Taking a break from writing a 15 page essay to write this blog. I know, it seems kind of weird taking a break from writing by writing, but writing a blog is much more fun. My second day in London was full of very popular touristy things. First, I set out for Buckingham Palace which was beautiful but so crowded I could hardly see through the mass of people.
Compared to all the places I’ve visited thus far, London has been the busiest. It’s also getting closer to summer so I know tourism is about to spike and any trip from here on out is going to be claustrophobia inducing. Even the back of the palace was full of people and I was done staring at it. To be honest, I might have been more excited to see Chipotle than the palace, oops. I enjoyed the gardens around Buckingham palace much more than the palace itself as there weren’t as many people. I walked around this area for a little while before heading to Westminster Abbey. 
On my walk toward Westminster, I saw Big Ben off in the distance. I knew Big Ben was under construction but I still thought I’d be able to recognize the iconic building. Nope. Big Ben was so covered in scaffolding there was no telling it was even the right building. In fact, some random fellow tourist got my attention to ask me if that was indeed Big Ben and after I said “yes”, he seemed very disappointed. Same dude, same. There was only one visible face of the famous clock, but otherwise it was entirely unrecognizable. Oh well, maybe if I get to come back to London later on in life, I’ll actually get to see it scaffold-free and it’ll be that much sweeter.
Nearing Westminster Abbey, I decided to stop for an iced coffee and have a little break in Parliament Square Garden. It was nice to stop and enjoy the views for a little while. Sometimes those are the best little moments of a trip. Just sitting in the grass, enjoying how life has brought me to visit these astounding postcard-worthy places. Ooo, also a quick shoutout to London and Europe in general. No unnecessary plastic straws! As you can see in my shameless selfie, the straw they gave me was made of paper. Most places in Europe have been banning plastic straws to better the environment and I’d love to see the U.S. follow suit. I can’t name one time in Slovenia where I’ve been given a plastic straw which is amazing. I’m actually considering writing a blog about how eco-friendly Ljubljana is compared to the United States. Sorry for the short mental detour… back to Westminster. As I walked closer to the Abbey, there were a few street performers, including a man playing bagpipes. Here, I’ll share a video and bless your ears as well. Haha, oh the bagpipe.
Westminster Abbey was beautiful but the line to get in was unreasonably long and there was an entrance fee. Most of the churches I’ve come across have had free entrances so anytime one costs money, I’m a little less likely to see the inside. I’m a traveler on a budget, sorry. Look at that beautiful gothic architecture on the outside though, geesh.
Next up on my cliche London day I walked over the Westminster bridge to get a closer look at the London Eye. The London Eye was immensely larger than what I had imagined in my head. Part of me wanted to experience taking a ride on the oversized ferris wheel so I checked out ticket prices. After seeing how much it would set me back to be locked in a glass box with 24 strangers for 45 minutes just to make one revolution of the wheel, I thought I’d rather just observe it from the ground. Also, for those of you who thought it moved at a typical ferris wheel pace…wrong! The London Eye moves so slowly, you can barely tell it’s even moving. Just thought I’d enlighten those who’ve never been able to see it in person. I know if I had bought a ticket, I would have been excited for the first five minutes then incredibly bored the rest of the ride.
Near the London Eye there was a fish and chips restaurant flooded with people, so I figured it was about time to eat something. Disappointingly, I don’t like fish so I ordered chicken and chips instead. Nothing to write home about really. Tasted like bland fried chicken and fries. Sorry London, but everyone already knows you aren’t famous for your food scene. The food wasn’t great, but the view was beautiful as I found a ledge looking out over the Thames with a good view of London. After finishing my food, I walked through Jubilee Garden to the Golden Jubilee bridge where I walked back across to the other side of London. The National Gallery called my name and I filled the rest of my day with art.
