Slowing down in Slovenia

August 11, 2024
Greetings friends, family, and fellow travelers,

Slovenia! Slovenia! Slovenia! We are having a wonderful time here.

Sara’s Thoughts: 

I’d been so excited to visit Slovenia. I remember someone asking me several months ago, “What would you want to do there? You only need a week, it’s the size of New Jersey.” As we are a family who has spent quite a bit of time in New Jersey, this did not function as a deterrent. Slovenia is an incredibly diverse country, comprised of cities, mountains, vineyards, and lakes. We are here for 2 ½ weeks and honestly, I already wish we had longer. We drove to Ljubljana from Rovinj, with a planned pit stop at Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle. Postojna was a cool experience since the cave visit is bookended by a train ride that transports you in and out of the cave. By the time we got to the castle, we were all really feeling the heat and just wanted to get to our next accommodation. So, we cut our visit short, drove to Ljubljana, and fell in love with our new space. Inviting with a blue door bordered by greenery, our apartment was in a centrally located building and featured two bedrooms and two bathrooms. We unpacked quickly, picked up some pizza at Pop’s (rated #30 pizza in all of Europe outside of Italy), and then picked up gelato #1 (Gelateria Romantika).

The following day, I had pre-booked a tour of Ljubljana by bike through Watermelon Tours, so we headed out bright and early to pick up our bikes and meet our guide. Happily, there was another family, from Belgium, with children around our kids’ age; the presence of other children in an activity always reduces my anxiety about bringing our loud crew on a group tour. Calla was strapped onto the back of Justin’s seat, and we all chuckled when I had to request a smaller bike for myself – the same size as that of the 12-year-old from the other family - because she and I were the same height. A bike tour is officially now my favorite way to tour a new place. Ljubljana is a car-free city (since 2012), which lends it a sense of calm and serenity that you don’t often find in metropolitan areas. Naturally, this made the biking experience far more enjoyable. The breeze was a perfect antidote to days of high heat, and we were able to see pockets of Ljubljana that may have been challenging to get to otherwise. Our tour guide was engaging and gave us good advice on where we might want to return. The boys did great on their bikes, and given the success of this tour, I’ve already booked us two more family bike excursions in Tuscany.  

Everyone was famished after our bike trip, so we ate lunch at a small restaurant that made traditional Slovenian dumplings. Our kids were expecting dumplings a la Din Tai Fung – (they will need to wait for Taiwan for that) – but these were large and reminded me of a dense blintz or burek. After resting back at the hotel, we visited the House of Illusions (very fun) and picked up gelato #2 (Voga).

On our second full day in Ljubljana, Calla and I headed out early to check out Open Kitchen and the artisan market. I had been ridiculously excited about Open Kitchen since it was billed as an all-day food festival with tons of different options. Like, our TripIt itinerary for Friday just said “Open Kitchen” as though we would just sit there for 12 hours doing little else. And…that’s kind of what we did. Calla and I split a vegetarian bao bun (her choice) for late breakfast and poked around the artisan market. When the boys showed up, we bought a bunch more food, including these ridiculous BBQ pork pickle-doused fries that were every bit as delicious as I’d hoped.

Since it seemed like a responsible adult choice to do something other than eat all day, I took Calla and Simon to the Ljubljana Castle, which is less of a castle and more of an experience, including a Museum of Puppetry and a 4D virtual screening of the history of the castle. Since Calla spent approx. 12 million hours begging to get the rolled ice cream she spotted earlier in the day, naturally we had to head back to Open Kitchen for dinner, as well. Somehow, this ended with gelato #3 (Cacao). Of the three gelato stops, Voga was the clear winner, but since I’m still pining for the very first gelato I had back in Dubrovnik, I think it’s time to call it quits on my gelato quest and wait until we get to Italy.

We spent our final full day in Ljubljana visiting the Modern Art Museum and the sprawling children’s playground at Tivoli, complete with a zipline, climbing structures, trampolines, and mini yo-yo swing.

