Once I figure out how to make a separate "About Me" page, I'll just put this there but because I've received a few PM's on FB about where the photos at the top are from, they are left to right: Delphi, Greece; Vancouver, BC; Savannah, Georgia; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Burano, Italy.
Right. Slovenia. It all started with the UKBA and their inability to be a functioning body within UK Immigration. My dad and step-mom asked us in June 2012 if we'd like to join them in Grand Cayman for a second time in February 2013. We said yes, and booked our flights in September. We knew my UK Visa was to expire in November and had planned to use the fast-track, premium service we had used back in 2005 for my new one. You pay a bit more, but get a decision there and then, plus your Biometric Card (aka the new passport stamp) in the mail within a week. So I went to book an appointment and....nothing. This was happening. I could not get an appointment anywhere in the UK (including Belfast) before or even 2 months after my Visa expired. The only choice we had was to send it via the postal option, which the UKBA states can take up to 6 months to process. Obviously things didn't look very good for me. And ultimately my Visa arrived 3 weeks after Josh and the kids left for Grand Cayman.
Meanwhile, British Airways surprised Josh and I with amazing customer service. They were sympathetic, they offered alternatives, made helpful suggestions. 3 different phone calls and their policies didn't waver so we knew what our options were. I could change the date and destination of my flight, but I had to do so before the GCM flight left on that Friday morning and it had to take place before a year on from the date on which we purchased the plane tickets (early Sept). Somewhat arbitrarily I chose to fly into and out of Venice Marco Polo in May. I had never been to Venice and the price of my GCM ticket swallowed up the entire cost of the Venice flight, the new flight taxes and gave us a refund in taxes from the GCM flight.
Then came planning the trip. Venice is expensive, everyone knows that, so it was out of the question for me to spend an entire week there. Plus I had been told by many people that you only a need a day or two in Venice. Thankfully I chose to ignore this advice and planned to spend 3 days/4 nights. So what should I do?
My options, as I saw it, were: San Marino via Bologna, plus possibly Florence; just Florence; Cinque Terre; Lake Garda/Verona; Innsbruck, Austria; Pula, Croatia. The more I stared at google maps, the more I realised how close I would be to Slovenia. And then the more time I spent looking at Lake Bled and Ljubljana, the more I wanted to go. The logistics were the tricky part.
There are virtually no trains that go from Venice to Ljubljana. You can take a train to Udine, then to Villach, then to Ljubljana. You can take a train to Trieste, spend a night there, then take a bus across the border and then a train to Ljubljana (I would have lost 3 full days just to travel this way). You can get a shuttle van from the airport in 3 1/2 hours but the reviews online weren't exactly glowing (I saw one of the shuttle companies when I arrived at Marco Polo, and therefore wish I had done it this way - oh well!). Or you can do the trek that I did: go from Marco Polo airport to Venice Mestre train station, grab coffee and read for an hour, take a comfortable bus to Villach (4hrs) that makes a quick stop in Udine and then goes through beautiful Austrian countryside, spend the night in Villach where I put the 2 German words I know to good use and then grab a 6:27am train to Lesce Bled, Slovenia, arriving at Lake Bled around 8am.
So sure it was a roundabout way of getting to Slovenia but it was well worth it. The way back went much quicker. I took a 7:30am train from Ljubljana to Villach, and then the bus (same line as I had taken to Austria) back to Venice arriving around 2:30pm. It was adding in Lake Bled that forced the overnight in Austria. Had I wanted to go straight to Ljubljana, I'm fairly certain that I could have gotten there on the Saturday. My next entry will be Lake Bled!
Right. Slovenia. It all started with the UKBA and their inability to be a functioning body within UK Immigration. My dad and step-mom asked us in June 2012 if we'd like to join them in Grand Cayman for a second time in February 2013. We said yes, and booked our flights in September. We knew my UK Visa was to expire in November and had planned to use the fast-track, premium service we had used back in 2005 for my new one. You pay a bit more, but get a decision there and then, plus your Biometric Card (aka the new passport stamp) in the mail within a week. So I went to book an appointment and....nothing. This was happening. I could not get an appointment anywhere in the UK (including Belfast) before or even 2 months after my Visa expired. The only choice we had was to send it via the postal option, which the UKBA states can take up to 6 months to process. Obviously things didn't look very good for me. And ultimately my Visa arrived 3 weeks after Josh and the kids left for Grand Cayman.
Meanwhile, British Airways surprised Josh and I with amazing customer service. They were sympathetic, they offered alternatives, made helpful suggestions. 3 different phone calls and their policies didn't waver so we knew what our options were. I could change the date and destination of my flight, but I had to do so before the GCM flight left on that Friday morning and it had to take place before a year on from the date on which we purchased the plane tickets (early Sept). Somewhat arbitrarily I chose to fly into and out of Venice Marco Polo in May. I had never been to Venice and the price of my GCM ticket swallowed up the entire cost of the Venice flight, the new flight taxes and gave us a refund in taxes from the GCM flight.
Then came planning the trip. Venice is expensive, everyone knows that, so it was out of the question for me to spend an entire week there. Plus I had been told by many people that you only a need a day or two in Venice. Thankfully I chose to ignore this advice and planned to spend 3 days/4 nights. So what should I do?
My options, as I saw it, were: San Marino via Bologna, plus possibly Florence; just Florence; Cinque Terre; Lake Garda/Verona; Innsbruck, Austria; Pula, Croatia. The more I stared at google maps, the more I realised how close I would be to Slovenia. And then the more time I spent looking at Lake Bled and Ljubljana, the more I wanted to go. The logistics were the tricky part.
There are virtually no trains that go from Venice to Ljubljana. You can take a train to Udine, then to Villach, then to Ljubljana. You can take a train to Trieste, spend a night there, then take a bus across the border and then a train to Ljubljana (I would have lost 3 full days just to travel this way). You can get a shuttle van from the airport in 3 1/2 hours but the reviews online weren't exactly glowing (I saw one of the shuttle companies when I arrived at Marco Polo, and therefore wish I had done it this way - oh well!). Or you can do the trek that I did: go from Marco Polo airport to Venice Mestre train station, grab coffee and read for an hour, take a comfortable bus to Villach (4hrs) that makes a quick stop in Udine and then goes through beautiful Austrian countryside, spend the night in Villach where I put the 2 German words I know to good use and then grab a 6:27am train to Lesce Bled, Slovenia, arriving at Lake Bled around 8am.
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| Villach, Austria |
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| Lake Bled. One of the first photos I took upon arrival at 8am. |
So sure it was a roundabout way of getting to Slovenia but it was well worth it. The way back went much quicker. I took a 7:30am train from Ljubljana to Villach, and then the bus (same line as I had taken to Austria) back to Venice arriving around 2:30pm. It was adding in Lake Bled that forced the overnight in Austria. Had I wanted to go straight to Ljubljana, I'm fairly certain that I could have gotten there on the Saturday. My next entry will be Lake Bled!
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