Slovenia

One of my NYR was to travel more. Started out well by getting a January trip in. Six of us made our way to Slovenia, staying in the mountains, going dickie down and drinking so much local sparkling wine that I wonder how dry this January could ever have been.

The few days we spent in Slovenia will always come back to me in shots. Reminders of moments:

That first drive up the mountain when the road was a block of ice and the air was full of the smell of burning clutch.

Finding a blackboard outside a shop advertising bear salami, assuming it was some kind of gimmick and subsequently discovering a taste for bear meat. Let’s keep in mind that I was vegan a year ago.

Our first night when the hot tub wasn’t hot enough (a running theme on our trips) and the sauna was so overwhelming that we threw ourselves on the mercy of the piled up snow afterwards.

Our ill-informed hike down the mountain where two of us did not have appropriate shoes (Joey blamed the airport but actually left one boot at home and E didn’t know her boots had holes in them until we were in eight inches of snow).

Climbing into a lookout tower only to realise we would have to somehow get down again.

Our much quicker ascent, where half the group were left in a pizzeria, the only open joint with an alcohol licence for miles.

Driving on the right for the first time, in a Slovenian car, up a frozen mountain as the engine screamed and three drunk people bellowed “keep it up!” (about the movement of the car). I made that hill and we landed in a snow bank outside our lodgings.

Dancing on Keren’s birthday. Trying and failing, once more, to learn the moves to Think About Things and Jiggle Jiggle.

The best steak restaurant in Slovenia and the decision to share an additional plate with Joey.

Walking hand in hand with E, mostly because love, partly to stay upright.

In the mix of all of these adventures was the recognition of how beautiful the world can be, how screaming in the mountains is deeply healing and that surrounding yourself by your people, good people, drunk people, is wonderful.