I FEEL sLOVEnia

Cheesy slogan I know, but it's not mine - really! It's the national slogan all over travel stuff here. Sort of like BC's "You Gotta Be Here" or "Best Place on Earth" or Alberta's ...??? (hmmm, can't seem to recall that one...) Anyway, I liked the Slovenia cheesy one 'cause it played on the words like our Four - eign blog title (get it? Four-eign, Four IN, Foreign) ... yeah, I know... anyway...

I think I am starting to feel Slovenia even though we have only been here a few days though I'm not sure all my feelings are what the PR guys had in mind. Sure I have felt amazing hospitality and friendliness (contrast to the stoic - read grumpy - Austrians especially in Wien) and taste buds rejoicing (similar to Austria), but I have also felt some other feelings.

I feel sore muscles from the 6 hour hike we did up into Triglev Park. Great hike into the alpine of some fantastic mountain country and culture. Something we are realizing more and more that we gravitate to. I suppose it doesn't have to be be alpine per se, but anywhere where it is clear people are more in touch with their surroundings. I love it. I feel it. I feel Slovenia... hmmm they may be onto something.

Today I felt wet. From the rain. Soaking through my tried and true (but not so effective anymore) MEC rain coat. Luckily, we never really had this feeling much at all over the past 2 and a half months. Actually not at all. We've been lucky and so it was with surprise and and fair degree of discomfort that I recalled all the other times I felt this feeling in the mountains and, to be honest, I can't say I felt the sLOVEnia in that. No Love, just wet. Too bad.

So tomorrow we are off to feel some love in Ljubljana. In a prison cell turned into a hostel- or so they tell us. It's called the Hostel Celica so I hope it is better than my impression of the car by the same name. I think the kids are excited. We'll see if they feel the sLOVEnia.

Bernie