sorry i haven't managed to update for awhile... the previous few places i've stayed in so far didn't have an internet connection - or in the case of couchsurfing with miha and katja in ljubljana, slovenia, it wasn't nice to hog the net for too long - which is always the case when one blogs, is it not? :) meanwhile, i have safely arrived in budapest, hungary, by the intercity train which cas and i took from ljubljana this morning, where we arrived after a half-miserable day in lake bled (why it was half-miserable, i will say later) and we caught the 5am bus this morning from bled to ljubljana.

where do i begin? so much has happened in such a short space of time, a lot of it was spent travelling and travelling across borders, it is tiring and as i told cas, no wonder backpacking is usually for the young, because all that time spent in trains and buses and planes makes one really dizzy, jetlagged, and constantly feeling as if one is floating on a small boat all the time. anyway, let's start from ljubljana, slovenia, and doing the couchsurfing thing with miha and katja and their inquisitive and friendly cat mischa or mischo, i don't know how to spell. :) they were wonderful hosts and even cooked cas and i a traditional slovenian dinner of veal roast stuffed with lots of things such as eggs and cream and other yummy stuff. there was also buckwheat soup and walnut rolls, and rhubarb compote! yums. we are two well-fed, not-going-to-lose weight people.

here's us on top of the castle in ljubljana!

in ljubljana we found lots of things to satisfy the eye, we were only a stone's throw away from the dragon bridge and the local produce open-air market, where we had fried sardines and calamari for lunch. we then proceeded to take the quaint train (students get 1 euro off! whoo!) up towards the castle or grad in slovenian. there we fell asleep during the virtual museum movie and took a few photographs at the top of the tower.. and then we walked back down and took the train back, and found h&m! here is where cas says i went nutty and shopped and shopped to my heart's content (not really, i could buy more) but i think it was a good trip. i got a few nice things :) and cas found a new bag and a new pair of berms. so far h&m is the only affordable place to buy stuff, haha! :) will try to visit them again in athens.

this is the ljubljanica river... beautiful and tranquil

okay where were we... oh yea we then went second-hand bookshop hunting and walked all the way up and down the ljubljanica river, we found a girl from oklahoma in a bookstore and we talked and talked until we missed our tour which was supposed to start at 7pm and the group had already left. no worries, we hadn't bought our ticket yet, so we just went to - yeah, eat more food. :)

the next day it was sad saying bye to mischa... we'd already said goodbye to katja and miha the night before and we toasted with this cool plum and pear brandy which cas really wants to buy but so far we haven't found it yet. we took a bus at 10am to bled (this was yesterday) and then it was an hour and a half away... miserable rain started pouring and we hiked our way up the hill in bled towards the castle, where we did REALLY touristy stuff like getting our names printed on a certificate and making and corking our own bottle of castle wine... :) then we went down the hill and sought refuge in this wonderful dessert place called smon (pronounced schmon cos' there's supposed to be an accent on the s) and had the traditional bled cream cake!

that wasn't all... the sun started appearing so we hightailed it back to the hostel (which by the way resembles a haunted house and there was absolutely no one at reception after our check-in.. scary villa victoria) and changed into berms for the kayak which we thought we could rent. we ended up renting a boat from pletna hotel and cas made such a valiant gondolier - or boat-rower... rowing me to the small island where the church was.. and THEN the clouds gathered and rumbled and the wind blew and the waves rocked us and i got really scared the boat was going to capsize into the freezing cold waters... the weather just changed LIKE THAT and cas was forced to moor it halfway back to one of the ports along the shore. i was seriously scared, and ran all the way back to pletna to apologise to the owner, who had apparently took a boat to try and rescue us but changed his mind because it was freezing and raining and his little daughter was in the boat with him! oh boy. it was such an adventure, and thank goodness we're all right and didn't catch cold because it was really, really cold. it feels like one day we're in the bahamas (dubrovnik) and the next we're cold and freezing in the alps (bled). :) i'm sure it's nicer in the summer though. ah well.

this is my valiant boat-rower :) i tried and i couldn't budge us an inch!

okay so here we are in budapest, and the hostel mandragora is quite wonderful. i'm excited about visiting the thermal baths, and the museums too. but for now i think i will just do my laundry. :) ciao and i'll post again soon! remember more photos are in the flickr site. :)