A huge perk of our apartment was that it offered on demand Olympics viewing. Thus, we spent our evenings in Ljubljana on the couch, watching gymnastics, swimming, and diving, and/or playing round after round of our favorite card game, Sleeping Queens. Because we are staying in locations for longer durations than all the guidebooks typically suggest, we have the luxury of quiet nights in, not worrying that we might be missing something. We are also traveling to so many destinations that we don’t feel a ton of pressure to do everything in one. For example, we’d hoped to kayak in Rovinj, but couldn’t make it happen, so we’ll do it elsewhere. We don’t need to see every church or castle or museum, and I’m happy to let go of needing to do all the things the guidebooks say are must do’s in favor of the things that I actually want to do, which much of the time includes a book, a balcony, and a glass of crisp white wine.

After four days in Ljubljana, we drove to Bohinjska Bela, which is approximately 10 minutes outside of Lake Bled, to Dolinar Krainer. Dolinar Krainer – a working goat farm - is one of more than 800 tourist farms that offer accommodations to travelers. We are staying in a small one-bedroom apartment which is so cozy that the kids’ twin beds are placed around the perimeter of the kitchen. (And by “kids” I mean “Jonah, Simon, and Justin” because you know Calla’s been squatting with me all week.) Fortunately, there is a small swing set right outside, and Calla, in particular, has been occupying herself for hours each day outdoors with elaborate make-believe games. On arrival day, our plan was to head straight to the supermarket and have a lazy night back in the apartment, but we learned that all supermarkets in Slovenia are closed on Sundays! Plot twist. Instead, we headed out for a game of mini golf, which I won but Jonah gave me a run for my money, and then picked up take-out pizza.

The following day (Monday), the kids practiced milking a goat, which produces the milk that was used in the homemade cheese that our host, Iza, makes. She serves a glorious breakfast, including homemade breads, spreads, and cheeses. The eggs were super fresh and purchased from a nearby farm.

Our plan was to hike the 3.7 Lake Bled loop trail and then visit the Bled Castle for lunch. However, about 15 minutes after we started walking, we stumbled upon the Ojstrica trail. I recalled reading that this brief, albeit steep, hike promised some of the most spectacular views of the lake, so we spontaneously decided to take the detour. I’m so glad we did. When we reached the top, we were treated to views of Bled Island, sweeping clouds, and the Bled Castle. Instead of heading back down the way we camp, we opted for the circuitous route that had us continuing to ascend before taking a path filled with steps, stones, and switchbacks. I was impressed with the kids’ ability to manage the tricky terrain; it bodes well for future hikes. Eventually we made it to the Bled Castle, where we had a 2pm lunch reservation. I was looking forward to sitting on the terrace and enjoying the views, but the local wildlife had other ideas. Turns out that if you bribe your three kids with promises of juice at lunch, your stellar parenting practices will be punished when all the local flying things (bees! Hornets! Flies!) will get wind of it and descend upon your table and dive headfirst into your children’s glasses. Multiple shrieks followed, and we headed inside to commence our meal. As an almost teenager, Jonah has outgrown the kids’ menu, and Simon continues to baffle us with his refusals of basic pasta dishes and his insistence on things like “grilled octopus on pea puree with mint, yellow tomato and strawberry salad, drops of red wine reduction, fish foam.” Unsurprisingly, everything was spectacular, and we continue to find balance between enjoying the local delicacies of the area with cooking as much as we can back at our accommodations, as we’ve mostly been doing for the past week.

Tuesday was foggy, so we quickly pivoted from taking the cable car up Vogel Mountain due to the poor visibility and hiked the Sava Waterfall instead. Ultimately, we decided to punt Vogel to another day and then we just skipped it altogether when our host told us we could find similar views without spending the exorbitant cost to ascend with the cable car elsewhere.

Instead, we redirected our cable car funds to the summer toboggan in Bled. Build on a ski slope, we waited approximately an hour and a half to ascend the mountain by cable car and then zoom down the sledding track to the bottom of the hill. As our Bled passes allotted us 3 rides for the price of 2, this turned into an all-afternoon activity, interspersed with family tube jumps. Everyone had a blast.

