Crazy for Croatia!

So we had our last Italian coffee and then set off for, Slovenia last week.  We just had three days in the Ljubljana, its capital city.  Then we scooted over to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.  But first things first: more pictures! 

Below are mostly pictures of Venice.  Venice is great.  If you can go, you should.  While the guide book describes this city as "magical" and "mystical", I would describe it more as a strange bizarro-world since who would have ever thought that building an entire city in the sea would be a good idea?  It's funny too since it's hard to get a big city feel when most of the sidewalks and bridges are small and run between small buildings. But then we took a sea bus (public transit) down the Grand Canal, then all of a sudden it feels like a big city since all the big buildings line the waterfront.

We did not take a full fledged gondola ride (very $$) but we did take a mini ride across the Grand Canal to the Rialto Market (50 cents for about a minute and a half ride)!  We mostly just walked around Venice and explored which was great.  We saw the main square (St. Marks Square), went in a palace, and even found a park!  We drank coffee in the park in the afternoon and then wine on a dock watching the boats dock for the night - not too bad at all.

Pat and the Grand Canal

At St. Marks Square

Our 1 1/2 minute gondola ride

Gondola-tastic!  It's amazing they didn't bash into each other and the buildings.

We took the train from Venice to Trieste, then a bus over the border and then another train to Ljubljana.  Strangely enough, there is no direct train from Italy to Slovenia.  But it was kind of interesting to stop in Trieste - I thought of you Grandpa, and tried to guess how much the city has changed since you were here. 

Trieste

Once we crossed the border, we immediately noticed a difference.  Locals are happy to help tourists!  Although we did find lots of friendly Italians, we also experienced less than accommodating treatment in the main tourist areas.  But in Slovenia, we had random people helping to translate things in the market for us.

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is a really pretty city - very green, especially after Venice.  All of Slovenia is actually pretty forested, which makes the train rides really nice.  The weather was a bit rainy and cool while we were here, which was kind of a bummer but we wandered around anyway and saw the old town.  On Sunday evening we went to a hockey game!  It was the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A (you hockey buffs will know what that means) and we saw Slovenia vs. Great Britain.  It was fun and pretty intense since Slovenians are pretty big hockey fans and the arena was almost sold out.  No riots though - there was no drinking allowed in the arena and there were police standing by in full riot gear.  Slovenia won!

Now we're in Zagreb.  While parts of the city seem quite run down, it does have a nice downtown area.  Also, there seem to be lots of shopping malls (who would've thought?).  We've been staying at an apartment the last few days (not a hostel) which has been great.  We have our own space and, gasp, even a dishwasher!  Our host lives in the apartment just above us and a couple days ago she helped us with some of our next travel plans.  So that has been really helpful, since it's always nice to get tips from a local.

We're probably going to spend the next week or two in Croatia, travelling down the coast, and then land in Dubrovnik.  We'll keep you updated.  Hope all's well where you are and warming up if you are in Canada.