Following a week of midterms and group papers, the last thing that was on my mind was packing for 10 days, yet the first thing on my mind w as ‘get me out of Florence!’ I had booked a fall break trip my first week of being in Florence through Bus2Alps, the travel company with whom I went to Croatia. Initially I had planned on going to Slovenia, Budapest and Prague on my own, but after learning that traveling to that many cities is difficult, expensive and inefficient given the amount of time I had. Not to mention the Slavic languages might as well be Russian (which is funny because I took four years of Russian and can’t speak a word) so navigating could have been a complete disaster. So the next logical choice to ensure that I could make it to all the cities on my list was to go on the Eastern Loop trip for fall break. After the, lets be nice and say ‘basic’ people on the Croatia trip, I was hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Over the course of that 10 days, I came to find a great group of friends with whom I now share some truly unforgettable moments, funny stories and memories of some really magical places.
On thursday, October 16 I packed my bag for 10 days and headed to the train station to leave Florence for the longest time since I had arrived in Italy. Upon arrival at the Santa Maria Novella train station, I found mobs of American study abroad students loaded up with their belongings attempting to organize into their respective loop trips. And then I saw a small group and knew it had to be my trip; travelling to Eastern Europe is not the most common for study abroad students. So I walked up and checked in while scoping out the people I would be spending the next 10 days with. To my pleasant surprise, everyone looked pretty cool. ‘This is gonna be good’ I thought to myself as I realized we would all have out own seats on the bus. Soon enough we headed to our lovely bus that would be our traveling home through east.
The drive to Ljubljana took about 6 hours, so the bus
arrived to the hostel at 3:30 in the morning. I was so thankful to sleep in a bed! The next day, however came very quickly. We had to be up at 8:30 so we could eat breakfast and go on the walking tour around the city. While getting ready to go, I got to the hostel in the daylight. It had a really cool treehouse vibe, so much so that you wouldn’t know that it used to be a jail during the communist era. It was located right in the middle of the artist district so all of the walls outside were covered in cool graffiti. This place even had its own hookah room, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to use it… next time! Soon we were headed to the center of town to meet our tour guide. For the next three hours we got to see historical sites of the city and learn all about the city’s history, most of which I was able to take notes on. Bare with me, this is about to become a history lesson.
The word Ljubljana means beloved in Slovenian, and is called the beloved city, beloved town by the people of Slovenia. Ljubljana is over 5000 years old, and in the center of Slovenia it is only 30 km from the Alps. In the center of the city square was a statue of Slovenia’s most famous poet , France Preseren who lived during the 1900’s and wrote Slovenia’s anthem. Across the square, up on the side of a building is a statue of a lady looking out of a window. Her name was Juliet and she was the love interest of Preseren, however they could never be married. so the artist set the two across from each other in the square in stone, to look into one another’s eyes forever.
While we were walking around, we kept noticing little green cars driving people around. Our tour guide told us that, because the center of town is completely closed off to cars, the government provides free ‘taxis’ to anyone who needs one to get around. That is some great service!
Next we got to see the central market which is mostly comprised of small family farms. A typical Slovenian weekend consists of going to the market in the morning and leaving in the afternoon to go hiking or work on the family farm outside of the city.
According to our guide, the city is a ghost town in the afternoons because everyone leaves the city for their land out in the countryside. Yes, I thought to myself, I am so Slovenian, that is so me!
Next we went to see the Dragon bridge. The dragon is symbol of the city based on the legend of Jason, a Greek prince who was sent sent to bring back the golden fleece. Upon his journey home, he got lost and made it to the Danue river which runs through the center of town. In order to pass through, he had to slay the dragon. He succeeded and and thus the city of Ljubljana was born. This story was actually written by Greek historians in 500 A.D.