 On Wednesday, we woke up at 5:30 for a full day trip to Soca Valley. In doing so, we inadvertently ended up traveling the Vrsic Pass, a scenic drive overlooking the Julian Alps with 50 hairpin turns. Despite plugging our final destination into the GPS, I’d failed to encode that this was the route that we needed to drive. I quickly scrambled to grab medication for Jonah and me but was surprised to find the road was not nearly as nausea-inducing as I’d expected. Our adventure started with family white water rafting. While the tour operator’s website suggested a minimum age of 6, this is one of those “you have to really know your kids” type of things. Calla “I <3 rollercoasters” Schmidt is definitely the kind of four-year-old that would do well rafting, and our guide was happy to have her join in. We put on wet suits and life vests, and were briefed on rules of paddling. Our rafting journey took us down the river with bursts of rapids. Nothing was too intense, and we even stopped partway through to slide down a makeshift raft slide off a large rock. Everyone really enjoyed it. In the afternoon, Jonah and I had a planned trip to go canyoning in Susec. This was a bit more challenging, as both of us were absolutely exhausted already, and canyoning is more physically demanding than rafting.  It was also more outside my comfort zone. As I’d shared with Jonah, when I was about 10, I remember being taken to a cliff jump during summer camp. While other kids climbed to the top and flew off into the water with ease, I was consumed with panic. I tried – and failed – to jump off numerous times before finally succeeding when a counselor offered to hold my hand. I really wanted to be able to prove to myself that I could do this. Our adventure began with a 30-minute hike, followed by several natural waterslides. When we climbed to the top of the first jump (three meters clearance) my knees buckled and I climbed down the rocks instead. I explained to Jonah that I was having a pure fear response. Standing up top, looking down at the water, my body couldn’t figure out how to clear the jutting rocks below such that I wouldn’t fall onto them. I told him that there are times during therapy sessions that a client of mine will have a pure fear response; for example, they’ll stop speaking and cannot get themselves to start again even if they desperately want to. This is how I felt, standing atop the rocks. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to jump. I wasn’t feeling cognitively anxious. It was as though my body literally forgot how to move, the idea that jumping off the high rocks was as preposterous as speaking fluent German with the (very kind and supportive) two other families who joined us. So, I tried to down-regulate fear using my tried and true DBT skill of opposite action whereby you act opposite (in mind, body, and spirit) to the unjustified portion of the emotion so that you can figure out what to do with whatever portion of the emotion remains. During the next jump, I tried to warm my body (fear is a cold emotion). I smoothed out the tension in my face and in my jaw. I told myself I was capable of doing this. And…I almost did! As Jonah flew into the water with no problem, I felt so proud of him. Paradoxically, this also increased my fear because now I felt even sillier for not jumping. I also became acutely aware that I was holding up the larger group. Our guide seemed annoyed (“This is what canyoning is!” he cried) The more I felt the pressure of needing to move quickly so as to not hold up the group, the harder it became to down-regulate my fear. I stepped down to a slightly lower point in the rocks and jumped from there. I skipped the high jump, and successfully managed the final jump of the day with little incident. All in all, did I conquer my fear of cliff jumping? I did not. That said, I did something that was hard for me (twice), and I imagine that with more time, I could do it again. I also don’t particularly feel the need to. There were other elements of canyoning that challenged us. In addition to the jumps, there were glorious natural water slides, belays, climbs, and drops whereby we were attached to a rope while the guide released us a few feet at a time before letting go fully so that we plunged deep into the water. Ultimately, Jonah and I had an absolute blast. He will share his take on the events, as well.

We didn’t get back from canyoning until 6pm and as we were two hours from Bled and absolutely famished, we headed to a nearby restaurant for burgers. On our drive home, well… we’ll let this video speak for itself.