Okay, I won’t overload you with all the photos of the magnificent and iconic pieces of art I was able to see because it would be an entire gallery. Seriously, pieces from Van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt, Jan van Eyck, Botticelli, Da Vinci… the list goes on and on. The National Gallery was stirring with visitors, normally I’d find it annoying that I couldn’t take a photo free of people in a gallery, but I had an exceptionally fun time taking photos of other people enjoying the art. Looking at all the ways people observe art is really interesting, from taking selfies, sharing with a loved one, looking through someone else’s phone camera, drawing a re-creation, or looking at the painting right in front of you in a book. After all, art is interpreted differently by each person. Every painting, though it may be the same, is distinct dependent on the beholder. Enough of my rambling, here are the photos I took of complete strangers at the National Gallery.
So I was having a jolly good time at the National Gallery and was nearing the end, when a man in his late 30s came up next to me while I was looking at a painting. He made a comment about the paint color of the room and how it was different from the others and I was like yeah, that’s an interesting point. I’m not one to be rude to people so of course I responded to his comments on the art. From that point on, this man creepily followed close beside me to every painting I went to. Standing way too close for comfort, I kept stepping further and further away from him and stopped responding to his comments on the art. I really thought this guy would take the hint but he sure didn’t. This older guy was determined to make the rest of my time at the museum incredibly uncomfortable. Luckily, I had already almost seen all the rooms of the gallery so I was able to tell him I was leaving just to escape the awkwardness. It wasn’t so easy though. Before I left, he asked me if I wanted to go have a drink with him, which I definitely did not. So, I told him I didn’t drink and I’d rather just spend the rest of my day alone. Sort of brutal and also dumb because now this random stranger knew I was alone. Wow, I’m really not great at talking to strangers and I was super anxious. Now that I was on high alert after angering a creepy stranger, I left the museum in a rush to get as far away as possible. Of course I had on my bright yellow backpack so as to be super identifiable in a large crowd. Way to go Katrena, you told him you were alone and you have a backpack the color of the sun in a crowd of muted colors, awesome. Freaked out, I naturally called my mom for comfort and then called my older sister for someone to call me an idiot I guess(haha, thanks Kass). I ended up walking down the road to a very busy McDonalds where I ordered a coke(with a paper straw) and hid out in the basement seating area until I figured the coast was clear and I headed back to my airbnb. Fun times in the hustle bustle of London today.
Words can not express how beside myself I became. I always knew I was a giant HP nerd, but this week took me to new levels. Naturally, I dropped all prior plans to get to the center of London to wait in this long line to snap a single picture in front of half a cart in front of a faux Harry Potter platform. There was absolutely no way in the world I could see Platform 9 3/4 then continue walking toward my destination like I hadn’t seen it. Technically this was on my list to do later in the week in my personal itinerary, but who am I kidding, I never follow my itinerary anyway. Physically shaking with excitement, I desperately needed to talk with someone who also loves HP as much as me(maybe as much as me), so I Facetimed my friend Lexi. Lexi was getting ready for her mother’s wedding, which I was bummed to be missing, but I was able to say congrats to her over FaceTime so that was cool and I think she was understanding about my absence seeing as I’m across the world, haha. Lexi shared in my excitement about me being in line to see Platform 9 3/4 which is exactly why I called her, because I knew she’d understand my enthusiasm. Thanks Lex(if you’re reading this). Traveling alone is so incredibly rewarding, but at times I really want someone to be here with me to share in my experiences, it would make standing in a long line much more fun. There were workers in the front who took the photo and also put a house scarf on you, I watched them thinking about how I would thrive working here. Closer and closer, I made my way to the front of the line, thinking about how I only had one chance to look decent in the photo and if I failed there would be no second chance. Finally, it was my turn. Proudly, I grabbed the blue ravenclaw scarf and walked toward the half luggage cart sticking out of the brick wall. Rummaging through the selection of fake wands, I had to make a quick decision. I saw the elder wand, Harry’s wand, Ron’s wand, Lucius’ wand, Hermione’s wand… but not Luna’s wand which I desperately searched for. Yes, I am a Harry Potter nerd, I already told you that, you just didn’t believe me. Choosing Hermione’s as a close second, I pointed it to the sign, the worker made my scarf blow in the wind and *snap* the picture was taken, scarf taken off, and another young wizard ushered into my spot. Well that was quick. Totally worth the 45 minute line though, I would have waited longer. 
