"All because of VT............." a Slovenia Travel Page by leics

If I hadn't met Ursa then I doubt if I'd have visited Slovenia, at least not for a very long time. To be honest, I was extremely hazy about where it was (actually, it's tucked between Italy and Croatia) and even more hazy about what it was like. But it seemed a good idea to visit, and the flight price was good (one Easyflight per day from Stansted) and..............well, I'm really pleased to have discovered Slovenia before the tourist hordes do (as I strongly suspect they will). And I shall definitely go back and explore more.

If I am really honest, this was an unusual trip for me; being with Ursa, and visiting her parents, was great fun and absolutely fascinating. Normally I spend my visits walking for miles, wandering around and looking, people-watching and history-spotting but this time I had the luxury of a car (and driver!) and people who spoke than language, knew where things were and how things worked. So it was a very different experience in lots of ways............

Slovenia seems to have taken into itself the best parts of the surrounding cultures, praticularly with regard to food. One can see the Italian influence (superb pizza, as good as any I ate in Italy itself), the Austrian (cakes!), the Slavic (mangold potatoes, meat) but there are also regional specialities such as the hugely delicious pumpkinseed oil. Slovenians are friendly and helpful and pleasant, their towns and countryside clean and tidy, their driving sensible and steady (even on the motorway........it's the first place I have visited where I feel I could cope with driving on the 'wrong' side of the road!).

And the country, although tiny, has a huge range of scenery; the Alpine areas, and the vineyard areas, and the coast (which we didn't manage to visit this time, but will). Because the population is small (2 million or so) everything is small-scale, and nowhere seems crowded......and I like that.

We stayed in Ljubljana, but thanks to Ursa and Milan managed to visit not only Bled but also Ptuj (in the east), as well as eating far too much wonderful food (and drinking far too much wine) with Ursa's parents in Obrez (and visiting the local vineyards).

On my second, longer, visit in August 07 I explored Maribor, Piran, Kog (though that was more of an eating-and-drinking exploration!) and the Skocjan caves, as well as a bit more of Ljubljana.

There's so much to see in such a little place (rather like England in that respect, but far, far less crowded and stressy) that more visits is are essential. And I suggest you find time to visit too, before word gets around!