how can one come to the netherlands and resist the omnipresent stroopwafle? it would be like going to belgium and not eating chocolate…
the sweet smell coming from a tent on the alkmaar fair was enough to stop us on our tracks and grab a couple of them. these thin slices of warm waffle, stuck together with syrup are a divine dutch treat. yum!

they have a special kind of sprinkles called muisjes (little mice) that are spread on round rusks when a baby is born, and offered to friends or family. they’re either pink or blue, according to the sex of the newborn. isn’t that a nice tradition? :)

after four years away, our memories of vla had raised to the likes of magical elixir. i’m happy to say it did not disappoint: it’s still as good as we remember it, perhaps even better. my favourite flavours were always the seasonal ones, and this summer vla of raspberry & peach is just amazing. someone should seriously think of exporting this.

we cringe as we cross big bad tunnels and buy vignettes when we get to the other side.

we brave the weather and get stuck in never-ending traffic jams… sometimes for hours.

so we snack on spekulaas and watch star wars to pass the time.

when things go well, we drive on endless roads without a speed limit… this is europe afterall.

and sometimes… well… sometimes, things don’t go exactly as planned…

after four separate diagnosis of “this doesn’t look like a simple problem”, we bid goodbye to our focus (who is now waiting for a diagnosis on a garage somewhere) and drove the last 100km to our destination in a taxi. and here we are now, in glorious amsterdam!

i left this country four years ago, almost to the day. it’s been too long – yet all the details, the smells, the sights, the sounds… they’re all coming back to us with such fierce familiarity that in some ways, it’s like we never left. for us, this is not a mere a sightseeing visit: we’re definitely more interested in revisiting all the things we love about the netherlands, all the particularities we’ve missed throughout the years. i’m really looking forward to this week :)

until the end of the month, kinodvor is playing a different movie each night on ljubljana’s castle. we gave it a try on monday with the cove and were pleasantly surprised. the sound + screening quality + popcorn are good, the backdrop of the castle in the night air is quite nice and even the plastic chairs are not that bad. so we went back yesterday and watched the road and i think we’ll go again next week. perhaps we’ll try to choose less depressing movies…

sure, the tea selection is endless and quite tempting. but there’s also muffins, for instance, lovely chocolate/banana muffins that look and taste like they’ve just been taken from the oven. or banana/walnuts/bran flakes/raisin yogurt cups drizzled with honey. or delicate apricot strudel. or huge cups of coffee with milk that we savour till the last drop.

you can probably tell how much we love the place. :) it’s got top marks across the board: it’s cozy, the food is delicious and served in cute looking cups/plates and the waiters are always nice – something that is getting hard to find in ljubljana these days. must be the summer season: dealing with tons of tourists is probably taking its toll on the service around here.

anyway, we highly recommend it. it’s in stari trg, 3 – right in the middle of the old town. enjoy! :)

yesterday we grabbed our recently found portuguese friend (there’s now 3 of us in the country!) and ran for the water. more specifically, the lakes (bled and bohinj) and vintgar. we’ve had some trouble finding this secluded gorge the last times we tried (the path from bled to vintgar is a narrow winding road across small villages) but i suppose third time’s a charm.

we found vintgar at last, and slowly covered the 1.6km wooden path along the radovna river, just taking it all in: the soothing sounds of the forest, the waterfalls, the pools and the rapids and the quiet deeper stretches of green. at the end, the path crosses the river over the šum waterfall, giving us a really nice top view of it. :)

the entrance costs 4 euros and it’s definitely worth the detour if you’re in bled or bohinj. for those who’d rather not get lost, the gps coords are: N46.3907 E14.0835. :) enjoy!

we’ve had the two of them visiting us last week – the first time they’ve come to visit us in a foreign country. :) we’ve toured slovenia from north to south for a full week, giving them all sorts of green/blue memories – and giving us some tips on how to see slovenia. i’m by no means an expert in the country, but i think i might write a sort of illustrated tourist guide to visiting slovenia, in a few posts. i’m hoping a clear plan will inspire people to spend more than just a day in slovenia before running of to austria or italy :)

they’re a few weeks old and really curious about everything. they’ll pull your clothes to get your attention, hop around and even escape the barn if given a chance! their eyes are a little creepy – but did you know their rectangular irises gives them a 320 – 340 degree vision? that’s right, they don’t even need to move their head to see practically everything around them!

we’ll be in portugal for the next couple of weeks, crying on friend’s weddings, soaking in the sun and the warm embraces of our family and friends, and trying to resist the lure of delicious cholesterol. wish us luck!