know how to describe it. It was half of a round piece of bread. It was over an inch thick and sliced. My kafta was inside it, like a sandwich. It came with onions and butter, too.
Overall, it was delicious! All beef, yummy.
We did a little walking after that, mainly to the bakery down the road. I finally got my Bled Cream Cake! And Frank got some kind of thing with sour cherries in it. OMG! The Bled Cream Cake is amazing! It was so rich, I couldn't eat it all at once. It took several tries.
For supper we walked back downtown, and found a Slovenian restaurant (you know what I mean). I ordered a kind of goulash thing, but they were out. I ended up with a sort of sauerkraut and bean soup with sausage. Frank had sausage with sauerkraut and potatoes.
My sauerkraut was milder than I'm used to and pretty good. Frank's had almost a mushroomy taste to it. And there was some wonderful bread to go along with it.
Afterwards, it was home to rest the tootsies.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Day 5: More touristing
Today started out well. Most things don't open until about 10 am, so we got a coffee about 9 and then went on our boat ride down the river. It was pretty cool! It took almost an hour going down and back.
Afterwards, we walked over to the National Museum, and the Museum of Natural History. The National Museum was okay. It had some cool artifacts from the Roman and pre-Roman times, and some videos to watch. Lots of coins, and jewelry and weapons. But the Natural History Museum was really cool.
The museums are together in a 2-story building. The bottom floor has stone works in the hallways, but the exhibits are on the 2nd floor. Half of the floor is National Museum, half is Natural History. So it's not very big.
The Natural History section starts off with fossils and has a ton of them! All sorts of plants, fish, crinoids, shells, a mammoth and a cave bear. There's a section on early animals and Darwin. There's a huge section with bones of various types of fish.
Further on there's stuffed animals for the region, including a ton of birds and fish, and a selection of mammals. Next was a huge selection of insects, including beetles and a giant butterfly collection. There was also a great mineral collection, and tables with different mineral panels you could touch.
I know I'm forgetting some stuff, but this area was really good. Bear in mind, I haven't been to the Smithsonian, or anything like that. But this museum had so much, all crammed into half a floor. It was amazing! Even better, every section had an electronic game for kids to play - like putting the bones in a dinosaur back together. And more, like puzzles, matching games, stamps that showed different animal tracks. Every section had several things for kids to do, and models of bones and things for them to hold. It was great!
My feet were really beginning to hurt by now, but I kept moving. I needed food, so we kept looking, while we headed to our next place. We decided to skip the Museum of Modern Art, after what we'd seen so far. I really wanted to see the City Gallery, but when we got there, it was roped off and had a sign on the door. It looked like they had just finished putting new concrete all in front.
We kept on, just looking for food now. We tried a few places but they just had coffee or alcohol. I was getting really sore feet by now, and not paying attention, when Frank said "Isn't this the skyscraper you were talking about?" Yes!
The skyscraper is 12 stories high, with a cafe on top. Floor 11 is a lounge, and lucky for me, Floor 10 is the restaurant.
This restaurant was probably the fanciest we've been in, in Ljubljana. It had tablecloths and wine glasses and the napkins were sort of in-between fabric and paper. The waiter was dressed all in black. We got a table near a window, and the waiter opened it for us. Frank got a kick out of that - the windows open on the 10th floor of a restaurant.
The special of the day was soup, turkey schnitzel with potatoes, and a dessert. For 8 Euros! Woohoo! It was delicious! And I actually have the pictures ready now:
The pea soup was made from fresh green peas, not dried split-peas. It was really good!
Turkey schnitzel with a side salad (balsamic) and grilled potato wedges. Also yummy!
I had to forgo eating all the potatoes, to leave room for the dessert. We still ended up waddling out of there! This is what I'm calling an "apple streusel tart."
So, we barely survived lunch. After that, we headed up to the top floor. There are tables all around the edge, with little dividers to keep you from falling off the skyscraper. The cafe section is in the middle. See below:
I keep thinking, in the US there would be a giant wall of chain to keep you from jumping off the top.
We sat for about 15 minutes but they didn't realize we were there, so we got up and left. We were feeling better.
Now we had a huge walk back towards out apartment, to find a gallery and the City Museum. I kept having to stop and rest my feet.
We finally made the museum. The gallery escaped us. It must have been hidden in an apartment complex that we passed. The museum was okay. It was 3 stories but a lot of it was their temporary exhibit on Stalinist rule. They did give us tickets to the archeological parks though, so hopefully we'll get there later in the week.
We went home after this and I soaked my feet and refused to leave the apartment again that night. Frank went to the grocery and got some sausage and sandwich meats and bread. The cheesy, crappy sliced white bread, was a french loaf that cost 1.5 Euros and tastes amazing! The sausage was really good too. It's a dried salami and we just cut off hunks and eat it. So that was supper.
Afterwards, we walked over to the National Museum, and the Museum of Natural History. The National Museum was okay. It had some cool artifacts from the Roman and pre-Roman times, and some videos to watch. Lots of coins, and jewelry and weapons. But the Natural History Museum was really cool.
The museums are together in a 2-story building. The bottom floor has stone works in the hallways, but the exhibits are on the 2nd floor. Half of the floor is National Museum, half is Natural History. So it's not very big.
The Natural History section starts off with fossils and has a ton of them! All sorts of plants, fish, crinoids, shells, a mammoth and a cave bear. There's a section on early animals and Darwin. There's a huge section with bones of various types of fish.
Further on there's stuffed animals for the region, including a ton of birds and fish, and a selection of mammals. Next was a huge selection of insects, including beetles and a giant butterfly collection. There was also a great mineral collection, and tables with different mineral panels you could touch.
I know I'm forgetting some stuff, but this area was really good. Bear in mind, I haven't been to the Smithsonian, or anything like that. But this museum had so much, all crammed into half a floor. It was amazing! Even better, every section had an electronic game for kids to play - like putting the bones in a dinosaur back together. And more, like puzzles, matching games, stamps that showed different animal tracks. Every section had several things for kids to do, and models of bones and things for them to hold. It was great!
My feet were really beginning to hurt by now, but I kept moving. I needed food, so we kept looking, while we headed to our next place. We decided to skip the Museum of Modern Art, after what we'd seen so far. I really wanted to see the City Gallery, but when we got there, it was roped off and had a sign on the door. It looked like they had just finished putting new concrete all in front.
We kept on, just looking for food now. We tried a few places but they just had coffee or alcohol. I was getting really sore feet by now, and not paying attention, when Frank said "Isn't this the skyscraper you were talking about?" Yes!
