Around this time of our trip Ellen acquired what was
lovingly referred to as the Contiki Cough. It’s a gross little cold you get
from breathing in other people’s bus breath and not drinking enough water or
sleeping properly. T’was a common affliction that Ellen had even read about ahead
of time, so we came prepared and every day she and I took two Vitamin C tablets
with our bread breakfast. I’d argue that 90% of people had The Cough at this
time so I suppose it shouldn’t have shocked her the way it did. Ellen was truly
appalled by her own congestion and threw several mini-tantrums about it over a
three-day period. She coughed and moaned and sniffled and if she snapped at me
for unrelated reasons she would apologize by re-acknowledging that she was
sick.
From Budapest we drove through Slovenia to Lake Bled, a
fairytale setting that was, in fact, a very pretty lake surrounded by very
pretty trees that grew up into some very pretty mountains. We dangled our feet
in the water and ate gelato in ice cream cones. It was toasty out though so I
brought out my snappy towel. I’m realizing now I’ve never written about my
snappy towel here before. It’s a lime green shammy-like hand towel that Omar
bought to help keep me cool. It has magical properties inside that when dunked
in water and snapped tight, will release cooling chemicals that feel good
against your hot skin. Don’t ask me how it works or why but know that they are
used by professional athletes in the midst of a battle of scores, so, that
makes me pretty tough by proxy. Anyways, the towel fascinated the Australians.
News of the towel spread like wildfire and young folk flocked and lined up to
touch the towel. I’ve had the towel for three years. It rides in my purse
everyday and on the rare occasion that I think of or use the towel, I’m humiliated
by it’s attention grabbing color. Here, in Lake Bled, Slovenia, the towel made
me famous. Here, in Lake Bled, Slovenia, surrounded by sparking blue water and a
red roofed church on a fantastical island in the middle of the lake, the
Australians gathered around my little green snappy towel.
From the lake we drove to the capital, Ljubljana. I’ve heard
of Ljubljana before in learning the capitals of all the European Nations. This
one stuck out because it looks and sounds silly and as a seventh grader, the
day after I got my braces removed, (don’t know why I remember that) I said to
myself, I’ll go to Ljubljana someday.
Well folks, that day came, and it was my favorite stop of the whole trip. This
is a gorgeous and minimally discovered gem. I want to go back and I also want
no one to ever find out about it so that chains and corporations won’t buy up
the land and change it forever. Ljubljana is Italy without the crowds, traffic,
and litter. Now look what I’ve done, making Italy seem awful. Italy is one of
my favorite countries…but imagine if tourists had never discovered it. Tempting
huh? Ljubljana is peaceful and beautiful. A river runs through the town center
so it’s dotted with pretty pedestrian bridges that take you from one restaurant
patio to the other. Ellen,
Bradley, and I, and two other friends took our evening here and quietly sat
outside next to the river laughing and snacking until bedtime.
I stole this next photo.
Up early and en route to our final stop, Ellen and I were
giddy about Venice. We’d both been once before and loved how different it is. On
our way here, Ellen coughed into my face for several hours. It’s almost as if
she’s never heard the concept of covering your mouth and each time she
coughed on me I would give her a look of scorn and say, “Please cover your
mouth. I don’t want to get sick.”
Naturally this is the polite thing to do so Ellen continued
to let her coughs bellow throughout the bus and settle anywhere there might be
moisture on my face.
I had a sore throat by dinnertime and a real bruiser of a
cold by morning. In case you’re wondering, Ellen did not take responsibility
for this nor did she feel remorse. Instead she was still fixated on the fact
that she got sick in the first place.
Venice is still beautiful but it was a net-neutral for us.
Here why: 1.) It was so hot. Not just for dainty Lu but for everyone.
Uncomfortably hot. The kind of hot where you’d rather sit still than roam and
discover – that’s really saying something. 2.) It was amazingly crowded. Disney
World on Spring Break crowded. Some unknown human is touching you at all times
crowded. You’ve got to wait in line for a half hour to be seated for lunch
crowded. 3.) We had nowhere to go. Our hotel was on the mainland and not on the
island of Venice. Because of this, the lot of us had to take a ferry to Venice
where we were dropped off for 9 hours before they were coming back to get us –
something about scheduling and boater rules. Nine hours is a long time in a
two-mile area. It was nine hours living in an ant bed in the Sahara. So we
sought shade, ate lunch in an air-conditioned restaurant at a strategically
glacial pace, and then I made Ellen try on tons of dresses in a chilly shop
with a lounge sofa. Try another one. Try one more!
We had spurts of adventuring
here and there and the weather became tolerable somewhere around dinnertime.
While I would never claim to understand life on the streets, I now feel I
vaguely understand what it must be like to be a homeless person. All those
hours to fill each day mixed with all those needs you have – food, water,
bathroom, shade. That’s a long, tough day.
Our group slowly met again just before dark. Everyone asked
everyone about their day in Venice. Some people took gondola rides, some people
ate gelato and drank Bellinis all day, and one group of girls showed up in
striped shirts and masquerade headpieces.
“How’d you hold up in the heat?” one
guy asked me.
“Did you use the towel?” another girl wondered.
“Did it still go
cold?” the first guy asked. Again I pulled out the towel and passed it around
to the astonishment of my new friends. Then they taught me about “Slip, Slop,
Slap!” the Australian marketing campaign for sun safety. “Slip on a shirt. Slop on some
sunscreen. Slap on a hat.” Though they all hailed from different Aussie coasts,
they all joined in for the “Slip. Slop. Slap” jingle.
This night was my bed bug night and the next morning Ellen
and I hugged our new friends goodbye as they boarded the bus heading for Rome. Ellen
and I stayed behind, spent an entire day in bed (in a different hotel) coughing
and sniffling, and finally boarded a plane bound for London…
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