Being the Foreigner(Part One)

Dear All,

          

Sorry, I am a classified bum to get little late (actually lazy) in writing about my dream called as sLOVEnia but as they say the more you wait is the more you going to gain. After all I too had waited around fourteen years to visit this beautiful country and now I am very much satisfied that each and every year of my waiting period has been proved worth off.

So what do we expect from a perfect holiday?

Flying over high rise mountains seeing beautiful landscapes, roaring loud in wide spread silent valleys, seeing shining fishes in crystal clear rivers and lakes, feeling to be part of the calm canvas of mother nature, enjoying driving on a amazingly systematic road system, enjoying sudden splash of water from a sky high waterfall, experiencing the mysterious underworld of crystals in mountain caves, early morning walk on a silent sand beach, getting lost in time while wandering on the streets of a ages old beach town, the warm feeling of being a part of the colorful  European culture, listening to the sound of the jungle while walking on the shredded leaves of the autumn trees, greeting wildlife in its arena ,eating amazing local cuisines, tasting various flavors of honey wines , exploring an new world accompanying your best friends and finally most important of all :- Meeting with your childhood again which has been very well preserved by your overseas friends from around 6000 km far land. The same friends once you had referred as foreigners and now you travelling as a foreigner in their country.

Day One:

I reached to the capital of Slovenia, a city named as Ljubljana at 4:00 PM in the evening and the first impression of the city I got was from 10000 thousand feet, a green carpet with Alps as its borders. 

First Slovenian guys I met were the custom people on the Airport and they were pretty curious to know the exact reasons of my visit as they are not very used to of seeing Indian tourist in this part of the world and if asked Indians must be ready with their paper work to show to them, once convinced they are friends.

I answered all their queries in detail and left them little surprised with the fact that I am visiting from India to meet my Slovenian friends for fourteen years. (Still believing in childhood stories).

Mojca was waiting for me outside the airport with a wide welcome smile on her face. Actually she is my first friend from Slovenia and to be honest the one who motivated me to make this trip. We walked to her car in the parking area and then I did the first compulsory common mistake which every INDIAN or BRITISH does in Europe i.e. trying to sit on the driving side of the car. This broke the ice between us and we ended busting in laugh standing on the same side of the gate and she said to me, “Welcome to Europe”.

Then the journey to Celje started. Celje is around 70 miles from Ljubljana and it’s Mojca’s hometown and also was going to be mine for next three days. On the way Mojca explained me a lot about Slovenian culture and they way country has been formed. She showed me wooden architectures in the fields which are used to store grains.

Late in the evening my all friends from Slovenia had planned to host a dinner for me. It was in a restaurant near to the city centre of Celje. So we all drove to the main city and met every one. It was really the quality time, talking to all long time old friends, remembering old day’s stories and experiencing mixture of best dishes from Italian and Slovenian cuisine. Eating all kind of foods is one thing which should be on top of your list in Slovenia; these guys have all the flavors of the world getting cooked in their kitchens. We passed around three hours over there, and then went for a short walk in the city. I tried “Costa”, cheese nuts from a street stall and they too were amazing.

Then we decided to come back to home to have some rest as Mojca had already planned the full trip and we were suppose to start our travel next day in the morning. At the home we sat in the living room for some time and she used the time to show me some old pictures of mine from India, also she showed me a visiting card of ours which contains address of our old house, the one from where we had shifted around 10 years back and finally she showed me a painting which I had gifted to her during her visit to India probably the best canvas work done by me during my entire childhood in India.

Have to start early tomorrow morning , We are going to the Blade Lake.


Good Night Folks.