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Six months ago I didn't know Slovenia existed. But here I was, about to discover this little country above Croatia. We headed for the capital, Ljubljana, a little gem. I love having no pre conceptions or expectations of a place. We were just here for one night. Did a little walking tour and had free time to go get our own dinner out. It's not like there is a particular thing I can say I liked about it. I just thought it was quite a cute, neat town.
The next day we had two stops on our way to Venice. Both stops still in Slovenia. Lake Bled - would love to do a winter visit here. Gorgeous lake and town in an area which lends itself to adventure activities including skiing and snow boarding in winter. Second stop was to Postojna caves. Slovenia itself is home to a massive underground world! The country is dotted with caves and Postojna has the worlds largest cave tour (not the largest cave), so Topdeck offers their passengers the opportunity to do this.
We cross back into Italy and head to the city of masques and canals. Venice has also been dubbed as the 'floating city' but may want to re think this nickname and have a change to the 'sinking city'. The rising of the Adriatic sea levels has meant thinking caps have been put on as to how to save this city. It's certainly not in a state of emergency but my creative imagination thinks maybe my great grandchildren will have to see the old city of Venice under water via 'dive tours'.
I love Venice, even if on a really hot day the canals may have a slight stench to them it certainly doesn't put me off. I love the little ally's and bridges. Neat little shops and I still find it cool that you'll pass by an ambulance or a taxi and they are boats! We practiced the walking tour and Venice is not somewhere you can get around by map! You just need to be lead by your general good sense of direction and remember signs are your friends! Well usually they are except when locals put up fake signs leading you to the 'Rialto bridge' or 'San marco square' when in fact it's a dead end with a little restaurant or boutique shop which the sign has 'conveniently' lead you to. Great marketing, 10points to the local Venetian business owners for making the most of the general lost state of tourists in their rabbit warren of a city.
Venice, sitting at the top of Italy meant our next visit was in Austria, into the Austrian alps and the region of Tyrol. Here i got to have another crack at spieling on the mic in front of the fellow trainees about Austria. We stopped for a break and quick walking tour of the snow sport capital, Innsbruck, where the Winter Olympics has been held twice - very cute and very Austrian! We then reached Kirchdorf, our home for the next two nights. Here we stay in a fantastic guest house with lovely hosts who cooked us a BBQ and served us apple strudel and ice cream for dessert! Of course this was topped off with a shot of Austrian schnapps which they swear cures anything and everything. I'm pretty sure if your finger fell off they would tell you to have some schnapps and it'll grow back! Similar mentality as the Irish about the health benefits of Guinness!
After dinner we had a representative of all the suppliers have a chat to us about the optional activities they offer our passengers including hiring a bike, canyoning, skydiving and paragliding. Excluding the skydiving as the owner was away, we found out we were all going to have the opportunity to try one of the following the next day. Most doing biking or canyoning with only 3 spaces for paragliders! So the names were drawn from a hat and to my excitement my name was the third!
The next day came and I got to go part way up a mountain in Austria and run off the side of the hill. My instructor had said "keep running until you are flying" and I really took these words in as I thought its actually an awesome quote in everyday life.... Keep running until you are flying! Anyway, nice view over the alps and as we were coming down he let me control the chute until the wind picked up. Coming down over this tiny village the church bells started chiming in the quiet area - special moment. It's a cool site to see birds flying below you. I must say I felt a little like I had been ripped off ;) no plane/heli ride and no free-fall, just the relaxing chute ride at the end - yip skydiving is still #1 for me.
This evening we had a bit of a crossing dressing partay, so yes, I had a mo and a shirt and the boys looked pretty in dresses. It was lots of fun and we had a group photo. We went out for dinner to a restaurant on the side of one of the mountains in the region. Scrumptious food and pleasantly satisfied before bed as we were heading on to Munich in the morning!
Munich was a super quick visit, literally practised walking tour, had dinner in town and went back to campsite to study away.... As we were camping (in a lot of places) study offices were the cold floors of the campground bathroom blocks! Nice! Some time around 3am there was a pretend scenario taking place where we had 'missing people' and I slept through it all so can't tell you about it. Don't think I was meant to sleep through that!
On the way to Munich we had stopped at Dachau concentration camp which I had been to the previous year but it was interesting to go to again as the last time was quite rushed. Going to Mauthausen concentration camp on our way to Vienna just the next day was a bit somber though. Two camps, two days in a row plus the constant spieling as each Trip leader in training practiced their holocaust spiels really set in the terror of the event like never before. We still had one more to visit on this trip.
Vienna we arrived to find our accommodation was yet again in tents at a campsite and we had the General manager joining us for a few days and he had the pleasure of joining us on our driving tour practices as we went around and around and around Vienna. Just a little bit of pressure. So naturally we all stay up over night to learn, read and study study but actually what happens is you go delirious, read the same sentence 100x over and end up sleeping on the floor or in the shower or on top of a washing machine. Then the next day you are as fresh as a dead daisy and have mind blanks when you are called up to do part of the tour = fail.
Vienna is an awesome city, home of many famous composers such as Beethoven and Mozart! Can't wait to go back, hopefully go to a concert at the kursalon and walk around again with a few more hours of sleep under my belt. Can't tell you how much strudel I ate in Austria - YUM! In the words of a famous Austrian by the name of Arnold..... "I'll be back"
- comments
Dad Another really interesting and funny blog thanks Min. The funniest bit was reading how a girl who couldn't find her way from home in Hamilton to school once she learnt to drive, can now navigate the Venetian canals!!! Congratulations. And much love
Hayley Just claim you were one of the "missing people" when you were sleeping, you probably should have given them low scores on the fact that they didn't even find you. Tut tut.