Tuesday, 26 July

Today marked the end of the first month away from home. I have done so much, but it has gone so quickly. Missing the family a lot too.

I woke up at 5.52am. The alarm was set for 6am. It was reassuring to know my body clock was working again after the dramatic change in time zones a few weeks before. Our bags were packed and I slipped some toast into the oven and a few minutes later we walked out, ready to go, with strawberry jam and nutella on toast. We caught the 6.25 bus from the Bled station to Ljubljana.

Here we had 40 mins to kill, so I got a coffee from maccas (first time for everything) and then brushed my teeth and it was time to go. The boarded the 8.50 train and were both pleasantly impressed with our seating. We had a cabin to ourselves, similar to the one off eurotrip, except to Italian in ours.

We moved the seats together and had a pretty comfy chill zone. The train would take 5 hours, and in hindsight, it would have been smarter to get the night train, but I had booked accommodation for the coming night so I had to catch it during the day. Plus, I had been enjoying getting the most out of a good nights sleep, getting up early and taking advantage for a fresh and energetic body to spend the whole day exploring.

We passed fields of sun flowers and lots of corn crops.

We said our goodbyes, the ease of facebook meant we could keep in touch.

I jumped on the metro for 6 stops and then walked to the hostel 300m away. It was a dark little place; and I was in a mixed 12 bed dorm. A nice girl asked if I wanted to head out and get dinner. I quickly jumped in the shower and changed my clothes as I was running very low on clean gear. (I have been wearing dirty clothes for a while now… the solo traveler doesn’t worry about his appearance that much).

Sophie had been told about a nice restaurant and myself and a Russian/Syrian girl joined her. We struggled to find the place, but along the way walked through the streets and saw a missive synagogue and soaked up the nightlife.

I ordered an eggplant spread with pita (820 Ft) and a beer called Csapolt Sorok – Dreher 0.5L for 470 (Ft).

We had a nice “Syrniki” (fried curd cheese dumplings with sour cheery jam) for dessert and the total price for my meal was 10AUD. This was the Eastern Europe food experience I’d been looking for; great food at cheap prices.

We talked and enjoyed the atmosphere before walking back to the hostel around 11.30pm and heading straight to bed. I was exhausted.