BudaPESHT

So, Ljubljana turned out to be pretty mellow, but me and John met up with Lea and Trisha, and it all ended up being gravy. Plus, we can now saw we got to sample Cockta, the local specialty. Actually, Cockta is a Slovenian soft drink. Under communism, Slovenia couldn't get Coca Cola (the horror!), and so they invented Cockta, which John likened to cough syrup, and Lea swore resembled home made root beer (out of all of us, she was the only one who kind of liked it).

On day 3 in Slovenia, we went to the Skocjan caves, the biggest cave in Europe (golly gee Batman! Bigger than the Batcave!). We went into it as an adventure - its also the hardest cave to reach as a tourist bound by public transit. Trisha, John and I took a 1.5 hour train to Divicia, then planned to hike to the cave (3 km). The only other way is by taxi, so we were told. But once we hopped off the train, some dude yelled at Trisha and me: "To Caves? Free shuttle! Free shuttle?"

John had gone to inquire about hitching on a tour bus that we thought was heading that way (oh hush, a coach full of children and parents? it would not have been dangerous) and the free shuttle, which I had only heard about on one website, seemed a bit sketch, more so because me and Trisha seemed alone. So, the geniuses we were, we told the guy that we were getting a hiking map for the way back, to please wait, and then inquired at the ticket office. It was legit, and so 1 free bus ride later, we visited the most incredible cave in the world. You have to see it to believe it.

So, after visiting the underworld and back (no Dante in sight), day 4 John and I spent at Lake Bled, the most adorable city ever. Ever. It was even Tito's favorite (the famous president of Yugoslavia - we walked by his vacation house at Bled!). Trisha and Lea told us about the disgustingly cute gondola-like boat ride you can take to the island in the lake, which has an old church that is the most popular place to be married in Slovenia, and since it was way cheaper than in Venice, we dove in and embraced the cheese.

Our boat guy was pretty elderly, but adorable (of course, he has to be! He shuttles lovers back and forth to the marriage island!), and he got us there and back, safe and sound (which was quite a feat - it stormed off and on all day, okay, well, when I say stormed, I mean rain, but when we were on the island, it was really windy!). The island has 99 steps to the church, which the groom traditionally climbs while carrying his bride to be. John and I skipped that part, but we did ring the wedding bell - 3x grants you a wish.

Which brings me to today: after an 8.5 hour bus ride from Ljubljana (where me and John utalized our train travel skills to secure a cabin all to ourselves - if you draw the chairs out, and draw the curtains, most people won't try and sit in your compartment unless they have to. Lea and Trisha have another method - they sit on the floor and pretend to do weird religious like meditation), we are now in Budapest. Exhausted, we checked into the hostel (free internet, ok beds, nice staff), bought some mega cheap chinese food, I went grocery shopping for brekkie, and we turned in early.

Well, John did. I stayed up to write this.

We're here for 3 nights, then on to Prague for 5 nights, then back to the UK (well, former UK, then UK). We're on the downhill of backpacking now. Sad really. I'm getting into the swing of it. We met Ruth today, a woman at the hostel who has been traveling for 7 months straight. Whoah. I don't think that's in my cards, but I'm now contemplating a summer trip before I head home for good. I still have to check Greece and Scotland off my list, you know. :)

Much love.