Hangover Hash...

After breakfast on Sunday, we hopped on a train to get to the start of the hangover trail, which led us back to the hotel (in theory anyways). It was sprinkling, but warm enough that it wasn’t miserable. Most of the path was rural...

…passing through a few small villages.

While the group that was with Opee managed to find the trail all the way back to the hotel, the group I was with managed to get lost...

…and had to just follow the main road back to the hotel. 

We circled up at the hotel with several more tastings of Slovenian sparkling wines. The boy toys were in charge of making sure the divas’ glasses were always full. Opee especially liked shooting the corks high into the air and then trying to catch them. As always, we appreciated the hard work that went into organizing such a fun weekend.

We caught a train back to Zagreb that evening, grabbed dinner and headed out to our hotel near the airport so we’d be nearby for our early morning flight home.

We were impressed with the new terminal that opened in 2017...

…and the view from the plane before we soared above the clouds. 
 

A Slovenian Winery...

Eventually we made our way up the hill to Penina Istenic Winery, the first privately produced bottle-fermented sparking wine in Slovenia, for a tour and more tastings.

While the buildings appeared small...

...it was quickly evident that they bottle a lot of bubbly there.

Photobombing paid off for Barbara, because Opee then bought several bottles of the bubbly named after her.

That evening we had pizza back at the hotel and hit the pool. The pool closed early, which gave us a good excuse to head back to our room to relax in our own jacuzzi tub. 
 

Hashing in Slovenia...

Saturday was a hashing day, so we loaded up on a bus and was taken to the start of trail. 

The first section was flat through farm fields...

…with a border crossing nearby. I stopped taking photos as the trail wound its way up a steep hill that required hand scrambling (definitely not my favorite way to hash). I was nervous as I quickly found myself alone, but I managed to fumble my way to the top. 

Later I was surprised to come across Opee as he should have been far ahead of me, but he had found something on a false trail that he wanted to make sure I didn’t miss: an industrial honey operation. 

Apparently there were approximately 15,000 bees in each of the 90 hives, so well over a million bees. We were invited to step inside the truck to see the subterfuge spinning the honey out of the honeycomb. It was odd to see that some of the employees wore full protective suits and others didn’t, but clearly no one was afraid of the bees. 

I’ve never been a big fan of honey, but eating it fresh out of the hive was incredible! 

One of the hashers was given a big jar which we were happy to help him eat with bread at that afternoon’s winery stop at Penina Istenic.  

First we circled up and ate our sandwiches below the winery. Unlike any circles I’d been to before, this one included a bunch of informal wine tastings conducted by harriettes.

 

A Spa Hotel and a Castle...

We were impressed when we saw our room at Paradiso Terme. After having to postpone the event in both 2020 and 2021, we had to pay a bit more to stick with the original hotel as they switched our date from fall to spring. It was worth it though as the hotel was a big step up from the usual hostels we stay in for hash weekends.

We knew it was a spa hotel, but didn’t expect to have a nice jacuzzi tub and large shower in our room.

Our room was at the end of the building so had a view to fields...

...as well as overlooking the pools.

Rather than a hash or pub crawl, the opening official event was a gala dinner at Mokrice Castle. Its history dates back to 1444. It was made into a hotel in 1952.

Dinner was served inside followed by dancing with tunes by DJ Opee. 
 

First DIVA Weekend...

After another amazing Zagreb Breakfast at Otto&Frank, we caught a train to Dobova, Slovenia, where we would be attending our first weekend with DIVA H3, an invite-only event focusing on bubbly instead of beer.

Croatia still wasn’t part of Schengen then, so we had to go through passport control in the middle of nowhere. 

The Friday optional activity was a wine and chocolate tasting. It was very sweet of Yark, one of the organizers, to hold the bus so that those who arrived on our train could drop our stuff and join them for the trip to Kunej, a family vineyard since 1886, which turned to chocolate as well when the current owner married.

It was a lovely setting for a wine tasting...

…and to eat chocolates and cheese.

While we didn’t buy any wine, we did buy some of their chocolate liqueurs. 

 

An Evening at the Spa...

We’d originally planned on spending our final evening in Ljubljana, but then I remembered that wonderful spa that Jimmy and I had visited back in 2008, Wellness Park Lasko. So we surprised the girls by staying in Lasko and spending the evening at the water park.

They enjoyed the slides and the many hot tubs plus doing a little scuba diving in the main pool. On our walk back to the hotel, we happened across an unusual light show in the field. After breakfast the next morning, it was time to drive back to Croatia to fly out of Zagreb. What a fantastic vacation!

Fresh Slovenian Milk...

We enjoyed walking around the farmer’s market and eating some fresh berries. Jimmy was especially thrilled when we came across this unusual vending machine that dispenses unskimmed farm fresh raw milk.

Milk is sold for € 1 per liter. You can use your own container or purchase a plastic bottle. What a great concept!

Nearby, was another vending machine unlike any we’d ever seen before, selling a variety of dairy products including yogurt and cheese.