Our remaining days around Bled were somewhat quieter – a trip to Vintgar Gorge and a hike. Time wandering in smaller villages. A boat ride to Bled Island. And now, the boys are off to sleepaway camp in Slovenia. We found this incredible English-speaking, tech-free camp comprised of kids from over 20 countries. The boys can choose from a number of different activities, and each day ends with a campfire. This will be Simon’s first time away, and he’ll be staying for 6 nights. Jonah went to a wilderness sleepaway camp last summer for several days and loved it, so we opted for a two-week option for him this time around. Everyone is excited and nervous and we think that the time apart will be good for all of us. While the boys are gone, Justin and I will head to a tourist farm in Maribor with Calla, swing back to pick up Simon, drive to Austria, and then cross back through Slovenia to pick up Jonah before meeting Justin’s parents in Lake Garda! Whew!

Finally, I’m sending big happy birthday wishes to my best friend, Michelle, who turns 40 today! xoxo

Justin’s Soapbox:

Slovenia is a small country with quite a lot to offer, and its compact size has made it easy for us to take in quite a lot over the past week and a half2. We began in Ljubljana, and within five minutes of being there I told Sara that “this city is way too classy for us.” While I think we ultimately conducted ourselves well, it was hard not to be struck by all the impressive Nouveau architecture and the superbly well-ordered civic nature of the city. Between the impressive canal that runs through it (and the numerous bridges criss-crossing it), the large open squares surrounded by old buildings, and the quantity of upscale cafes and art galleries around us, it felt like being on a James Bond set.

I don’t mean to make Ljubljana sound snooty. Far from it; it was an extremely welcoming city, and admittedly we were staying right in the heart of it and were surrounded by cultural sites. But it was the kind of place that makes you reevaluate American cities or the concept of how a city should function, in general. The biggest example of this is how the downtown area was essentially closed off to cars. When I heard this I had assumed it was due to 500-year-old street designs and longstanding local tradition, but it turns out that the city reinvented itself only about a decade ago and installed things like underground parking lots, bike lanes, and tons of barricades closing off streets. Prior to that most of the streets that are now fully lined with cafes and pedestrians had been full of cars. Admittedly, it’s probably a lot easier for a city to do this if its already fairly small like Ljubljana and has a giant canal in the middle of it which was probably constricting traffic to begin with, but it’s still worth a thought.

Also- I have to shout out this popsicle place called Lučkarnica because somebody in the U.S. needs to popularize this as a stateside franchise ASAP. Basically it’s a design-your-own fudgesicle situation; you pick the internal base that goes on the popsicle stick (varieties of chocolate or fruit types), then pick the type of coating it gets dipped into, then pick 3 toppings, then pick a sauce to drizzle on it. I had chocolate —> milk chocolate —> Oreo crumble + coconut + sea salt —> dark chocolate drizzle. Why am I taking so much time to describe this? Because it was awesome, and this level of customization always deserves honorable mention!

Moving on from Ljubljana out to the more mountainous areas of Lake Bled and The Soca Valley, this past week featured the most natural beauty we’ve seen out here to date. Coming after amazing sites like Plitvice in Croatia, that’s really saying something. It’s also been one of the more action-packed weeks in terms of our activities: rafting, canyoning, more hiking, and “tobogganing” down the hillside as described below.  

If Ljubljana was someplace out of James Bond, then Lake Bled is more like something out of Tintin. It’s a very picturesque destination with a family-friendly small town around the lake itself, with tons of offshoot excursions to explore. All the mountains around us have a very varied look to them giving the landscape some real character. 

My fascination with the incredibly deep blue/green color of the water around here remains piqued, so I’ve finally looked up why bodies of water like Lake Bled and The Soča River are so emerald in appearance. From what I can tell it is due to limestone deposits which put particles into he water which reflect that hue, though some other sources I’m seeing attribute it to glacial melt. Either way, it’s some of the coolest looking water I’ve ever seen and we have been encouraged to drink from the river which is very clean and delicious.

We’ve got our first big “shift” in the trip coming up as the boys head to their sleepaway camp. Having some time with just Calla and Sara should help things slow down a little bit, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Simon and Jonah find their first international camp experience. They could probably use some time away from their parents, as well!

 Jonah’s Musings:

I’m really enjoying Slovenia and I’ve liked going to a lot of new places. I’m going to talk about a few of them now.