The skyscraper is 12 stories high, with a cafe on top. Floor 11 is a lounge, and lucky for me, Floor 10 is the restaurant.
This restaurant was probably the fanciest we've been in, in Ljubljana. It had tablecloths and wine glasses and the napkins were sort of in-between fabric and paper. The waiter was dressed all in black. We got a table near a window, and the waiter opened it for us. Frank got a kick out of that - the windows open on the 10th floor of a restaurant.
The special of the day was soup, turkey schnitzel with potatoes, and a dessert. For 8 Euros! Woohoo! It was delicious! And I actually have the pictures ready now:
The pea soup was made from fresh green peas, not dried split-peas. It was really good!
Turkey schnitzel with a side salad (balsamic) and grilled potato wedges. Also yummy!
I had to forgo eating all the potatoes, to leave room for the dessert. We still ended up waddling out of there! This is what I'm calling an "apple streusel tart."
So, we barely survived lunch. After that, we headed up to the top floor. There are tables all around the edge, with little dividers to keep you from falling off the skyscraper. The cafe section is in the middle. See below:
I keep thinking, in the US there would be a giant wall of chain to keep you from jumping off the top.
We sat for about 15 minutes but they didn't realize we were there, so we got up and left. We were feeling better.
Now we had a huge walk back towards out apartment, to find a gallery and the City Museum. I kept having to stop and rest my feet.
We finally made the museum. The gallery escaped us. It must have been hidden in an apartment complex that we passed. The museum was okay. It was 3 stories but a lot of it was their temporary exhibit on Stalinist rule. They did give us tickets to the archeological parks though, so hopefully we'll get there later in the week.
We went home after this and I soaked my feet and refused to leave the apartment again that night. Frank went to the grocery and got some sausage and sandwich meats and bread. The cheesy, crappy sliced white bread, was a french loaf that cost 1.5 Euros and tastes amazing! The sausage was really good too. It's a dried salami and we just cut off hunks and eat it. So that was supper.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Day 4: A brief dinner excursion
About 6 pm we headed out to dinner. There was a neat looking restaurant I'd turned up during my research, called Pod Verba. It seemed to be pretty close to our apartment. You go out to the street, go right, then turn down the next street a few blocks.
We went out the apartment, and went right. The first street seemed like an alley, so we went to the next one which was a major street. After a block or two, we saw shops and restaurants and thought we must have arrived. But no Pod Vrba. We kept walking. Another few blocks, and then we saw a man walking down the sidewalk and he turned into a yard as we came up.
We asked for directions and he said to go to the semaphore and turn left, and it was about 500m down. We started down and then heard footsteps behind us. It was the man. He said "Sorry, I was wrong, turn right at the semaphore." They are very friendly here.
Now the problem became, was a semaphore a stoplight or a stop sign? We assumed it was the stoplight. So we went by the stop sign and all the way to the light, and turned right. The main road seemed to have a huge wall on the right side of the street that went for more than 500 m. So when a smaller road forked off, we took it.
The smaller road took us through a subdivision, so we turned left and got back on the bigger road. And walked. And then we saw a little old lady coming up, carrying what looked like a small milk pail. I asked if she knew where Pod Vrba was. It took her a minute to understand, because of my accent. She said I should learn Slovenian. But then she said she was going by there and we could walk with her.
So we followed the little old lady. She went around the block, and then I think we got back on the main road again, because we passed the milk machine. We went down to the end of the block, and turned on a smaller road, which wound through the subdivision, and kept walking and walking. And finally there it was! We thanked her profusely and went to the patio to find a table. We sat down and realized we were staring at the backside of the complex where our apartment building is located. It only took 45 minutes to get there! Doh!
Dinner was soooo worth it. This was one of the places that I had looked at the menu online and used their English descriptions to translate words for my word list. (Yes, I have an Excel spreadsheet of Slovenian:English words that I made up from menus. I can't help being a geek.)
I had Veal Medallions in a Cabernet Sauce with Herbs and Homemade Gnocchi. Frank had Pork Fillet with Prunes and Grilled Polenta. (See the Menu.) Mine was 11.50 Euros, his was 10.90 Euros.
The food was amazing! My veal was more like 3 cutlets of beef, with an amazing gravy and gnocchi. Frank's fillets were round medallions of pork, about 1-1/2 to 2" tall, stuffed with prunes. There were 3 of those and 3 polenta "loafs." I couldn't finish my food. I was stuffed. Frank had room for the Sour Cherry Strudel, which I took a few bites of. It was good, but too sour for me.
After that, it was only a few hundred feet to our door, through the back of the apartment complex.
We went out the apartment, and went right. The first street seemed like an alley, so we went to the next one which was a major street. After a block or two, we saw shops and restaurants and thought we must have arrived. But no Pod Vrba. We kept walking. Another few blocks, and then we saw a man walking down the sidewalk and he turned into a yard as we came up.
We asked for directions and he said to go to the semaphore and turn left, and it was about 500m down. We started down and then heard footsteps behind us. It was the man. He said "Sorry, I was wrong, turn right at the semaphore." They are very friendly here.
Now the problem became, was a semaphore a stoplight or a stop sign? We assumed it was the stoplight. So we went by the stop sign and all the way to the light, and turned right. The main road seemed to have a huge wall on the right side of the street that went for more than 500 m. So when a smaller road forked off, we took it.
The smaller road took us through a subdivision, so we turned left and got back on the bigger road. And walked. And then we saw a little old lady coming up, carrying what looked like a small milk pail. I asked if she knew where Pod Vrba was. It took her a minute to understand, because of my accent. She said I should learn Slovenian. But then she said she was going by there and we could walk with her.
So we followed the little old lady. She went around the block, and then I think we got back on the main road again, because we passed the milk machine. We went down to the end of the block, and turned on a smaller road, which wound through the subdivision, and kept walking and walking. And finally there it was! We thanked her profusely and went to the patio to find a table. We sat down and realized we were staring at the backside of the complex where our apartment building is located. It only took 45 minutes to get there! Doh!
Dinner was soooo worth it. This was one of the places that I had looked at the menu online and used their English descriptions to translate words for my word list. (Yes, I have an Excel spreadsheet of Slovenian:English words that I made up from menus. I can't help being a geek.)
I had Veal Medallions in a Cabernet Sauce with Herbs and Homemade Gnocchi. Frank had Pork Fillet with Prunes and Grilled Polenta. (See the Menu.) Mine was 11.50 Euros, his was 10.90 Euros.