After the photo, they had a Harry Potter shop full to the brim of merchandise. Obviously I wanted to buy every single thing but all the price tags were crazy expensive. I had to walk through the whole store, convincing myself I did not need £70 ravenclaw sweater. Not without difficulty, I made it to the end of the store to the cash registers to see my photo. Nervously, I looked at the photo assuming it would be absolutely terrible with me having my eyes closed or a double chin or basically anything ruining my one memento from being here. It was actually decent! Since it wasn’t dreadful, I bought the photo and went on my merry way.
After dropping off some cumbersome items in my backpack, I headed back out to see the most remarkable crosswalk in the world. Turning the corner in Westminster, I came upon Abbey Road. The zebra stripes themselves were fairly insignificant, but knowing the Beatles were here and they recorded at the studio right across the street made these white lines extraordinary. A handful of tourists gathered around Abbey Road taking turns finding the perfect opportunity to cross traffic and capture the perfect photo. For some reason, I thought maybe the road would be blocked off or away from traffic but nope. Cars continuously streamed down the street, the drivers angrily honking at various tourists running into the oncoming traffic. Watching people take photos was deeply entertaining as they waited for an absence of cars, ran into the street and froze for a few seconds, then quickly bounded to the other side of the street. I stood at Abbey Road for entirely too long watching tourists getting honked at, kind of wishing I had someone to take a photo of me being an idiot in the middle of the street. A lone girl on the other side of the crosswalk looked as though she were thinking the same thing as I was. After a few minutes, I decided to run over and offer to take a photo of her if she would take one for me as well. It worked out perfectly. I love the fact that you can see the cars waiting for me to un-freeze and make it to the other end of the street in the photo. Yay for being an annoying tourist!
Spontaneous trip to Vienna, Austria! When I say spontaneous, I mean spontaneous. I planned this trip two days before I left. To kick off my little weekend trip, my bus was two hours late so I had to kill lots of time at the bus station and it was pretty dang chilly outside. Luckily there were a two girls waiting for the same bus and I heard them speaking English so I went up to them to tell them how late our bus was. They were really nice girls about my age from Ireland who invited me to go have a coffee with them while we waited for our very late bus. It’s always fun to meet random strangers on my solo trips. Uneventful bus ride to Vienna…then to start my adventuring. Arriving in Vienna in the middle of the day, I went into the subway system to buy a ticket for the next 48 hours and noticed a couple of Canadian girls struggling with the ticket system so I helped them out and spoke with them for a while until they hopped off the train a couple stops before me. My inexpensive airbnb was an apartment owned by a girl who lived in Vienna. I knew I’d be staying in her living room area on a sofa-bed and I was fairly skeptical about how it’d work out. After walking up three flights of stairs, I made it to her door. Her apartment was so cute. The living room area was covered in plants, there were vintage pieces of furniture, a record player, books, and interesting art, plus she had an adorable pup. After dropping off some of my things, I headed into the center of the city. I got out of the underground and started walking with no destination in the middle of the city when someone taps on my shoulder. I turned around to find a young guy standing in front of me. He started saying something to me in German, then I told him I only spoke English. He switched to English and proceeded to say he wanted to stop me to tell me I was beautiful. I honestly don’t remember how I responded. Probably some dumbfounded look followed by an extremely awkward thank you. I think I might be in a parallel universe where people think I’m attractive, It’s very weird, unfamiliar and unpleasant. He asked me what my plans were for the day and I told him I would just be walking around the city. He asked me if it would be alright if he walked with me, I feel like if I said no to him simply walking with me, that would be quite rude so I ended up wandering about the city with some blonde haired, blue-eyed Austrian guy. He had some helpful tips about the area and certain museums to visit so that was cool. After having some coffee, I was anxious to explore the city so we parted ways.