Afterwards we went to th
e Cathedral of St Nicholas, who is Slovenia’s patron saint. The cathedral was built in early 18 century, however the front doors were created for Pope John Paul II for his first visit to Slovenia. In fact, the Vatican was the very first country to recognize Slovenia as its own country in 1991 after separating from Yugoslavia. The door depicts Slovenia’s history from it’s very beginning. First it shows the slavics who settled here in the 6 century A.D. but were soon conquered by Austrian, Hungarian and Italian rulers. the people were originally Pagan and worshiped linden trees which are still very culturally significant and are planted all over cities and towns. Years later, the Irish priests peacefully converted people to Christianity which has lasted to this day; Slovenia is a predominantly Catholic country. The hands holding book depict the first written Slovenia language. Language was what kept the Slovenian together through the many years of being controlled by other countries. This is why the poets were so important. The three men at the top Slovenian bishops, and the man coming out of the window is John Paul II.
The flag of the city
depicts three mountains on the coat of arms which are the most holy mountains. To be a true Slovenian, you must climb to the top of the highest mountain in the country which is 3000 meters. At the top, you get baptized for the first time and they spank you, es they spank you. They spank the boys with a rope. All Slovenians must complete this journey and I hope to return one day to complete this journey myself.
After the walking tour, a group
of friends and I went to get some traditional Slovenian food at a restaurant in the middle of town. I got Slovenian sausage, sauerkraut and a veggie casserole… to die for. It reminded me so much of Gay Gay’s cooking at big family parties. 
Once we had our fill, we headed up to the top of the hill in the center of the town to see the castle. Although it was a short 
hike, it was really steep and I was not prepared. Yet we made it to the top and were blown away by the views. The whole town is surrounded by mountains and forest; the Slovenians care very much about their land and the nature that surrounds their town. No wonder I fit in so well here.
After the castle, we decided to walk around and stumbled upon an adorable cafe with the nicest barista. There were about 8 of us so we went to the back where there was a bigger room for all of us to sit. She came and sat with us for a 
bit, explaining what everything was and helped us order. I’m pretty sure everyone in Slovenia is the nicest person you will ever meet. She was shocked to hear that we had never tried Turkish coffee, which is filter three times, so we had to order that. I think that was also the best coffee I have ever had, and it came in a cool little pot too!
It was still early so we shopped around for a bit and saw more of the town. I completely fell in love with the town, the culture, the people, everything. 
The more time I spent walking around there, the more I did not want to leave but it was starting to get late so headed back to the hostel. The graffiti on the what home was nothing short of art. Everywhere you turned the walls were covered with colorful designs and pictures. It was so different from anything you would see in Florence; it was such a different culture which is why I loved it so much.
For dinner, we went to another very traditional Slovenian restaurant a bit outside the city center. The food again was delicious. They even served strudel, but it wasn’t as good as Gay Gay’s strudel, I’m sure anything is! Which reminded me, I need to schedule a strudel making day with her for when I get home. After dinner we went bar hopping and had a great night out. I even met and Olympic skier from Utah and we hung out with the whole ski team. It was a great and weird night, we’ll leave it at that.
The next morning I was not happy to be awake… but the bus was leaving at 9 so I got myself packed, had breakfast, checked out of the h
ostel and got on the bus. We were heading to Lake Bled in Bled, Slovenia before heading to Budapest. Lake Bled its quite possibly one of the most beautiful and majestic places I have ever been to. The weather was a bit cloudy which added an extra feeling of mystery and and magic to the whole place. To see the whole lake, we climbed to the top of a mountain where a castle was built. The views from the top we absolutely breath taking. Surrounding the lake were snow covered mountains and countryside that spread out as far as the eye could see. 
We spent a lot of time up there just taking in the beauty and going through the museum inside of the castle. Eventually, after taking way to many pictures. we made our way back down into the town of Bled where I got a piece of the famous Slovenian creme cake. The cake was layers of thin dough of almost a filo dough consistency with a layer of creme and a layer of custard. Upon its arrival to the table, I thought it would be grossly sweet but upon tasting it, I was blown away. It was the perfect consistency, perfect amount of sweetness, a
nd the perfect post-hangover hike snack. Almost as soon as we arrived, we were already heading back to the bus on our way to Budapest.
