Melinda and I caught the night train down through Switzerland and Austria to Slovenia. We got off the train before it arrived in the capital Ljubljana and caught a short bus to the town of Bled, in the foothills of the Alps. It was a beautiful area and we enjoyed a couple of days there – walking up to the castle atop a hill next to the lake, catching a boat across to the island in the middle of the lake etc.
Our next stop was the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. We really enjoyed the city, which we’d been told was a baby version of Prague. While not as visually stunning as Prague, it definitely had a bit of the young, bohemian vibe about it.
Our last stop on this whirlwind trip of Slovenia took us to the west of the country, where Slovenia has a small toe-hold on the Adriatic Sea. We made our way to the village of Piran (Pirano in Italian), which is just south of Trieste. The village definitely showed its Venetian roots through its architecture and food, and we had a lot of fun swimming, wandering up around the old town, and generally taking it easy.
I’ve been to Venice a couple of times, and still love it. My first trip there was in the early Spring of 1999 – my friend Katie Brown was backpacking around Europe and we organized to meet up for a long weekend in Venice. I caught the overnight train down there from Zurich and I arrived just after dawn. It was a pretty magical first impression to have of Venice – it was a cool morning and there was a light fog covering the city. I had a few hours to burn before Katie came in so I explored the length of the islands and enjoyed the peace and quiet. We didn’t plan it but Carnevale was happening the weekend we were there – it was definitely an experience, and Katie and I had a couple of great days. One highlight for me was our day trip north to the less-visited islands of Murano (where the Venetian glass comes from) and Burano.
This particular trip to Venice was a quick one. Melinda and I had been in Slovenia for the week and we passed through Venice oen route back to Zurich, so we decided to stop off and spend the day wandering the canals and streets. It was a well worthwhile side-trip and Venice didn’t disappoint once again.
(Note: I get a lot of shit from my Canadian friends – you know who you are! – about the lack of detail or photos on my Canada page. All my photos from the trip are on film and presently boxed up in storage in Melbourne. You’ll just have to wait until I get them out of storage and scanned in!)
For the Christmas of 2000 I flew to Canada to catch up with a bunch of friends I’d made in Europe in 1999.
My first stop was Edmonton to catch up with Sloane and Steph. I couldn’t believe how cold it was in there, even with the sun out during the day it was a freeeezing minus 30 degrees Celcius! It even hurt to breathe – honestly! I spent a few days hanging out with Sloane seeing the sights of Edmonton, including the West Edmonton Mall (largest in the world!) and also had a skiing lesson. We then headed into the Rockies for a few days around Jasper, which I really enjoyed, especially the snowboarding at Sunshine. Small world story: we drove into the mountains to stay at a youth hostel way up there in the middle of nowhere, and completely out of the blue bumped into James Bellett, and Aussie guy I met in Turkey in April 1999.
We returned to Edmonton for Christmas with Sloane’s parents. Sloane also took me to my first ever ice hockey match – Edmonton Oilers vs. Montreal Canadiens – and we had some wicked seats. We then drove down through Calgary and into the Rockies again, this time to Canmore, Banff and the sights around there.
I left Edmonton and flew to Vancouver to catch up with Kerri Gamble, another friend from my travels around Europe. I had a couple of days to see Vancouver, and Kerri took me to see a local band play (Matthew Good Band, very cool!). We then drove up to Whistler along the beautiful coastal highway and we had a few days snowboarding on Blackcomb and partying the nights away in the village. Heaps of fun!