sLOVEnia

I can't claim to have come up with sLOVEnia on my own, it was all over their tourist-y shirts...but we did LOVE Slovenia so I thought it was fitting. ;)

Ever since I found out we were moving to the UK, I had visions of skiing all the time. Well, it turned out England is flat and not as cold as I thought, so the only skiing available here is indoor skiing, which I refuse to participate in. We shifted our sights to skiing in the Alps at least once while we are stationed over here, and this year worked out perfectly. I originally started by researching the Swiss Alps and French Alps, but it seemed those locations were geared towards one week stays, and staying for less than a week was exorbitantly more expensive for some reason.Someone mentioned Lake Bled, Slovenia to me via Facebook, and as soon as I looked up pictures online I knew we must go there! 

Normally I make us take public transportation to get places (you know, because I'm cheap), but poor Thomas always wants to take a taxi (I hate taxis). This time I decided I'd be a nice wife, and I arranged a car to pick us up at the airport and take us to our hotel. It also worked out that it was only 3 Euros more per person than taking the bus, and would take us 1/3 of the time to get to Bled...so everyone wins! ;) I highly recommend this service if anyone ever needs to travel from Ljubljana to Bled - the driver was so friendly and even gave us a mini tour of the city and pointed out the Tourist Office and good places to eat before dropping us off at our hotel. 

Once we got to our supposedly three star hotel, that was more like a one star stuck in the 70's, we bundled up and headed out to get our lift tickets for the next couple of days, walk around the lake, and check out the castle. The city and area around the lake was simply beautiful, and even though it was pretty chilly outside there were a ton of people wandering around everywhere - it was a beautifully sunny day! We made the trek up to the castle, but the billions of stairs were worth it when we saw the views from the top. There was a nicely done museum inside of the castle, and my favorite part was the castle's forge. The blacksmith that creates the items for the castle is from the fourth generation of blacksmiths, and he uses the ore that is prevalent around the castle to create the items. I couldn't resist an iron key from the forge, it was my one and only souvenir of the trip. :)

After a quick nap we decided to check out the local nightlife - we only ended up going to one pub, mainly because they kept bringing us free drinks! We got to try some Slovenian beer and whiskey, and once the bartender found out we were from the States and Phoenix Suns fans...the drinks kept coming! Eastern European countries tend to enjoy basketball a lot, and our bartender knew that Slovenian basketball player Goran Dragić played for the Suns, so he was excited to talk to us, and we really enjoyed getting to talk to him. Then we were off to bed to prepare for a day of skiing in the morning!

Our first glimpse of the lake!

Thomas' fatty hamburger!

Bled Castle

Thomas and I, Lake Bled

Far too many stairs to get to the castle ;)

View from the top of Bled Castle

That's my kind of wine! 

Beautiful Nativity scene set up in the city

We loved all of the Christmas decorations still up

We got free drinks everywhere we went in Slovenia - amazing! :)

Cyprus

I got to take a quick holiday to Cyprus a couple of weekends ago, mainly due to my sweet (ex) neighbor. Her and her husband and ten month old son were supposed to go on vacation to Cyprus for a week, but on the day of their departure we had snow in the area and traffic was terrible. They ended up missing their flight, and since the airline they booked through only flew to Cyprus on Wednesdays, and Wednesdays only, they had to push everything back a week. Her husband was unable to get that time off of work which was unfortunate for him, but fortunate for me! She asked if I would like to go with her and her son Luke, and although I wish I could've gone for the full week she was there, I had just accepted a new job and had to be the responsible adult and fulfill my obligation. Dangit. However, I'm only working Tuesday through Thursday each week (sweet schedule, right?!) so I told Maria that I could join her for a long weekend, and she said that sounded great to her! Last minute airfare wasn't the cheapest expense ever, but I didn't have to pay for hotel or car rental, so I guess it balanced out in the end. Sort of. Thomas, being the most loving, supportive husband in the whole world, sent me off with a hug and a kiss on Friday. I felt a teensy bit guilty for going without him, but his reply to that was "I got to go to Africa this year without you." Um, not quite the same thing, but I appreciate it nonetheless. ;) 

We had a nice relaxing long weekend on the island; we explored the beaches and a couple of cities, and searched for some small villages that weren't taken over by tourists such as ourselves. Perhaps my favorite part of the trip was sampling the local cuisine. Maria had bought some groceries from the local market before I arrived, so we had plenty of local vegetables and meats to enjoy for dinner. 

