The short version is this:  I met Sanja on the internet a few years ago.  We became pen-pals and as soon as I found out I was moving to London I knew I wanted to meet her in person.  That’s all I’ll say about that, but in case you were wondering, it is apparently, as awkward to say you began a platonic relationship online as it is to say you began a romantic relationship online.  Although the latter is very common and I suppose I can’t say if the former is… 

June just worked out to be the best month, despite it already being busy and Richard knows that once I set my mind to something there’s no going back.  Bless his heart for holding down the fort twice in one month.  

To be totally honest I was really nervous about flying to a completely new country to meet someone I’d only ever “seen” on Facebook.  But as my plane descended over Trieste, Italy I got goosebumps and I just felt #soblessed.  

Sanja picked me up at the airport and she was every bit as kind and intelligent as her emails had let on.  In fact, she taught me so much about Slovenia I wish I had taken notes.   We drove from Trieste across the border back in Slovenia and to the town of Piran, the country’s little stretch of seaside on the Adriatic.  She dropped me off at the city center and went to park the car, leaving me to find our hostel.  That was a bit complicated, and it was hot and I felt like such a geek with my wheelie suitcase but eventually I made it.  After parking the car Sanja just long-boarded from the parking garage back down to the city center.  NBD. She’s cool like that.  

We found a place to eat dinner, walked through the city streets, ate gelato and then watched the sun set over the sea.  It was the stuff my European dreams are made of.  

In the morning we checked out of the hostel and grabbed some breakfast at a shop and then sat in Tartini Square to eat it while we waited for a bus that took us back to the parking garage.  It was already warm outside and the sunshine felt so good.  

We drove to see the salt fields, where the tide is let in, a dam is placed, and as the water evaporates salt is harvested.  Then we went for a swim in the Adriatic Sea, which was really nice.  

After our swim, and some relaxation in the sunshine we drove up to Postojna Cave.  I’ve seen caves before, I mean come on, I’m from Kuna. But I was not expecting caves like this.  We rode in a little train as far into the caves as we could, and then we walked even deeper.  It was 22km of caves total.  And it was gorgeous! It was like walking through a sculpture garden, but completely naturally occurring sculptures.  

The caves were really rad.  The colors of all the different sculptures and stalactites and stalagmites were really beautiful and I just couldn’t believe how huge the caves were.  I’m running out of superlatives here.  

From the caves we drove to the Predjama Castle but I’ll save that for the next post.  It seemed like every time we drove from one place to another I would get really sleepy, but I never wanted to fall asleep because I was always afraid of missing more beautiful scenery.