days nine, ten, and eleven: debrief and a journey home.

Finally, the long awaited conclusion to my trip to Slovenia!  That is, if anyone even is reading...

As was mentioned before, Thursday was our last day with the kids, so Friday morning we were all packed up and leaving the hotel at 9am.  A bus was picking us (and all of our luggage!) up and taking us to our next destination.  It was a tour bus that normally makes a loop from Portoroz (where we were) to Ljubljana (the capital...and no, I didn't have to look that up!) to Lake Bled and then back to Portoroz.  Here's a map if you want to have an idea of where we went.  However, Bled was our final destination, so they dropped us off there.  Since it was a tour, the guide talked as we made the two-hour (by bus) drive to Ljubljana.  It was interesting, informative, and her voice lulled pretty much everyone on the bus to sleep, at least for a short time.  Well, it was interesting, except for the beginning, when she talked about the weather for a good 5-10 minutes.  When she finished with that, she moved on to the climate.  Ok, lady, let's get to something a little more interesting!  After that she told us all kinds of facts about the country, talked about them gaining their independence, etc.  What I found to be interesting was the distinct types of architecture as we moved throughout the country.  Near the coast, the buildings/homes looked pretty typical of what you would think of Italy's coast.  Very Mediterranean looking.  As we moved north and inland, the style was much more what you would think of as Austrian, living in the Alps, type of look.  Contrasted with those both were the many apartment buildings in the northern part of Ljubljana that were built during the Communist era.  Bland and square.  It is a gorgeous country, though, and I enjoyed getting to see much of it!

Once we got to the city, we got off the bus, made a bathroom break (think: 23 people, 1 bathroom...it took awhile).  Then we began a walking tour around the city.  Here's some of what we saw:

Standing in the city center.  The circle on the ground shows the city center and the rest of the city is built circularly around it. 

This part of the city has no cars in it, so we were standing in the middle of the street, city center.

We walked a little way until we came to this cathedral dedicated to St. Nicholas (or Santa Claus).  Apparently this door was put in a few years ago when the Pope visited the city and the carvings in it depict the history of the country. 

It was beautiful inside.

This is the outdoor market just down the road.  This was Friday late morning, so it would be much busier on Saturdays.

Loved this old street.  Plus you can really see the curved street in this picture.

Loved this green door in the middle of this street.

Straight ahead you can see a hill.  We took a tram/cable car up the hill to visit the castle overlooking the city.

Going up! It had glass walls.

Courtney and I in the courtyard area.

Looking down to the city center.  That open area in the middle is where we were all standing before.

The view to the north.  The mountains you see in the distance are the Alps.

The stairs inside the castle.  It was actually two staircases that spiraled around each other, one for going up and the other for down.

Just an old street.  Love it!

Along one of the rivers. 

Beautiful river.  Don't remember the name, though...

Me, Kristen, Courtney, Erin: The young ladies on the team!

You can see how parts of the city are inspired by Italian architecture.  This was inspired by Venice.

At the end of our waling tour, we ate lunch at this restaurant.  It was a 4-course meal.  We were told that this was one of the first restaurants in the city.  When it was opened, they didn't realize they needed to name it so it became 6 - the street number of the building!

On to Lake Bled! This was the villa that we stayed at.  It was tall and narrow, quite modern inside, and we had the whole place to ourselves.

My room for the last couple of nights.  Rille and Jeannette's bed.

My bed in the corner.  (I was thrilled to have my own!)

It was getting to be evening by this point, but we wanted to take a walk to the lake before it was completely dark.  Here's one shot from the northern end of the lake.  You can see the castle overlooking the lake.  Lake Bled is quite famous for the island in the middle with a church on it.  By the time we walked close enough to see it, it was too dark for pictures.

This is what Lake Bled looks like not at night. A gorgeous place!  (This shot was taken from the southern part of the lake.) 
A couple more views: one and two!

We had a lovely dinner Friday night...another four-course meal!  And not too many hours after lunch, too...we were stuffed.

The view from the second floor balcony where we were staying.  Nothing like a gorgeous view of the Alps in your backyard on a Saturday morning...

Saturday morning we had our team debrief.  Then we had the rest of the day to do what we wanted before meeting up our big, final dinner that night.  A group of us opted to go back into Ljubljana and do a little shopping and sightseeing.  I didn't really take any pictures since we visited most of the same places as the day before.  Before our taxi picked us up, we had a little time to kill, so we visited this wonderful coffee and dessert shop.

Enjoying a little gelato!

That's pretty much the end of my pictures, but there's still a little bit more story to tell.  That evening we went to our team dinner (yes, another four-course meal!) and had a great time together.  We went back to the hotel and packed our things in preparation for an early departure the next morning.

Sunday morning came quite early.  Most people rolled out of bed and got ready.  Me, being who I am, I guess, wanted to take a shower.  Mostly because my hair needed to get the day before's gel out and to be rescrunched.  For some reason, though, that morning there was no hot water.  I mean none.  Thankfully the shower head came down so I could just get my hair wet.  Plus the frigid water running down my back.  Think the coldest, iciest water you've ever felt showering over your head.  I got an instant brain freeze.  It was delightful, really.  (If that part of the story sounds bad, just wait...)

I get ready and finished packing, as does the rest of the crew.  We had a bus that was supposed to be picking us up, I think it was around 5am or so, maybe earlier.  I don't really remember now.  Anyhow, the bus arrives and they start loading and quickly determine that there is no way all of us and all of our luggage are going to fit on this small  bus they sent.  So the bus company calls someone and they send another van.  We put four bags in the back, as well as six people.  We loaded up and I got in the van.  It was only about a 30 minute or less drive to the airport.  And, even though it's the capital city, their airport is very small.  Like Bakersfield, if you've been here.  Anyway, we're driving along and suddenly our driver tells us something is wrong with the van and he has to pull over.  In the process of figuring out what was wrong with the van, the driver basically opens up all of the doors and we are freezing inside.  It was freezing outside, plus I didn't have my warm coat (packed it) and just had on flats with no socks (I didn't want to wear my boots because I didn't need them on the plane...I made that mistake on the way there!).  So, he calls the bus driver who drops his load of people off at the airport and came back to get us.  It only took us another couple of minutes to get to the airport, as the van had broken down literally yards before the exit to the airport.  We arrived, quickly unloaded most of the bags (only a few had been unloaded when they dropped everyone off originally), and we were able to start checking-in.  Unfortunately only a couple of people could get checked in before we got there because the bags weren't there.  It's a long process to get 23 people checked in individually, get the bags checked, wait for a group of 5 or 6 people, then move through security.  We all got through security (the gate was just on the other side) and had enough time to run to the bathroom before it was time to board the plane.  We were so thankful we had made it, especially since there was only one more flight out of there to Zurich that day.  And I'm assuming reaccommodating 23 people would have been nothing short of a nightmare.  But, praise God we made it, made our connection with no problems, and made the 12 hour flight home.  I was able to sleep a little bit on the plane this time, but mostly just a series of short naps, so I didn't feel very rested. 

We made it to LAX, got all of our bags, and made it through customs with only one person being stopped.  My parents, as well as a couple of other vehicles were there to take us home (yay, another 2 hour drive plus a looong stop for dinner).  We finally made it home and I was in bed shortly thereafter.  I didn't suffer from the normal jet lag experience of waking up in the middle of the night.  I had the opposite problem, actually, and slept between 10-12 hours every night for a week.  I think I was exhausted.

And this concludes the Slovenia saga.

(Thanks for being patient!!)