Brasiliero

For my birthday, my bosses gave me a gift certificate to Ambiente restaurants (www.ambi.cz). Ambiente is a small group of restaurants in Prague, expensive but with a reputation for excellent food. Several of these have some kind of all-you-can-eat option, which doesn't usually go with a classier place. However, when the waiters walk around wielding skewers of meat offering them to customers at their tables, it takes a bit of the trashier element out of it. After some deliberation, we agreed to go to Brasiliero, not because either of us is a big fan of meat, but because they have a very gourmet salad and seafood bar. Arriving at the underground restaurant on a rainy and chilly evening made it seem even cosier. We selected an Italian wine and began the feast with some sushi, which a chef was preparing on the spot. On our next trip, we tried some of the salads. They had a very pleasant potato salad, mung bean sprouts with raisins, prawn salad in cucumber cups, mozzerella and tomato stacks, steamed carrots and beets with chevre, and room temperature potato halves smothered in sundried tomato paste. After repeated trips to the bar for seconds and oysters, we finally had more sushi for dessert. Upon leaving, we discovered that three hours had passed in a blink. Highly recommended. 

Croatia

Saturday

Got to Vienna by a comfortable bus ride with Student Agency, one of the nice Czech travel companies. We'd packed a serious picnic, so when we arrived in the city, we were relaxed and not starving and hungry. Lisa and Joel met us at the bus and took us to the hotel before going in search of coffee "mit schlag". We took a rather circuitous route to a cafe and finally the Hundertwasser Haus, an apartment block that has been rounded off and brightly painted. As the day disappeared, we decided to hunt dinner from a tram, and in the end found a pleasant neighborhood on the edge of the river and a garlic-scented restaurant for Austrian food and beer.

Sunday

Breakfasted on strudel and more coffee "mit schlag" before going to Vienna airport. The flight to Dubrovnik (via Austrian Airlines, a major airline which was completely unimpressive compared to Czech Air or even most of the budget airlines) was smooth and featured a stunning U-turn over cliffs and the turquoise Adriatic. Experienced the first of insane Croatian drivers. Were warmly welcomed at our guesthouse by our host, Anica and her slippered teenage son. Set off to find the Old Town and got ourselves lost in it's labyrinthine streets before stumbling upon an appealing (if empty) restaurant where we gorged ourselves on oil- cured cheese, local prosciutto, squid, mussels, fish and local wine.

Monday

Went out early and got Strudl for the grown ups and ate on the terrace. Walked through the local market to port Gruz. From there (after something "mit schlag") we walked over a residential hill to the Bay minutes before the fog lifted. We lunched on bread, sheep cheese and apples while the fog cleared before walking around the peninsula and through a truly hideous resort. More coffee on a busy pedestrian promenade with some amazing people watching before walking back over the hill with some minor detours. Roof top terrace with sunset and a view over the harbour for dinner.

Tuesday

Early rising and more strudel. We caught the 10am ferry to the Elafiti Island of Lopud after the relaxing trip across crystal water we found a nice spot on the Island and ate lunch. After lunch we left the grown ups to do their own thing and walked up to the top of the Island for a view of the coast and a ruined church, communed with the lizards and came back down to the water side to take a nap in the sun. As everything on the Island was closed we climbed a tree and picked some unripe oranges for liquid but they were far too sour to enjoy. Met the grown ups and sat by the sea and enjoyed a cold beverage until the boat came to pick us up. Ridiculously amazing sunset!

Wednesday

Chill day. Instead of taking any trips we split up for morning walks and met in the Old Town for a truly delicious lunch at Dubrovacky Kantun. In the afternoon, we walked the city walls, an interesting excursion since Joel has a strong dislike for heights and would periodically hold onto the back of your shirt if he felt you were too close to the edge. However, the views were stunning. Interestingly, the only noticeable war damage was in the brand-new red roofs and several fallen buildings. Cooked an excellent dinner of market-fresh greens and pasta and relaxed on "our terrace".

