Whatever you do, don't put the blame on you...

I have arrived in Slovenia. I had quite the adventure getting here... I'm sure just the first of many ˝scenic routes˝ I'll encounter.

The day got off to a great start... I woke up before my alarm (I'm sure owing to the fact that I was scared of sleeping through it), crept out of my room without waking up any of the boozing boys, and made it to the train station across town nearly an hour before my train was supposed to depart. I even managed to use passable German to order myself a cappucinno & a pastry.

I find that I'm feeling really nervous on this trip. Afraid to make a mistake. Which is silly, because of course I will, and I find that it's tripping me up a little. I stood outside the train today looking at the closed door. I knew I was at the correct car, the number matched the one on my ticket, but the door was closed. There were two buttons one red (marked Zu) and one green (marked Auf). I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to figure out which one opens the door, even if you don't know (as I do) that those are the German words for close & open, but I just stood there frozen, scared to press the button. I'm not sure what I thought would happen, but I think I was picturing some heretofore unseen train conductor popping out to shout at me ˝Nein! Ist verbotten!˝ It wasn't until I overheard a maintenence worker the next car down tell a little old Austrian woman ˝drücken˝ (push), that I reached out and hit the green button. And what do you know, no alarms sounded, nobody shouted, the doors swooped open, the step flopped down and I climbed aboard. It's a silly thing really, but a good example of the kind of trepidation I've been feeling so far. I know I just need to get better about trusting myself and what I know.

Anyhow, easy peasy getting on the train. What wasn't easy was heaving my huge backpack overhead to the luggage rack. I can't for the life of me figure out what is so darn heavy in that pack, but sheesh... I think I'm going to develop some serious muscles on this trip. :)

I settled in for the six hour ride to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. What a beautiful train ride. I had forgotten how much I love traveling by train. Traveling through Southern Austria and Northern Slovenia was gorgeous. Rolling green hills, pastures, cows, sheep, mountains (which I have to assume were the Alps?), pretty little houses, and quaint train stations. All I kept hearing was Fraulein Maria singing ˝The hills are alive...˝ :)

It was sunny and pretty the whole way to Ljubljana (prounounced Loob-li-yana, by the way), but wouldn't you know that as soon as I started to walk toward the hostel I'll be staying in for the next couple of days, it started to rain like nobody's business. I don't know the last time I saw rain like this. I ducked out of the major downpour and hid out under an awning for awhile. It looked like it was letting up, so I started off confident that I knew the way after a quick perusal of my map. Ha. Not so. At one point I remember thinking to myself, that's odd, I would have thought the directions would have mentioned crossing the river. Hmmmm... you think?? At this point it was pouring down rain again, and I was completely turned around, but rather than stop and ask for directions I decided to push on through. Then the thunder and lightning started and I kind of nervously giggled to myself thinking how unfortunate it would be to be struck by lightning during the first week of the trip...

I finally stopped, sat down, took a hard look at the map, and realized where I had gone wrong... and I made it to the hostel after turning what should have been a 15 minute walk into an over an hour tour of the city. One more example of my nervousness getting in the way for me... this is definitely something I'm going to have to work on.

At this point, I am finally feeling warm and dry, and as I peek out the window, I see the sun is shining and the skies are blue again, so I think I'll head out to do a little more exploring and maybe even (gasp!) ask someone for help if I need it. The author of my guidebook describes Slovene as ˝Russian soaked in wine & honey˝... sounds good to me. :)

Wow... that turned into quite a ramble. Sorry about that, and thanks to those of you who stuck around to the end. Oh, by the way, this hostel has a much more homey/B&B feel to it... I think a little more my speed.

I guess that's all for now. Oh... here's a little info about Slovenia if anyone's interested. I'll be here in Ljubljana for a couple of days and then up to Lake Bled for a day or two and then off to Croatia.

Adijo!