Day 62-77: Ljubljana, Vienna & Bratislava

Our bus to Ljubljana (pronounced lube-li-ana) brings us back into the Schengen Zone. It sounds like Stephen wanted to give you some dramatic story about how I was detained at passport control and held up the entire Flixbus. My passport does seem to get examined a little longer than most of the others in line, but I am stamped and waved through. I mock extreme excitement as I walk to meet Stephen outside. “I did it! I got a card from American Idol! I’m going to VEGAS!!!!.” I feel a really cool vibe almost as soon as we step off the bus in Ljubljana. The city is small, and it only takes us 8-10 minutes to walk to our apartment on the edge of the city center. Everything is clean and it has a modern charm mixed with ancient buildings. A huge castle sits high on a cliff directly above the city center. The lazy, blue-green Ljubljanica River slithers through the city center like a snake, with riverfront restaurants lining both sides. Every single one has an outdoor patio with umbrellas, greenery and vegetation, chalkboard signs, and loads of people lounging in the sun.

 

Ljubljana is Green

If Ljubljana were a color, it would be green. The symbol of the city is the dragon, which you can see represented everywhere from street signs to souvenirs to architecture. It’s easy to imagine these gothic creatures watching over the city from the rugged, bright green mountains that loom over the town.

In addition to green symbolism, Ljubljana was also awarded the European Green Capital Award in 2016, making it a literal green city. It’s initiatives in urban sustainability are evident all around the city. Each trash bin is separated for plastic, paper, organic/bio waste (food scraps), and trash. Public water fountains are available on every corner to refill water bottles.

The city center of Ljubljana does have a slight hint of fabrication though. The vine-covered trellises seem a little too perfect. Nearly every restaurant in the city center has a chalkboard, scrawled with sayings like “I don’t know the question, but the answer is wine,” “My wife made me choose between her and beer. Cheers,” and “It’s never too early for wine.” There are lots of tourists, but step down an alley just outside of the center, and you’ll see true authentic coffeeshops, street art, and a little more organic charm.

Lake Bled

On Wednesday, we celebrate Stephen’s birthday with a day trip to Lake Bled. Even if you don’t know that’s what it was called, you have to be living under a rock to have not seen photos of this place on Instagram. This is the lake in Slovenia that has an island with a church in the middle. It’s on Conde Nast’s list of things to see before you die, it’s on Lonely Planet’s fairy tale European spots, etc. etc.

The bus from Ljubljana to Bled is about an hour. The drive is scenic and the landscapes become more mountainous and rugged as we traverse into the Alps.

A little history lesson. Traces of civilization in Slovenia date back thousands of years. In fact, the first known musical instrument was discovered in a cave not too far from Bled. The lake itself–or rather, the island in the middle of the lake–has been a pilgrimage site since pagan times. The church was built on the island in 1201, about the same time as the land was gifted to the area’s nobility from the King of the Austro Hungarian empire. The nobility also built a castle, which sits high on the cliffs of the lake and overlooks the stunning turquoise water far below.

Tourism in Bled started in the late 1800s, when a Swiss man name Arnold Rikli started promoting naturalism and homeopathic healing arts of water, air, and sunshine. He built a wellness spa on the lake, and is attributed as the creator of tourism for the area.

Today, the town thrives on tourists year round. A five kilometer paved path follows the perimeter of the lake. Designated swimming areas allow for visitors to take a dip in the cool, clear alpine water. Stand-up paddle boards and row boats are available to rent. Visitors can pay for a seat on a larger row boat to and from the island, where they can visit the church. The sound of chiming church bells ring across the lake at nearly constant intervals, as the tradition is for visitors to ring the bells for good luck as they enter the church. The lake and surrounding area also serves as the Olympic Training Center for a variety of summer and winter sports.

We arrive in Bled and sit down for a coffee in the beautiful, cool morning air as we plan our day. The first thing we do is hike up to the castle. Once there, the only way to take in the stunning views is to pay for entrance, which was about 10 euros each. This is something I would absolutely recommend doing. Once in the castle, we head straight for the courtyard, where all I could do was stand in disbelief at how the sharp blue color of the water contrasted against the deep green trees of the shoreline. The water is so clear, you can see the legs and feet of the people swimming hundreds of yards below.