The food was amazing! My veal was more like 3 cutlets of beef, with an amazing gravy and gnocchi. Frank's fillets were round medallions of pork, about 1-1/2 to 2" tall, stuffed with prunes. There were 3 of those and 3 polenta "loafs." I couldn't finish my food. I was stuffed. Frank had room for the Sour Cherry Strudel, which I took a few bites of. It was good, but too sour for me.
After that, it was only a few hundred feet to our door, through the back of the apartment complex.
Day 4: Our first outing
Well, we woke up early and breakfast was a peach. Literally. We had our peach and some strawberries, then I ate a few leftover chicken corn flake strips from yesterday. We puttered around until a little after 7 am then headed off.
Nothing was open. Even the coffee shops were still setting up. We kept walking down by the river, and even the market was still setting up. But the stuff already up was amazing! The produce was beautiful and the smells were fabulous! There was also a clothing section to the market, and later in the day, food trucks.
Next to the river, by the market, were a series of shops with a covered walkway. We stopped and Frank got one of the specials: coffee and a marmalade croissant for 1.80 Euros.
By the way, coffee here is more like Italy. They ask if you want espresso, machiato, etc. And it's 1 Euro, which is just over a buck right now. So if you love coffee, this is the place to be!
We got our Ljubljana Cards from the visitor center - these give us access to a bunch of museums, the castle & funicular, a boat ride, and other stuff, for a discounted price (that we already paid). Oh yeah, free bus rides too.
The funicular didn't open until 9 am and I needed a restroom and a drink, so we went for those. There are public restrooms near just about every bridge. They are a little odd though, at least the one I used.
The ladies' was on one side of the bridge, and the men's on the opposite side - not the opposite side of the water, just across the near side of the bridge. But they met up under the bridge. Well, there was a glassed in office under the bridge. You walk down the stairs and see the office in front of you. To the right is the stone wall of the bridge, to the left is the ladies' room. In the ladies' room, there are windows looking out over the water. And to the right there's a glass door leading into the office. And if you look through the office, there's a glass door leading into the men's room. And there's a sign saying "Videotaped for your protection." Well, I'm assuming that's what the big picture of the video camera meant, and the actual camera in the sink area. Luckily, the stalls had very tall doors on them that went almost all the way to the floor. A bit weird though.
Afterwards, we stopped at a different coffee shop and I got a Limonada. It sounded good and was about a buck. It's lemon juice, diluted with water, and I don't think there was any sugar in it. It wasn't bad, just stronger than I'm used to.
Finally, it was time for the funicular. Thus begins the saga of the stairs! The funicular ride wasn't that long, but I enjoyed it. I took some pictures of the city. The funicular comes in at the bottom of the castle. Then you have to walk up about 3 different flights of stairs to get to the main level. From there, we went to the history section, which was included in our Cards.
The history section was small, but nice. They had videos explaining the different eras and artifacts from each. There were some computer games for kids and Lauren to play. And there was extra information at each display. And the regular displays were in Slovenian and English. We had to walk down for the first section of history. Then back up for the next. Then go up another flight of stairs to the room above the room we were originally in. Then go up another flight and we were near the theater. Then we saw the directions to the Viewing Tower.
We went up 2-3 flights of spiral stairs, and stopped at an area where you could leave the stairs and look out the windows. I could hear kids screaming above us, so I didn't want to move too fast. Then we went up another 2-3 flights and stopped at more windows. The kids were going down the stairs now - on a different staircase! There were 2 spiral staircases - one for going up, and one for going down. It looked like this was a class field trip.
We finally went up the last few flights and came out on top of the tower. The view was amazing! There's no ropes or glass or anything, you're just on top of a tower with crenelations, but there was very little space between them, so you couldn't get through them. There was a couple our age taking pictures and they asked us to take one of them. Then they took one of us. Then we heard more kids screaming up the stairs so we headed down.
Down is much easier than up. But then the theater was closed, so we went down some more stairs, several times, and into an art gallery we had seen from our arrival on the funicular but couldn't figure out how to get too. The art gallery had a little hallway gallery leading out to another large room where I think they held events or something. We kept looking around and finally found a door out. Then it was back down another flight to the chapel, because a tour group was heading towards us.
The chapel was really pretty! And there was a guy there doing calligraphy names for tips. So I got mine down in Gothic something-or-other. Then it was out another door and up another damn flight of stairs.
We both wanted a rest by now - it had been about 2 hours, so we headed towards the cafe. I got a water and Frank got a cocoa. The cocoa was really good. It was in a huge cup, with cream on top. It was rich and not overly sweet, but not bitter. I got the Prekmurska Gibanica (sp?) which is the national cake. It was humongous! I mean, it was square, about 3" on a side, and almost that tall. I split it with Frank and we couldn't finish it. I felt sad leaving some on the plate. It was really good! I'm not sure exactly what's in it, but it's about 6 layers of stuff, including an apple strudely layer, a poppy seedish layer, and some kind of cream or dessert cheese. I've got pics.
After our revival, we went up to the front wall of the castle - 2 flights of spiral stairs. Then down again. Then I needed the restroom which was all the down by the damn funicular. Three flights down, then 3 up, then the shops.
The gift shop was not that great. The crafts shop was really cool! We got Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts and saw some other stuff, but couldn't figure out how to get it back to the US without breaking it.
There are walking paths up to the castle, so we decided to take one down. I was intrigued by a sign, which showed a walking trail and what looked like a bulls-eye. So we took that one. Which turned out to be a switchback trail down the side of the steep hill. Parts of it were gravelled and I was in my sandals. Fun.
We finally made it down and then headed back to the old town for lunch. We weren't really hungry, so we stopped at a bar/cafe and got paninis. A tour group had bought out most of them, so we ended up with prosciutto and ementaler and a ground beef and cheddar one. They were cheesy, but only 2.50 Euros. Frank had a Dark Union beer - Union is one of the Slovenian beers. It wasn't bad either. The Slovenian beers seem smoother.
After that it was walking and looking around at stuff. There was an exhibit of wood at the Town Hall. There were chairs, benches, forks, computer mice, pears, etc. all made out of wood.
We stopped by the modern art exhibit at the City Art Gallery, which was up another flight of stairs. We went through the first section but skipped the next part, which was up another flight. I just can't get into a lot of modern art.
We kept wandering down the street, in the general vicinity of home, and then I took a nap and Frank read.
