Luica’s Blog

It was my second time in Venice and surprisingly I remembered pretty much all the places I had been last year.

Lisa and I went there only for a day. It was so nice to wander around a beautiful foreign city without any restrains - I have to say Lisa makes a great travel partner as she’s a pretty easy-going and we are very similar. We visited most of the tourist spots such as Piazza San Marco and Ponte di Rialto. In fact, we walked over the famous bridge for no less than five times! I suspect Lisa did it on purpose as she didn’t get a chance to see the bridge during her last trip in Venice.

We successfully found the Generali office in Piazza San Marco and celebrated it with a nice cup of coffee in a charming tea house. I wish I could remember the name of it! It was a 19^th century tea house with live classical music. It was a perfect place for a lazy late afternoon tea, especially after a day’s wandering around and shopping!

After that I brought Lisa to a little secret snack bar for a drink, where we enjoyed the prosciutto so much that we went to buy some more Parma Ham from a supermarket before heading back to Trieste.

Even though it was only a day trip, I felt really relaxed!

After an evening at the coast of Slovenia, we continued our journey.

We could see instantly that Ljubljana was very different to Koper; it was a much busier and less laid-back city. We took Mary and Alan’s recommendation and checked into a three-star hotel called Pri Katrci, a charming hotel with a cosy bar and cafe at the front and a spacious restaurant at the back. Its owner Anika and her staff Megi and Blush were extremely helpful and made us feel very welcome.

Lisa and I were particularly impressed with the food at Pri Katrci. Breakfast became our favourite meal - scrumbled egg on toast, plate of cold meat, yogurt and a cup of fresh coffee - it made a satisfying begining to each day. At lunch, we would have a large bowl of mushroom or traditional clear beef soup to keep us warm.

Wandering around the beautiful and historic old town - Central Market, Dragon Bridge and Ljubljana Castle - normally helped digest our food and got us ready for a carefully chosen dinner venue.

Our faviourite dinner has to be the one in Pri Vitezu. A two-course extravagant meal with an excellent glass of red wine. Lisa had proscuito with melon as starter and lobster risotto as main course, while I had scampi as starter and duck-breast with orange sauce as main. I would definitely go back.

I first read about the capital of Slovenia in Wallpaper Navigator. Prior to this, my knowledge on Slovenia was limited to what I learned from a friend, whom I met when staying with a host family in summer 1998, in Oxford.

So when Lisa and I were looking for places to visit near Trieste, I suggested that a few days in Slovenia would be fun as neither of us had been there before. The same afternoon, we booked our tickets to Trieste and checked out different ways to get to Slovenia.

After slightly more than two hours’ flight to Trieste, we spent another 60 minutes on a bus from the airport into town, where we changed to another bus and eventually headed to Koper in Solvenia. The last journey took only 30 minutes, plus the time we waited for the immigration both getting out of Italy and getting into Slovenia. We finally arrived in Koper before dark.

Koper was a very peaceful place and the locals were friendly and helpful even though they did not speak much English. We celebrated our arrival with a meal at a small but friendly restaurant called Istrska Klet (I say restaurant, but it was more like a small pub with a few tables). The bean soup with roasted pork was excellent.

A long weekend in Brugge. Mum and dad were visiting London for a fortnight and we went to Begium for a long weekend. I have been to Brussels before, but it was my first time in Brugge.

Unlike the busy capital (I mean, the busy Grand Place), Brugge was much more beautiful and laid back. Shops were not lacking though, as my parents still went back home with loads of chocolates and biscuits. I have to say the Tin Tin shop is always my favourite.

Our favourite meal was from a random bar-and-restaurant kind of place, but the food turned out to be excellent! Mum tried her scary looking steak tartare (which she later on described as a delicacy) and dad had lamb, while I had the lovely scampi with garlic and Brad had steak and chips.

‘t Brugs Beertje is a hightly recommended pub, as it offers more than 300 kinds of beer. The bar staff were really helpful and knowledgable. It was a shame that I did not get to try to chocolate beer, but the banana beer was much nicer than it sounds!

Brugge makes a perfect place for a relaxing long weekend, especially if you enjoy nice food and beer. However, you may want to think twice if you plan to stay there longer than a few days.