Slovenia! Goodbye to New Friends & Day 22!

Today is our last day in Slovenia.  Robyn, Pam, Tom, a gentleman in our group, and I head to Serbia tomorrow.  Everyone else flies home.  It has been a very congenial group of fifteen mostly strangers who have learned and laughed together, and I would love to travel with them again!

It was our first lazy morning since we are not meeting until 10:00 for the farmers’ market.  Robyn and Pam walked to Tivoli Gardens, but I needed a few minutes to re-group after my organizational failure yesterday.  Plus, I made double sure to use deodorant!

Breakfast is our hotel has been lovely with made to order eggs and bacon for the first time instead of a buffet.  What will I do returning home without someone to slice my fruit?

As we meet in the center square of the city, I admire the statue and the Art Deco building.  

 
 

We walk to the fish market where beautiful fresh seafood is available 

until you see this guy!  I sent a picture to the grandkids and said I was voting it as the scariest fish!

I thought this poster was cute because that is how I feel sometimes!

The fruits and vegetables are gorgeous and so fresh and colorful.  This is clementine season along with chestnuts.

 

Do you have any idea what this is?  

It’s a milk dispensary machine!  You place an empty bottle in the door and fill it based on your selection.  Damir teases that a cow is hooked up behind the machine!

The flowers are incredible!  Every color of the rainbow as Croatians prepare for All Saints Day on November 1.   

There were fresh cut flowers,

 

potted plants,

 

arrangements,

wreaths including this one made of moss,

and hydrangeas with the biggest blooms and richest colors I’ve ever seen!

Isn’t this the cutest?  I’m not sure if she is for washing hands or filling water bottles.


An interesting sign at the food festival!

Some of our food has been great!  Some of our food has been hum-drum!  A lot of the pork and veal has been dry.   I would love to bbq them some ribs!  Finally, I see bbq at the food festival with a Jack Daniels Whiskey sauce, and the booth has the longest line!

We cruise along the Ljubljana River which flows through town with champagne in hand!

 

Swans and ducks dot the waterways,

  

 

and a few plants and trees have colorful displays.

  

Houses line streets along the river 

  
 

and graceful bridges cross it including

  

the dragon bridge.  The dragon is the symbol of Ljubljana.

  

Then the music and dancing begins!!
 

We wander the food stalls and vendors for earrings and souvenirs.  An elderly man surrounded by amazing original acrylic artwork primarily of Lake Bled captures my attention.  This is going home with me!

The Ljubljana Castle has been excavated and explored.  

  

There are ancient dungeons where prisoners were lowered into them, 

and examples of window bars and doors which locked prisoners inside,

  

the well where one prisoner escaped,

  

and examples of excavated buttons which the prisoners made.

The original chapel has been repainted,

  

and an interesting perspective through a keyhole cutout in the stone wall.

The watch tower with 134 steps…I counted them!…goes up and up with views of the city,

  

and courtyard, 

and mountains.  

I was there!

At the outbreak of WWI, Ljubljana Castle was used as a prison for criminals and political prisoners.  As the war continued, it received captured POWs from Serbian, Russia, England and France, but the largest number were from Italy.  It then became a quarantine station before prisoners were moved to larger POW camps in Austria and Hungary.

We take the funicular down 

and walk for a final time through Ljubljana stopping at a handmade lace shop for a Christmas ornament.

I know we have driven 1,500 miles on this main trip, but we were in Albania first and heading to Serbia.  Wonder how many miles we have covered?

And how many miles have I walked!

We gather for a final drink before our farewell dinner.  Robyn has written a wonderful poem for Damir; she is quite the poet!  Damir asks everyone our impressions of the Balkans and favorite moment.  

I have enjoyed the friendly people, and learning the history, but especially our day on the farm, being in the hill towns of Istria, and spending time at Lake Bled.

We thoroughly surprise Damir with my tacky but funny play which everyone performs beautifully!  He laughs and laughs, and Robyn said he almost cried.  Being a senior guide, we thought many groups did something special for him, but he said this was the first time for a poem or play!

Pam delivers a little speech about Damir’s childhood aversion to the “human fish” of Postojna Cave.  She presents him with a cuddly plush key ring.  Robyn has a refrigerator magnet of the creature for him, and I have a multi-jointed wriggling one.  Best of all, it light up in the dark!  I tell him it’s for his pillow!

Dinner conversation is good, but the food is not.  I wish I had blueberry gelato instead!

We return to the hotel for final hugs and goodbyes since everyone but the four remaining travelers to Serbia will be leaving for the airport at 4:30 AM!

The play caused me some lost sleep, but it was so worth it!  I love the little gifts we gave Damir!  I guess as the mother of three boys, I have a wicked streak in me!

GJ Travels to Serbia tomorrow on the final leg of this adventure!  Now I have to pack!