Nothing was open. Even the coffee shops were still setting up. We kept walking down by the river, and even the market was still setting up. But the stuff already up was amazing! The produce was beautiful and the smells were fabulous! There was also a clothing section to the market, and later in the day, food trucks.
Next to the river, by the market, were a series of shops with a covered walkway. We stopped and Frank got one of the specials: coffee and a marmalade croissant for 1.80 Euros.
By the way, coffee here is more like Italy. They ask if you want espresso, machiato, etc. And it's 1 Euro, which is just over a buck right now. So if you love coffee, this is the place to be!
We got our Ljubljana Cards from the visitor center - these give us access to a bunch of museums, the castle & funicular, a boat ride, and other stuff, for a discounted price (that we already paid). Oh yeah, free bus rides too.
The funicular didn't open until 9 am and I needed a restroom and a drink, so we went for those. There are public restrooms near just about every bridge. They are a little odd though, at least the one I used.
The ladies' was on one side of the bridge, and the men's on the opposite side - not the opposite side of the water, just across the near side of the bridge. But they met up under the bridge. Well, there was a glassed in office under the bridge. You walk down the stairs and see the office in front of you. To the right is the stone wall of the bridge, to the left is the ladies' room. In the ladies' room, there are windows looking out over the water. And to the right there's a glass door leading into the office. And if you look through the office, there's a glass door leading into the men's room. And there's a sign saying "Videotaped for your protection." Well, I'm assuming that's what the big picture of the video camera meant, and the actual camera in the sink area. Luckily, the stalls had very tall doors on them that went almost all the way to the floor. A bit weird though.
Afterwards, we stopped at a different coffee shop and I got a Limonada. It sounded good and was about a buck. It's lemon juice, diluted with water, and I don't think there was any sugar in it. It wasn't bad, just stronger than I'm used to.
Finally, it was time for the funicular. Thus begins the saga of the stairs! The funicular ride wasn't that long, but I enjoyed it. I took some pictures of the city. The funicular comes in at the bottom of the castle. Then you have to walk up about 3 different flights of stairs to get to the main level. From there, we went to the history section, which was included in our Cards.
The history section was small, but nice. They had videos explaining the different eras and artifacts from each. There were some computer games for kids and Lauren to play. And there was extra information at each display. And the regular displays were in Slovenian and English. We had to walk down for the first section of history. Then back up for the next. Then go up another flight of stairs to the room above the room we were originally in. Then go up another flight and we were near the theater. Then we saw the directions to the Viewing Tower.
We went up 2-3 flights of spiral stairs, and stopped at an area where you could leave the stairs and look out the windows. I could hear kids screaming above us, so I didn't want to move too fast. Then we went up another 2-3 flights and stopped at more windows. The kids were going down the stairs now - on a different staircase! There were 2 spiral staircases - one for going up, and one for going down. It looked like this was a class field trip.
We finally went up the last few flights and came out on top of the tower. The view was amazing! There's no ropes or glass or anything, you're just on top of a tower with crenelations, but there was very little space between them, so you couldn't get through them. There was a couple our age taking pictures and they asked us to take one of them. Then they took one of us. Then we heard more kids screaming up the stairs so we headed down.
Down is much easier than up. But then the theater was closed, so we went down some more stairs, several times, and into an art gallery we had seen from our arrival on the funicular but couldn't figure out how to get too. The art gallery had a little hallway gallery leading out to another large room where I think they held events or something. We kept looking around and finally found a door out. Then it was back down another flight to the chapel, because a tour group was heading towards us.
The chapel was really pretty! And there was a guy there doing calligraphy names for tips. So I got mine down in Gothic something-or-other. Then it was out another door and up another damn flight of stairs.
We both wanted a rest by now - it had been about 2 hours, so we headed towards the cafe. I got a water and Frank got a cocoa. The cocoa was really good. It was in a huge cup, with cream on top. It was rich and not overly sweet, but not bitter. I got the Prekmurska Gibanica (sp?) which is the national cake. It was humongous! I mean, it was square, about 3" on a side, and almost that tall. I split it with Frank and we couldn't finish it. I felt sad leaving some on the plate. It was really good! I'm not sure exactly what's in it, but it's about 6 layers of stuff, including an apple strudely layer, a poppy seedish layer, and some kind of cream or dessert cheese. I've got pics.
After our revival, we went up to the front wall of the castle - 2 flights of spiral stairs. Then down again. Then I needed the restroom which was all the down by the damn funicular. Three flights down, then 3 up, then the shops.
The gift shop was not that great. The crafts shop was really cool! We got Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts and saw some other stuff, but couldn't figure out how to get it back to the US without breaking it.
There are walking paths up to the castle, so we decided to take one down. I was intrigued by a sign, which showed a walking trail and what looked like a bulls-eye. So we took that one. Which turned out to be a switchback trail down the side of the steep hill. Parts of it were gravelled and I was in my sandals. Fun.
We finally made it down and then headed back to the old town for lunch. We weren't really hungry, so we stopped at a bar/cafe and got paninis. A tour group had bought out most of them, so we ended up with prosciutto and ementaler and a ground beef and cheddar one. They were cheesy, but only 2.50 Euros. Frank had a Dark Union beer - Union is one of the Slovenian beers. It wasn't bad either. The Slovenian beers seem smoother.
After that it was walking and looking around at stuff. There was an exhibit of wood at the Town Hall. There were chairs, benches, forks, computer mice, pears, etc. all made out of wood.
We stopped by the modern art exhibit at the City Art Gallery, which was up another flight of stairs. We went through the first section but skipped the next part, which was up another flight. I just can't get into a lot of modern art.
We kept wandering down the street, in the general vicinity of home, and then I took a nap and Frank read.
Day 3: Slovenia - Slovely!
Part II
We made it! We gathered our bags, walked through a small door into the Arrivals area, and then walked outside. We're renting an AirBnB apartment and I had just finished reading the description of the vehicle picking us up, when it arrived. Perfect timing!
Stasa drove us to the apartment and showed us the bikes downstairs and where everything was. Then we collapsed. But only for a few minutes. I really wanted to get some shopping out of the way so we could relax and I could shower and not change into dirty clothes.
Right down the lane is a little supermarket so we stopped in and got a few things. And a few nibbles. They have these things here called burek, which are kind of a filo or croissant style dough with a filling. We got cheese, spinach, and potato burek!
The cheese one was not bad. I don't like much cheese, but this one was mild and inoffensive. The spinach burek was spinach and cheese, in a spiral shape, and it was really good. The potato burek - oh my. It was in more of a croissant-style dough and it was amazing! I've got pics I'll try to upload later. I'm really too tired for much right now.