Thursday

Rented a car in the morning to drive to Montenegro, the newest European country and next-door neighbour to Croatia. Our destination was the Bay of Kotor, one of the few fjords outside of Scandinavia and a full third of Montenegro's coastline. At one point the fjord cinches in. During the Roman era, Queen Teuta controlled this point and installed a shipwrecking device there to increase her wealth. Eventually the Romans took notice and "removed" her. The drive in was lovely, with increasingly beautiful views at every turn, but quite time-consuming. We arrived in the early afternoon quite hungry and had yet more bread and sheep cheese by the water. We decided to climb to a fort above the town of Kotor, which the grown-ups weren't up for, so we left them to wander while we climbed vertically for an hour on crumbly cobbled steps and steep grades. When we reached the fort, triumphant and sweaty, the town spread out below us as if from an airplane. Drove out before dinnertime, stopping at the Croatian border at a lovely local restaurant. We ate fantastic roasted vegetables topped with ham and cheese.

Friday

Had a relaxing morning, drinking coffee Croatian-style (for hours) and purchasing vegetables for lunch at the market. In the afternoon, determined to sunbathe on our last day in Dubrovnik, we headed out to yet another rocky spit and watched some men's swim team arrive, decide the water was too cold to swim, and relax in their bathing suits for a Coke or cards. Met the grown-ups for another lovely seafood dinner and ice cream dessert.

Saturday

Packed up and left at noon with the same insane taxi driver who'd driven us in. We had a very tight connection, and the airport seemed bent on making us miss it, with a late plane, some unattended baggage closing the arrival area in Vienna, and a mysteriously difficult to find bus stop, but we parted ways eventually, and made it back to Prague in time to catch the last bus home.

Slovenia

Friday:

Arrived in Ljubljana via a very very bumpy flight in a ridiculously small plane with propellers, flying over amazing mountains (which presumably caused the turbulence that left me feeling like I was going to die). Checked into Hostel Celica, the trendy rehabilitated prison. Our cell, like all the others was individually designed by local artists. Took a meander through the town and was shocked by the emptiness of the streets at 4pm. We had our first experience of Lasko Dark beer and on returning to our hostel later in the evening found it overrun with drinking teenagers.
Saturday:

We visited the town market where you could find anything edible and decorative (as long as it was cabbage). We used a strange hybrid language of Czech & Slovenian to buy fresh bread, young (and brilliant) goat cheese, and fruit. Then we hiked up to the unimpressive castle and had a picnic. The original 12th century castle has been added too with a monstrous combination of glass and metal and was still under construction. I think we are spoilt!
For dinner we searched everywhere for a restaurant that was not completely empty and eventually stumbled into a Mexican restaurant and found everybody in town.
Back at the hostel we picked up a couple of old men and drank some more of that nice dark beer.


Sunday:

We got morning coffee alongside the river then bought sandwiches and a half bottle of champagne for our picnic in Tivoli Park. We people watched and climbed trees and then took an unintentionally long walk over a hill. We may have been a tad lost. We recuperated in the hostel cafe before going out again to another empty restaurant where we ate delicious Slovenian dumplings and garlic soup in bread bowls.


Monday:

Bled. We caught a bus from Ljubljana bus station where we bought (or thought we did) 2 return tickets to Bled. We were pleasantly stunned by the scenery on arrival in Bled and started on a clockwise walk around the lake. Taking far too many pictures of the Castle on the Cliff, the incredible green water, the Alpine mountain backdrop and the Island.
We took a short but near vertical path up to the Castle on the Cliff to take yet more pictures, and at the top we met a woman wearing 4 inch heels. Coming down from the castle we put our feet in the snow melt lake water then went to catch the bus home.
When happily seated on the bus the driver came along and told us our return tickets were not valid on his bus. So a little grumpily we left the bus to wait the three hours for another one. This in the end was not such a bad thing, we found a lovely Pizza restaurant (apparently the only place in town open) and caught the sunset over the lake. Eyegasm!



Tuesday:

We returned home on another one of those silly planes.

Notes:
The Ljubljana Card is published in many places but is probably not really worth unless you plan on using transport. We found a number of the restaurants were no longer in business and some would not accept the vouchers.
Hostel Celica is definitely worth visiting for the artistic prison experience but for more personal service you could probably find a smaller more welcoming hostel that doesn't have guaranteed custom.
Ljubljana itself is a very small place which probably only needs two days, however Slovenia is a lovely country with a combination of Slavic and Mediterranean culture food and atmosphere.