When traveling, I rely so heavily on google maps to direct me everywhere I go, so having a charged phone is necessary. Forced to go all the way back to the airbnb apartment, I got there when the sun was beginning to set. I didn’t really feel like wasting the evening away so I headed back out and walked to Schönbrunn Palace. The walk was a bit longer than I expected but it was quite nice to see bits of the sunset peek through the streets of Vienna. Turned out to be a very beautiful walk, although intensely chilly. Once the palace was in view, there was no mistaking I had made it to the right place as the colossal piece of architecture stood in front of me. 
In the back of the palace was a large park, gardens, statues, and even a zoo. I wasn’t able to get any photos because it was quite dark and becoming increasingly cold. I found some trolley to take me near the airbnb. Sleeping proved rather difficult, turns out staying in a living room with loads of open windows means early rising the next morning.
Waiting in a room to look at art was another work of art. I swear, everywhere here is a piece of art. I wish the photo would do the real thing justice, but honestly none of the photos I’ll be posting will come close to seeing these works of art in person, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth sharing or experiencing through an online platform. Closer and closer I got to the front of the line. I was so excited to see The Kiss in person. Before coming to study in Ljubljana, I never thought about all the incredible works of art I’d have the opportunity to appreciate in person. Here are some my favorite of Klimt’s I was able to see:
Completely unaware of what to order, I basically just pointed to the first thing on the menu, then the vendor asked me what kind of sausage I wanted and of course I said “the spiciest” and I was not disappointed. Normally, I’m not a huge fan of meat but it was pretty dang good and the warm bread it came wrapped inside was more than ideal(mmm bread is always the best here). Having been on my feet all day and walking around the city, I wanted to find someplace warm to sit down. I had eyed a Starbucks around the corner and was intent on getting a coffee before leaving Vienna. A little background: there are absolutely no Starbucks in Slovenia. Zero. So when I see one elsewhere on a trip, I get quite excited. After a quick coffee break, I headed to Museums Quartier where several museums are located in Vienna.
By the time I left this museum, the only museum left open was the Mumok, a modern art museum. Full of exceptionally weird and abstract art, the Mumok checked off all the things I expect from a modern art museum.
Here I am, at the end of a dead end street, lost in Switzerland when a black and white cat materializes out of a yellow flower bush to greet me. It’s amazing how cats seem to sense my helplessness and appear just when I feel furthest from home. Man, I miss my cat. With cat hair covered pant legs, I continued toward my destination. Eventually, I made it to my hostel, checked in, and walked up three flights to my shared room. So far, I’ve never stayed in a hostel, but the accommodation in Switzerland was much more expensive and it was all I could afford. The hostel didn’t seem so bad the first night because my six bunk room was empty and I had it all to myself, that would soon change.
In response, I gave a confused look as he grabbed his friend’s phone and showed me a photo of myself taking a photo out the window. Super weird. Not a terrible photo though. The younger Chinese guy spoke a little English and he asked me to take a photo at the top of the mountain and I said yes, not trying to be rude. Little did I know that I had just agreed to spend the whole day with them and their Chinese colleagues who were next to us on the train. Jungfraujoch was set up as a step by step tour through the several attractions. The first room my new Chinese friends and I walked into was 360° video screen showing a trip through the mountains, it was really beautiful. Next, up the elevator to the viewing platform over the Swiss alps. On the elevator ride, one of the Chinese girls in the group gave me a piece of chocolate and they all taught me how to say thank you in Chinese which was pretty cool. Never thought I’d be learning Chinese in Switzerland. Getting to the top of Jungfraujoch was worth the trip. 
Miles and miles of mountains and clouds to the point where the two were indistinguishable. 
For the first time at one of these touristy spots, I had someone to take a photo of me, in exchange for taking a slew of smiley photos for the Chinese group. Fun fact: when the younger guy asked me to take a photo at the top of the mountain, he meant with him, so now I have a fantastic photo of me and my newly made friend from China, haha. Enjoy. They also had this really interesting egg snack that they told me I had to try.
