What a long flight! Luckily we did manage to get some shut eye on the flight (about 8 hours on and off) so we weren't as exhausted on our arrival into Frankfurt. What was more exhausting was the six hour wait that followed at the airport in order to connect with our flight to Slovenia. There is only so much people watching I can take before wanting to strangle myself or someone else for that matter! I am such a princess .. I know!

We watched as all flights departing to the Eastern European states were delayed, some of them up to 40 minutes. When ours finally appeared on the screen we held little faith that it would run on time. Well we were wrong and to our surprise we were able to board the aircraft as scheduled. Our aircraft was parked way out yonder and the further we travelled to get to it, the smaller the aircraft's seemed to get. I reassured Lucy that it was going to be a decent sized aircraft (I think I needed to know this more than she did) but when the bus pulled up in front of a 50 seater plane, we both looked at each other and burst out laughing! You have got to be kidding me! I knew I should have paid more attention to the bloody aircraft type. For those of you that know me well, you know just how much I loath flying! We squeezed our way on and sat down in our miniature seats. The aircraft was so small that our handbags were the only things that fit in the overhead compartments. After several Hail Mary's and a few signs of the cross I was somewhat prepared to go. The pilot's announcement shortly after we were seated however didn't bring welcomed news..the fact that it was in German had no affect on the outcome - the plane had been delayed on the tarmac for 30 minutes! Why does God hate me so much?

You know we arrived safely into Ljubljana because you are reading this! The only thing the pilot didn't do was a 360 degree turn. Yes I am very thankful! The flight wasn't turbulent as such but it wasn't smooth either - it rocked from side to side. I got off feeling a little seedy and was very grateful for Terra Firma! Thankfully the feeling passed once we were on our way to our hotel. I am not sure what to expect of Slovenia so I will wait to make judgement until I have seen a little more, however the ride from the airport, I thought was rather scenic.

I thought the driver must have made an error when he pulled up in front of what was to be our hotel. It was located in the middle of suburbia, across the street from a busy park and a hospital of some sort - perhaps a nursing home? The hotel looked old and had certainly seen better days. The interior wasn't at all what I had imagined - it wasn't luxurious by any standards but for a short stay it was doable and from what I could see this hotel was set up for functions and conferences so it couldn't be all that bad! We settled in and contemplated an early evening. Although we had a stopover in Singapore it felt like we had been travelling for days!

Upon recommendation of the receptionist we ate dinner in a small family run restaurant called Gostilna Pri Vodniku. The restaurant was absolutely gorgeous. It was rustic, romantic and homely and promised to deliver authentic Slovenian cuisine using 'Grandmothers Recipes'. The restaurant itself was housed in what used to be the stables and hayloft of the Vodniku Family's homestead. Valentin Vodniku was the first recognised poet in Slovenia, making this place a cultural monument. Just as we suspected no one in the restaurant spoke a word of English so ordering was certainly a fun task! Luckily our waitress Greta spoke a little Italian so we got by. She chose a few of her favourite meals for us and we prayed that no sort of offal would be delivered to our table. We ate mushroom soup, buckwheat salad and rolled chicken breast with vegetables. In the end we nicknamed Greta, 'Nonna' as she made us eat everything that was on our plates including the hairy and slimy mushrooms we had put aside! We had to swallow those whole to avoid the texture touching our tongues! When she was convinced we had swallowed them she took the dishes away. She did tell us to come back after our tour as she wanted us to try her mother's special cake recipe, but after the mushroom fiasco, I am not quite sure.

A free day tomorrow to explore Ljubljana before commencing our first Cosmos Tour of 'Slovenia & Croatia' tomorrow night. Can't wait!