Last night in Novo mesto

Zdravo! (means Hi)

Tonight is my last night in Novo mesto. The two and a half months have flew by. I can't believe it's already time to go. I'm really going to miss Novo mesto, Hostel Situla, and, of course, everyone I worked with all summer. Thank you, everyone for being so wonderful and friendly! Tomorrow morning, I'll be heading to Ljubljana, and early Monday morning I'll be taking off. 

I've truly had an amazing experience here. Slovenia is a beautiful place, and it's a shame that it is not yet well known. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to come back soon. I would very much like to get a better look at Novo mesto and Ljubljana. I saw photos of Piran (by the seaside) and Bled (by the alps), and they were sooo amazing. I didn't have time to visit those areas this summer, but they are now definitely on my list of places I would like to visit in the future.  

I started getting used to the Slovenian keyboard, so I keep making mistakes. On the Slovenian keyboard, the "Y" and the "Z" are switched (along with alot of other differences), so I keep switching the two letters. 

There was a jazz festival this week. The festival, called Jazzinty, is a workshop/festival where students can learn from mentors (famous jazz musicians) during the day and and hold jam sessions every night (and a final concert at the end) to show off what they have learned. Most (if not all) of the participants and the mentors are staying at our hostel. I went to two of the jam sessions with my coworkers and had some drinks and enjoyed my last few days in Novo mesto. 

    

Photos came out fuzzy....

One of my favorite things about Novo mesto was the Krka River. It looked so peaceful. I frequently took walks along the river (in my futile attempt to lose weight...)... I'm going to miss doing that... 

   

     

While working at the reception desk and at the restaurant/bar, I have picked up some Slovenian words. Apparently, Slovenian is very complicated... (for instance, there are separate grammar rules for when the subject is composed of two people). Anyway, here are some words/phrases I have learned/found useful during work:

1. Zdravo = Hi

2. Adijo/Svidenje = Bye/Goodbye

3. Prosim = Please

4. Lahko počakate trenutek? = Can you wait one moment?

5. Hvala/ Hvala lepa = Thank you/Thank you very much

6. Moje ime je Linda = My name is Linda

I know several more, but I'll stop here. :)

I'm so happy and grateful that I got a chance to go abroad. I've so wanted to come to Europe before I graduated, and I still can't believe my wish came true. I'm going back home with lots of wonderful memories, new friendships, and new hopes. 

Adijo, Novo mesto! I hope to see you again soon!

Katja's family vineyard

I accidentally pressed some button halfway through writing this post and everything got deleted. This happened during my last post... SO ANNOYING. It's more aggravating to know that I have no idea what button I pressed. Anyway, I'm going to take a deep breath and start over. Need to establish the habbit of pressing the damn "Save Now" button. 

Anyway. Katja and I stopped by the Šmarješke Spa (famous spa resort in Novo mesto) just before arriving at Katja's family vineyard. We walked around the garden surrounding the spa and had ice cream and drinks at a nearby cafe. There was a small pond that was filled with Indian lotuses. Such pretty flowers!

  

After our quick rest at the spa, we headed on over to the vineyard. Apparently, most families own vineyards/weekend homes. Wish my family had a vineyard we could escape to during the weekends. I didn't actually get to go down to the vineyard, but had a good look at it from the balcony.  

   

Below is a picture of a mini wooden train that they use to easily ambulate through the vineyard. I guess it's not visible from the photo, but the green rail stretches all the way to the bottom. It looked like a small roller coaster ride. 

Katja's family's weekend home was a charming place, built on a hill overlooking their vineyard (Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the actual house...). The view from the balcony was incredibly picturesque. I could see all the neighboring vineyards and all the nearby towns. You could also see the grand, mountain-like hill that served as a border between Slovenia and Croatia.  

   

Cviček (shown in photo) is a very famous wine produced in the Lower Carniola region of Slovenia (and Novo mesto is one of the towns in that region). 

   

   

Lastly, we visted the town's church. Each town (with exceptions of very small towns) has its own church. The church had already closed for the day, so I didn't get to take a look inside. So, we just sat down and took in the amazing view.

All in all, it was a great day. Hvala, Katja, for a wonderful day!

Adijo (bye), Linda