Apparently it’s a very popular snack in China, it was an egg but it was a really dark brown color. I asked if it was chocolate and with their collective english skills, they still didn’t know what I had asked so they made me try it anyway. IT WAS NOT CHOCOLATE. It was an actual hard boiled egg, but what was it boiled in? I may never know. Nothing can describe my horror after I was expecting chocolate and bit into a vinegar spiced egg thing. Lord help me if I visit China someday. Next, we made our way down to the ice palace. Elsa would have been impressed. There were ice sculptures and ice tunnels, it was pretty cool(pun intended). Desperately trying to keep my fingers from falling off, I kept rubbing my hands together. Being a universal sign for “I’m cold”, the Chinese guy kept jokingly offering me his jacket to which I continuously declined. 
All jokes aside, it was nice to have people to experience things with for once and he ended taking a decent photo of me looking genuinely happy in the ice palace. On the way back down the mountain, my new friends invited me to come with them in their rented car at the bottom of the mountain to Grindelwald, deciding it’d be poor judgment to get into van with a bunch of strangers with whom I have a prominent language barrier, I politely declined and proceeded back to Interlaken. Perfectly enough, one of the stops on my way back was a town called Lauterbrunnen in which my best friends back home informed me it was their absolute favorite place they had visited on a trip in high school. Lauterbrunnen was a charming little town situated in a valley between two mountains with a stunning waterfall in the center, streaming down from great heights. Living here must be a dream everyday. With the setting sun, I had to take the train back to Interlaken. Walking up the three flights of stairs, I mentally prepared myself to actually have roommates tonight even though I prayed for continued vacancy. Slowly, I opened the door and found four guys who had made their homes in the bunk beds of my room, well our room now I guess. Two of the guys were my age, from Louisiana, and studying in Madrid. They were nice enough but left late to go party and made a terrible drunken ruckus when they came back at 2:30 in the morning when the rest of us were snoozing. After they had left to do whatever it is they did, a girl came in and took the very last bunk right above me. I was relieved there was another girl in the room, but I’m not sure it was worth her annoying phone buzzing against the wood irregularly, keeping me awake. Turns out it was also bothering one of the men at the other end of the room as he audibly sighed in exasperation after every annoying buzz. Obviously much more confrontational than I, he got up, came over and woke up the girl to tell her to turn off her phone. She seemed pretty upset, but the buzzing ceased. Sometimes it’s nice to let someone else fight your battle. Once the confrontational guy fell asleep after the lack of phone buzzing, he was own problem with his resounding snores. Yay, staying in a hostel!
Giessbach waterfall ended up being really beautiful and there were barely any people there which made it so much better. Looking out from behind the waterfall, I could see the lake, mountains, and hotel Giessbach which was probably crazy expensive, but beautiful. Feeling like I didn’t get the full waterfall experience, I headed down to the bottom of the waterfall and ended up climbing over a few rocks and walking around.
This was one unhappy swan, perhaps because I didn’t have any food as an offering. I was able to catch a photo of this very swan terrorizing two young girls down a bit further after it had given me a heart attack. I’ve never been afraid of birds, but this one is a different story. Just look at it. Evil, I tell you. Other than my being attacked by a bird, the unexpected walk to Interlaken was delightful. Back in Interlaken, I walked around the town shops a bit and then decided to sit in the middle of Höhematte Park to enjoy the mountains and great weather. While sitting in the grass,
I noticed several paragliders landing right in the large expanse of grass before me. One particular paraglider flew right over me before landing a couple feet beside me, it was a tad frightening but also pretty amazing. So very badly I wanted to be one of the people paragliding over the alps. Before coming to Switzerland I looked into paragliding but it seemed like something I’d maybe do later in life when I had more money or time to plan. Trying to rationalize going paragliding, I started thinking about how I hadn’t actually gone out to eat or spent any money on food in Switzerland whatsoever. That night in bed I made and appointment for paragliding first thing in the morning.