On our way home, we were accosted by the fruit man. We had passed his fruit stall on the way to the market, but on the way home stopped to look. He gave us each a strawberry, and that was all it took. We had to buy some! If you shop at Allen's, you know how good the strawberries from Pea Ridge are, especially compared to Walmart. These were at least on par with Pea Ridge, but a slightly different variety.
After the strawberry, he gave us a slice of pear. Wow. Frank doesn't like pears, but he agreed that we should buy one of those too. We also got a peach. And a free slice of cantaloupe. What appears to be actual cantaloupe, not what we call cantaloupe in America. We didn't get one of those, mainly because we weren't sure what kind of utensils and knives were in the apartment. But I think we'll get one tomorrow.
After our jaunt, I took a nap and a wonderful hot shower. Finally - clean clothes! We sliced up the pear and ate it, then headed off to look for dinner.
We mainly wandered around until we finally found a restaurant that wasn't a coffee shop or pizzeria. Although we did pass a Thai place too. Maybe tomorrow.
The restaurant is called Eksperiment. We were the first ones in there. Everyone else seemed to be getting off of work and having a coffee or beer.
For starters we got Chicken Taquitos with Guacamole, which were good. I got the Sticky Fingers - strips of chicken rolled in corn flakes, fried; Frank got the Chicken Schnitzel. And we both got fried potatoes with it.
Overall, it was good. The potatoes came out in this huge bowl! I'll post pics later. But I couldn't finish it. Frank had a pint of the house draft. It was pretty good. I took a sip and it was smooth, without the funky aftertaste I associate with beer.
Afterwards, we went home and unpacked and read and went to bed. Which is why we woke up at 5:30 the next morning.
We made it! We gathered our bags, walked through a small door into the Arrivals area, and then walked outside. We're renting an AirBnB apartment and I had just finished reading the description of the vehicle picking us up, when it arrived. Perfect timing!
Stasa drove us to the apartment and showed us the bikes downstairs and where everything was. Then we collapsed. But only for a few minutes. I really wanted to get some shopping out of the way so we could relax and I could shower and not change into dirty clothes.
Right down the lane is a little supermarket so we stopped in and got a few things. And a few nibbles. They have these things here called burek, which are kind of a filo or croissant style dough with a filling. We got cheese, spinach, and potato burek!
The cheese one was not bad. I don't like much cheese, but this one was mild and inoffensive. The spinach burek was spinach and cheese, in a spiral shape, and it was really good. The potato burek - oh my. It was in more of a croissant-style dough and it was amazing! I've got pics I'll try to upload later. I'm really too tired for much right now.
On our way home, we were accosted by the fruit man. We had passed his fruit stall on the way to the market, but on the way home stopped to look. He gave us each a strawberry, and that was all it took. We had to buy some! If you shop at Allen's, you know how good the strawberries from Pea Ridge are, especially compared to Walmart. These were at least on par with Pea Ridge, but a slightly different variety.
After the strawberry, he gave us a slice of pear. Wow. Frank doesn't like pears, but he agreed that we should buy one of those too. We also got a peach. And a free slice of cantaloupe. What appears to be actual cantaloupe, not what we call cantaloupe in America. We didn't get one of those, mainly because we weren't sure what kind of utensils and knives were in the apartment. But I think we'll get one tomorrow.
After our jaunt, I took a nap and a wonderful hot shower. Finally - clean clothes! We sliced up the pear and ate it, then headed off to look for dinner.
We mainly wandered around until we finally found a restaurant that wasn't a coffee shop or pizzeria. Although we did pass a Thai place too. Maybe tomorrow.
The restaurant is called Eksperiment. We were the first ones in there. Everyone else seemed to be getting off of work and having a coffee or beer.
For starters we got Chicken Taquitos with Guacamole, which were good. I got the Sticky Fingers - strips of chicken rolled in corn flakes, fried; Frank got the Chicken Schnitzel. And we both got fried potatoes with it.
Overall, it was good. The potatoes came out in this huge bowl! I'll post pics later. But I couldn't finish it. Frank had a pint of the house draft. It was pretty good. I took a sip and it was smooth, without the funky aftertaste I associate with beer.
Afterwards, we went home and unpacked and read and went to bed. Which is why we woke up at 5:30 the next morning.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Day 3: Air France Doesn't Suck!
And the saga to Slovenia continues...
Okay, today wasn't too bad. We woke up early for breakfast at 6am. As I was checking out, the guy said he needed my card for my room upgrade. We were like what? We paid yesterday. Which we did. Eventually we got through to him and he printed us a receipt. As we were leaving I told him the AC wasn't working properly and we had called yesterday about it. They had said they would send a technician to check it. The guy said, We know it doesn't work. But the AC technician couldn't get here for a few days. I will definitely be putting that on Expedia!
So our original flight to Ljubljana said Adria Air, an Air France affiliate (so is Delta). I looked it up on the computer and it leaves from Terminal 1. Our shuttle bus doesn't go to Terminal 1. So we take our bus back to where we started from yesterday at Terminal 2. Right as we get off, another bus pulls up and it says Terminal 1. Huzzah! So we board that and check with the driver.
Now we're on our way. We pull into Roissypole and the driver tells us this is for Terminal 1. Turns out, we have to catch the train here to Terminal 1. Thank goodness for nice drivers! We catch the train and enter Terminal 1. I don't see our flight on the Departures board, so I ask at information. Turns out, our flights is actually an Air France flight, leaving from Terminal 2. And the Adria flight LEAVES AT NIGHT. Remember way back when, when Delta told me there was only 1 flight a day to Ljubljana? Which didn't quite make sense as I remembered seeing more than 1 when I booked our flight. But I was tired.
So, now we catch the train back to Terminal 2, looking for 2G. We arrive and see a sign for F & G. We take a bunch of moving walkways to F, and then outside F is another bus that goes to G. Thank goodness. Because you can't walk there. It's in the boonies of Chareles De Gaulle Airport. It's an older building and it's very small.
We got in a very short line and got our boarding passes and told them my luggage was there somewhere. Then it was through security. They were training a lady, so I had to pull my Kindle out of my purse and get them rescanned. Then we went upstairs to a giant seating area. There were several shops, and I mean shops like luggage and purses, and wine. As well as snacks and a bar. There was a sealed off smoking area and an area for reading with some walls around to block out the sound.
