Just can’t stay away from Ljubljana, Slovenia

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A flurry of activity today – resulting in some bad news about our travel plans. Or, potentially bad news. As Masayo and I went from the seaside town of Piran back to the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, my blood sugars were high for the first part of the day but, in a shocking and welcome turn of fortune, after dinner I was fine. Topsy-turvy ‘betes.

At our second and final breakfast at quaint Val Hostel in Piran, again the buffet was laid out and we seemed to be the only ones taking advantage of it. By BG was 250 when I woke up, very unusual for me. I took my Humalog shot at the table in the dining area right through my Bluff Works travel pants as usual, then had cereal plus bread and meat and coffee.

The whole reason for coming to Piran in the first place Saturday morning was that we were waiting for a package to arrive at the Japanese embassy in Ljubljana for Masayo, but it hadn’t come yet and they were off for the weekend so we figured we might as well have a cozy weekend getaway.

And Piran had been a stunning success, travel-wise, for its ancient, quirky buildings, mesmerizing views, and fresh seafood meals, but now it was Monday morning and we had to get back to Ljubljana to get the package. (The internet said it had arrived, though we hadn’t received an email from the embassy staff yet. We had to go on faith.)

So when we had to check out of Val Hostel to catch the bus, and the lady said she didn’t accept credit cards, my heart jumped. Just like after last night’s dinner, I had to leave Masayo there while I ran through the narrow, misshapen alleys of Piran to the town square and its ATM. The difference this time was that I had farther to go and we had no time to spare – the bus would leave with or without us.

I went briskly to the ATM and was confronted with a disconcerting sight: a security can parked in front of the ATM, blocking it. Now?! For a second I could see the day’s plans falling away like dominoes.

But it was all ok actually; I was able to sneak around it and get the cash without problem. I walked just as briskly back to the hostel. I don’t like getting exercise like this right after a shot, but these things happen sometimes.

We paid and the two of us walked, with our big bags, quickly to the bus area – and luckily were on time. In fact, after we got on the bus and paid the driver for a trip to Ljubljana, we were the only two riders at first. We pulled out and climbed the hills on the coast over small roads bound for the interior of Slovenia. The bus driver chatted with us in good English, telling us how last night a car had crashed through a barrier and into the sea and so there might be some delays where a road crew was making repairs.

It was true but the trip went smoothly, and eventually we pulled into Ljubljana for the third time in a week. This time we had a different room, a place called Atticus Bed And Breakfast, that I found last night on booking.com. (I’ve been booking all of our rooms there, usually at the very last minute, and we’ve been impressed.)

We checked in, and the room was small – indeed, with slanted ceilings like an attic, up on the fourth floor – but had a nice view of Ljubljana Castle through the one window, and was charmingly no-frills. Everything was brand new – the walls and doors seemed like they were very recently renovated.

My blood sugar, lamentably, was exactly the same as it had been before breakfast: 250. I sighed and put my insulin supply, in its foil bag, in the community refrigerator in the hallway and we headed out to go get the package from the Japanese embassy.

(First we stopped at a small restaurant across the street from Atticus called Okrepčevalnica for some pizza-by-the-slice. Again I took my Humalog at the table, and again I hoped it would bring me down from my high reading.)

When we got to the Japanese embassy, in a part of town we’d not seen before but which was full of neat little parks and unique statues – the guard seemed to know who we were and why we’d come before we said anything. To Masayo in Japanese he asked, “Are you here to get the envelope? With the USB drive in it?” (Part of the delivery was indeed a 128GB USB drive I’d ordered to store the trip photos which are overwhelming my MacBook.)

Unfortunately, the staff member that Masayo had been communicating with was out sick, and the only other person authorized to hand it over to us was on a visit to Croatia. Masayo’s new bank card and my USB drive would have to wait until tomorrow.

So we quickly made plans to return to the embassy in the morning and then catch a bus over the border into Croatia tomorrow. It would only work if we could actually get the package though. It was unnerving, to have no wiggle room, but I trusted the fates of travel to… well, to do something. We’ve been in Slovenia past our planned time and budget, all for this package.

But there was nothing we could do but hope.

We went to the post office in Ljubljana to mail a bunch of stuff back to Japan as well – receipts and tourist maps that I’d been accumulating as souvenirs but that were weighing me down. It was all surprisingly heavy; I was glad to get rid of it. The staff at the post office was harried and frazzled – it is December 22, after all, and everyone in Slovenia was in line to mail Christmas packages.

After that we found a yarn shop that Masayo had read about – having lost her hat in Piran she had plans to knit a new one and knew just what she needed.

By 6:00 pm I had reined my blood sugar in a little better; it was 185. Our dinner was, again, at The Wok, the fast-food Asian takeout place near the town square. I decided to skip both rice and noodles, and got mostly meat and vegetables instead. All in the name of having a good post-dinner blood sugar reading, for once!

Back at a tiny folding ledge/table in the hallway of Atticus outside our room we ate our Wok food – plus a little chocolate milk and some cookies. But no rice or noodles – I took some insulin but wasn’t eating that many carbs so it was a smaller dose.

And it worked! By 11:30 pm My BG was 160 – stunning, given my nearly universal 200+ readings after dinner these days. Best of all, I wasn’t unusually hungry or anything. A good pre-bed BG, that’s something to build on.

Now if we can get our package tomorrow we can cross over into a new country – and for the first time on this trip, out of the Schengen Agreement Zone and into a new part of southern Europe – Croatia!

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