Seeing the stunning waterfalls leading up to the caves really made me want to visit the inside of the caves themselves but the ticket was pretty expensive so I enjoyed free waterfalls on the outside instead. Instead of taking the bus back to the city, I decided to take a long walk along the lake and stopped to sit on a log in the shallow part of the water and enjoyed the mountain views for a couple hours. So, this sounds really odd but one photo I really wanted to capture on this trip was a photo of a brown Swiss cow because they are cute and I don’t know, maybe I’m just a weirdo. Well on my way back to the city, I had to walk through some of the countryside and I found cows! I walked up pretty close to them and I wanted to get closer but also was trying to be sneaky because I wasn’t so sure if the owner of the small farm would be keen on me being there so I snapped a few photos 
and headed back to my hostel. Tonight I had all new roommates. Four of them were Korean-American couples who were amazingly kind. Talking to one of the women, we discovered her daughter’s name was Katrina and she was the same age as me which is crazy! She was so excited to have met someone with the same name as her daughter and was eager to tell her husband who had just walked into the room. They asked me all sorts of questions about my studies, where I’ve been, where I’m from, and things I’d done in Switzerland. She was so surprised I had gone paragliding and told me someone would have to pay her to go paragliding. It was like I had Korean parents for a night. Her husband told me that I was living life studying abroad, and traveling with my parent’s money. I was like hold up… I’m not traveling and studying with my parents money, I’ve been saving money from working for years and earned a scholarship due to good grades and I’m proud of it. Impressed, he gave me two thumbs up for being so independent. I think I gained the respect and approval of my Korean father in one night, it was a great feeling. The next day was my last day in Switzerland, I ran into my Korean-American roommates in the breakfast lobby and they asked to take a photo with me to have and send to their daughter. Third time I’ve had my photo taken with an Asian person in Switzerland, kind of funny. Leaving Switzerland was sad because it’s the most brilliantly beautiful place I’ve ever been. I do look forward to going back to my temporary home in Ljubljana, and being able to eat food at a decent price again. 
Since it was a national holiday, there were little parades, shops, people celebrating, and food vendors selling the popular fast food. Langos is a fried circular dough with a layer of sour cream(yuck) then cheese. When the the woman working the food stand asked me if I wanted the classic Hungarian Langos, I said sure because I didn’t really know what I was ordering anyway. Turned out classic meant covered in fatty bacon… which I despise. Reluctantly, I ate about a quarter of this until I could not force any more down… then I found a bench outside St. Stephen’s Basilica and fed the rest to some pigeons.
where a memorial called Shoes on the Danube honors Jews who were ordered to take off their shoes and shot by Arrow Cross militia men, their bodies falling into the river. This country has such an interesting history, there were museums, statues, exhibits, and memorials everywhere. Architecture was probably my favorite part of exploring Budapest. Most iconic is the Hungarian Parliament building. You can see the ginormous building from practically anywhere in Budapest but since I was so close, I decided to get an up close look. 
Trying to take a photo of the entire building while standing in front of it is nearly impossible because the sheer massive size. Conveniently enough, while I was taking photos in front of the Parliament building, the guards changed posts and it was a pretty cool spectacle. Setting out for my next interesting piece of architecture ended in some disappointment as the Great Synagogue was closed. After taking some unsatisfactory photos of the outside, I moved on into the inner city. Luckily enough, I stumbled into a cute little parade and then went into a couple souvenir shops. Apparently embroidery is a big thing in Hungary because souvenirs are covered in floral embroidered designs. I love embroidery so much and I miss doing it when I’m at home, so it was pretty difficult to keep myself from buying everything, especially with the very persuasive vendors.
