Ljubljana

We've been in Ljubljana for 3 days now. We've had fun here. We drove over to Trieste, Italy, yesterday. Today we roamed around the town and took the funicular to the castle in the middle of town. I'll inclue here a picture of one of the dragons we have seen around town. Dragons seem to be the mascots of Ljubljana. Tomorrow we go to Graz, Austria. If you get bored today, try typing Ljubljana. It's hard. I think fingers are used to stretching out to the aeiou instead of typing a thousand consonants in a row. Some fun towns we've seen: Uggl and Egg. Also, a street named Duh. Oh, whoops, I don't have dragon pics on my laptop yet, so instead I will show you some funny signs we've seen.You can't really have any sort of fun at the lake. You're not even allowed to pet snails!

slap savica

Slap means waterfall, I think, and Savica is the name of the falls that feed Lake Bohinj. 9 km bike ride each direction (that's 5.4 miles each way) and a short hike. Very pretty. More later.

Austria

We're on vacation again. This time it's Austria and Slovenia. It's been a beautiful trip so far. Warm weather and dry. Except on the Grossglockner Road, but that's cuz it was so high in elevation. Here are a few pictures I took in Innsbruck. The dragons were in a royal garden near a playground. And I was glad to see that both men and women are allowed to cross the road there. Apparently, tho, only if they are dressed up. And I'm not sure what they are supposed to do between 6 am and 10:30 am. It's hard to post pictures in a hotel lobby, so I'll get more up in a few days, or whenever we actually have internet access in our room. Right now there are three women and a man staring at Rob and I. I think they're speaking Slovenian, cuz it doesn't sound like German.

Proof!

When I see a sign or hear an announcer and I don't know what it means (ie, it's in German or some other language), I tell Rob it means that there are bears around, and you better watch out. He always laughs and doesn't believe me. Now I have proof. When we were at the bank today, withdrawing money for our vacation, it was right there on the screen: Bearbeitet. Pronounced in German, it says, "bear-bite-it." See? You do have to watch out for the bears. We knew someone was taking a 1% bite out of every purchase we make (I'd show you our bank statements, but, um, well, you know) and now there is proof. It's the bears.

Dishwasher Salt, or, An Ironing Board on my Head

Yesterday I spent about 4 hours taking trains and walking to find an ironing board, an ice chest, and bandaids. I needed bandaids for my toes that got rubbed raw when I finally wore my cute new black shoes, on which I had to replace the button a few weeks ago. I needed an ironing board because one of the legs on the board that came with the apartment went left when the rest went right, and leaning the ironing board against the wall just doesn't work all that well. And we wanted an ice chest for our upcoming vacation. I found the ironing board and ice chest, but couldn't carry them both home, so I didn't get either, and instead today we went to get them when Rob got off work. We took the train to the train to the walk to the store. By the time we were heading home, it started to rain. So, after we got off the train near our apartment Rob began carrying the ironing board over his head. I wasn't so lucky, because the ice chest really isn't big enough to cover me. So Rob shared the ironing board. I'm sure we looked pretty weird walking down the street but we were dry!

Today the little red light on the dishwasher got to me. It said, "Salz." I know that means salt. The dishwasher was asking for salt. It has been asking for salt for a week or two, and today was the day I decided to find the salt. I found the specialsalz in the dishwasher section of the local store. I opened the place in the bottom of the dishwasher that said salt in 4 languages. Then I didn't know how much to put in. So I got Rob to get the manual down (stored above the fridge). I couldn't read it. Rob could read some words, but didn't get the gist of it. I typed the information into google translator and got this:
"Door open, remove basket. 2nd Cap stocks of the salt container counterclockwise untwist. 3rd Only for initial start-up: Salt tank fill with water (about 0.5 l). 4th With delivered to funnel opening of the stock container stuck. Special salt due to funnel in the reservoir to fill. Assets depending on the version grain approximately 1.0 - 1.5 kg. Tank with special salt not overfill.

The filling of the water runs Spezialsalzes ousted from the salt tank in the bottom of the Spülraums. This is fine, because this water at the start of the next Spülprogramms off. 5th Opening the stock container of salt remains clean. 6th Cap in a clockwise direction until it reaches zudrehen otherwise special salt into the dishwater. Troubled glasses could occur as a result. 7th If you do not immediately after your Salzeinfüllen the dishes, you should see the program run Vorspülen. this will übergelaufenes salt water and salt grains off. Depending on the grain it may take a few hours until the salt is dissolved in water and salt control display again goes off. The setting of the Wasserenthärters and thus the salt consumption are dependent on the local water hardness."

This was fine, but I was still a little puzzled about what to do, so I opened Babelfish and translated again. This time I got this:
"The water displaced when filling in the special salt runs from the salt storage vessel into the ground of the Spülraums. This is harmless, since this water is evacuated with the start of the next rinse cycle. 5. opening of the storage vessel of salt remainders clean. 6. Cover cap in the clockwise direction to a complete stop otherwise arrives special salt closes in the rinse water. Cloudy glasses could be the result. 7. If you immediately after the salt filling in your table-ware to rinse should not let you run the program Vorspülen. thus overcrowded seawater and salt grains are rinsed out. Depending upon granulation it can take some hours, until the salt dissolved in the water and the control display salt expires again. The attitude of the water softener and thus salt consumption depend on the local water hardness."

I decided to pour in about .75 liters of the salt. I'll find out what attitude it has when I run it.

My Eyes were Wellin'

Today I had to go to the market before lunch, because I had no lunch in the apartment. A few days ago we talked to Meg and Lauri on the phone. Meg mentioned that she had sent a package. So every day when I go out, my heart starts pounding a bit when I walk past our mailbox. I peek into the slot to see if there is anything there. Today there was! A blue card with lots of German words on it. I have no idea what it said, except at the top, where it said addressee: Mom and Dad. I knew what it meant. Our package had arrived. But where was it? I determined that as soon as I got home with my cheese spread (lunch) I would open up my laptop and google translate the German.
On my way to the market, I saw a yellow bike, and a woman pedalling it. It was about two blocks from our apartment. On it was a big yellow bag with the post office symbol. I thought, aha! Mail is delivered by bike. And I continued on to the market.
On my way home, the pedaler of the yellow bike was stopped at a building right in front of me, so I said, "Excuse me, do you speak English?" and she shook her head, no. Then I pulled the blue card out of my purse and asked, "How?" She said, "Moment." She walked away with some letters in her hand, about 50 feet (sorry, I don't do meters yet), and stopped at a big green bin that I had thought was a trashcan. She jingled her keys, then reached in and walked back to me. Handed me a package from Meg!!! I recognized her handwriting immediately and tears sprang to my eyes.
How did that happen? The timing, the location, whoa! I quickly said thanks and sprinted home to open the package. Oohed over the paper punch for scrapbooking, ahhed over the book for Rob, and drooled over the Dagoba organic chocolate bar. Then I remembered the cheese and pork in my purse and put it away.
Thanks Meg, you made my day!

Silly Signs updated

I like to take pictures of funny signs and store names. To see my collection so far, click here.