Slovenia: Ljubljana&visiting Ziva&Nejc

So it was off to the tiny country of Slovenia for 2 nights to visit an old vet friend of mine, Ziva and stay with her family. When I was at OP, we did a holiday exchange with Slovenia and Ziva is one of the vets that I've still stayed in touch with. She has moved from when I last saw her in 2018 when she used to stay in the capital city of Ljubljana. Now her and her family (her husband Nejc pronounced 'Nate' and her 3.5 y.o. son Lev, meaning 'lion' and pronounced 'L-ow' ) stay on a Sannen milking goat farm about 30min from the city. Her husband Nejc (pronounced 'Nate') is also a vet who now runs the goat milking farm. The scenery on the farm is absolutely beautiful and it felt so good to be back in a farming environment! Plus goats are one of my favourite domesticated animals, despite their strong aroma! Ziva and her family were super hospitable with ordering in pizzas for us on the first night and then us buying the food to have a lekker braai on the 2nd night. The only thing Emz and I would say though, is this ended up being our worst 2 nights sleep of the trip! With a culmination of an infestation of mozzies, goats bleating, cats scratching at the door, Lev crying and Nejc's alarm going off at 5am, we left their house feeling utterly exhausted!
Given the beauty of the area, Emz and myself both decided to do a 5km through the forest near their house. This also ended up being rather interesting. Ziva pointed out a 5km run for us, but it was only after the run that she decided to mention that this area has the highest population of brown BEARS in Slovenia!😱 Thankfully we never came across one on our runs! We both however, did get 'attacked' by a really large +- Rottie sized dog which was quite scary. The dog thankfully didn't bite us, but it was quite difficult to determine the dog's intentions when a dog that size comes running at full tilt out of its garden and starts bearing down on you. Shame, since we were running separately, Emz got quite a fright from the dog and ended up turning back on herself and got completely lost! So her 5km run ended up being a 1.5hr run and had me quite worried especially after Ziva revealed the presence of bears in the area! Thankfully she was okay!
Whilst staying with them, I took Emz into Ljubljana to see the pretty town centre where we had lunch. I also got Emz to try the famous local blueberry liqueur called Borovnicevec (pronounced 'borovneeshka') which was a local alcohol that she finally liked. Overall, a good stay in Slovenia despite being sleep deprived and having to avoid bears and large dogs!Read more