Looking over the menu was a chore, but I settled on Paprika chicken and noodles because it’s one of the dishes most commonly found in restaurants in Hungary, besides goulash, the national dish, but I didn’t really feel like eating beef stew. I really didn’t know what to expect but I’m trying to be more open with food because at home, I eat like a small, unhealthy child. Of course, in the middle of my plate is a huge dollop of sour cream. I hate sour cream, why are they so obsessed with it here? But guess what Kassie(older sis)? I ate it all. I even ate the dark meat on the chicken leg. Overall, it was pretty good, I was not disappointed. By the time I left, it was dark and rainy. Taking the scenic route home, I walked back to the other side of town over the illuminated chain bridge. I attempted to take some decent long exposure shots but I forgot my tripod back in Ljubljana like an idiot. Oh well, I was still able to experience Budapest at night and it’s a whole new view.
It was beginning to become dark so I decided to head back to airbnb. Since Budapest is a big city, I needed to jump on the tram to get back to my room in a timely manner. Jumping onto the tram, I realized it was going in the complete wrong direction then course corrected by getting on the opposite bus. Finally going in the right direction, I realized there was a guy checking the validity of passenger tickets coming closer to me, one passenger at a time and I still hadn’t bought a ticket. Can you blame me for trying to save a buck? Also I was still horribly confused by the entire ticket system and it turns out not as many Hungarians speak English as the Slovenians so I couldn’t find any help. Anyway… the man was coming closer and closer until I was able to hop off at the next stop unchecked. Needing to make it home, I was supposed to get back on a different bus, but the man was waiting to get onto THAT bus to check some more tickets. So, I waited about 15 minutes for the next, next bus and by the time I made it back to the apartment, it was much later than I originally intended. This is definitely not the blog for people who want to know a lot about food and what I’m eating in all these fun countries because I might be the first human who doesn’t need sustenance in order to live. Having not eaten anything but a cone of ice cream all day, I stopped in a small grocery store outside the apartment and grabbed some noodles for a super late dinner because I know my mom would want me to eat something even though I wasn’t hungry(you’re welcome Ma). I also bought a thing of crushed red pepper because I can’t find it anywhere in Ljubljana and I can’t live without spicy in my life; priorities right?
A decent sized island with parks, rose gardens, tandem bicycles for rent, playgrounds, fountains, and medieval ruins. I wish I could have seen the island in spring when all the flowers are budding, but it was still pretty and the weather was surprisingly warm. I enjoyed my time walking around and sitting in the Japanese garden. Heading back to the main part of Budapest, I looked up antique markets in the area because it’s my favorite place to be. Desperately wanting to buy antiques, I decided I didn’t have any room in my backpack for anything extra or breakable so instead I meandered around enjoying the familiarity of old jewelry and dust. My next stop at Starbucks seems kind of dumb, but my back was killing me from walking through the whole city, and there are zero Starbucks in the whole of Slovenia so I was very excited to see the green siren calling me in for coffee and free wifi in Budapest. Time to head for the bus station back to Ljubljana, my temporary home! I know this was a long one to read so thanks for sticking with me.
Realizing I hadn’t eaten anything in quite a while, I searched around for a decent place to eat in Murano. I ended up finding a restaurant with a patio by the ocean and I freaking ate an entire pizza by myself. Turns out my capacity for eating is expanded when I have nowhere to take my leftovers. Exhausted, I took the ferry back to Venice and took a glorious nap. I made sure to wake up before sunset then took a stroll and facetimed my family so they could see a little bit of Venice. After it got dark, I walked around the main canal and tried to find a souvenir to buy. Undecided, I checked out some shirts and other knick knacks but nothing really seemed right. I came across a little shop full of Murano glass trinkets and an old man sitting down, sketching illustrations of Venice landscapes. He had a little box full of his beautiful art for sale and I found my perfect souvenir, plus he had a cute little dog sleeping in the corner of his shop which was even better.
So far I’ve only visited one cave in Slovenia even though there are about 10,000 different caves in the country. Walking around in the cave was stunning and also quite frigid, as the temperature dropped every couple meters. Going to another cave while I’m here is most definitely on my list. After the cave, we went to the bomb shelter which was an experience all in it’s own. I’m planning to write a blog post specifically about the bomb shelter and some perspective on what I’ve experienced being an American in Europe.