The Republic of Cyprus is dominantly Greek and Turkish, with a healthy dose of British ex-pats thrown in. The southern half of the island is mostly Greek, and the northern half of the island is Turkish, with the capital of Nicosia being split (basically) in half. Until 1974, Cyprus was under British rule, which explains the large amount of ex-pats that reside there, and accounts for the strong British influence that can still be seen in some areas - such as their restaurants, stores, and post boxes. 

Overall I enjoyed Cyprus, but I'm not sure I would go back. I think the fact that we visited during their low season affected my opinion, as many places were closed for the "winter" (although the weather was still wonderful, much better than England at least), but it just didn't seem like there was a whole lot going on. I'm sure a visit during the summer would be a completely different experience, but I would rather try somewhere new first!

Some sort of Greek pork meatloaf - so delicious! 

Beach in Pafos

Beautiful water

Pafos Castle is in the distance

Pork kebabs!

This not-so-little guy decided to join us for lunch ;)

Old British post box...turned yellow!

Christmas market in Nicosia

Catholic church in Nicosia

The (now empty) moat that used to go around the Old Capital

Larnaca Castle

Promenade in Larnaca

Kato Drys

Church in Tochni

Luke and Maria

Stockholm, Sweden

Oops! I was looking through my blog posts and found the draft of a post for our visit to Stockholm, Sweden...apparently I never finished writing about our cruise back in the summer! Luckily I wrote in my little travel journal, otherwise I don't think I would remember much of anything (I have a terrible memory). 

I do remember that Stockholm was extremely beautiful and very much centered around the water. Stockholm actually consists of a bunch of little islands, so you walk across bridges to get from place to place within the city. We started out in the old town area of Gamla Stan, which consisted of narrow, windy, and cobbled streets. Gamla Stan is where the Stockholm Palace (or Royal Palace) is located, so we got to check that out as well. 

Narrow streets of Gamla Stan

Outside of the Stockholm Palace

The Stockholm Palace

Next we walked to Kungsträdgården, which is a park in one of the more modern parts of Stockholm.  We stopped in at a restaurant called Max (we of course chose it because that is our dog's name) to have lunch, and when we came out, the band and marching processional were going by on their way to the Royal Palace for the Changing of the Guard. I had wanted to see it, but we weren't sure the timing was going to work out, so it was a pleasant surprise. It was an impressive processional, with several different groups taking part in the spectacle. 

Changing of the Guard processional

Changing of the Guard processional

Next we hopped on the "Hop On Hop Off" boat that went around to the different islands, and got off at Djurgården, which is where the Vasa Museum is located. Normally, Thomas and I don't care to spend a whole lot of time in museums. I understand that to some people museums are the main draw of a location, but personally we prefer to take in the atmosphere and local culture...and the food. We do enjoy some museums, mostly ones dealing with semi-recent historical events, and if one sounds particularly interesting to us, we will definitely check it out. Stockholm has A TON of museums, and the one that caught our eye was the Vasa Museum, which has an almost complete 17th century ship on display. She sunk on her maiden voyage, less than a mile into her journey. The museum was extremely well done, and fascinating to wander through. It contained a movie about the building, sinking, and recover of the ship, timelines of the events, artifacts found on the ship, and a model of part of the ship that we could walk through. Perhaps the most interesting, and surprising, part of the museum to me was the skeletons of some of the passengers onboard the Vasa when she sank. They had the skeletons laid out, along with information about that person - how old they probably were, what kind of health they were in, and (if applicable) the location they were on the ship when it sank and even what they may have been doing. For example, below is an excerpt of what was discovered about 'Fillip':

The individual F, "Filip", was probably a sailor who died at his post. He was c. 30 years old, 163 cm tall and had a set of teeth that gave him a special smile.  He was found in the steering cabin where he was probably an oarsman. He was close to a safe exit at the time of the catastrophe, by a short ladder to the upper deck, but seems to have chosen to stay below. Perhaps he died trying to turn the ship so that she could stand upright again.

It was just incredible to me that they could glean so much information from the skeletons, and really make the tragedy more real and relatable, even though it happened so long ago. This museum was definitely one of the highlights of our visit to Stockholm.  

Thomas was anxious to go inside the museum!

The Vasa

One of the skeletons from the Vasa

Thomas and I outside of the Vasa Museum

The most scenic part of our cruise (to me at least) was our journey through the Swedish archipelago. There were so many little islands that we cruised past, many of which had people's homes on them - what a wonderful place to live, although I imagine it must be pretty isolated. :) That was such a great way to end our cruise, it was definitely a trip we will never forget!

Thomas feeding the birds popcorn - they would eat it right out of his hand!

Cruising through the Swedish archilepago - check out that house!

Cruising through the Swedish archipelago