Day #218 - Budapest to Ljubljana, Slovenia

Old statues in "Buda"

Looking down from Castle Hill in "Buda"

Apart of the castle wall

Quiet, peaceful streets

Monday, October 18th

Today starts my journey into former Yugoslavia. There have been 33 new countries delcared since 1990. For the most part, these were all formed due to the fall of communism. Some I've already been to --- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Germany. Many of the others - I will be touring this week.

The countries that make up the former communist state of Yugoslavia (with the year of independence in parenthesis) are: Slovenia (1991), Croatia (1991), Bosnia & Herzegovina (1992), Macedonia (1994), Serbia (2006), Montenegro (2006), and Kosovo (2008). Serbia & Montenegro were a combined country from 1992 through 2006 until they separated. Kosovo was apart of Serbia until a couple years ago. The validity of listing Kosovo as a country is not consistent throughout the world at the current time.

The lone country on the way to Greece that stood the test of time is Albania. Not sure why or how - but maybe I can find out more information.

Now, this area of the world has gone through alot of turmoil and fighting in recent years. Many of the areas are devastated and/or recovering. I'm extrememly sensitive to this fact and have asked many people on proper routes to take, etc. Some of these countries will be pass-throughs for me. Others, such as Croatia, I plan to spend alot more time. Trust me when I say, I don't know much about this area -- let's see what we can find out.

To my day --------

I got out of Budapest around 1pm. I walked around a little this morning - but slept in too late to do much damage. Because of poor schedule options, I ended up taking an 8-1/2 hour train trip from Budapest to Ljubljana, Slovenia (I had to go back through Vienna, Austria). I arrived around 9pm in Slovenia. The main reason for this is because other more direct routes got into the city really late. I did not want to put myself in that situation. Therefore, I spent more time on the train. No worries - good rest time.

So, because of my lengthy travels - nothing really to report. I grabbed a taxi at the main train station and got checked into my hotel about 10pm. People speak English and it seems like a nice enough place. They also use the Euro for money - so I'm comfortable here. I'm going to take a tour tomorrow to the one area I continue to read about when Slovenia is discussed -- Lake Bled.

I've posted a couple pictures of "Buda" from Budapest. I hope to be coming to you live from Croatia tomorrow evening.