Inside the castle are exhibits of Slovenian and Bled natural history, which are interesting but nothing spectacular. After a stop at the gift shop where I try just about every beauty sample (I’ve paired my beauty and skincare routine down to the bare essentials since I have limited space for toiletries, and have quickly developed a no-shame sample game), we hike back down and start our walk around the perimeter of the lake.

About 1/3 of the way around, we stop near the Olympic Training Center and take advantage of the long boat docks that jut into the water. We jump and dive from the end of the docks, marveling at the clear water. I nervous laugh about the differences in buoyancy between the fresh water lake and the last water we swam in – the Adriatic (Many of you know I’m a little scared of water).

We continue our walk, making plenty of stops to take in the view. We end our day at a delicious local bakery to celebrate Stephen’s birthday with the famous Lake Bled Cream Cake.

Stephen Loses His Underwear

As we finish up our dessert, we gather our things to walk to catch our bus. Stephen glances around, picks up his bag, and raises his eyebrows to me.

“What?”

“I lost my underwear.”

We were still wearing our swimming suits from the dip in the lake we took earlier that day.

“I must have dropped them when we were walking.”

“Well what are you going to do!”

“Well I have to go get them….(video below).”

Ljubljana: Additional activities

• We go for a long run in the wooded areas just a kilometer from the city center called Tivoli Park. The hilly, wooded park has secluded trails that were challenging and fun. We even come across a ski jump center.
  
• As a second act for Stephen’s birthday, I surprise him with a brewery tour at Union Brewery. It’s sort of like the Anheuser-Busch or Coors of Slovenia. On the tour, we meet Dan and his mom, who, along with Dan’s wife and two-year-old son, are also taking a year off from work to travel.Later that night, Dan texts Stephen and lets him know that his mom is watching the baby and asks if we want to meet him and his wife, Shirla, for a drink. We meet up and have a great time talking and sharing travel tips and stories. This is actually the second time they’ve done a long-term travel trip, but it’s the first time with a child. It was great to compare stories, and they’ve convinced us that we have to get certified to SCUBA dive when we get to Southeast Asia. If it works out, we’ll try to meet up with them in November.
  

  Beer tasting for Stephen’s birthday at Union Brewery in Ljubljana.

  

• Every Friday there is a food market in the city center. The variety in food is amazing – traditional, trendy, hearty, weird. There are also wine and beer stands and long picnic tables set up.
  

  Friday food market in Ljubljana. All sorts of funky foods to try.

• We visit a board game bar and try our hand at Slovenian Scrabble.
  

  Biggest difference between Slovenian Scrabble and English Scrabble? More Zs, Vs and Js.

   

We Feel Like Royalty in Vienna

After five days in Ljubljana, we take a bus to Vienna. When we arrive, the city feels hot, quiet and sleepy. It’s a Saturday afternoon. We get to the address at our apartment, which we’ve booked through Airbnb. If you haven’t used Airbnb, we highly recommend it. It’s the site we’ve used almost exclusively throughout our trip to find affordable accommodations. The app is easy to use and though we haven’t had to engage them, their customer service is known to be extremely on top of their game. Use this link to get $40 off your first booking.

We rely heavily on the reviews of listings when we’re looking for a place on AirBnB. We’re pretty simple, but reviews like “not clean” or “not responsive” are pretty hard nos in our book. When we were looking in Vienna, we found a listing that was in our price range, in a great area, but it had no reviews. We decided to risk it and go ahead and try, because the pictures were fantastic.

This time, our risk payed off. We’re met at the door by a friend of the host, and she shows us upstairs. Outside of the apartment is a plaque with the name of our host and her business. She’s a therapist or psychologist of some sort, and she uses part of her apartment as her office. We’ve found it’s not uncommon to have home offices in Europe. In many of the places we’ve stayed, there are placards at the main entrance with the names of lawyers, doctors, dentists, and accountants, all who operate out of an apartment building.

