Final Day

Our final day in Slovenia started off with breakfast, as per usual. This was followed by an unsurprisingly hectic hour of packing. Once these were out the way, we walked to Ljubljana for one final visit whilst the sun was out. Helen then decided on a meeting point which was followed by us breaking down into smaller groups and exploring independently. Lots of girls came back with souvenirs and momentos to take back home with them. All the groups reunited and, after a brief break, the leaders distributed badges among us. We then locked a padlock on the butchers bridge. It had on it the words,"sisters in guiding". A representative from both senior section and guides (Rebecca and Olivia) threw the keys into the river below. The morning was concluded by grabbing lunch.

After this we walked back to the youth hostel and changed into our guide uniform. The shuttles then took us to the airport. We went through customs and duty free and are awaiting to board our flight that keeps getting delayed.
We are now on the flight but are yet to take off soon .

We are now on the plane but we have to wait for more than 2 hours to set off, but luckily we have Helen to keep us active. We played a 1 word story and we sang lots of songs yay! We were all having a good time, even though we are not in the air yet.

After a long time of waiting we are currently moving and about to set of ( but Sarah the flight attendant is checking our seatbelts) the plane is getting faster and faster and we're off. The view is amazing! We can see all the houses and the trees below us.
We are higher than the clouds and the sky is amazing there are lots of different colours. We're now mid air and either sleeping or chatting and eating . Very exciting! Food's here!!

The view is wonderful, it is like a perfectly white mountains in the Alps determined to be the proudest creatures on earth.

We've been in the air for a while now and most of us have got over the exhilaration of leaving. Now most of us are thinking of the familiar faces, sights, smells and sounds of Home Sweet Home. We've had such a fun time in Ljubljana: we've been on a number of tours, swam in two different lakes and the sea, collected souvenirs for friends and family, learnt a variation of foreign words, had a laugh with some of our closest mates and basked in the unfamiliar blare of the sun - so much has happened that we've hardly had time to think of anything else!

Leaving is half a burden and half a relief. We'll all miss Slovenia deeply and treasure the happy memories that we made there. Overall we've all had an amazing trip and can't wait for the next Guide holiday.

By Issy, Katherine, Vid, Lily S and Tessa                    
                               

Karst and Coast

I'm currently sitting outside the hostel and I'm peacefully reflecting on our day . At the beginning of the day we all woke up for an early start , well most of us did but some came down late in their pyjamas. Once everybody was suitably attired we headed off to the caves with our new friend Karla and our old long lost friend Marco (our coach driver from Tuesday).

A fun 10 minute train journey took us 100m below the ground weaving in and out of narrow caves and every turn brought us a lovely bit of air con in the form of a fresh blast of freezing air. It was a great temperature of 30 degrees outside but once we were underground it dropped to a cold 10 degrees, thanks to Helen for the advice to bring our jumpers so none of us guides froze! Unfortunately, my camera and Helen's lips didn't like the weather change.

Once in the cave we headed up the great mountain and admired the different shapes of stalagmites and stalactites. Can you explain the difference between the two? We attempted to take lots of photos of all the different open caves and the narrow crevices, some came out alright which wasn't great but bearing in mind we weren't allowed to use the flash it was actually a huge achievement.

After taking in all the amazing geographical features surrounding us we saw some pink, blind, skinless dragons and jumped backed onto the train to finish our journey back through the magical, mysterious caves and we returned back into the 30 degree heat.

We had our lunch on the coach today , it was an interesting combination of tomato puree, salad tomatoes, yellow peppers, plain flattened chicken and a huge thick piece of cheese. The castle we arrived at was interesting, it was half in a cave and half out. There was an array of rooms within the castle including a torture room and a balcony with an assortment of cannon balls.

We were all excited as we set off from the castle because we all knew our next stop was the beach , but before this we had to quickly visit Queen Lizzie's horse at a stud farm famous for breeding the gorgeous white horses.. Not being a huge fan of horses, I quickly hopped off the coach, ran to the bin to throw away my cottage cheese pastry and slyly got back on the coach (hopefully I was as sly as I thought!) Our final destination was the beach! Whoop Whoop!

As we got off the coach we saw the amazing views of the clear blue Adriatic sea directly in front of us. All of us immediately wanted to jump in , obviously after Helen had risk assessed it all. We walked beside the sea until we found our perfect place to lay down our towels and jump (carefully) into the sea. We saw many exciting things while floating in the salty sea water! Lots of us saw our first jelly fish and also a pirate ship.

We walked quickly to meet Karla on the square but in fact we were earlier than her although we had convinced ourselves we were late. We went for a quick hunt to find some toilets and instead we found restaurants without doors! This was not helpful at all.

We headed home with Marco but unfortunately we got stuck in one huge traffic jam which lead to plenty of singing on the coach before we finally arrived at the hostel for dinner.  Rebecca's mind was read by the chef as the dish she wished for, a steak and chips, magically appeared before our very eyes.

After dinner we all left for free time, packing and blogging ready for our return home tomorrow.  A great last full day in Slovenia.  Can't wait to see everyone!

Alice