lovely ljubljana

the national cake of slovenia, or so they say, the kremsnitse rezina, a double layered confection of cream and custard that can make your arteries harden at ten metres. yes, it can and we felt it but undaunted we ate it anyway because missing out a cake, any cake, now seems like failure, even if we have to force the fork to our mouths.

we go to lake bled, where the rain pauses just long enough for me to burn. we eat the rezina and something else called, imaginatively enough, the bled cake. it's all choclate and cream, with nuts, and more cream. with maybe some cream. they're lovely. but not as lovely as lake bled is sublime. stupidly, picture postcardly sublime. if heidi ran up with a chocolate box you wouldn't be surprised.

and ljubljana? prettier than zagreb, with more bookshops (of which more when i get back) but the main interest is to compare and contrast with croatia. the language is similar but i find croatian easier to process even if the sounds of slovenian are easier on the scottish tongue. and the slovenes can talk! it's almost better now not to bother with the sights and to sit and blether with the locals. we talk about national identity, small nations, all those things. the slovenes i've spoken to are much more aware of scotland than we are most of whom i doubt could point to slovenia on a map. back, again, more when i get back.

today, our last day we sample the grabnica (sic) which, apparently, is also slovenia's national cake, a gut stopping combo of cottage cheese, poppy seeds, fruit cream and pastry. heated! and some ice cream to top it off before lumbering back to the hostel for a nap. (i have to point out that it's not all like this - sickened from so many calories and fat we breakfasted only on fruit)

so, off to vienna tomorrow. don't know if there's internet so the next report may not be until we're back in budapest again. assuming we get there. we had dreadful rain today and austria's already having a major flood alert with warnings also out around budapest

an addendum - i'd tell you what i'm listening to but my mp3 player (the replacement!) broke after an hour. what i'm reading, bought in the fabulous bookshops of zagreb and ljubljana are a collection of modern slovenian poetry, collected montale and, probably most apt, swann's way