The next stop on our journey north-west was Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We first visited on our 2010 interrail trip and, despite the torrential rain that plagued our visit, we loved it, so we were excited to return in the August sunshine. By the way, you might be wondering how on earth to pronounce the city name – we thought we had it nailed from our last visit (something like liub-liana), but the comments section on this guide is an absolute treat as no one seems to agree! I just hope we didn’t butcher the pronounciation too badly…
We began our 48-hour visit at the castle, where we felt like we had unfinished business, since last time we climbed to the very top of the highest tower (which in turn, sits on a very tall hill) only to be met with a wall of cloud and no view at all of the city. So, we made this our first stop and the weather couldn’t have been more different. Consequently, there were also more crowds, which came as a bit of a surprise although it really shouldn’t have been! Anyway, we had a great view of the Ljubljanica River weaving through the old town, the modern city beyond, and the mountains that surround both.
If last time we visited it was too wet, this time it was (borderline) too hot. Thankfully, though, we stumbled across a slightly bizarre rain installation in Prešernov trg, one of the central squares. It might not look like it from the photo, but as soon as we stepped inside the circle, it felt like there was torrential rain falling. Weird but refreshing!
Otherwise, we just spent time exploring the pedestrianised streets and soaking up the summer atmosphere. I do sometimes wonder why the makers of cheesy Hallmark movies feel the need to create fictional European nations, when they could just use somewhere that already looks like it’s from a fairytale! But then again, maybe this under-the-radar vibe is part of Ljubljana’s appeal.
We ate really well while we were in town, although if I’m honest this was mainly things like outstanding tacos from Patrón and great Japanese food and atmosphere in Matsuri. But we also couldn’t pass up the chance to sample some Slovenian food, even if what we selected wasn’t exactly weather-appropriate! We shared a bowl of ričet, which is a barley dish somewhere between a soup and a stew. I’ve only just read that it’s best known as being food served to prisoners, so I assume it’s not meant as fine dining, but that’s alright! Eaten alone, it was very mellow (akin to a lentil soup), but it paired perfectly with the punchy sausages on top and went down very well. I would happily eat this every day in the winter but I might not choose it again on a hot summer’s day…
Ljubljana definitely falls into the category of “cities where we’d happily live” and I’m sure we’ll be back again sometime soon – it feels like the perfect weekend destination and the rail route from London looks really cool. But for now, it was time to move on again, this time to Austria. Feel free to watch The Sound of Music in preparation for the next post! 😉
From buzzy Tirana, we set our alarms bright and early to walk through the city at dawn and catch a 6am bus across the border into Montenegro. We were bound for Podgorica, which must surely be Europe’s least well known capital, and notable only really for the fact that it doesn’t appear anywhere at all in Lonely Planet’s list of Montenegro highlights – that’s really unusual for a capital city! Anyway, we had a very good reason for coming here (more on that in the next post), but first we had a couple of days to explore Podgorica and further afield.
In line with everything we’d read, Podgorica barely felt like a city at all – more like a provincial town. We spent a short time doing some very gentle sightseeing through Independence Square and the old town, before retreating to our accommodation to enjoy its riverside location.
And actually, this is where Podgorica really came into its own – where else can you swim in crystal clear river water within a ten minute walk of the very centre of a capital city? Of course, when I say swim, what I actually mean is that I lost my balance and fell in with an almighty splash. Thankfully I was on my way in anyway, but it was still a very cold surprise! From our lovely spot on the rocks next to the river, we could just see Podgorica’s one remaining landmark that we hadn’t yet visited: the graceful Millennium Bridge, which crossed the Morača River just downstream of us.
On our second day in Montenegro, we hopped on a 90-minute bus bound for Budva, a town on the Adriatic Sea. We hadn’t been able to get seats on the daily train to Belgrade, our next destination, so would have to wait until tomorrow. We’d decided on this train ages ago but needed to buy the tickets in person (as there’s no way to do so online), so this was a little frustrating. But then again, I knew just how beautiful the Montenegrin coast was from when I’d visited my friend Amy a few years ago, so having a bonus day wasn’t exactly a hardship.
Budva is a big, busy holiday town not unlike Sarandë, except that it has a beautiful walled old town jutting out to sea, which is protected by a citadel and sometimes described as a mini-Dubrovnik. We spent most of the day retracing my steps from a few years ago, which basically involved me giving the vaguest of directions (“I’m sure there were some cannons somewhere,” or, “I think there was a pretty church”) and then taking credit when Oli found what I had in mind by reading the guidebook.
On our final morning, we sat out by the river to eat our breakfast (including the not-exactly-healthy but delicious local doughnuts, Priganice). While we were there, Oli made firm friends with ‘Montenegrin Thomas’, a little charmer of a chap who wanted to share our breakfast. Not that we’re soft touches or anything, but we offered him a bit of everything we had (except our coffees – we didn’t like him that much).
We’ll return to Montenegro sometime soon when we have a bit more time and it’s not peak summer – I know it has lots more to offer and it is the most ridiculously beautiful country! But for now, we’d run out of time and so we set our sights on Serbia, a brand new country for both of us.
