Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ljubljana was beautiful.  We were staying near the main square in the historic part of town.  We exited our hotel into a shopping district and a pedestrian street lined with vendors and various sculptures.  We decided it would be in our best interest to get some Euros since we no longer were operating with Croatian currency.  I used my Hungarian card and was able to get money easily.  My dad tried – and once he got through the end of the transaction, he realized that he didn’t get any money out.  We stood and stared at the machine for a while wondering what could have just happened, since I got money and he didn’t…  We tried to seek out help to say “we tried to get money, and it said we got money, but we got no money”  which isn’t easy to do in a country as small as Slovenia and – we had no Slovene that any of us knew.  After we didn’t find anyone to help us, we tried a different machine, and it didn’t work again.  I then tried my card that was the same as my parents, and it didn’t work – so we figured it was the card itself, and not necessarily the machine.  We also paid a little closer attention and realized that the machine had said “you have chosen an invalid transaction” so we did not lose any money as they never actually gave any out of the macine.  At any rate, we hit Ljubljana hard since we only had a day and a half there.  We rode the funicular to the top of the hill where the castle is.  The castle itself was not as impressive as others we had seen (or my parents would see on the rest of their trip).  We did enjoy the view and there was a 3-D movie that explained the history of the city.  We continued to wander through the pedestrian walkways and check out the stores along the way.  When it started to sprinkle a bit, we decided to duck into a little restaurant and get something small to eat.  Mom ordered the “best” bean soup she has ever had – and even I liked it – so it was that good.  We also tried the local beer and a glass of wine.  After lunch we wandered again, and I decided to get my haircut.  There should be an entirely separate blog titled “never let a non-English speaking, tool belt (holding hair clips, combs and scissors) wearing, mullet sporting Slovenian cut your hair after you’ve been drinking”  It didn’t end well for any of us – let me tell you.  I definitely walked out of there with Euro-bangs.  If you don’t know what “euro-bangs” are, they are basically asymmetrical starting in the upper left of my forehead and getting longer to the lower right – and while I’ve had my hair cut like this before, I’ve never had them start as short as these did.  At any rate, we met for dinner and had a nice evening out.  After a few glasses of wine, I began to reminisce about the perceived “deprived childhood” that I didn’t really have, but when you’re young and don’t get your way, you feel like you’re deprived.  Many of the situations were strictly me being a baby about things, but when re-told as an adult, the way I perceived things was not only skewed, but funny.