We walk into the flat and I’m not sure how we were able to play it cool. The place was enormous. I mean, the entry way itself was about the total size of many of the places we’d been staying. We thank the friend and assure her we’ll contact the host with any questions and confirm our checkout day. She leaves and closes the door. After a beat, Stephen and I look at each, drop our bags and start running around the apartment like kids in a candy store. The flat consists of four main rooms – an entry way with a bathroom and toilet room, two large bedrooms, a formal dining room and a kitchen. One of the bedrooms is set up as a suite, with a bed, living area and TV, and the other the host uses as her office. It has a large desk in one corner, and a sitting area complete with coffee table and tissue box. The entire place is stylish and formal, with giant, heavy floor to ceiling double doors on each threshold and heavy wooden shutters on all the windows with intricate carvings. We can’t understand how we fell into this mansion. We later see that she has taken down the listing and reposted for $100 more per night than what we paid. I’ll take the good karma.

We Overcome Language Barriers and Make Friends

Vienna has lots of summer festivals going on, and it’s a rather large city. We choose one from a list and head to a park called Autgarten that’s about 25 minutes away from the city center where we’re staying. It’s a wine festival. This park is beautiful, with precise landscaping and lush, green grass. As we approach the park, I see a giant concrete structure looming over the festival area. This structure is called a Flak tower and was built and used by the Germans in World War II to defend against Allied air raids. It was pretty surreal to be drinking wine underneath the shadow of a tower that remains from such a recent period of dark history.

We search for any seats with shade amongst the long, family style tables that are set up at the park. There is an older man sitting by himself, and we ask if we can join his table. He indicates that the seats are open, and then proceeds to make a few comments in German. This has started to happen more and more frequently as Stephen and I have made our way through Central and Eastern European countries were our linage is from (from what we know, Stephen’s is German and Swedish, and my family is Hungarian, German, Swedish and English). Here’s what usually happens:

Person: Something in another language
Kristin: Politely laughs and nods with a huge smile
Person: Continues with something else in language
Kristin: Another chuckle/smile and a tilt of the head, but still pretending to understand
Person: Potentially asks a question
Kristin: Sorry! English?

So this is exactly what happens when we sit down next to who will soon become our friend, Thomas. He’s Polish, but lives in Vienna, and he speaks a small amount of English. Nearly every single moment of our interaction was completely disjointed – for example, I would ask in simple, clear English how long he’s lived in Austria. He would respond with an enthusiastic nod as if he 100% understood the question, and say that it never gets so hot, this is in fact very unusual weather. This interaction is so internally hilarious that it takes a lot for me to not just burst into laughter at the silliness.

Across the table from us is a dog (remember from my last post – any slight opportunity to pet someone’s dog and I’m UP in that business) and some humans who are with the dog. After getting permission, I coddle and pet and baby talk to this gorgeous pit bull named Sunny. I first thought it was Sandy, but it’s Sunny. Sunny belongs to Ciggy and Patrick, who are at the festival with their friends Sabine and Alex. We spend the rest of the evening chatting, and after the festival wraps up, they take us to the best street wiener in Vienna. We join them for two cocktails, which at the end of the night, they so graciously paid for – thank you for your kindness and conversation, guys!

Vienna, Why You So Hot?

While we’re in Vienna, the temperatures hit the high 90s. I’ve been trying hard to acclimate my body temp to the weather of our location, and I’m normally pretty good at this anyway. Vienna was difficult. These high temps are infrequent and unusual, and it’s rare to find air conditioning anywhere in the city, including our apartment. One morning, I just can’t take it anymore, and we spend one particularly hot day wandering around trying to find a cafe with air conditioning were we can spend the day. We actually don’t find one. And ultimately we ended up outside for almost the entire day (which, as opposed to our apartment, at least had a small breeze) until out of complete desperation we duck into an H&M for an hour or so. Thanks H&M.

 

Other Things Vienna Had to Offer

• We eat amazing food at a restaurant called Gulaschmuseum. So far, Stephen’s top meal!
  

  Stephen’s favorite meal so far – Veal Goulash

• We spend an day wandering around the funky Neubau neighborhood. Lots of second hand shops, cool restaurants and off-beat art.
  

  Found some Lederhosen at a Neubau thrift store.

