18 spots left

ciao! (i am keeping ciao, even when i'm no longer in italy),

I hope everyone's easter holiday went well. i celebrated by eating chocolate. i'm not sure where to start with slovenia, so i'll go with today.

I left Bled this afternoon, but before Damien, the cool old guy that runs the hostel, suggested i hike up to a church up in the mountains that was built in the 1300s. i say yes and his directions:

go up this street
take a right at the top
take a left and cut across that field
then cut right across the same field and you'll be there.

this seemed all easy because we were standing at the bottom of the mountain and i could see the street, the field, and the church. so, i go up the street, cut across the field and then i can't see anything,--no path, no church, only trees. i cut right and end up in the middle of the forrest just kind of walking around. after a while i end up back at the village, but on the complete other side. i gave it another shot but this time at the end of the left cut across the field there was an old man with crutches sitting on a rock. i do the praying symbol (its the only thing i can think of with a church) and he points to the path right behind the rock he was sitting on. i don't know how he got there or what he was doing, but it was a bit strange.

the church was small and closed but i could see in the window. had it been at the bottom of the mountain it would have received a low church appeal rating, but after everything it took to get there, its one of the best churches i have ever seen.

yesterday i went to the Bohinj valley. i took the bus to the last village and walked an hour to a giant waterfall. i remember being so excited about seeing waterfalls in new zealand, but i'm beginning to get waterfalled out. the cool part was walking back along the lake (its about 4 km.) on this trip i've seen "mirror lakes" but usually they are small and ducks always ruin it. This lake was of good size--i would call it a medium sized lake-- but with only one visible duck and absolutely no wind, it was a mirror. i could see every detail of every tree and all the clouds by looking into the water. it was amazing.

the day before that i spent in the town of Bled. its a small lake, that has an old church on a tiny island in the middle of it, a castle way up high on a cliff, and a cool cathedral. it just feels really old (because it is). its a bit touristy but all of the tourists were from italy so i was happy. it was just a nice place to sit and read/write/think by the water. at night Damien would tell me what it was like in slovenia after and during wars and all sorts of things. also, his wife would cook me slovenian meals (well, one dinner was serbian but with a slovenian twist to it--some kind of bean and ham stew).

Ljubljana, the capital of slovenia, is the next prague (in feel, not in price). it was good and bad being there on easter weekend. good because no body was there and i got great pictures; bad because everything was closed (which includes any place to buy food). i was incredibly hungry all weekend holiday long. my chocolates from italy kept me going and i found apples at a gas station but it was tough going for a few days. on easter (actually every sunday) they had one of the best antique markets ever--from russian communist war helmets to way old video cameras and postcards. i got two buttons since they are easy to carry.

now i'm back in ljubljana (and its not too difficult to pronounce), and it is a completely different place. there are so many people everywhere its a bit overwhelming but a lot more fun and there is less hunger.

i've had to change my schedule some and i'll be leaving slovenia to go to croatia in a few days, and then i'll come back and finish the west side. its going to make it easier to catch my flight to portugal.

my mind had an incredible difficult time of deciding what language to speak my first few days here. it was telling me "they don't speak english here, change languages" and all i have is italian, which is alright here, but they know i'm not italian because i can't hide my hair anymore. so i would end up not speaking any language and just mumbling and pointing. it really was akward. however now i have convinced my mind to speak english first and everything is flowing much smoother.

tomorrow i'm going to the u.s. embassy here to find out if "hypothetically" i run out of space in my passport for stamps. i'm sweating a bit because there are only 18 spots left and i think (think) that i only will get 17 more. thats really cutting it close, and i need to know what my options are.

ok, sorry for such a long post, the next one will be from croatia! sweet!

have a good day
your friend
chad