Blue Cat, Orange Cat -- Ljubljana, Slovenia

To Dusha's!

Dusha and Renato have a house and garden in the Slovenian Alps and are in the habit of venturing into the mountains on the weekends to tend to their plants and enjoy Slovenian nature. I was invited to tag along for an afternoon barbecue on Saturday.

I am always happy to tag along on any sort of adventure that involves a barbecue.

I woke bright and early Saturday morning, said hello to Gregor and packed my crumpler bag for Dusha's. Every day at Sabina's is full of good coffee, excellent cheese, jaw-dropping, mind-bending stories and unique excursions into one of the most peaceful, rejuvenating, exquisite countries I've ever visited.

Saturday was no different.

We picked up Garfield on our way out of town, and I got to sit in the back with "orange cat" while we wound our way through the mountains, past Bohinj and rumbled to a stop at a waterfall. Half an hour of hiking later, I got to see this:

Garfield and Sabina. And the sweater I later "adopted".

After we'd taken enough pictures of the waterfall and had been sufficiently dampened by its frigid mist, we climbed up to the cliff-face cafe and ordered one of Slovenia's popular liqueurs and watched the water crash beneath us. 

Sabina found a stuffed lynx. Which she immediately turned into a family member and looked so damn cute with it that Garfield ended up buying it for her.

Deano also looks cute with the lynx

Garfield is too cool for lynxes (but he'd probably look cute with them, too).

We left the cliff-face cafe and continued in the direction of Dusha and Renato, making a quick detour to a rustic restaurant for the Slovenian specialty of "sour milk".

This is an average portion (Deano found himself presented with the large version). Once again, never trust Slovenians when they tell you portions are respectable. You will get an entire bucket of sour milk right before your afternoon barbecue and not know what to do with yourself.

This made me think of Albania. A large percentage of houses were oddly decked out with hanging, weathered teddies. Except for the trojan horse, which had a hanging, weathered doll.

Dusha has several small houses in her garden. They are the perfect size for vagabonds. I told her that she's going to arrive one weekend a few years down the road and discover that I've set up camp in one of them. I hope she took my warning as seriously as I meant it.

The dinner included wine, cheese, prosciutto, sardines, adventures into the absurdly playful realm of acro yoga and an abundance of cevapcici. Dusha later ransacked her art cabinets and gifted me with watercolors and paintbrushes for my minimalist art travel kit.

I napped on Garfield during the long drive back to Ljubljana.

Blue cat, orange cat. Is this what I've been looking for? this kind of home? I never even thought I wanted a home and certainly wasn't searching for one (Ellie is quite enough home for me)...but now I'm beginning to question. Questions are good, right? I live to ask "why". But this is a tough one because it completely undermines the very oddly structured life I live. 

But isn't that why I live this way? To be open to life? 

Blue cat, orange cat. Damn that Sabina lady. She's gone and made me attached.