An Amazing Last Week in Europe

So my time in Europe has ended, I'm writing this entry from home in Winnipeg, but I have yet to post about my last week in Europe which was probably one of the best weeks I had out there! After Christine and I left Bol, on the island of Brac, we took a bus, a ferry, another bus, a plane, and a train to get back to Munich, Germany. We originally were going to head stright up to Slovenia to visit a friend of mine from college who lives and works there, but I discovered that one of my favourite bands of the moment, MuteMath, was playing a concert in Munich on the 27th of June and figured it was not something I could miss!! So we made the trek back to Munich to see them live. It turned out to be absolutely worth it! They played in a small venue called the Ampere Club and there was probably only about 100 people there to see them but it was an amazing show nonetheless. Their music is so unique, energetic, uplifting and the band members are so high energy, they put on an incredible show. They played almost non-stop and the drummer was so hardcore he had to duct tape his headphones to his head! They play an interesting array of instruments as well, some I've never seen before. They even used the metal mic stand as a drum piece! If any of you get the chance to see these guys live I would highly reccommend it, this was the best concert I have ever seen and I'm really glad we made the effort to see the show!

While we were in Munich we also had a little more time to do a little sightseeing. We visited the famous Hofbrauhaus, a classic german beer hall, and walked through the Marienplatz and watched the Glockenspiel clock in action.

We left Munich the next day for our final tour destination, Slovenia! A few years ago I had no idea this country even existed, until I went to college in Ontario and met a fellow classmate who is from this former Yugoslavian country. His name is Matic and owns and operates an adventure tour company called Adrenaline-Check in the beautiful Triglav National Park region of Slovenia. Back in college he showed me and my classmates pictures of the activities his company offers and since then I knew I had to visit Slovenia and try them out myself! We first arrived in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia and stayed there for a night before Matic came in his big orange van to pick us and three irish guys up and drive us the two and a half hours to the Eco-Canyon Camp he's set up in the Park. The drive up there was gorgeous. As we drove through the Julian Alps, Matic explained to us that at the moment they are filming a portion of the next Chronicles of Narnia movie in the Soca river area. It's no wonder, the mountains and landcape there definately have an otherworldly quality to them. Such a beautiful region! When we arrived Matic gave us a quick tour around his property and showed us where we would be staying for the next three nights. Christine and I were accomodated in a tent (matresses and sheets provided) with a wooden shelter built around it. It was really nice because it was close to the Soca river which meant we could fall asleep to the sound of the rushing waters at night! The next three days were spent participating is some "Super Adventures" offered by Adrenaline-Check. On our first day we went Canyoning. This was the one activity I was looking forward to doing the most because it's very unique to the Soca river area. It invloved getting suited up head to toe in Neoprene and sliding down naturally smooth rock slides formed by thousands of years of water movement by the Soca river through limestone rock. We had a 3o minute uphill walk to the beginning and then we hopped into the cold Soca river water and started our trek through the narrow rock canyons. We spent about two hours jumping and sliding in every possible postion into small pools of sparkling blue water! It was the coolest thing ever! It hard to describe, so when I receive the pics Matic took of us all that day I will post them here so you can get a better idea of what canyoning is! My favourite slide was the very last one we did where we were not allowed to look over the edge of the pool to the next slide. Instead we lay back in the water, closed our eyes, and let one of the guides push us over the edge to drop into the next pool of water below us. When I opened my eyes at the bottom I looked up and saw a narrow rock opening through which I plopped into the rock enclosed pool at the bottom. I think I would have been nervous about doing that jump if I had seen it first!

