My last days in the Euro-zone: Ravenna, Trieste, Ljubljana, and Bled.

Hey all, even though it’s been two weeks since I last posted, I feel like it’s been two months. In that time, I

Packing for the next leg

traveled through four countries, stopping in three capital cities, and making my way to Romania, where I arrived on Saturday. I wrote most of this on the train in Serbia, but finishing it up at a coffeeshop in Cluj Napoca (Wi-fi!). I’m going to split up my journey to Romania into two different posts so I don’t drag on too long.

Italy to Slovenia- the skinny

I said goodbye to the farm on September 23rd, and spent two nights in Faenza, including a day trip to Ravenna. On Friday morning I took a blablacar to Trieste, and on Saturday I took a bus to Ljubljana, Slovenia. I spent a day and a half in Ljubljana and took a day trip to Bled.

Squaquarone and Piadina in Ravenna

Ravenna is a beautiful city close to the sea. Although it rained on our visit, it was nice to walk around the town. My guide, Alessandro, lived in Ravenna, so he was able to give me a unique tour of the main churches and other cultural institutions. Dante spent a lot of his life in Ravenna, and we visited a Dante museum, which was interesting.

Ravenna is home to several UNESCO World Heritage sights, mostly regarding the fantastic mosaics they have. We had lunch at Ca de Ven, which is Emiglia-Romagnan dialect for House of Wine. We had traditional ER food: sliced cured meats, squacquerone cheese, and piadina bread, which is similar to Pita. Along with a glass of red wine, it was heavenly.

At the station in Gorizia

Homemade Gnocchi- Trieste

The blablacar to Gorizia, in the north, took about three and a half hours. After arriving in Gorizia, I took a quick train to Trieste. My CS host Sergio met me at the station and drove me to his apartment close to the center. Upon arriving, he offered me a bowl of his mother’s gnocchi with ragu sauce. Ahhh it was amazing. In the afternoon/evening, I wandered around Trieste with no set agenda.

Trieste is a port on the border between Italy and Slovenia. It has been a site of contention many times in history, including after World War II, when it was deemed a free territory under no country’s jurisdiction because Italy and Slovenia/Yugoslavia both wanted to claim the port as their own. Trieste is an interesting mix of Northern Italian and Central/Eastern European culture. As I walked around the city, I was impressed by its architecture- it almost reminded me of my time in Prague.  

But, of course, Italian culture is pervasive. Trieste is home to Illy, a major European coffee company, as well as smaller roasteries, and is referred to as Italy’s coffee capitol. There were cafes everywhere.

For dinner, though, Sergio took me across the border to Cantina, a restaurant styled like an American wild west saloon that offers Italian staples like pizza and pasta, as well as Slovenian traditional food. At Sergio’s suggestion, I tried Ćevapčići for the first time. Ćevapčići is a form of grilled meat that looks like little sausages, and is usually served with a red pepper and paprika sauce, raw onion, and mustard. It was quite good. The next morning I wandered around a bit more and stopped in Chocolat for an espresso (my last in Italy!) and a tiny chocolate pastry. In the afternoon, I took a bus to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.                                                                                                                                                                   

Ćevapčići and Turkish Burek, Ljubljana

The bus ride to Ljubljana was about two and a half hours long, and teeming with rolling green hills, mountains, and pastures. I saw clusters of red-roofed houses, herds of sheep- really all you’d expect a central European bus ride to be. I arrived in Ljubljana at the station mid-evening, and Marko, one of my couchsurfing hosts, picked me up at the station. I stayed with him and his wife Petra for three nights. They were the sweetest couple in the world, and have been CS hosts for a while. They are very focused on eating healthy, including making their own whole grain bread. From past experience, they thought I wouldn’t like it, so they bought me “toast”- packaged white sandwich bread, plus a couple of apricot jelly-filled powdered sugar dusted donuts. It was so sweet of them, but I was really happy to be a part of their healthy eating lifestyle for a few days. For dinner that first night in Ljubljana, we had sauteed zucchini, delicious whole grain bread, and...ćevapčići! I had a feeling then that I would be seeing this form of grilled meat often.

As most of you know, I was very focused on eating healthy, wholesome foods before I left for Europe. Now, I adapt my food habits to the people I stay with, and the local specialties of the cities I’m visiting, especially when I’m on my own for lunch. This doesn’t always mean I’m eating “healthy”- for example, sugar has crept back into my diet as a daily staple (I have remains of chocolate from every country I’ve visited so far in my bag). I try to eat veggies and fruits when I can, but sometimes meat, cheese, and bread is the local option, which I will gladly accept. Although it’s vastly different from my eating lifestyle at home, I’m very curious to see what this will look like in the weeks ahead!