Just two days before hand, I knew nothing about Slovenia except for the fact that I am Slovenian. I left wanting to know so much more about the history and culture but finding that I fit in here in ways I didn’t thnk were possible for only being in the city for 24 hours. I know one day I will be returning to further understand my Slovenian heritage and to hike my way to becoming a true Slovenian. Brothers in blood, cousins language, foreigners in culture.
It is hard to believe that it is already October. I am almost half way through this semester and have already seen so many things both in and out of Italy. The past two weekends have been filled with day trips in and around Italy for class and with friends. The first trip was on October 3 for a class trip to a pig farm/winery, it was beautiful combination. We were up early in the morning and made it to the winery around 10:00. We spent time seeing the wine cellars, watching how the grapes were processed after being picked, and most importantly we got to see the pigs. This was a special breed of pig, related very closely to wild boar. As can be seen in the pictures, the pigs’ noses are longer than the ones we see in the large scale pork production, and they are black with a white-ish stripe along the shoulders which is a unique trait to this breed. The pigs lived along a hillside where they free to roam among the native vegetation. Their pens were lined with aspen trees (my favorite tree, I was very excited) and solar panels on the other side. Needless to say, I was in love with this area, aspen trees, pigs and solar panels, what more could I ask for? 
The next day, Saturday, a few friends and I went to Venice for the day. We woke up very early and caught the first train out of Florence for Venice at 7:30. 3 hours later, we arrived in one of the most beautiful places I have seen so far. Everywhere you turn, there is a scenic church, waterway, cute cafe, or other islands that are part of Venice. 
Eventually I made it to St. Marks and was awestruck upon entering the square (and by the amount of people that were there). It was so crowded that I couldn’t get into the cathedral, but I did get to play with the pigeons and see the square.
Around 2:30 I started getting hungry but because this was a local area, mostly everything was closed for siesta. Eventually I stumbled upon a small restaurant with people sitting outside. I walked in and asked for a table for one. Although the kitchen was closed, the guy must have taken pity on my because he offered my some of the food his mom was cooking in the back. I very graciously took the offer and sat down outside. In ten minutes he brought three beautiful rolls and the best ravioli I have every had. It was home made pumpkin ravioli with a sage-butter sauce… divine. 
After I was finished, I walked to a waterfront park full of umbrella pines and took nap in the sun. Eventually it was time to get going, so I went to a magazine stand where a very nice lady helped me figure out where I was going. I bought my waterbus ticket and a few post cards and went to the floating bus stop to wait for the 4.2 water bus.
After another week of classes, one of which was another wine tasting, my class took a trip to another winery in Chianti. To get to the this winery, we took a mini charter bus and drove through the wining mountains for 2 hours. I thought we were going to tip over honestly. While driving up the driveway, you could see the winery up on the hill. It had a very modern facade and appeared almost like a winery you would see in California. We took a quick tour of the facility then headed out to the vineyard where we would help pick grapes for a little while. When we arrived there was a group of about 15 people in the rows picking grapes. We all split up in pairs and went with a worker. They showed us how to pick the grapes using pruning sheers and clean out the bad grapes from the bunch. This growing season was not good because of all the rain and a large portion of the crop was lost to grey mold. Picking was fun, it brought me back to the glory days of picking tomatoes at Sirna’s (insert immense sarcasm).
