I'm back...

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...from Ljubljana, Slovenia. A really interesting conference (veterinary dentistry *g*), wonderful travel companion (my colleague from another clinic) and a chance to do some sightseeing in a previously unvisited country. Am happy.

The final days before the trip were frantic - our hotel booking had disappeared into a black hole and my plane ticket invoice arrived on the day before payment due date.But all in all, it was an unbelievably smooth trip.

Of 4 planes only one was late (and only a half of an hour at that). Lufthansa apparently still feeds economy class passengers, contrary to f***ing Estonian Air. And the food is even tasty. Had a nice flight via Frankfurt to Ljubljana, drinking beer and catching up on stuff with my colleague. Got to Ljubljana airport late at night to discover that the regular bus to the city had just left. Got an outrageous price quotation from a taxi-driver. Suggested politely that we'd rather walk 25 km than pay 35 euros. Price dropped to 30. Then discovered a shuttle bus service who agreed to take us straight to our hotel for a third of the taxi fee. The last thing we heard before driving off was the taxi drivers desperate cry: "20 euroooooos!" *veg*
The hotel had managed to locate our booking (but as a word of advice, never use online booking by Octopustravel...gah!). Got a room...only to discover after many tries that the card reader on the door was not working. Got two tries until the registrar was convinced of it too. Result - we spent our stay in another room (much bigger, nicer and the same price *g*).
The conference was nice, cozy, and the topics were interesting. The food was not. And I've never seen a veterinary conference with so little coffee..and the coffee was really lousy. Met interesting people though. The gala dinner was edible and held in a local castle, which was very nice from the outside. Inside...inside was a complete shock not only to me, but also to several other delegates from UK, Netherlands etc...imagine a nice historic building I'd say from around 16th century...with 'modernized' interior - metal scaffolding and stairs, visible electric lighting and sound systems *shudders uncontrollably*. The local representative was right in his speech that the experience was unforgettable..though I guess he did not mean it this way exactly.
I liked what I saw of Slovenia...people were nice, city transport was adequate and it all gave off a twisted homey feeling - the different layers of socialist-era and new architecture, vehicles and attitudes 'nicely' visible in a patched-quilt-manner, lots of forest, limestone - like at home - and at the same time different types of houses, different trees and mountains - not at all like at home. The funny thing was weather - going from 22 degrees and sunshine at home (where we have  an unusually warm autumn) to Mediterranean climate...of drizzle and 18 degrees Celsius *ggg*. Fortunately the weather improved a lot over the weekend, and the nights were really warm. The cicadas sound slightly different than grasshoppers at home, but if I closed my eyes in the evening, I could almost believe that I was back home *s*.
A wonderful experience was a visit to carst caves in Postonja, which were said to be about 20 km long - we saw about 4 km of those. Utterly fascinating, enjoyable and unforgettable experience. I've seen photos of stalagtites and stalagmites, of course, but it really does not compare to the real thing. Different colours from alabaster white to greenish or reddish, unbelievably diverse shapes from curtains to castles to pillars to shapes of humans or monsters (and to tell the truth, some of them looked very much like a bit strange penises *bg* - and that was NOT solely an observation of my sick mind *g*). Lights were placed behind some formations and I have no words to describe the beautiful effect adequately. And, of course, with my world-view having a definite Methoscentric tilt, I stood for a long time contemplating a fragile white almost translucent stone curtain with light shining through it, because it recalled to my mind sidhe_woman 's description of Methos' quickening in the Phoenix Fire - I know that she wrote about silk and arctic ice, but I assure you that an almost transparent stalagtite curtain can evoke quite similar emotions. At least in me *s*.   I took some pictures (before we were told that it is not allowed *g*) and after  dresta11  has managed to coax them out of her camera, I'll try posting some.  We spent about an hour and half in the caves, but I guess I would have happily stayed there for the whole day. We saw even the famous blind white salamanders  (Proteus) (which, the truth be told, looked a bit unhappy in their special pond with tourists gawking at them- though the guide assured that they do not keep them there long and put the old ones back into the river and install new ones every little while) - pretty little creatures with most adorable red gills and sinuous bodies, called 'the human fish' because of their skin colour and a lifespan which is about 80 years. Though the similarities end here - I do not suppose that humans would be able to survive for 5 years without food.
The return trip was pretty uneventful, if you discount the fact that two ATM machines in a row refused to cough up any cash for us, the currency exchange machine did not recognize Estonian currency and we ended up wheedling some currency exchange out of  airport parking service - so we could pay the shuttle bus fee from hotel to airport. Present day Estonia is very electronic/IT/computer/internet/plastic oriented, so it always comes as a surprise for me when I visit some European country with supposedly higher living standards and discover that they can be incredibly backwards in this regard. One gets used to easy things so quickly*g*.
Bought some interesting liquors to go...have to organize an evening with a couple of friends to taste those. And of course, as we had a 4 hour break between flights in Frankfurt, had to wander into a bookshop and buy books... 'Pompeii' by Robert Harris which I promptly devoured over the return trip - enjoyed the book very much - and Michener's 'Mexico' - which I am looking forward to with pleasure - I've read and  liked his 'Texas', 'Centennial', 'Hawaii' , 'The Drifters' and 'Tales of the South Pacific' a lot.
In conclusion, I'm really happy I let my colleague convince me to wheedle the financing out of my superiors...an interesting trip, a good conference, an enjoyable experience. I love to travel and I know that actually attending professional meetings is a must, but as getting the finances for it is usually a horrible hassle, I tend to forget that the result usually more than makes up for the initial bloody scraping, scrabbling and wheedling. 

 

Comments

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Yes indeed..it seems everyone is out somewhere having fun. That said...I must confess to a tad bit of envy for those lucky souls in Vancouver...but they are wonderful at providing updates, so I need not dwell overmuch on the sad fact that US is too far (and too expensive *g*).
And I was very happy when upon my return I discovered your wonderful new stories!

[marys-scribbles.livejournal.com]

I'm very jealous of those lucky people who got to go to Vancouver. But yes they are providing wonderful updates and I'm so looking forward to all the lovely pictures I'm sure they took.

And I'm very glad you enjoy my little stories. I have lots of fun writing them, but you make me want to write more and more of them. *vbg*