Ljubljana's Castle

Ljubljana is a small capital, and easily doable in a day. I subscribed to a bicycle-sharing service similar to Nice Ride- Bicikelj. I paid one euro for a weeklong prescription, and the first 60 minutes of every trip was free. I used Bicikelj to bike into the center, which took about 20 minutes or so. 

Franciscan Church

From there I walked on foot, and visited the main church, the castle grounds, all the basics for a European capital city. It was a Sunday in late September, and I found the center to be bustling, but not overcrowded. The Ljubljanica River flows right through the city, and there are three bridges that cross the river right at the center. Along the river, souvenir shops and flower and fruit stands are set up, attracting both locals and tourists. One thing I really appreciated was the amount of public, clean (free!) bathrooms. These don't exist too often in other European capital cities I've visited.

The infamous Burek

It was easy ground to cover, and I found myself without much else to visit, so I spent more time aimlessly wandering around. I bumped into a man who coincidentally also does CS hosting in the city, so we had coffee together and shared travel experiences. That’s one thing I really like about traveling alone; it’s so much easier to meet people. For lunch that day I had a burek, a Turkish handpie that is typically stuffed with cheese or meat- I chose a spinach/cheese version, and it was well worth the 2 euro. That evening I walked through Tivoli park before rejoining Marko and Petra for dinner, where we had a traditional stew made with sausage, beans, potatoes, peppers, a type of grain, tomatoes, parsley, and probably some things I am forgetting, along with that delicious whole grain bread.

Kremsnita and a veggie burger in Bled

On my second day in Slovenia I took a day trip out to Bled, which involved me biking to the bus station, taking two buses to Bled, and then hopping on a tourist bus to get to the Vintgar Gorge. That process took about three hours total, and I was happy to finally be at the Gorge, which I had read about in my planning process and really wanted to see. Totally worth the trip. Walking through the gorge was an amazing experience, as evidenced by all these photos.

Bled has been a resort town for quite some time, and in 1893 a pathway was built along the gorge to accommodate sightseers. It’s been updated constantly since then, yet still maintains a rustic feel to it. There were a fair amount of people visiting, so I can’t even imagine what it’s like in the summertime.

The rest of my time in Bled, I walked around the lake, ate a delicious vegan burger, and met a scruffy American nomad. It was the first American I had had a conversation with in a while, which was a little funny to realize. He doesn't consider himself an American, but more as a "citizen of the world." He taught English for two years before going to school in the Netherlands, and now is hitchhiking/camping his way through Eastern Europe. It would be an adventure to travel like this, but I definitely would not feel comfortable doing it, as a woman. While it would be much cheaper to travel this way, I'll continue to stick with online organizations like blablacar and couchsurfing that have some sort of reference system.

After my walk around the lake (which took about an hour and a half, with a break to read) I stopped at Slaščičarna Šmon for a cup of coffee and a slice of kremna rezina, a traditional cake. from the area made with flaky pastry, custard, and whipped cream. You're supposed to eat it from the top down, instead of cutting through the whole piece with a fork. I found this incredibly difficult, as the top pastry was hard to break into pieces. I ended up eating a lot of it with my hands. I hope no Slovenians were watching me.

Pancakes with Marko and Petra! <3

I skipped the bus ride back because a man was offering rides in his van (did you read that, Mom?) Actually, he’s a taxi service who finds tourists milling around waiting for the bus back to Ljubljana- the van ride takes about half as long, with no stops, and costs slightly less. I met a really nice couple from Brighton who gave me some tips on visiting Zagreb, my next destination. On my last night in Ljubljana, Marko made pancakes- similar to the French crepe. There were all sorts of jams for toppings, but most notable to me was a spread that Petra made by blending peeled chopped apples and ground hazelnuts together until it was a light paste consistency. I highly recommend trying it at home.

In conclusion, I'm sorry for writing so much

I know this is a lot of information- I forgive you for not reading it all. I'm still trying to figure out how to condense my experiences without compromising detail. If you have any advice for this, please let me know. If anything, this might serve less as a blog for others to follow than as something I can read in my late 90s when I'm bored at the nursing home.

Tomorrow I'll add another post to wrap up my time before Romania, where I am now. This will include Zagreb and Belgrade, new endeavors in currency and language. Ciao for now!