Basically, you sat here until 20 minutes before your flight, and a gate number would show up on the Departures screen and it would say Boarding. Then you walked down to the end and through a door, leading outside. There were 2 long, long skyways leading different directions. At the end of ours was a large room, like a warehouse with stairways leading down to the gates. You check through there and go outside and them clambor aboard the plane. Easy peasy.
The flight was great! Frank noticed that the planes we could see from the windows looked much newer than what we're used to flying on in America. This one wasn't as noisy, and the seats seemed a bit bigger. We could both lean back in our seat without one of us getting their shoulder smushed.
We got drinks and 2 cookies and mini-rosemary breadsticks for snacks. But it's Air France, not Delta. The flight was fast and I could see the Alps below us. As we got to Slovenia, I could see Lake Bled, with its island. I took pics so hopefully they came out.
We got in a few minutes early, walked down the stairs to our plane, and there was a bus to take us to the terminal. Inside were 2 baggage claims. We waited, and waited some more. And finally, a purple bag arose from the bowels of the airport and made its grand way around the carousel! Frank let me do the honors of pulling it off in triumph. We made it to Slovenia!
Part II later...
Okay, today wasn't too bad. We woke up early for breakfast at 6am. As I was checking out, the guy said he needed my card for my room upgrade. We were like what? We paid yesterday. Which we did. Eventually we got through to him and he printed us a receipt. As we were leaving I told him the AC wasn't working properly and we had called yesterday about it. They had said they would send a technician to check it. The guy said, We know it doesn't work. But the AC technician couldn't get here for a few days. I will definitely be putting that on Expedia!
So our original flight to Ljubljana said Adria Air, an Air France affiliate (so is Delta). I looked it up on the computer and it leaves from Terminal 1. Our shuttle bus doesn't go to Terminal 1. So we take our bus back to where we started from yesterday at Terminal 2. Right as we get off, another bus pulls up and it says Terminal 1. Huzzah! So we board that and check with the driver.
Now we're on our way. We pull into Roissypole and the driver tells us this is for Terminal 1. Turns out, we have to catch the train here to Terminal 1. Thank goodness for nice drivers! We catch the train and enter Terminal 1. I don't see our flight on the Departures board, so I ask at information. Turns out, our flights is actually an Air France flight, leaving from Terminal 2. And the Adria flight LEAVES AT NIGHT. Remember way back when, when Delta told me there was only 1 flight a day to Ljubljana? Which didn't quite make sense as I remembered seeing more than 1 when I booked our flight. But I was tired.
So, now we catch the train back to Terminal 2, looking for 2G. We arrive and see a sign for F & G. We take a bunch of moving walkways to F, and then outside F is another bus that goes to G. Thank goodness. Because you can't walk there. It's in the boonies of Chareles De Gaulle Airport. It's an older building and it's very small.
We got in a very short line and got our boarding passes and told them my luggage was there somewhere. Then it was through security. They were training a lady, so I had to pull my Kindle out of my purse and get them rescanned. Then we went upstairs to a giant seating area. There were several shops, and I mean shops like luggage and purses, and wine. As well as snacks and a bar. There was a sealed off smoking area and an area for reading with some walls around to block out the sound.
Basically, you sat here until 20 minutes before your flight, and a gate number would show up on the Departures screen and it would say Boarding. Then you walked down to the end and through a door, leading outside. There were 2 long, long skyways leading different directions. At the end of ours was a large room, like a warehouse with stairways leading down to the gates. You check through there and go outside and them clambor aboard the plane. Easy peasy.
The flight was great! Frank noticed that the planes we could see from the windows looked much newer than what we're used to flying on in America. This one wasn't as noisy, and the seats seemed a bit bigger. We could both lean back in our seat without one of us getting their shoulder smushed.
We got drinks and 2 cookies and mini-rosemary breadsticks for snacks. But it's Air France, not Delta. The flight was fast and I could see the Alps below us. As we got to Slovenia, I could see Lake Bled, with its island. I took pics so hopefully they came out.
We got in a few minutes early, walked down the stairs to our plane, and there was a bus to take us to the terminal. Inside were 2 baggage claims. We waited, and waited some more. And finally, a purple bag arose from the bowels of the airport and made its grand way around the carousel! Frank let me do the honors of pulling it off in triumph. We made it to Slovenia!
Part II later...
Monday, May 11, 2015
Day 2: Delta Still Sucks
So, we sit around and finally our plane starts boarding. It started out fairly well. A young couple came up behind us and asked us what zone was boarding. We told them and then the guy asked where we were going. I told him and he said "Slovenia! I love Slovenia!" He started giving me tips and pointers from their trip there last year, and I knew most of the places he was talking about. Meanwhile, Frank and the girlfriend are giving each other glances, like "I'm traveling with a crazy, obsessive person." We talked all the way up to the airplane and then exchanged cards.
The seats were okay. I had a window, and Frank had the aisle, on the row in front of me, so the nice lady next to me agreed to switch seats with him. Then we got comfy and started watching movies.
I was in the middle of my first movie when the food was brought around. "What was it?" you ask. "Was it a choice of Chicken fricassee with cream sauce, mashed potatoes, and carrots or Penne pasta with salmon and creamed leeks? With sides of Quinoa salad with corn and black beans, Cheese wedge (Brie), Fruit compote, Coconut cake, Bread, and a small water?" Or perhaps it was "Chicken with lemon sauce, bulgur wheat, and vegetables OR Florentine 4-cheese tortellini, goat cheese, and tomato. With sides of tomatoes and zucchini, Camembert cheese, cherry tomatoes, bread, and chocolate mousse?" Like on my last transatlantic flights? No, it wasn't that, because I'm flying fucking Delta and they Suck.
We had a choice of beef, pasta, or shrimp salad. I took the beef, because I needed protein, and I've seen the movie Airplane too many times. Frank took the shrimp salad. My beef was basically small, sometimes tenderized, pieces of stew meat with maybe turnips or parsnips or both. It wasn't potatoes. There was an iceberg salad with 3 cucumbers and ranch dressing - blech! A piece of bread that was okay, but nothing special. And butter and some crackers.
The shrimp salad looked better. It was 4 shrimp on a salad, with a tiny bottle of olive oil vinaigrette. The same bread and butter, but a "side salad" of kiwi, grapes, etc. Cheese, and a brownie. My lovely husband took pity on me and gave me the brownie! It wasn't bad.
After that, I started watching another movie, but only made it through about 30 minutes before I had to pause it and I passed out. I was wiped.
I woke up about 90 minutes from Paris. They decided to bring us breakfast. Because on the east coast, it was about breakfast time. Never mind that it was lunch time in Europe. The foreign airlines always serve food for the time zone you're going to. But I guess Delta can't do that because 'Murica!
