Helena gave me instructions on how to find the tourist office in Ljubljana but I accidentally went next door which was a gallery showing the work of some of the graphics art students from the local university. The young lady who was showing people around was a bit disappointed that I did not want to see her work and I ended up taking her to lunch in a nearby restaurant and of course I viewed all the graphics art work (including hers).
Whilst I was in Ljubljana I had arranged to meet a young Slovenian pen pal, I had met her at one of Helena's poetry and art exhibitions about a year before and we had kept in touch by snail mail, e-mail and an occasional SMS. We met at the 3 bridges, one of the main focal points in Ljubljana and at first I did not recognise her, she had changed so much in this past year and for the better, so confident, self assured and so pretty.
After a few days at Helena's I got the train over to Bratislava to help celebrate Andrea's birthday on 22nd of March, in Bratislava I met my young friend Jana, went to a nice pub and disco and then we went to Andrea's birthday party where I met Andrea's new boyfriend called Geoff and many other old friends from City University.
Next day I went up to Banska Bystrica to see my little friend Alenka, went out for a nice meal and then on to a disco and next day Ali ran us over to see some friends who have a small farm near Trencin, it was a nice day out the weather was nice and Dano and Jana were so pleased to see us. I went to their wedding in Brezno, a small town in central Slovakia that most tourists never reach, in about 2000 or 2001. Dano had inherited a farm from his grandfather, it had been quite a large farm but the buildings had been neglected for many years and Dano was busy renovating them. He was interested in Agro Tourism and had was converting one of the main buildings into flats that he would rent out in the summer.
I had planned to go to see some friends in Italy but it was too far to travel there in one day and I stopped off at Helena's again, whilst I was there I met my young pen friend again and she took me walking to a little village called Lasko, famous for it's brewery. We had a nice lunch in a castle up on top of a nearby hill and enjoyed the sunshine and the Spring flowers and walked about 5 kms or so. Next day we decided to go and see lake Bled, a famous Slovenian beauty spot that I had wanted to see for years. We got the bus up to Lake Bled and I began to get worried that the bus might not make it because it started to snow really heavily. At Bled we stopped off for lunch in a local pub and then the snow eased off and we spent about 3 or 4 hours walking right round the lake, about 10 kms. We got back to Bled just in time to miss the last bus but we managed to negotiate a half price deal with a local taxi driver to take us back to Ljubljana in a lovely Mercedes, a perfect ending to a perfect day.
After a few days at Helena's I took the train to Trieste and it was a bit strange, there was a gap of about 5 kms between the terminus for the trains coming from Ljubljana to the main railways station in Trieste. There was a link bus that arrived at the main railway station about 5 minutes before my train to Venice left and I just managed to catch the train. Then it sat for an hour whilst the police searched it twice, it got into Venice about 5 minutes after my train to Bologna was due to leave but this train was delayed as well but it was late arriving at Bologna and I missed my connection to Ancona. Fortunately I was able to get an express train, after paying a supplement to the conductor but it did get into Ancona in time to meet Daniela and Alvaro who were waiting at the station for me.
3 or 4 days with Daniela and Alvaro, meeting Stephano and other friends.
I got a train back up to Imola and was met at the station by my young friend Katia, we had met several years before in Ravenna and had kept in touch and she insisted that I stay with her at her parents house in Imola. Katia's parents just could not do enough for me, they were so kind and considerate and I tried almost every Italian dish you can think of because Katia's mother loved to cook. Next day I went into Bologna with Katia and her boyfriend Roberto and it was a much bigger and nicer city than I had envisaged. We saw the cathedral, some absolutely ancient churches and some nice pubs and restaurants. Next day we went up to a village in the hills where they had a special festival day, there was a pole climbing competition in the village square and at the end of this we had a big surprise, it suddenly started raining biscuits. People were shovelling these out of the windows, the biscuits were in paper bags and I must have caught about 40 or 50 of these as did Katia and Roberto.
Trains to Ljubljana, missed connection
Stopped off at Helena's again
Went back up to see little Ali, saw MBA, went to Petra and Juditka's BP then back to Ljubljana, met my young pen friend, her brother Igor ran us over to Klagenfurt via some marvellous mountain scenery where we got the same plane to Stansted.
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