August 2, 2024: I love food, but today there was too much of it. There was a massive open kitchen in the streets of Ljubljana, and everyone was excited. We first looked around the market wondering what we were going to get. I got a burger that I really didn’t seem to like. And then I realized it was a vegetarian burger! Yea, I didn’t finish it. For dinner, I got some dumplings at a Chinese stand, they were much better. But anyways I loved the open kitchen and wish that there was something like that in Washington.

August 4^th, 2024: Today we moved to a new hotel, or more like a farm hotel. Our new hotel is on a goat farm. I really don’t have much to say about it, but I will go into as much detail as possible. I really like the new hotel, except for a few things. They have this dog that is more like a hot dog, and it is kind of aggressive. I tried to pet it and it tried to bite me. I wish the dog would maybe be in a separate room instead.  

Another thing is that they have these cow and goat skins by the front and I think they smell really bad. We also milked the goats they had there but it wasn’t exactly the most fun experience. I couldn't really milk the goat because it kept kicking at me. Other than that I really like this new hotel.

August 5^th, 2024: We have been watching the Olympics recently and I think it's really cool. I think it is amazing what people can be capable of. I love seeing people do flips and jump like 8 feet in the air. It feels different here on a farm hotel, because there are goats close by and it smells kind of odd. There is also a big castle up on a hill and we went up to it and had lunch there. I got this truffle pasta that was really heavy so I didn’t really eat much for dinner.

August 7, 2024: Have you ever wanted to do something but too scared to do it? Well, this happened today, to mostly my mom. It is kind of ironic though, because she said part of this trip was to get out of our comfort zones. But this happens later, and for now let's talk about the first thing we did today. We woke up at 5:30 am in the morning, everyone was tired and hungry, but we had to get moving as we had plans for the day. Luckily, we had some snacks in the car. After an exhausting two-hour drive, we arrived at the place where we would be doing some white-water rafting. White water rafting is when you ride on a raft through rapids on a river. We were with a couple other people and a guide as our group. After a half-hour drive in a van, we arrived at a river and a raft. We pushed the raft into the water and hopped in. We all grabbed some oars and started rowing. After going through some little rapids, we arrived at an area where other groups had propped a raft on a rock to make it act as a slide so people could slide down it into the water. I decided that it would be fun to do that, so I climbed the big rock and waited in line and slid down. BIG MISTAKE, the water felt like someone had dumped an entire bathtub of ice cream on me, and I didn't hesitate to immediately swim back to the boat. The sun dried me off quickly though, so it wasn't too bad. For the rest of the rafting trip not much really happened. The rapids were sort of fun, but not the most intense thing. At the end of the river the van was there ready to take us back to the main base. My dad, brother and sister, were all going off to do something else, while my mom and I were going canyoning. Canyoning is when you jump off rocky areas, or slide down slide-like rock formations, I was really excited. We made our way into the van, and I was actually allowed to sit in the front seat with my mom and the guide because there were 3 seats in the front. I still don't know why they let me sit in the front, because there were other seats in the back, and I am STILL too short to sit in the front. After a 30-minute drive, we came to a stop, we had arrived. We had to walk up a hill before we could start and put on our gear. We then got into the cold water and started walking downriver to our first slide. It was sort of like a little waterslide built from stone. After the first few people went, I took a shot and slid down. I went right into the water, but my wetsuit instantly brought me back to the surface. After a few more slides we arrived at a jumping area, but both my mom and I chickened out, and went down from a lower area. At the next jump I was able to do it, but my mom had had to do it from lower. At the next jump I was able to do it, but my mom was pretty scared, but everyone was cheering her on, including me, and she was able to do it! I was really proud of her because she had been afraid of jumping into water since she was a kid. After some more slides I saw A HUGE red frog swimming around. At first, I thought it was an octopus because I wasn't really thinking so I screamed "octopus! octopus!" But then I said "wait, never mind it's a frog." I felt kind of dumb for saying that because the only octopuses out there are in the middle of the ocean. But this experience wasn't done yet, we still had a MASSIVE drop left. 36 feet or 12-meter drop, and of course we weren't going just jump as that wouldn't be that safe, instead the guide would lower us down with a rope and at about 2/3s of the way he would drop us right into the water. When it was my turn, I was a bit scared. The guide stared lowering me down with rope, there was a small waterfall on this drop and the water was smashing me in the face so I could barely see, but then I felt myself drop, right into the water. I quickly surfaced and swam to the nearby rock and started climbing. I was had just made it to the other side when I slipped and fell backwards, luckily, I was only about a meter above the water below me, and I fell right into it. I was completely fine, but I have to say, that little experience may have been a bit scarier than the 36-foot drop. But after one more slide, we were back we started, right before the hike, where the truck was. After having a little trouble getting the wetsuit off, we went into the van back to the main camp. So that's my little story of how my mom and I were able to pull through and complete canyoning. Here is my action video from white water rafting and sledding earlier in the week: [Ed note: We know this isn’t working right now. We are on it.]

