Dear family and friends

 

in Europe there are

 

1--Slavonia, now attached toCroatia

 

2-Slovakia, formerly attached to Chech Republic

 

3-Slovenia, formerly attached to ex-Yugoslavia

 

The Lonely Planet book gives examples of confusion.

 

600 tones of mail adressed to Slovakia  ends up in Slovenia,

 

that's where i am now,

 

from Croatia we crossed another border to Slovenia, still going along spectacular Adriatic Sea, then turned inland toward Julian Alps ( named for Ceasar), weather is cooler and we see golden foliage,

Slovenia is a tiny republic, only 2 million people, between Venice and Viena, Swiss of the Balkans, one of the worlds greenest country, 53 % forest, only Finland has more forest,

we stopped at beautiful Lake Bled in the Julian Alps, visited another medevil castle,walked around the lake, admiring  autumn colours, we also visited one of the largest cave in Europe in Postojna and tour this fantastic subterranian world by miniature electric train, then we came to capital Lubljana, we had a city tour under heavy rain, this town was founded by Illirians--present days  Albanians---900 years ago, so we walked Old Baroque Town and  charming city center with a lot of students and street -cafe culture, Slovenians are slavic people with European heart and soul, multilingual, friendly, athletic, good skiers and mounteneering,

 

present wife of D. Trump    Melania is from Slovenia,

 

they separated from Yugoslavia in 1991 with 10 days war only and now this  is the only country of former Yugoslavia which is EU member since 2004 and has Euro since 2007,

from Lubljana we drove back to Croatia's capital     Zagreb, only couple of hours, here we are staying in the famous hotel    Esplanade Regent  ( like Plaza in NYC) was build in  in 1925 in grand style  to welcome  : Orient Express:   crowd, Art Deco style, great service, great taste, high quality, heating floor in the bathroom when you step barefeet, guests included:Artur Rubinstein, Artur Miller,Aram Chachaturyan,Woody Allen,Elizabeth Taylor,Richard Nixon, etc.

 

Zagreb is a combination of Eastern and Western Europe, devided in Upper and Lower town, people commute by funiculer,

 
after a city tour i walked for few hours,

 

 this is the end  of my 2nd tour,

 

during this month i visited

 

1-HUNGARY  2-SERBIA    3-BULGARIA     4-ROMANIA 5-GREECE   6-MACEDONIA    7-ALBANIA     8-MONTENEGRO  9-CROATIA   10-SLOVENIA

 

it was such beautiful, educational, spiritual, learning and fun time, by now i visited all European countris---Eastern, Central and Southern, our very very old   Europe has a long, long bloody,bloody history of fight, hate and destruction but also  history of great people, creations and cultures and for now

 

it is peacefull and beautiful, during this travel i have been part of 2 groups, 36 +36 people in each group from US, Canadas, UK but mostly from Australia, they are very nice people, making only positive comments, very gentle, joking and laughing, they say----we live in a good country, we have a good life, we are happy people----- Wow, how often you hear such appreciation in USA? it is very nice to travel with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

tomorrow 6 am iam flying home with 2 days stop in Prague!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

love to all.

photos