Day 10 Vienna to Slovenia

Time to rise and shine…repack for the 10,000th time (here I am going to give a shout out to Space Bags…they are fantastic to help keep things organized in the crazy hippie backpack).  Okay, I am going to be honest here…I was nervous…very nervous this morning!  We are heading to stay on a farm, in Slovenia, for 10 days with total strangers… talk about stepping outside your comfort zone!  I am so far out of mine, I might as well be in Siberia…oh no wait …Slovenia!

As we get Jacques, our cute little pumpkin of a car (which by the way I have to drive, because Russ is too tall to drive comfortably).  Ha!  Can you picture me whizzing around Europe in a little orange car?  It is great!  So as we are driving through amazing and beautiful scenery and I realize something…not to get all hippie dippie…but I am feeling really empowered!  What do I mean by that?  Everything is new, different, a challenge…and we have really stepped up to the plate! It feels scary and exciting all at the same time…like a Japanese game show.

So here we are, driving through hillsides and valleys that are filled with the colors of fall.  Everywhere you turn there are trees changing colors, contrasted with the bright green grass on the hillsides.  I feel like jumping out of the car and twirling in a circle singing “The hills are alive…” you know the rest!  As we continue on down the road, the hills have turned to mountains, and I begin to understand the term “hairpin” turn.  Yikes!  I just keep focusing on the road ahead, but my stomach churns with each comment I hear from Russ and Reid.  On and on and on and on and on we go…with each passing mile (oh where’s my head…I mean kilometer) I grow more and more nervous!

The time finally arrives, we turn into the driveway of the farm.  It is as picturesque as I remembered it.  Like an alpine chalet mated with a cute traditional french farm…voila organic farm Silbar was the result.  The farm is run by Gregor and Monika.  They have 6 children that range in age from 10 years to 5 month old twins, all of them are adorable!  Thank goodness they both speak wonderful English, because let’s face it Slovenian is like nothing I have seen or heard.  We meet the family and unload our bags into a very nice apartment and then are promptly put to work.  We are out picking apples in a beautiful field, apples that we will be pressing into juice in the coming days.  After our work is finished, we are treated to a nice dinner on their amazing patio and to some organic beer that they brew here on the farm…it is AMAZING!  They are Slovenia’s first and only organic brewery, and it is honestly some of the best beer I have ever tasted!  I think farm life just got a whole lot easier!!!

After helping with the dishes, we get ready to head off to bed!  Now, remember that this is a farm right?  So yes, what do farms have a lot of?  FLIES!  I don’t think it helps that as far as I can tell Europeans do not use screens on their windows…so yes our little Slovenian apartment is filled with ugly, black, buzzing flies!  Oh well, we try to get rid of as many as we can, and then it is off to sleep.  Now you may find this incredible, but I had a dream, and in this dream a lot of crazy things happened (if you know my dreams, you will realize that they are long and complicated) let’s cut to the chase here right…well in the end I am in a prom dress, riding a BMX bike, and being chased by a 10 year old boy.  The only problem I am having in out running him is…I have flies that keep landing on my face…well I am sure that you can guess where this is headed.  SO let’s just say I woke up a bit grossed out!! Oh well…that is farm life for you!