• We visit the Schönbrunn Palace gardens. This estate was chiefly the summer residence of the royal Habsburg family, though it also functioned as a hunting lodge and offices of the Allied Control Council, who occupied Vienna after WWII. The gardens are free to enter and definitely worth a visit.
  

  Schönbrunn Palace gardens.

  

  In this photo, do you think Stephen was a) Giving me directions through the maze or b) Mocking me because he made it through faster?

  

Bratislava! We love you.

We arrive in Bratislava by good old Flixbus and walk the 28 minutes to our apartment. My first impression is that the city is rugged, casual, cool, and growing. The abundance of festival advertisements, info booths and pop-up exposés are evidence of a very active tourism office. The city center is a mix of traditional Slovakian restaurants geared toward tourists, trendy wine bars, and an impressive variety of multi-cultural foods (including the famed Kansas City Corn Dog…yeah we’re not sure either). We even find our first truly authentic Mexican restaurant since we’ve been abroad – clearly a rare gem amongst Europe as was reflected in the prices. For a city that has extremely cheap food and beer – think a full dinner for $6 and a beer for less than $2 – the $7 margarita and $15 moles enchiladas were worth it.

Bratislava, like any ancient city, has a rich history of fortification. Examples include St. Michael’s Gate, which is the only gate of the original medieval fortification of the city that remains. Today, it’s incorporated into its neighboring buildings and looms over a pedestrian-only walkway in the city center. In the 20th century, the World Wars and Cold War-Era defenses included a period of fortification, this time in the form of 8,602 air raid and nuclear shelters capable of holding over 760,000 citizens. These shelters still lie beneath the network of the city and remain largely undetected unless you know they’re there. Today many of them have taken on a new purpose in the form of bars, coffee shops, and restaurants. There is nothing quite like making your way down a long stone staircase that finally opens up to a dark, domed, slightly damp room. It’s a little unnerving at first, but pretty cool and unique.

Despite the serious nature of what was undoubtedly a dark and difficult time for Slovakia, there is a touch of lightheartedness that we discover, including a KGB themed bar that is housed, of course, in an old air-raid shelter. Soviet-era flags, portraits of Stalin and murals of spiteful-looking neighbors whispering to one another line the stone walls.

I Get Air Conditioning Sickness

When we check into our Airbnb, the owner explains to us where everything is, how to connect to WiFi, and how to use the AC unit. I tell her that we’re so happy to have AC, since Vienna was really hot and Bratislava was forecasted to be the same. She then turns to me very seriously, and says “That’s fine, but do not turn it too low, or you will get air conditioning sickness.” “Air conditioning sickness?” I say. “Yes, unless, of course, maybe you are used to having AC, but I got it one time on a trip to Italy.” I nod and say not to worry, I’ll be careful. She leaves, and I turn to Stephen and scoff. “Air conditioning sickness? HA that is definitely not a thing.” After the heat of Vienna, I deserve this. I turn that baby down to 18 (which is 64 degrees F) and relax on the bed.

Two days later, I develop a cold.

Our AirBnB Host Drops Some Inspo

The AirBnB in Bratislava is probably the most eclectic that we stayed in. The decor theme is what I would call “Gold on Gold on Gold.” My favorite part is the inspiration you were delivered in the form of playing-card sized memes taped to the wall across from toilet.

We Get Cultural with Senior Citizens

I would venture to say that Bratislava had the most cultural celebrations of any place we visited so far. Each night for most of the summer they have a band or performance of some sort. Some of the nights included traditional music with the participants in traditional Slovakian dress. Others were modern music. It was cool to make our way to the stage in the middle of old town around 7 pm each night to see what was on the schedule for that evening.

And because Bratislava is a popular stop for Viking River Cruises, most of the time the attendees were Stephen, me, and 150 old people.

We’re sad to leave Bratislava, but we need to make our way to Budapest to fly back to Kansas City for Stephen’s sister’s wedding, which is why we’ve been on a little hiatus. We had the opportunity to recharge by spending time with our friends, family, and DOGS.

Thanks for making through what is probably out longest post yet. Next up, we promise to deliver epic pictures and videos, because we get back on the road and visit a place that I cannot believe wasn’t on our original list: ICELAND.