Breakfast was a disappointment as well. It was a tiny, hot croissant, shmushed, with a tiny omelet inside it. It didn't taste bad, but it was maybe 2" in diameter. There was a pack of tiny "bruschetta" pieces and some kind of cheese spread, an orange juice, and a granola bar. Oh, and a mint.
They came around with drinks after that, so I got tea. It was so bitter and nasty I had to add 2 packs of sugar to it, to make it drinkable, and I still couldn't finish it. It is not that hard to make tea, people! The Brit do it several times a day!
By now, Frank has gotten a small migraine. So after we land, we wait for almost everyone to get off and then make our way through customs and to the baggage claim. Where we wait. And wait. Until the belt stops. No bag. So we go to the Baggage Desk. The Delta guy in Atlanta had told me that he was sending my bag to Paris, and I could collect it there and then re-check it the next day for the flight to Slovenia. Apparently, that wasn't what happened. My bag made it to Paris, and since I had a continuing flight, it was put in the transit section to get put on my plane tomorrow. So, no shower and new clothes for me!
We're walking to the hotel shuttles and stop for a restroom break. This next section may be too gross for some people. I've been PMSy, so I was expecting to start my period soon. Apparently, I started it before the plane landed, and bled through my underwear and onto my khaki pants. So now I'm stuck in Paris with bloody pants and sweaty clothes. Luckily I carry a change of underwear with me on flights. I know this technically isn't Delta's fault, but the lack of clothing is, so I'm blaming them. Fuck you Delta! I hope I bled on your seat.
We finally get outside and wait on the shuttle bus. That only took about 15 minutes. Another 15 and we're at our hotel. Everything goes great, we get up to our room, and it's hot as hell. I guess the ACs are off until you check into your room. So we've had the AC on for over and hour and it's just starting to cool off. I went to the pub and grabbed a sandwich, which was really good! And I paid 4 euros for a freaking coke, but I wanted something sweet and cold.
Frank is napping and I'm typing, then I'm going to try and clean my clothes off and let them dry before we leave in the morning. Wish me luck!
Oh yeah, one more thing. Delta sucks!!!
#DeltaSucks
The seats were okay. I had a window, and Frank had the aisle, on the row in front of me, so the nice lady next to me agreed to switch seats with him. Then we got comfy and started watching movies.
I was in the middle of my first movie when the food was brought around. "What was it?" you ask. "Was it a choice of Chicken fricassee with cream sauce, mashed potatoes, and carrots or Penne pasta with salmon and creamed leeks? With sides of Quinoa salad with corn and black beans, Cheese wedge (Brie), Fruit compote, Coconut cake, Bread, and a small water?" Or perhaps it was "Chicken with lemon sauce, bulgur wheat, and vegetables OR Florentine 4-cheese tortellini, goat cheese, and tomato. With sides of tomatoes and zucchini, Camembert cheese, cherry tomatoes, bread, and chocolate mousse?" Like on my last transatlantic flights? No, it wasn't that, because I'm flying fucking Delta and they Suck.
We had a choice of beef, pasta, or shrimp salad. I took the beef, because I needed protein, and I've seen the movie Airplane too many times. Frank took the shrimp salad. My beef was basically small, sometimes tenderized, pieces of stew meat with maybe turnips or parsnips or both. It wasn't potatoes. There was an iceberg salad with 3 cucumbers and ranch dressing - blech! A piece of bread that was okay, but nothing special. And butter and some crackers.
The shrimp salad looked better. It was 4 shrimp on a salad, with a tiny bottle of olive oil vinaigrette. The same bread and butter, but a "side salad" of kiwi, grapes, etc. Cheese, and a brownie. My lovely husband took pity on me and gave me the brownie! It wasn't bad.
After that, I started watching another movie, but only made it through about 30 minutes before I had to pause it and I passed out. I was wiped.
I woke up about 90 minutes from Paris. They decided to bring us breakfast. Because on the east coast, it was about breakfast time. Never mind that it was lunch time in Europe. The foreign airlines always serve food for the time zone you're going to. But I guess Delta can't do that because 'Murica!
Breakfast was a disappointment as well. It was a tiny, hot croissant, shmushed, with a tiny omelet inside it. It didn't taste bad, but it was maybe 2" in diameter. There was a pack of tiny "bruschetta" pieces and some kind of cheese spread, an orange juice, and a granola bar. Oh, and a mint.
They came around with drinks after that, so I got tea. It was so bitter and nasty I had to add 2 packs of sugar to it, to make it drinkable, and I still couldn't finish it. It is not that hard to make tea, people! The Brit do it several times a day!
By now, Frank has gotten a small migraine. So after we land, we wait for almost everyone to get off and then make our way through customs and to the baggage claim. Where we wait. And wait. Until the belt stops. No bag. So we go to the Baggage Desk. The Delta guy in Atlanta had told me that he was sending my bag to Paris, and I could collect it there and then re-check it the next day for the flight to Slovenia. Apparently, that wasn't what happened. My bag made it to Paris, and since I had a continuing flight, it was put in the transit section to get put on my plane tomorrow. So, no shower and new clothes for me!
We're walking to the hotel shuttles and stop for a restroom break. This next section may be too gross for some people. I've been PMSy, so I was expecting to start my period soon. Apparently, I started it before the plane landed, and bled through my underwear and onto my khaki pants. So now I'm stuck in Paris with bloody pants and sweaty clothes. Luckily I carry a change of underwear with me on flights. I know this technically isn't Delta's fault, but the lack of clothing is, so I'm blaming them. Fuck you Delta! I hope I bled on your seat.
We finally get outside and wait on the shuttle bus. That only took about 15 minutes. Another 15 and we're at our hotel. Everything goes great, we get up to our room, and it's hot as hell. I guess the ACs are off until you check into your room. So we've had the AC on for over and hour and it's just starting to cool off. I went to the pub and grabbed a sandwich, which was really good! And I paid 4 euros for a freaking coke, but I wanted something sweet and cold.
Frank is napping and I'm typing, then I'm going to try and clean my clothes off and let them dry before we leave in the morning. Wish me luck!
Oh yeah, one more thing. Delta sucks!!!
#DeltaSucks
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Day 1: Delta Sucks
The day started off inauspiciously enough. We were packed ahead of time. I did some last minute vacuuming to get rid of the gigantic piles of dog hair that perpetually live at our house. I even got a nice drive to the airport from my friend Eunice, of the Village Chauffeur. Then it went wrong.
