becca perhay: July 2011

Well my friends, these are the last of my pictures of Europe. I know it's been almost two months since I left, but I still have so many beautiful beautiful photos that I want to share with you all. Okay, and I do enjoy visiting my blog and looking back and reliving all the wonderful times...

Ljubljana, photo from ecademy.com

Grandpa?

Once again, my previous home.
Our apartment was on the very top, where the 5 windows are.

A quick, cRaZy story: There is now girl living in my old apartment, who is also from Cleveland. She was telling her mother about the creepy building, and her mother tried to do some research about the building. When she googled the address, Gosposvetska 2, Ljubljana 1000, the link to my blog appeared. She read my blog, recognized my last name, because she is Victor's counseler at Cleveland State. SMALL world! But she found a couple really awesome pictures of old postcards of my apartment.

Originally known as the Europa Hotel (Gosposvetska No. 2), the building which housed Cafe Europa was bought by Luka Tavcar in 1867, ruined next year and erected in 1878 to a plan by architect Karl Tietz, ordered by Luka Tavcar. It was a meeting place for many renowned Slovene citizens, including writer and editor Josip Jurcic, lawyer, writer and politician Valentin Zornik, writer and journalist Janko Kersnik and others for many years.

My apartment is the building on the left.

Now, it is the building on the right, with a large patio.

Here it is today.

Pictures and postcards above my bed.
And a map of Yugoslavia from when Mimi was here in the 60's.

View from my window.

Maria, Zvonko, Bostjan, and someone else... Zvonko, help?
Hmm. Who is the girl on the left?....

Krofi!!!

Market in the winter time.

Fresh Homemade Krofi, only 50 cents.

That tall black thing was our heater.
Which I had to make a fire in.
All the time.
But my room was still freezing.
And I was miserable.
But then Zvonko got me a radiator.
And things were better.

100 stairs up to my apartment.

So, for one week in the end of April, I went to a beautiful area called Kostanjevica Na Krki. This town is the smallest in Slovenia and one of the oldest. The town is situated on an island in a bend of the Krka River. It first appears in historical records in 1220, and the church of St. James was built in the 13th century. You can read more here: http://www.slovenia.info/?_ctg_kraji=5126&lng=2

So the reason I went to Kostanjevica was to volunteer with a program called Zavod Voluntariat Slovenia SCI. We worked on building a walking path in the hills and forests of Slovenia for educational purposes. It was one of the most enduring, yet amazing and unforgettable experiences I had in Slovenia. There were a group of 9 people from Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland, England, Croatia, and America. We worked hard during the day, and at night we were able to do some great things like visiting local wineries and drinking lots of cviček, going to the Kostanjevica cave, going to a spa, walking to a "natural hot spring," visiting castles and art galleries, and eating the most amazing food- including lots of potica.

Image from www.slovenia.info

Near Kostanjevica, on the eastern part of Slovenia.

Visiting a castle.

Potica!

This little boy, Gašper, was completely smitten with me. He even agreed to marry me so that I could stay in Slovenia. But we thought the age difference was to great. For now, at least.

Gašper

Making fairy bread.

This was the home of the organizer of the Volunteer program. Every evening we would go to her house and spend hours cooking dinner, eating and drinking. Her home was absolutely gorgeous and was built in the 13th century.