We celebrated one year on the road by taking our longest ‘break’ yet – staying a whole six nights in one place! Katie (my sister) and her husband Andy had invited us to join them for part of their summer holiday in a quiet corner of northern Corfu. A minor children-to-bedrooms counting error meant that there wasn’t quite room for us in the villa, but they weren’t getting rid of us that easily, so we stayed in a very peaceful little studio just down the road and spent our days freeloading from the villa-dwellers.
To be honest, we spent the vast majority of our time on Corfu eating baklava (I wanted Katie to do a guest post on her tasting notes but she kept eating them before we’d had a chance to take a photo!) but we did manage to clean the honey off our sticky paws for long enough to do a couple of activities…
The 14-minute monastery visit
Mum had visited Corfu on a cruise when she was 15 years old and recalled that the view from the Monastery of Paleokastritsa, which is perched on a rocky headland, was absolutely magical. Unfortunately, in the intervening years there has been quite a lot of development along this coastline and it took us rather longer than expected to get there. So, true to form, we screeched into the carpark at 12.46, knowing that the monastery would shut for the afternoon in just 14 minutes. No matter, Oli and I thought – we’ve explored monasteries in literally half this time! It didn’t help that the church and museum had closed early, but we still managed to admire the flower-filled courtyards and see the view down to the turquoise sea below, which was just as gorgeous as billed.
On our way back, we stopped at a viewpoint for an ice cream and an absolutely epic panoramic view of the coastline. Corfu is incredibly mountainous, which does make for some slightly hairy driving conditions, but it is so beautiful as a result.
The boat trip
Last time we were in Corfu (also as a family), we hired a boat for the day and had the most hilariously disastrous time that we still cry with laughter when reminiscing about it. Short of sinking the boat, pretty much everything else went wrong, including losing all the lifejackets off the back of the boat, getting caught in the wind and veering dangerously close to the Rothschilds’ yacht, leaving a crew member behind while a restaurant full of judgy boaty-types looked on, and dredging the harbour with our anchor.
We were roughly evenly split between those who thought we’d come a long way since then (with very little evidence of why this might be, may I say) and those of us who were convinced that our luck would run out this time and we might actually sink the boat.
We set sail from Agios Stefanos with a new captain (Andy – Dad had demoted himself to the rank of Ship’s Dog this time) and headed up the coast to The White House, famous as being the Durrells’ house (of My Family and Other Animals fame).
We still got laughed at by people dining at The White House as we moored there for lunch (but this time for dropping just one life jacket in the sea – they should have seen us last time), but otherwise, the day was glorious and almost incident-free!
The seafood feast
Oli are I aren’t big seafood eaters, but we hate to miss out on local specialities, so we tagged along on an evening expedition to a place simply known as the fish restaurant (at least among us – it turns out it did have an actual name!). There was no menu; instead we were invited into the kitchen to pick from the catch of the day, which would then be prepared for us and served with some simple (read: very generous) side dishes.
Of course, we got totally carried away and selected a genuinely enormous seabass to share, plus a couple of squid just because they looked good.
By the time we’d gorged on the plates of fried whitebait and baskets of fresh bread served with local olive oil that were brought out as a complimentary starter, we were filling up and more than a little apprehensive about what was to come. In the end, though, it was some of the best fish I’ve ever eaten, and between us we very nearly did it justice.
We couldn’t believe it when they told us that the seabass had been prepared with no salt or pepper – it tasted so perfectly seasoned, but we concluded that must have been the salt from the sea doing a great job. When the lovely staff brought us a complimentary dessert (a tenet of Greek hospitality that still somehow takes us by surprise every time), we were in real trouble and there were some very full bellies that evening.
The pool party
William turned six while we were in Corfu, so naturally he had a pool party to celebrate. This included activities such as pin the tail on the donkey (which resulted in no injuries except to the donkey), and a water fight (which resulted in so many injuries to both teams that we had to set up a field hospital).
Unfortunately, the kids’ diving competition had to be cancelled because the adults got slightly carried away by a lilo surfing display. Even though everyone agreed that this was a recipe for disaster, the display continued to chants of “Lilo surf! Lilo surf!” until the lilo had had enough of the abuse and abruptly burst in the pool.
Katie was still lamenting the loss of her new lilo when we realised with horror that it was spilling millions of tiny, sparkly confetti into the pool. The villa’s owner had made very clear that we should be really careful not to put anything into the pool in case the filter blocked, so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening armed with nets, brooms, sieves, colanders, and (my favourite) a tea strainer trying to clear up the mess we’d made. We actually got most of it, but we all agreed that any undue good fortune we’d had in not sinking our boat a few days ago had well and truly run out today!
The next morning, Oli and I were due to leave, which seemed like excellent timing given the villa’s owner was due to come round for daily pool maintenance and would surely spot the pesky last few pieces of confetti. In the end, he said it wasn’t a problem and instead recounted a tale of how previous guests had deliberately poured spaghetti bolognese into the pool! But by this point, we’d skipped the country and were on a ferry bound for Albania…
