Slovenia: Eating my way through Ljubljana and Lake Bled

My good friend Miss Rachel Chonka and I felt it necessary to take a trip south of the border to Slovenia. Yes, the little country of Slovenia. Now, before this trip I didn't know much about this place, except that it was Eastern Europe and easily confused with Slovakia. But now, after a glorious (and rainy) four days, I feel that I've learned a lot about their history and culture - and also found out something quite surprising: THEY HAVE EXCELLENT FOOD!

Seriously! Rachel and I accumulated a few words of slovene while away and upon reflection, each had to do with food and/or restaurants. For example:

Dober den --- Good Day (as in, Good day, welcome to our restaurant)

Hvala --- Thank You (as in, Thank you for your order)

Prosim --- You're welcome AND please

Pivo --- Beer

Kava --- Coffee

Caj --- Tea

oh yeah.... and... Most --- Bridge (learned that one in Budapest)

Heehee. Anyway, I was so knocked out by the utterly delicious offerings of this amazing place, I decided to dedicate a whole blog post to it :o) Here are the highlights (most of the restaurants we visited were in our Lonely Planet, so I have the details... and yes, I took pictures of EVERYTHING I ate) ;o)

Cake and Tea at Cajna Hisa (Ljubljana). The name means Tea House and now we know why - we had some delicious tea there! (and cake... yum!)

A morning visit to Cajna Hisa was in order - the breakfast menu was just what the doctor ordered. Fried eggs with ham and cheese (and a nutty roll). All with a nice pot of Lapsang Souchong.

A hearty slovenian lunch at the Mayer Penzion in Lake Bled. Sausages, apples and a light cabbage salad was exactly what I needed after boating across the lake and wandering around a little island in the rain. Warmed me right up!

My favorite of all the food we tried. This bosnian restaurant in Ljubljana called Harambasa served only one thing: cevapi (small beefy sausages). You could get 5 of them, you could get 10, you could even get them made into a steak! They all come with bread (Lepinja) and an amazing (emphasis amazing) concoction of buttery cheesy butter stuff called Kajmak... which had the consistency of whipped cheese and the appearance of vanilla ice cream. To top it off, we shared a Baklava... the best I've ever tasted. Needless to say, we went to this restaurant twice. Bosnian food - TWO THUMBS UP!

Harambasa's (wisely) limited menu

A rainy afternoon visit to the National Gallery called for a pick-me-up at Kavarna Zvezda, one of Slovenia's top 5 cafes (according to Lonely Planet). After this strawberry cake, I was sure to agree!

Mexican Food! Dinner at the Cantina Mexicana was amazing... so much for such a little price! I got BBQ wings (couldn't help it!) and salad, rice and beans. I was so stuffed full of good food (and a good pina colada!) that we had to rest for a while in the warm, cosy mexican environment before braving the cold, rainy, eastern european weather outside.

And, on the way to the train, I grabbed a piece of Ljubljana's famous street food, Borek. You can have this pastry with meat or cheese inside. I forgot to get a picture since I was starving and had just hopped on the train, so I grabbed one off the net. Delectable!

Wow. Slovenia sure knew how to do food. Can't wait to see what Croatia has in store for me two weeks from now!

Salzburg: The Sound of Music

The weekend of May first I went with my friend Alice to Salzburg, where I got to do something that I've been waiting all year for: The Sound of Music Tour!!!! The real von Trapp family lived in Salzburg until 1938 and the film starring Julie Andrews (1965) was filmed there as well.

Before the tour, I didn't know much about the real von Trapp family. This is what I learned:

-There was a german movie called The Trapp Family (1956), which gave Rogers and Hammerstein the idea for a broadway musical.

-The german film was based on a memoir by Maria von Trapp entitled: The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

-Georg Ludwig von Trapp, was indeed anti-Nazi, and did in fact live with his family in a villa in a district of Salzburg called Aigen, however the palace depicted in the film is a great exaggeration of their actual living situation.

-Originally, Maria had been hired only to be a governess to young Maria who had come down with scarlet fever and needed her lessons at home.

-Maria and Georg had been married 10 years before the Anschluss and had two of their three children before that time.

-The seven children depicted in the film were actually nine, with the Captain and Maria's children, it brought the number to twelve.

-Unlike in the film, Georg had considered a position in the Kriegsmarine but ultimately did decide to emigrate with his family to Italy to go on yet another singing tour.

-The Anschluss occurred in March, however the Salzburg Music Festival is held in June, therefore the family could not have piggybacked their festival performance into an escape before the borders closed.

-The bell cord on the real Nonnberg Abbey is strictly a prop and rings nothing, however the Abbey liked it anyway and requested it be left by the film crew.

-While the film shows the von Trapp family hiking over the Alps from Austria to Switzerland, from Salzburg this is impossible. Salzburg is only a few kilometres away from the Austrian–German border and is much too far from either the Swiss or Italian borders for a family to escape by walking. Had the von Trapps hiked over the mountains they would have in all likelihood ended up in Germany near the Kehlsteinhaus, Hitler's mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden.

-As Georg was born in an area of Austria that had been under Italian control at the time, he was considered an Italian citizen and therefore, so were all his family, including Maria. Therefore, all they really had to do was walk to the local train station and board the next train to Italy, from which they fled to London and ultimately the United States (Vermont)

We had a very good tour (which lasted just over 4 hours). During that time, we visited Here are some highlights:

Alice and our tour bus, ready to roll

Alice and I aboard the bus. (Notice my "Birgitte" hairdo)

Me and Alice in front of Leopoldskron Castle: where the children were boating and fell into the lake... also where Rolfe threw stone's against Liesl's window ;o)

With Liesl's Gazebo at Hellbrunn Castle gardens.

"I am 16 going on 17"...

St. Gilgen and Lake Wolfgang from the opening scenes. This lake is part of the Salzkammergut (Salt lakes district)... and was a favorite vacation spot of the Mozarts!

The church in Mondsee where the film von Trapps were married.

The Untersberg: where the opening shots of "The Hills Are Alive" were shot.

The line of trees from the scene where the children (in their curtain play-clothes) hang from the trees. :o)

The Mirabell gardens at Castle Mirabell in Salzburg. This is where the montage for the song "Do-Re-Mi" was made. Remember when they walked along the edge of the circular fountain? Here it is! The Pegasus Fountain!

The little statue that the children tap on the head while singing the overture to "Do-Re-Mi!"

"Do-so-fa-la-ti-do-re...."

"Fa.... a longer way to run"....

Alice at Nonnberg Abbey, Maria's Abbey and where she, in the opening scenes, runs too late into the courtyard. (The real von Trapps were married here in 1927)