22/05/2012-1:Cheating the weather around Bled. Vegetarian option. Happy birthday!

The next morning, we were greeted by amazing breakfast of toasties, followed by kefir and featuring Costarican coffee maker Spela's parents brought from their latest adventure. Yes, more food.

See me here, not yet fully awake:

but with a help of Costarican coffee maker, using the coffee grinded by a tool Spela's Mum inherited from her Grandma:

and some kefir, with its own fungus:

we were ready to go (mind the pajama, i still think it rocks!)

:

our first stop of the day was Bled- lake, island and castle.

Spela's uncle is the Duke of Bled* so we had a unique opportunity to enjoy the tour, the talk and the walk among the castle. Somewhere between scenery and fresh mountain air, we learned that the wee island is the only island of Slovenia, that the boats which sail to the island are owned by a number of families, and only the members of those families are allowed to operate them. Unfortunately, we had no time for a ride, but few days later we made up for that on Plitvice. Also, Bled is famous for its rowing contests. Another little detail I remember is that the water beneath changes with a help of machines, for there is no natural flow. But it's good for the water. Which gets up to 30m deep.

As no amount of the words can do a justice to a view above the lake and wee island, here come the photos:

[the only island of Slovenia]

[family photo of Duke of Bled]

[waterslide beneath the Castle]

[roadtrippers on the Castle]

[the Castle seen from the other side of the lake]

[and again]

We decided to pay no attention to the rain (especially because that was the 26 degree day in Bristol) and pay a lot of attention to the Castle instead.

That's how we encountered the Castle poet in the winery with a peculiar working hours:

He was dressed in a robe, and climbed up the little plateu in the winery.
"Do you think Slovenia is small?"- he asked, looking us straight to the eyes with his piercing glance.
We looked at each other: "Umm...yes?"
"You are wrong"- he said- "It is VERY small. But the variety of wines we produce is directly opposite to it."
And after a story about Slovenian wines, and us buying the bottle for our hosts in Zagreb he went back to catching up with his flying friend.

Just before that, we had the present of coins for luck, all three of which were forged by the steady hand of Spela's Dad in the Castle's forgery:

So, luckier and with an extra bottle of presents, we went to have a lunch and Spela's Gran, who lives near by. She did her best to greet us into the proper Granny's cooking in her warm home:

There was a soup to start with, baked potatoes and breaded chicken. There was a green leaf tomato salad. There was a smell inviting you to taste before you even approached the dining table.

There was also the stream of worrying for Jen, who's a vegetarian and where Gran worked hard to make sure she had enough:

"Would you like some soup? It has no meat just chicken."
"No, thank you."- Jen said.
"How about some salami then?"

The concept of vegetarianism doesn't really work around these parts, as Spela and me suspected and Jen was yet to find out. The conversation above happened couple times more in every place we were.Which reminded me of my Granpa, asking me everytime I would bring my vegetarian friend around: "So what will he eat then? Grass?"

We didn't see why not:

But only after the strawberries:

Spela and Jenny picking..

strawberries

Full and happy, we drove back to Ljubljana, for it was time for birthday celebration. It was Spela's Mum birthday. So as a desert of a desert, we had a home made cheese cake. Om nom nom:

happy birthday, Valerija!

and thank you for the cake!

After which we hit Ljubljana's streets.

*not the REAL one. whatever that means. But he welcomed us in proper Duke way. So in our minds he will be and is the Duke. All hail Duke of Bled!