Thursday, 21 July

I woke up before my alarm went off… way before… I was too excited about the adventure I was about to start heading into Slovenia. It would mark my first solo travelling (without any friends from Perth anyway), which I was very much looking forward to.

Dylan and I met Elizabeth and Thomas and wandered through Sibernik, as they hadn’t been to the town center before. We had a coffee in front of the water and talked. They are a very nice couple and happily share their stories with us.

We looked at the main church before I bought a jam doughnut… it was worth waiting for – this one was soft, fresh and a delight to eat (it didn’t take long).

I said my good byes to Dylan, I won’t be seeing him until I return to Perth in March.

I set off… in the back seat of the camper, looking forward to the ride ahead.

We stopped a few times at rest stops to stretch and have a coffee. Elizabeth did all of the driving as Thomas has only recently got his license (no need to drive in some European cities as the public transport is so efficient).

We passed through Zagreb after 3 hours of driving. We had to pay a toll to use the autobahns, unlike in Australia. I envied their flexibility; at one of the stops we discussed where we would go on a map that covered all of Eastern Europe! A map with 8 different countries compared to half of Western Australia - theirs is far more exciting. We decided to go to Libj, north of Ljubljana, where there are hot springs.

We arrived mid afternoon at the camping ground called Terme Ptuj. (Ptuj was the small town). There were many other RV’s and a few tents. The attraction here is the swimming pools that are heated by the hot rocks deep underground. The plan was the spend 2 nights here, but 1 was plenty…

We tried the water slides – it was like a child’s slide – if only they could experience the ucfk’s annual sliding competition on the camps… So the pools weren’t all that enjoyable, we headed out for an early dinner at a pizza restaurant down the road. I was lucky to get a Larsko beer again (my favourite).

I slept outside the camper, was glad to be using my sleeping bag as up until now it’d been a dead weight. I was nice and warm.

I couldn’t have been luckier with the company of Elizabeth and Thomas.

Thomas is a very generous teacher who spends his time programming and teaching disabled children in Vienna. He uses his skills with computers to make movies and applications that improve the learning of the pupils. He was one of the first to start programming when computers came out! Elizabeth is a graphic designer and her caring character reminded me very much of my mum. So it was a very nice few days I spent with them. I would be sad when the time came to say good-bye.