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.

Teensy tiny Slovenia

Having extrapilated myself from the clutches of Rottweilers and stallions in countryside Slovenia, I have now acclimatised to a new kind of holiday with daddy dearest. And I've still not taken out any money.

Dad came with his wife yesterday to pick me up from the farm and I couldn't get out of there quick enuf. I was so excited to see him and also to just move on, I jumped in the car and bid the place a final goodbye. We went straight into the capital Ljubljana (pronounced lube-lee-arna, took me a while to get that one) and found the accommodation I'd booked for us. Was a bit worried about whether it was going to be nice enuf for them but it has turned out more than adequate. Me done good.

Went out for dinner by the city river, which was so nice and reminded us of Switzerland or Stockholm... as everything else has been in this country, it was clean, neat and orderly. Maybe it's more like Germany then. Everything is nice and sensible - dad loves it.

Today we jumped in the car and opted for a last-minute planned route skirting the city centre, checking out some cute little towns and old buildings. We didn't get out much except to eat (fine with me), which was good since it was raining all day, and I enjoyed just staring into the yellowing autumn forests as we wound up and down the hills and rolled through the pasturised valleys. My favourite town was Skolja Toka. So romantic...

Everything is so darned close to each other, I'm now getting an idea of just how small this country is. I hope I can stretch this holiday out for a few more days before seeing everything it has to offer!

Ate way too much for lunch and now am trying to prepare myself for another no doubt overfilling for dinner. This is what happens when I holiday with dad. We eat. And drive. And stop to eat. And eat again.