Castles, turquoise rivers, snow-covered mountain peaks, ice-cream shops on every corner, Venetian architecture, woolly dogs, fish dishes, pomfri and freshly-baked bread. To me, this is Slovenia in a nutshell … or rather, the little bit that we were privileged to experience during our 12-day honeymoon in this lovely European country.

On 2 April my husband, Sergio, and I stepped off the aeroplane at the Ljubljana airport – tired, but very excited! The day that we had been looking forward to finally arrived: our honeymoon (or Nannimoon, aptly named for our surname!) and first European adventure together.

After picking up our baggage, we got on to the bus for a four-hour journey to Piran, our destination for the next two weeks. We were impressed by the quality of public transport and couldn’t get enough of the natural beauty, interesting architecture and the few e-cars that were recharging here and there along the route.

Piran took our breaths away. This 19^th-century town on Slovenia’s Adriatic coast is well-known for its long pier, city walls and Gothic and Venetian architecture. It is also the birth place of the violinist Giuseppe Tartini. Tartini Plain boasts a large statue of him and is named for this violinist. The narrow alleyways are lined with interesting little shops and intimate restaurants. This is where bought our very first (little) painting, which depicts Piran: in the antique, minuscule yet very interesting studio of Angelo Bajuk.

As it was our honeymoon, we decided to stay at the Hotel Piran for the full 12 days as we didn’t want to travel much. From here, however, we planned our daytrips, among these to the Julien Alps in Bohinj, as well as to Bled, Ljubljana, Istria and Trieste and Venice in Italy.

Sergio’s grandfather, Luigi (or rather Gino, as everyone knew him), was an Italian who started farming in South Africa when he was 18 years old, and later married an Afrikaans girl, Nellie. Although the family is proudly Afrikaans, Sergio has always been curious about his Italian roots and we have therefore always wanted to visit Italy – even if only for one day.

So why Slovenia as destination, and not Italy?

Grandpa Gino was raised in a small hamlet in Tuscany, and our initial plan was to go to Italy. Because we paid for the wedding mainly from our own pockets, Italy proved to be a very expensive option. Then we heard about Slovenia from friends who are very well-travelled.

They described it as a gorgeous, culturally-rich country that would still allow us to visit Italy without breaking the bank. They also told us that they viewed Slovenia as a hidden jewel that had not yet been discovered by the wave of tourists travelling to well-known European countries like Italy. We are so happy to have followed their advice. Our accommodation, food and activities were all affordable and we could manage our budget carefully.

Moreover, Slovenia is a picturesque country with some of the most beautiful castles, rivers, tourist attractions and architecture. It is also a stone’s throw Croatia, Austria and Italy, among other. Depending on where you live in Slovenia, you can reach any of these three countries within 40 minutes. However, do not misjudge the size of Slovenia – there is so much that we still wanted to see, for example Bovec, Postojna, Novo Meso and the Vintgar Gorge. We hope to visit these during a next journey. Slovenia is also one of the safest countries in the world with a very low crime rate.

More about Slo food

Slovenians love their bread, of which I was quite happy about! With every meal comes an almost full-size, freshly-baked bread to feast on. They do not cover it in layers as we like to do, however, but serve it with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt. Neither do they serve up their food with lots of sauces.

One of the most favourite dishes in Solvenia is ćevapi or ćevapčići, a roasted dish of minced meat that looks and tastes like something between a frikkadel and beef sausage. It was tasty, but does not compare to a true South African boerewors.

Also, every menu boasts fish, fish and more fish. Some fish looked like it had just been caught and were served on large silver platters – eyes, scales and all! There is also a wide variety of sea food dishes with among other mussels, scampi (shrimps) and calamari.

Something which we feasted on regularly was pizza and pasta. They also have delicious pork dishes. We love our red meats, and after a week in Slovenia we craved a lamb chop or beef burger. In Kranj we then had the most delicious burgers at Project Burger – the closest we got to home food!

Their ice-cream is very enjoyable and we sometimes had ice-cream twice a day.

Our five highlights

1. We undertook a journey to the Istrian coastal villages on e-mountain bikes. You don’t have to be fit!
2. We visited Castle Bled and walked along the Bled River.
3. The city walls of Piran are very interesting and offer a gorgeous view of the whole town. We concluded this trip with a boat trip to Portoroz, a coastal village nearby.
4. The cable car taking people up the Julien Alps in Bohini proved to be an experience. This was also my husband’s first encounter with snow.
5. The day trip to Venice was short but absolutely worth our while.

What stood out

• Slovenia is an animal-friendly country. People walk their dogs daily and dogs are even allowed in most of the restaurants that we visited. I must add, though, that the dogs are very well-mannered and obedient. The dogs often walk around without collars and wait patiently outside supermarkets while their owners are busy shopping. Many tourists also brought along their own dogs.
• Motorists, bus drivers and pedestrians always adhere to traffic rules, and public transport operates smoothly. Buses are not only on time, but early. It goes without saying, however, that bus transport takes much longer than travelling by car. Taxis are very expensive and we didn’t make use of it. It is indeed cheaper to rent a car, scooter or bicycle.
• The coastal villages all have little stairs that allow tourists and residents to reach the beach for an easy swim. The bay is like one huge swimming pool that everyone can use.

Advice and hints

• Plan your transport! Bus transport is comfortable and runs smoothly, but it takes longer and sometimes you have to take two or three busses to reach your final destination. Make sure to take your driver’s licence along so that you can rent a car. We relied on public transport and did not realise how easy and inexpensive it is to rent a car. We simply could not afford taxis.
• The tourist season only starts at the end of May. Some day trips, for example a boat trip to Venice, was therefore impossible – quite disappointing. However, if you have your own vehicle, you can easily do this. Make sure beforehand what you would really like to do (and can do) and work out how to do it.
• Next time, we’ll settle for shorter stays at more places. We enjoyed visiting Piran, for example, but would have loved to have spent a few days in Bovec and Bohini to experience something different. There are more mountains and rivers and we never realised it offered so many nature and open-air activities. It was just too far to go there every day and we didn’t realise that the buses only travelled so far during the weeks and not over weekends too. This means we should have researched everything that Slovenia offers more thoroughly.
• We will not work through a travel agency again and rather organise everything ourselves.
• There is so much to see – in our own land and abroad. Travel as much as you can (as it fits your pocket, of course!). The travel bug has really bitten us and has enriched our lives and relationship. We hope to travel in future as often as we can.