Last weekend (10/15-10/17) we went on our class trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia (pronounced "looo-bleee-yaaawn-nah"). While I did not enjoy waking up at 6:30am to head to the train station, it was a fun weekend.
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| group photo |
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| The Funicular! |
We arrived in Ljubljana after a 6 hour train ride. After getting our room assignments (girls in a 4 bed room and the boys split between another 2 rooms) we made our way to the Ljubljana Castle. We took the funicular up, which is like a little tram, and walked around the grounds. Our guide pointed out the different parts of the city from the top tower of the castle, and showed us the oldest grape vine in the world. It was freezing cold at the tower so I ended up buying a scarf. There are dragon statues all around the town and the castle.
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| romantic |
Ljubljana derives its "dragon history" from Jason and the Argonauts. I found out that the story of Robin Hood was actually based in Slovenia in that Castle. We also stumbled into a Slovenian wedding party. How amazing and romantic would it be to get married at a castle?
After a couple hours at the castle, we walked towards a restaurant. It turned out to be an Olympic themed restaurant, showcasing the year that the Olympics came to Slovenia (I think 1987?). After some Bosnian beer, we had some Cevapcici and bread (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%86evap%C4%8Di%C4%87i). After walking back to our room, we stayed up until 10:30pm, watching movies on my laptop. Such a wild night! ;)
The next morning our art history teacher, Markus, gave us a small tour of the Slovenian architecture and then we were free to roam for a couple hours. Ian, Cyd, Andrew and I got some delicious and inexpensive food and then wandered around for a bit. Later on we regrouped with Alice and Rose and went shopping at the booths that were set up along the river.
For dinner, we went to a great pizza place and then listened to some live music before sitting at a bar and drinking beers.
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| at Cacao Cafe |
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| Lots of grafitti in Ljubljana, lots of it was this cute pony:) |
Sunday morning we walked around some more but it was raining so I was less enthusiastic and was ready to head home to Vienna. Cyd and I got home at 11pm, but we saw snow on the train ride home so it brightened my night.
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| London 2008 |
I had my 4 year anniversary with Cheyney this Thursday! It doesn't feel like its been that long, it just feels natural. Seeing his smile on skype makes me happy, so it must be love ;) He is enjoying his program and I think is really settling into the Santa Cruz life, though he misses Duck games and Eugene. It is hard being away from him and I miss him like crazy, but I am having so much fun over here and every week goes by so fast, I know I will see him before I know it:)
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| I wish my summer residence looked like this?! |
Today I went to the Tiergarten, or Zoo, with Cyd and Ian. It is based at Schönbrunn Palace, which is only a couple U-Bahn transfers away from our neighborhood. My camera died near the end, so I don't have many pictures of the Palace from atop the hill, but it was breathtaking.
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| Elephants! |
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| sleepy Orangutan |
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| Giraffes (made me think of Cheyney's mom, Ellen:) I heard they are her favorite animal |
The Zoo was so much fun. Cyd and I loved seeing all of the baby animals and I think Ian was just amused at our baby voices that we talked to the animals with. We started out by seeing a Rhino and made our way through Polar Bears, Ringtailed Lemurs, Cheetahs, Penguins, Water Buffalos, Elephants, and Giraffes.
We got lunch at the Kaiser Pavilion and I had Schnitzel and Pommes (fries). Well when we got to the bear pit, I realized I still had my leftover fries in a little package. I went to grab them out and as I did, I flung the packet of ketchup into the bear pit we were overlooking. The bear promptly got out of its little bear swing (if my camera hadn't died, I would have taken lots of pictures of this. Such a cute bear swing). It took him a couple minutes, but he found the packet and devoured the ketchup. Ooops!
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| lemur |
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| sea lion |
Overall it has been a great week. I have my history midterm and my international organizations class midterm on Monday, which stinks. So I will probably spend tonight studying. I also have my German midterm on Thursday, but after that Cyd, Ian, Andrew and I head off to Amsterdam for the long weekend. I'm excited to meet up with my friend Alison there. She is studying in Germany for the year so this will be one of my only chances to see her for a long time. We plan on checking out the Rembrandt museum, as well as the giant AMSTERDAM word structure, and maybe I can convince Ian and Cyd to rent bikes with me and check out some of the country side:)
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| rhino eating leaves |
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| Peccary (mom and baby) |
We arrived in Ljubljana after a 6 hour train ride. After getting our room assignments (girls in a 4 bed room and the boys split between another 2 rooms) we made our way to the Ljubljana Castle. We took the funicular up, which is like a little tram, and walked around the grounds. Our guide pointed out the different parts of the city from the top tower of the castle, and showed us the oldest grape vine in the world. It was freezing cold at the tower so I ended up buying a scarf. There are dragon statues all around the town and the castle. 
