Couchsurfing cuties to Maribor mountains

I forget what it's like traveling with my dad and his wife but now the memories come racing back to me like a Formula 1 torpedo. They are just SO SENSIBLE! And while that works extremely well in their relationship, I just could not live with it. So no, thank you for the offer dad, but I am NOT living with you when I get back to Australia. Whenever that may be. Well, at least not longer than I need to before I find a place of my own. Thanks daddy :)

There are so many 'just in case's and 'you never know's, nothing left to chance, nothing unplanned, everything 1, 2, 3 and we're done, next monument please, hurry up we've gotta get on the road again, let's program the sat nav while we're on the autobarn, wait do I have a chance to scratch my ass?? JUST RELAX. The amount of times I have had to remind dad that he is on holiday, we are in possibly the smallest country we'll ever holiday in, he can take it easy... he thinks I'm nagging him but I am simply trying to get him to breathe. Just breathe.

So now I've vented my frustrations, possibly because I'm one cocktail and half a litre of beer down, I can say that today has consisted of a lovely stroll through downtown Ljubljana, the first day we've seen commercial activity since we arrived on the weekend. I met a local girl through Couchsurfing who video interviewed me about Couchsurfing and we had a quick coffee afterwards (although after a big traditional Slovenian lunch I had no room for anything but water) and I sat there the whole time wondering if she thought I was as pretty as I thought she was. Guess I'll never know. Or will I...???

She tells me there is a really cool ex-military site which is now a boho kinda club district that I should check out... shame I found out about it just before we left town but it's not like I can't ever come back. And now I have a guide :)

My overall impression of Ljubljana has been positive - the people are not the ugliest in the world, a change from other (ahem) parts of Europe, and they seem to have an understated sense of class/style which also shows through their shops. I've been well impressed by their range of shoes!! Have absolutely no room in my bag though, so no chance of a random shopping spree. There is some beautiful architecture and everything seems quite well maintained, so you can't complain about that. Except that I like derelict buildings so a little less maintenance wouldn't have gone astray for my weird tastes. Still, you can't please everyone, can you??

Now I'm in our new hotel near (another) mountainous region of Maribor, which we'll explore tomorrow. Dad and his wife are resting in their room, I'm downstairs drinking. Life is good.

Beautiful one day, perfect the next... cya Gold Coast, hello Lisbon!

Although it was really nice weather yesterday, there was a little cloud (how dare they) so our efforts at the beach were quashed somewhat. Also the fact sand was blowing into every crevice put me off sunbaking slightly.

So we retreated to T's place and I had a litre of Super Bock beer to get in the mood, then we headed out to Bairro (which I still can't properly pronounce). It was a relatively tame night, considering the bday boy got tired and called it a night earlier than expected but it's all good, there's always tonight. That area is quite cool on a weekend, lots of bars catering for whatever lifestyle you so choose to indulge in. A's brother and his partner said they'd take me to some cool places Sat night so hopefully we'll see the other side of it.

Waiting now for A's brother to arrive and take us to another 'great Portuguese place' (these people are so generous!!) so I'm just canvassing Couchsurfing for some potential places to crash in Lagos (bit late but I'll give it a go!), Porto (pretty much sorted though) and Budapest. Awwwww right :)