-
Celje is Not to be Missed – Romans, Counts, and Castles
Ever since we transferred trains in Celje (pronounced “tsel-ye”) a few months ago and had a few minutes to walk into the Old Town center, we knew we’d be back. With April weather being unpredictable but beautiful, we caught a train back to Celje for a day of exploration. A pleasant less than 90-minute train…
-
Ljubljana Dragon Carnival
Post by Krista One of the really fun parts of living somewhere very different from California is taking part in different seasonal traditions and activities. February 10 was Shrove Saturday and that meant it was Ljubljana Dragon Carnival time. Held annually, as part of Shrovetide events, it’s a really fun way for the community to…
-
Vesele praznike! (Happy holidays!)
We have been pretty lazy as of late about sending holiday cards, but we do have a lot of holiday images to share, so here’s another blog post! It’s been almost a year since our move to Slovenia, and our first holiday season here. We’ve heard this country goes crazy for Christmas, and as suckers…
-
Fall ’23 Wanderings
Fall of 2023 has been a busy time for travel, work (for Krista), and (in Rory’s case) looking for work. Krista has been hard at work for a contract she now has from Purdue University, working on similar subject matter as before. Rory has been getting to know the clean energy/GHG reductions/environmental world in Europe,…
-
Jezersko in Pictures
Rory’s co-workers at the CPUC pooled together and bought us a weekend at a farm/retreat center/inn in Jezersko, a lovely alpine valley that’s only an hour away from Ljubljana but it seems like it’s on another planet. We used it all up last weekend–it turns out you get a lot more for your money at…
-
Velenje: Slovenia’s Last Coal Town
Statue of a miner on Tito Square. By Rory I have been doing a lot of exploration of the European clean energy scene as I consider what I will be doing for the next chapter of life. A couple of months ago, I tuned into a webinar that was all about the transition to clean…
-
Pasji dnevi poletja(Translation: Dog Days of Summer)
Like elsewhere, it’s been hot here in Ljubljana. It hasn’t cracked the 35 degree Celsius mark (that’s 95 Fahrenheit), so we can’t complain too much. Lately, the days of heat are punctuated by the occasional lashings of high winds, heavy rain, and even a bit of hail. Humidity and thunderstorms are not unusual in themselves…
-
First Spring ~ In Images
By Krista It’s our first spring living on the European continent and I find my brain shifting away from writing about experiences and instead will share some of my favorite moments captured visually. Enjoy! Images from in and around Ljubljana ~ April & May 2023 Images from London ~ April 2023 Images from Florence, Italy…
-
London, Washington…and Residency!
By Rory We’ve had a lot of excitement in the last few weeks—its kept us busy, so it’s been a bit of a challenge to keep up with the blog. But here we go…. We’re legal! The biggest news is that we finally received our residency permits, nearly 11 months after applying. Until last week,…
-
Car-free…and the Living is Easy…
One of the last things we did before leaving Oakland was sell our Honda Fit with the understanding that we were going to try to go carless once we got here. We knew there might be some challenges with not having a car, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is. Given the…
-
Peričeva ulica 7
By Krista On March 1st we bid farewell to the furnished AirBnB that served as our landing base for the first month in Ljubljana and moved into our apartment. After almost four years of ownership and many months of planning, we are so happy to finally be able to live at Peričeva ulica 7. It’s…
-
Technically, the Js aren’t silent
By Rory This last week was a big one. I started the Slovene language immersion course on Monday–the class goes 9 to 12:30 Monday through Thursday, then Friday is a conversation group, alternating with some sort of activity or field trip. On Friday we’ll go to the LJU zoo. I hope it’s not one of…
-
Quiet Sundays
Author: Krista February Sundays in Ljubljana are very quiet. Very few to no tourists and most commercial businesses are closed on Sundays with the exception of cafes, some restaurants and lekarnas (pharmacies), gas stations, and a bakery chain called Perkarna which have very nice seeded rolls. In fact, some businesses are also closed or have…
-
Our Day Amongst the Beasts of Ptuj
On Saturday, we took a train to a town called Ptuj (pronounced p-too-ee) in Eastern Slovenia, along the Drava River. Normally a quiet riverside town like many others around it, the place goes berserk for its version of Carnaval, called “Kurentovanje.” To quote Lonely Planet, this is… “…a rite of spring and fertility that dates…