Three Years!

Happy anniversary to the best man I know - my sweet husband! We may not get to be together (in fact, we're one for three on anniversaries so far), but he always can make me feel loved and appreciated from far away. Three years down, and a lifetime to go! :)

A Hogmanay New Years!

Thomas and I had been hearing all about how amazing Edinburgh's New Years celebrations are since we moved here, and since Thomas was home this year, we decided it was time to check it out for ourselves! The base travel agency organized a bus up to Edinburgh on New Years Eve Day and was to leave the city at 2am after all of the celebrating. Since we've already been to Edinburgh we figured that would be the perfect choice for us, especially since we just got back from Slovenia the day before New Years Eve. 

We went with a group of friends and had plenty of laughs and snacks on the way up to Edinburgh, and we got a jump start on the "celebrating" thanks to some flasks and Camelbaks full of wine. ;) Edinburgh was just stunning all lit up and decorated for Christmas, especially with all of the old historic buildings and the castle as the backdrop. We wandered around the city and took in the atmosphere, had some mulled cider (delicious!), checked out the carnival rides and skating rink, and headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner to meet up with some more friends. After dinner we wandered some more, hopped from pub to pub, and spent far too much time waiting in line for Porta-Potties (seriously, it was a half-hour wait every time!) while waiting for the fireworks to start. The fireworks show was well worth the wait though, it was the best display I've ever seen! They set the fireworks off over Edinburgh Castle, and that just added to the spectacle. We made our way back to our bus, and were back on the road by 2:15am - it was a very quiet ride home, thank goodness!

I'm so glad we went - Hogmanay was definitely worth the trip and craziness of the city, and any excuse to go to Edinburgh is fine by me! :)

Thomas and I

Massive amounts of Porta-Potties...but it still didn't seem like enough!

The carnival with Old Town in the distance

Skating rink

The ladies

The gents

Spectacular fireworks!

My NYE bestie :)

Skiing in the Julian Alps!

Days two and three in Slovenia we finally got to hit the slopes! I'd been waiting two years for the chance to ski in the Alps and I was beyond excited. Thomas has only snowboarded in the past, and had never been skiing, so I gently nudged him to ski while we were there because I felt I could teach him to ski better than trying to teach him to snowboard! We spend the first half of Day 1 on the bunny slope while Thomas learned the basics, and I brushed up on my skiing. After lunch we tried out a blue slope and although it was a little rough on Thomas, he was an amazing sport, and just kept trying! He hurt his knee a little bit towards the end of the day, so I got in a couple of runs before we had to catch the shuttle back to Bled. Day Two was even more fun - everything seemed to click for Thomas and by the end of the day he was beating me down the mountain! I had so much fun, and I loved to watch all the little kids fly down the mountain - I'd say about 80% of them were better skiers than I am...plus the little guys are so adorable in their snow suits. :)

Bled has a great system set up for tourists wanting to go ski while staying in their town. If you purchase your lift tickets (minimum two days) from the Tourist Information Center on the lake, it includes your ride on the Ski Bus. The Ski Bus departs Bled in the morning, picking up at several spots around town (including right outside our hotel!), and picks up at the slopes in the afternoon to bring everyone back. It was so nice to not have to worry about renting a car to get to the mountain, and we rented skis on the mountain so we didn't have to lug those around with us either. Once you get to the base of the ski resort, you take a cable car up to "snow level" and can rent skis, hang out in the lodge, or go up on the lifts from there. The Ski Bus would take you to one of the two ski resorts in the area, Vogel or Krvavec, and your lift passes from the Tourist Office were good for either resort - you could even mix and match. We chose to go to Vogel both days since that was where we rented our equipment from, but we heard great things about Krvavec as well. We really enjoyed Vogel, it suited our beginner skiing needs just fine. When we went (end of December) it was still near the beginning of the ski season and I would say only about 50% of the slopes were open, but we heard that in two to three weeks it would be in full swing. All in all, we were so happy with our ski destination, and would happily go back there, especially a little bit later into the ski season!

We started on the bunny hill to refresh our skiing memory ;)

The Lodge

View from the Lodge - the cloud cover was so low everywhere, it was beautiful!

Thomas tearin' it up on the slopes ;)

Vogel bunny hill

Ready to go on our first blue run!

Check out those hot dogs - delish!

The cable car that took us up the mountain 

The inter tubes on the bunny hill - I wanted to go! :)

Look at all of that firewood!

We saw a couple of dogs on the mountain - this guy was just chillin' by the lodge!

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