There will also be no blog from me for 2 weeks as I will be going to sleep away camp, I will tell everything about it in my blog.

Simon’s Reflection:

This blog is going to be about our time in Slovenia so far.

First, we went to a cave. I don’t want to talk about it because I hated the cave.

Then, we went to a new apartment in Ljubljana. It’s the capital city with yummy food. One of the things I liked best was this bike tour we did and we literally rode on bikes for 6 miles. It was more of a tour than just biking.

Our next hotel is a farm hotel. That means that is a hotel where there is animals. When we got there, we only stayed for a short period of time because we left for mini golf. My mom beat everyone, my brother came in second, my dad came in third, I came in fourth, and my sister came in last. Why do I never win?!?!?! Then my sister got in a big mess so when she left my brother and me got these caramel popsicles what were sooooo good.

Then when we went back we ate pizza and I got to talk to my friend, Moses. 

Our first day at the farm, in the morning I had these really good eggs for breakfast and after that my brother and me and my Mom and Calla went to milk the goats. It was really fun. It turns out they have this machine what will automatically milk them.

Then we went to a castle and it was really cool. We got some really good food but all these bees were coming at our food and juice so we had to move inside. I was pretty sad about it. And we went on a hike to get to the castle.

 A few days later we did white water rafting. I felt really good about it because when we hit into bumps it was really fun. And we could use the boat as a slide and when I slid down it I was so cold! And there were these gigantic rocks and I really liked it.

Today I am a little bit nervous about going to sleepaway camp but I bet I’m going to like it. I will miss my mom, dad, and sister, but my brother will be there so I won’t be that scared.

Calla’s Corner:

Interview, August 1, 2024

Mommy: Calla, can you tell me about the House of Illusions [in Ljubljana]?

Calla: Yes, I would totally like to tell you that. So, I liked the spinny thing, and I also liked the candy, I liked the playroom, I liked the head thing, and the rainbow. I think that’s what I liked mostly.

Mommy: Can you tell me about the castle we visited?

Calla: Yes. The castle was beautiful. I just loved it. What did I do there again?

 Mommy: We visited the castle and the puppets and watched the movie.

 Calla: Yes, and I also liked the games I played.

Mommy: Did you enjoy the cave we visited?

Calla: Oh no, no no. Yes! Yes! Yes. I cannot speak that, I loved it too much I cannot speak it out my mouth.

Mommy: Tell me the best thing you’ve eaten since we got to Slovenia.

Calla: Dessert.

Mommy: What kind?

Calla: I’m sorry but I was really sad when I didn’t get one of those ice creams.

Mommy: Calla, we’re literally finishing your blog and going to get it right now like I promised. Okay?

 Calla: I’ll go back to my superhero stuff please, bye bye.

Interview, August 10, 2024:

Mommy: Calla, what was your favorite thing we’ve done since getting to the farm?

Calla: I pretty liked it here [at the farm]. I liked water rafting, I liked the waterfall, I really liked all of it. I liked going on the boat with Daddy. It was pretty fun. That’s it.

Keep in touch! We miss you all.

xo,

Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, & Calla