Slovenia Day Seven: Radovljica and Travel Woes

My host made me a spread that felt like a small event: an omelette with tomatoes, coffee with sugar and milk, bread with cherry and apricot marmalade, all served on her beautiful fine china. She’s clearly a collector of lovely things, and I felt genuinely special sitting out there with her.

The conversation turned unexpectedly rich. Anna lived through Yugoslavia and the independence movement firsthand, and she had strong opinions about communism, telling me as a history teacher I need to make sure kids understand how bad it really was, since she feels Slovenia still carries former communists embedded in government today. She also mentioned she runs a small book club celebrating local history and poetry. Whatever you make of her politics, her perspective was fascinating to sit with, especially coming from someone who lived it.

Small tangent: she also doesn’t trust air conditioning, thinks it makes people sick. Classic and a little charming.

More on this stay in Bled on my blog post here!

This time the Bee Museum was open and it did not disappoint!! Picked up fir honey and chestnut honey for a tasting later.

I ADORE the bee panels. The little humor in them is hilarious. I really wanted to buy the “Snail chasing the Beekeepers” one, but it was never for sale! These are also unique to Slovenia apparently, along with the Carolinian honey bee!! How cool! Slovenia has over 11,000 beekeepers, and CREATED World Bee Day! It’s on May 20th, which is the birthday of Anton Janša. He was an 18th-century Slovenian who became the first modern bee teacher in the world.

Slovenia was the very first European Union country to legally protect its native bee. It was also one of the first countries to ban harmful pesticides.

Wandered next door to the tiny municipal museum dedicated to Anton Tomaž Linhart, which turned out to be pretty dinky, mostly scattered 18th century facts with Linhart’s story sprinkled in.

Sat by the Spomenik NOB statue for an hour before my bus, using the Bee Museum’s ground floor for free AC and a clean restroom (pro tip, apparently no one else thinks to use it).

Clouds are moving in, and the weather is cooling. How nice. It makes this sit in the park feel less like a waste of time. 

Some Italian kids are playing duck duck goose and marco polo. A woman walks her dog. 

The breeze is amazing. One more hour to go. I went over my photos from the past few days. Been seeing lots of messages today about not performing for an invisible audience. I like that.

Had a passing thought about swapping my dragon tattoo for a bee to better represent Slovenia (though both are a little touristy if I’m honest).

Goodbye, Radovljica!

On the bus toward Ljubljana, recognized the same driver who’d yelled at me earlier in the trip, this time arguing with another passenger. Found myself hoping he just had better hours or better pay, and wondering what small kindness might help. Whether that instinct comes from real compassion or guilt, I’m not totally sure it matters.

The views are gorgeous. Golden wheat fields, talk evergreen trees, bright blue sky, and big fluffy sheep clouds. The kind bigger than mountains, fluffy and defined. Tropical summer clouds. Blue white green gold. What a painting they make. I love listening to music and traveling some place- it’s productivity without having to exert any effort. You’re getting where you’re going, and can relax at the same time. Mmmm. 

€14 and 2 hours later, cash only at the Ljubljana station (they broke my €50 without complaint, unlike everywhere else). The Piran bus ran about 11 minutes late, itself running further behind due to weather, so I arrived closer to 7:17pm instead of 6:35pm.

Passed through Koper (looked a little industrial from the road) and Izola (looked genuinely charming, a cute little beach town worth a stop sometime). Noticed the bus drivers all wave to each other in passing. Small, sweet detail.

Then the night got strange in the best way.

I heard this awful knocking at my chamber door (behind my bed frame actually). I was convinced it was some annoying neighbor. Then I saw flashes outside my window. I assumed it was a car and turned up the volume on my ASMR to drown out the persistent knocking. The flashes kept happening. I got up to check it out- lightning! And a little thunder. The lightning must be over the ocean, far away so the thunder isn’t so loud. But the whistling wind through the cobblestone streets is magical. Something is always so magical about the rain. So the knocking must be the harsh winds, blowing a flagpole or some such thing against the wall.

The lack of thunder is really interesting. Could it actually be lighting? Or a lighthouse communicating to ships out to sea? The whistling is so ominous. And no rain, either. Just the persistent smell of brine and seaweed, heavy and thick on the tongue, and the sounds of rough waves. Hm. I wonder. I ought to watch the lighthouse movie. 

A severe thunderstorm warning on my phone, but nothing falling from the sky, just static and light rolling off the clouds every thirty seconds.

Back to my ASMRs then. But cozier, knowing a storm is blowing into this beach town. More lightning. Quite a bit.