Noticing a small gelato truck, I left my spot on the pier, chose raspberry and enjoyed the BEST ice cream I have ever consumed in my lifetime. I’m honestly still dreaming about the sweet, berry flavored gelato. Still having a couple hours left for exploration, I walked around the old town of Trieste. Cute old buildings, impressive statues, cute cafes, colorful streets, leftover carneval confetti, and a curious Katrena walking about, genuinely enjoying life. There was a moment on the pier when I became overwhelmed with a sense of thankfulness and unfathomable gratitude for any and every person who helped me get here. If anyone would have told young, post-cancer me that I’d be studying in Europe and traveling solo to foreign cities when I was 20, I would have scoffed. Seriously, I’ve already done so many things I never expected to experience in my lifetime.
One by one people stepped off the bus until I was the only one left. Starting to think I was hopelessly lost, hearing the bus driver say a bunch of Slovenian words ending with “Bohinj” was so relieving. 
I got off the bus and started wandering around in the mountains around the lake. Hiking through the woods brought me upon several beautiful streams and waterfalls, I’m so glad I chose the lesser traveled path through the woods instead of by the lake. Walking around in the woods was so relaxing and wonderful. I’m used to walking around in the woods back in Missouri so this was a nice transformation of scenery. I didn’t actually take very many photos while at Bohinj because I was so entranced by my surroundings and also I had to run back through the path to get back to the bus to Bled.
Once atop the castle, you can overlook the whole lake with a nice view of the mountains. I can’t really capture the essence of being there, but hopefully the photos do it some justice. You can kind of see a little island in the middle of the lake with a little church on it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go out onto the island and see the church even though it would have been extremely interesting. Maybe I’ll take another trip to Bled before I leave Slovenia.
Back at the bus station, there were about 5 people waiting at the bus station. One of them happened to be a girl my age, so I went over and asked her if she was also studying in Slovenia and she replied in an American accent that she was studying in Germany but visiting Slovenia. This is the first American I’ve met here and she happened to be from North Carolina near the same area my sister and brother-in-law used to live, sort of a weird coincidence. We spent the whole hour bus ride back to Ljubljana talking. It was nice to talk with someone from my country for a little bit, but it made me appreciate my experiences with meeting people from all over the world a bit more. It’s much more enriching to have a conversation with someone from a different culture, learning about differences and similarities between customs and norms. Anyway… it’s really late here and I’m falling asleep. Thanks for keeping up with me!
She ended up telling me about an abandoned building she used to visit in Lithuania which ended up getting torn down and how she wanted to go into this building as much as I did. So I hopped the fence, went on in and she followed after. The building looked like an old hotel or maybe apartments, we both discussed how it was a shame it had been abandoned. We climbed up the three flights and discovered the top had been burned, explaining the abandonment. Finding a patio, we climbed out a window and onto the landing then into another section of the building. 
A creaking door slammed shut behind us and we had a brief moment of terror, we chalked it up to the wind but still disturbed, climbed back through the window to the main section of the building. Turning the corner into what looked like an old bathroom, she gave a little shriek, apprehensive I hurried over to see what had startled her. There were red, bloody, dragged handprints on the walls thanks to a previous disturbed graffiti artist. After a laugh, we went back down the rail-less cement stairs and left. I will have to come back later when it’s not freezing and take some sweet self-portraits.
We take it for granted, but we are truly blessed by the rich hispanic culture in America and benefit greatly through wonderful food. They served my taquitos with nacho cheese, like sports arena nacho cheese. So weird. Also, the taquitos tasted like nothing, so bland and plain. Maybe I’ll try the other Mexican cantina and see how that one holds up. Although, I may just stick to the pizzerias and Italian food. I’ll keep updating you guys with my food adventures here in Ljubljana. I need to try some actual Slovenian entrees soon. I’m a little hesitant though because it’s a lot of soups, meat, sausage, and potatoes. The only thing on that list sounding appetizing to me is potatoes so wish me luck.
Katrena Smith 