We got to the airport around 10:45 am. There was no line for Delta, so we went right up and got our boarding passes and made it through security relatively quickly. I was reading the current book for my book club, when the guy behind me got a text and said "The flight's delayed."
A few minutes later the gate person announced that because of the storm we had just had (which was bad but brief, maybe 15 minutes) the pilot had gotten low on fuel and had to divert to Memphis. Say what? It was an hour away. She said he should be back in about an hour.
Well, one hour turned into 2 hours. Which was our exact layover time in Atlanta. I talked to the gate agent and she said if we missed the connection, the next flight we could get on was at 5:45 pm, the next day. Joy.
We waited. The damn plane finally made it back and everyone got off. Including the 1 flight attendant who had to use the bathroom. So we spent several minutes waiting for her to finish and get back so we could board.
We finally take off. The flight was uneventful. The flight attendant was nice. We told her the situation, and several other people were in the same boat, so when we landed at 5:30, she asked people to remain seated so we could get off the plane first.
Thus commenced almost 10 minutes of waiting for the gate agent to get in the fucking jetway and attach it to the plane. The flight attendant said the plane-checked bags were already out, so we should be okay. But we weren't. It took another 5 minutes for someone to open the pulldown door where the checked bags were supposed to be, and then actually unload the checked bags.
While Frank waited on his bag, I ran to the desk by the gate and asked about our next flight. The woman looked it up on her computer and said it was at gate F1 and it was running late and wouldn't depart until 6:10. Huzzah!
We grab our stuff and hustle down the concourse - of course we were at the very end. We catch the train to F, go up 2 escalators, and then have to hustle down to the end of that concourse. Which is when we see our plane about 50 feet away from the jetway, leaving. And it was at gate F3. I asked some airport guys there if that was our plane, could we get it back, and they were like "Duh? We're not Delta people." At this point, it was 5:50 pm.
I go down to F1 which now shows an Air France flight, and ask there. That flight was a different flight, and we were told to go to the red help desk. We went there, and after a long, long, long time, the guy helping us finally got our tickets changed from Air France, to a Delta flight leaving later this evening. So we'll get to Paris in the afternoon, then spend the night, because there's only 1 flight a day to Slovenia, and it's in the morning.
Fuck! If Delta wasn't incompetent, we would have made our flight, even being 2 hours late!
By this point, we were both red and completely drenched in sweat from our run. We walked back to the terminal to find some food, but it was either pricey, packed, or just looked icky. I checked a directory and we ended up going back to C to eat at the Atlanta Bread Company. I was getting a caffeine headache by then, and starving, since I hadn't really eaten since breakfast and it was now after 6pm.
After that, we headed back to F concourse. Only to discover that since we were flying an actual Delta jet, it was at E concourse. So we head there. I eventually got hooked up to Wifi and tweeted angrily @Delta for a while. Then I started looking for hotels near Charles De Gaulle airport.
About 8pm Frank needed some caffeine. There's a big food court and coffee shop at the front end of this concourse, so he went there. It was closed. There was a woman at the coffee shop and he said "Is there anywhere in this pesthole of an airport where I can get coffee?" She said "F concourse." Of course.
So he's on a quest for coffee while I blog and watch our bags. At least we'll be overnighting in Paris. Le sigh.
We got to the airport around 10:45 am. There was no line for Delta, so we went right up and got our boarding passes and made it through security relatively quickly. I was reading the current book for my book club, when the guy behind me got a text and said "The flight's delayed."
A few minutes later the gate person announced that because of the storm we had just had (which was bad but brief, maybe 15 minutes) the pilot had gotten low on fuel and had to divert to Memphis. Say what? It was an hour away. She said he should be back in about an hour.
Well, one hour turned into 2 hours. Which was our exact layover time in Atlanta. I talked to the gate agent and she said if we missed the connection, the next flight we could get on was at 5:45 pm, the next day. Joy.
We waited. The damn plane finally made it back and everyone got off. Including the 1 flight attendant who had to use the bathroom. So we spent several minutes waiting for her to finish and get back so we could board.
We finally take off. The flight was uneventful. The flight attendant was nice. We told her the situation, and several other people were in the same boat, so when we landed at 5:30, she asked people to remain seated so we could get off the plane first.
Thus commenced almost 10 minutes of waiting for the gate agent to get in the fucking jetway and attach it to the plane. The flight attendant said the plane-checked bags were already out, so we should be okay. But we weren't. It took another 5 minutes for someone to open the pulldown door where the checked bags were supposed to be, and then actually unload the checked bags.
While Frank waited on his bag, I ran to the desk by the gate and asked about our next flight. The woman looked it up on her computer and said it was at gate F1 and it was running late and wouldn't depart until 6:10. Huzzah!
We grab our stuff and hustle down the concourse - of course we were at the very end. We catch the train to F, go up 2 escalators, and then have to hustle down to the end of that concourse. Which is when we see our plane about 50 feet away from the jetway, leaving. And it was at gate F3. I asked some airport guys there if that was our plane, could we get it back, and they were like "Duh? We're not Delta people." At this point, it was 5:50 pm.
I go down to F1 which now shows an Air France flight, and ask there. That flight was a different flight, and we were told to go to the red help desk. We went there, and after a long, long, long time, the guy helping us finally got our tickets changed from Air France, to a Delta flight leaving later this evening. So we'll get to Paris in the afternoon, then spend the night, because there's only 1 flight a day to Slovenia, and it's in the morning.
Fuck! If Delta wasn't incompetent, we would have made our flight, even being 2 hours late!
By this point, we were both red and completely drenched in sweat from our run. We walked back to the terminal to find some food, but it was either pricey, packed, or just looked icky. I checked a directory and we ended up going back to C to eat at the Atlanta Bread Company. I was getting a caffeine headache by then, and starving, since I hadn't really eaten since breakfast and it was now after 6pm.
After that, we headed back to F concourse. Only to discover that since we were flying an actual Delta jet, it was at E concourse. So we head there. I eventually got hooked up to Wifi and tweeted angrily @Delta for a while. Then I started looking for hotels near Charles De Gaulle airport.
About 8pm Frank needed some caffeine. There's a big food court and coffee shop at the front end of this concourse, so he went there. It was closed. There was a woman at the coffee shop and he said "Is there anywhere in this pesthole of an airport where I can get coffee?" She said "F concourse." Of course.
So he's on a quest for coffee while I blog and watch our bags. At least we'll be overnighting in Paris. Le sigh.
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