Our weekend started on Thursday right after our Italian exam when we went with a few friends to a bar across the street from our class for a few drinks. Nice and relaxed after a week from hell (relatively speaking of course), we headed home, packed and went to the train station where we would meet up with the Bus2Alps group. We checked in and headed to the huge coach bus where we would be sitting for the next 12 hours. Fast forward through a really long, boring and pretty unenjoyable bus ride, we arrived in Split at 8:00 am. The bus was unloaded and we walked along the main strip of the town. Split is right on the water so there is a large harbor that covers the coast line. All along there port there are places to eat, little shops and people enjoying the scenery; it is so beautiful. Just a short walk from the bus was the hostel we would be staying in for the weekend. Goli Bosi, as it was called was a neat little hostel in the middle of town. The interior had the strangest architecture and was painted with black and electric green. Even the room, which looked like train with bunks in the walls was painted entirely green. We all go settled in, met our roomates for the weekend and ran downstairs to get breakfast, I was starving (I feel like this is a common theme throughout my blog) The breakfast in Naples tasted like horse food compared to this. There eggs and some type of sausage and cereal and yogurt, not too shabby for a hostel. After breakfast we went upstairs to get ready for sea kayaking only to find out that it was cancelled because the sea was too choppy. That was a real bummer because we would have gone snorkeling and cliff jumping in addition to kayaking. Instead we took this opportunity to go on an Urban Hike Round 3! Paige and I spent the whole day walking around the town. We found this trail of steps that led to the top of a mountain where you could see the whole town with a panoramic view.
some quite reading time. The place was so cute and had divine cakes. Soon enough, we were on the boat where we would spend the sailing around the island. We stopped at two points on the island.
company, we decided to do everything on our own. A few weeks before, I had booked a hostel in Naples for three nights and we would spend the days traveling to the coast. We arrived back in Grosseto and hopped on a 2.5 hour train to Rome. Upon arriving inough we were all exhausted, we woke up pretty quickly when we realized our surroundings were not, let’s say as quaint as Florence. I pulled up the directions to get to our hostel which directed us to get on the metro and get off at the Salvtora Rosa station. Easy enough I thought as we followed signs for the Metro Line 1 out of the train station and onto the sidewalk. But where was the entrance? The signs directed us across the street, but all we could see was a metal roof structure surrounded by construction fences. After my friend Jon, who could thank God speak Italian asked a few people who were of no help, we decided to walk. According to google maps it would take us 40 minutes to walk there. By this time it was passing 11:00 so we just decided to go. Bring on Urban Hiking: Round 2. As I hinted at previously Naples is not Florence. As the train entered the city limits, I could see very tall buildings making me hope it wasn’t as bad as I had heard. Naples, unlike Florence probably has never invested in street cleaners because there is garbage everywhere. In the dim light of the street lamps, the buildings appeared to be crumbling and there seemed to be graffiti on every possible exposed area of wall. At one point, we walked through a square where people sitting around who all watched us walk by in our backpacks and with our rolly suitcases. My favorite though, was the chubby 12 year old kid walking around in a white button down shirt with out a single button done, yelling at his sister about something and trowing a beer bottle. Keeping it classy. Ok, I am probably making it sound a lot worse than it was, but in the dark and no pleasant. After walking through a buildings courtyard/overhang area that was basically a homeless shelter and coming upon what I call urban switchbacks and huge steps, all I could do was stop and laugh
region of Tuscany but is located to the south, about half way to Rome along the coast. Withing this area, we traveled to the Parco Regionale de Maremma which is a protected area including the coast line, a large area of forested mountain, and a very large farm about 4,600 hectares of plains and pasture at the base of the mountains. We traveled to this park to have fun… and do some school work. The purpose of this trip was to immerse us in the landscape that we are studying. For one of my classes, which is split up into three sections (with three professors) we are learning about land use and societies impact on the land. The class was split up into six teams and each team was given a specific land use related to agriculture, my group is growing olives. The goal of this project is to create an in depth plan for this land use while maintaining the ethical and ecological integrity of the land we are developing and the surrounding land. Throughout our itinerary of the week, we looked at different aspects of current land use, the formation of the land, and the challenges and opportunities of developing this land all to immerse us in the land we would plan our projects around. I actually found this work fascinating because it is very practical and first hand experience in planning a sustainable business and farm. I often find myself conflicted with the topic of sustainability, but my professor said something that really stuck with me, “We shouldn’t apologize for being alive, but we should be conscious of the way we treat our land and use the resources it provides.” This work also really sparked my interest because I could relate it to the geography that I study back at Penn State (except I got to be in a national park and go hiking, biking and swimming).