The next day Matic set us up for some tandem paragliding for Me, Christine, and the three irish guys (Seamus, Brian and Steve) that were also staying at the Eco-Canyon Camp. I originally was not aware that this activity was an option for us so it was really cool to take part in a spontaneous adventure like this! Our pilot's name was Peter and he drove us up to the top of a mountain where we joined a crowd of other paraglidiers waiting around for the perfect wind conditions to fly. I was the first one to go and we had a flawless take-off! We literally just ran down the side of the mountain until our parachute caught the wind and lifted us into the air! It was such a cool feeling! We floated above the treetops with an amazing view of the valley below us. We fly around for about 15 minutes and then descended back down to earth and landed perfectly in a farmers field below. Because I was the first to go, I had a bit of quieter ride. The winds and updrafts had not yet picked up, so I did not get the wilder ride that Christine and the irish guys had but it was still a great experience! I went back to the top of the mountain to watch the others go and just sitting up on that mountain watching the scenery and the 25 plus other paragliders flying around was the perfect way to spend the day! We had an amazing BBQ that night back at the earthlodge Matic constructed as a campfire/meeting place area on his property. He made us all some traditional Slovenian food called Cevapcici, ground pork and beef patties with some nice flavourful herbs in them. They also brought out some homemade pear schnapps and Slovenian red wine which was quite tasty if not a little on the strong side! Matic has also formed a partnership with a neighboring farmhouse to provide meals for his guests, so twice we had dinner in a herder's hut on the farmhouse property. It was really cool to sit around an indoor, raised firepit and eat a meal with the whole group together in there.

On our last day, we went rafting on the Soca River. The two previous days we'd had some amazingly perfect warm weather, but our rafting day was cloudy and rainy which actually added to the mystique of the place. As we rafted down the the river there was thick mist rising from the clear blue water. The water levels were low so we didn't have a super crazy river ride but we did have to manouevre through large boulders and rocks which made for some interesting paths down the river. We were also given the opportunity to do some swimming and cliff jumping along the way which was a lot of fun as well! After our rafting trip we headed back to camp, packed up and hopped onto a bus back to Ljubljana. I had an amazing time in Slovenia and it was really nice to visit with Matic again and get a chance to see what he's been up to since college. I'm actually very impressed with everything he's accomplished there.

It was kind of sad to be leaving the gorgeous nature and our last official stop on our Europe tour behind, but at the same time I think Christine and I were both ready to make the long trek home. Four and a half months is a long time to be constantly on the go so I think we were both looking forward to unwinding at home and to make plans for what to do next in life. We enjoyed our last day in Ljubljana on the 3rd of July which is when we flew up to London, England where we would catch a connecting flight to Amsterdam the next day. We spent the night in London and on the 4th our airport adventures began. Because we're cheap and we booked our return flight home with Aeroplan points we were not able to get a direct flight home and instead had to fly home via London, Amsterdam, Paris, Montreal and finally Winnipeg. We headed to the airport in London bright and early on the 4th hoping for a hassle and stress free day but unfortunately it was not be. Because of terrorist threats, the UK has really amped up their security and we had to go through thourough security checks, in other word we had to wait in huge crowded lineups to get anywhere. After we had waited in line for about 10 minutes to get through security we discovered that new rules required us to check more baggage than we had anticipated which was frustrating because I had intended to take breakable souvenirs on board with me but was now not allowed to. So we had to go back to the check in desk, check our bags and wait in line all over again. We made it to Amsterdam ok, as did my breakables so I figured that would be the extent of the hassles for the day but this trend would continue into Paris. We arrived there late and were in danger of missing our connection to Montreal because we had to wait in another huge passport control line up. When we finally made it through, our departure time had come and gone but we figured we should try and get to the gate anyway in case there was a chance the flight had been held up. But of course when we reached the terminal subway to take us to our gate the trains were not functioning and we had to wait another half an hour until they fixed the problem. When we finally boarded the train to our terminal we arrived to discover yet another huge line for yet another security check. AHHHHHHHH!!!! Christine and I were pretty stressed out by now but we figured it was out of our control and what happens now happens. There's nothing we could do about it. While waiting in line we checked the departure board and found out that our flight had indeed been delayed due to the train holdups and was waiting for additional passengers so when we finally made it through security we booked it to the gate and still made the flight!! We were lucky! As I've said before in this blog everything somehow always seems to work out! Our flight from PAris to Montral did however leave two and a half hours late and we missed our connection to Winnipeg but at least we were back on home soil and could more easliy figure out another way to get home. We ended up staying the night in Montreal and catching an afternoon flight to Winnipeg yesterday.

It's kind of weird to be at home home again. The entire trip almost feels like it was just a dream, but I know it wasn't because I have so many amazing memories! I had an amazing time in Europe and don't regret any part of the trip. I'm going to miss a lot of the sights, smells, and people I encountered in Europe but it's also nice to be home again! I've also had a lot of fun writing about my experiences in this blog and sharing my adventures with all of you. I hope it was an enjoyable read for you all!

Over and Out!

Laura Derksen