After finally getting on the train and hoping we were on the right one, we set off on an hour long ride directly west to the small port town of Livorno, on the coast of Tuscany. Our very brief and vague research told of us that Livorno was the second largest town in Tuscany, behind Florence of course. But after getting off the train and walking into town, this seemed like a blatant lie. The 3/4 mile walk into town from the train station was extremely ‘sketchy’ shall we say. Everything, cafes, restaurants, shops, everything was closed. And the graffiti on the walls did not help… Finally we came upon the town and stopped in a small cafe where I bought a sandwich in exchange for their wifi so we could pull up our maps and orient ourselves. Paige had read about this restaurant acclaimed by Slow Food and I had read about a historic fort and a small area called Little Venice. Well, we were both starving so we deci
ded to walk to the restaurant, about 10 minutes from the cafe. The farther we walked, the sketchier it got. By the time we finally found it, it looked very closed. regardless, we walked in just to check but by then is 3:30 and the owner said they didn’t open til 6:30. “I think is siesta” I mentioned to P
The fort although very historical was very anti climactic because it was a brick wall. However, Little Venice ended up being quite exciting. Outside of the church, a large group was standing on the bridge over the canal. A midst the crowd of dressed up Italians was a violin player so we automatically assumed it was a wedding. After hanging around for a little bit longer than we should have, we turned to walk away. At that moment the violin player began playing… you guessed! Pirated of the Caribbean… we ran to the side of the canal and saw the beautiful Italian bride and her father riding on the boat down the canal to the church.
Once the excitement was over, we went to find the coast which ended up being a very industrial port with cranes and barges and cruise ships. As we walked farther down we came across a park, an organic grocery store, and an appliance store where we relieved ourselves after needing to go for three hours. Strangely the appliance store was very comforting and made me feel at home, but that is probably my American, mass consumer side missing giant stores like Walmart. We continued to walk and came across a boardwalk type area with another famous fish restaurant. We stumbled in looking for food, but shocking… the kitchen was closed until 7 this time. Well, we decided we were already heading back towards the other restaurant so we headed there. Surprisingly (not surprisingly) the kitchen was closed so we sat down and had a glass of wine and rested our feet. Still starving, we decided to walk all the back across town to Little Venice again. A half hour later, we arrived at this cute little restaurant on the water. There were people sitting out on the dock so we naturally assumed it was open… it was not.
ong haul up the side of a steep hill, the bus came to a stop. We stepped out onto the top of the hill, vineyards and olive groves rolling down either side fo the valley and Tuscan villas and scattered around on the surrounding ridges.
dominated by extremely wealthy families. The Medici were by far the most famous and wealthy in the Tuscan region and their influence can be seen all over Florence to this day in the Palazzo Medici and the Capella dei Medici. During this time, there was another wealthy family called the Pazzi family, the owners of this castle. Always in the shadow of wealth and power of the Medici, the Pazzi family sought way to gain control of Florence and be the most powerful family in the region. With the resources and help of the pope at that time who also did not like the Medici, they planned to assassinate the entire family on Easter Sunday during mass the Duomo. Fortunately or unfortunately, the assassination of Giuli ani, Lorenzo the Magnificent’s brother failed which ruined any further assassination plans. The next day, all of the Pazzi family were found hanging from the windows of the Palazzo Vecchio. Needless to say, the Medici were extremely powerful.
After hiking back up, Paige and I walked down the other side of the hill to a small pond. On the way down you could smell the oregano that was flowering in grass. Food literally grows as grass here… We also came across some apple and pear trees which we also snacked on, absolutely delicious!
Before our arrival, we were told that this was the place to get seafood so naturally we followed our noses and headed straight there. Our noses (and the really long line of people) led us to this trendy hole in the wall shop that was no more than 8 feet wide called Batti Batti. Here you could order paper cones filled with an assortment of fried fish including calamari, an anchovie, lump crab and rice cakes. No joke, this was easily the best calamari my taste buds have ever experiences. This may be due to the beautiful beach cove (you cold only get to by going through a little cave tunnel under the mountain) we ate at or because I am in Italy. All I know is, I will be going back there and spending another 6 euro for that fried fish!
