Hey y’all, since I last talked you I have made the 8 hour drive between Bamberg and Ljubliana, with a couple of detours to see some points of interest along the way. I drove 3 1/2 hours on Friday and spent the night in an inexpensive guesthouse in Großholzhausen, near Rosenheim, Germany, in the foothills of the Alps. The place did the job for the night and the town was actually very quaint. The most interesting thing I did there was take a walk to the local church, where I discovered several graves of WW1 and WW2 soldiers, along with a war memorial honoring the dead from this small town. I’m American, and both of my grandfathers were in the war opposed to the Germans, but I couldn’t help but feel a sadness for these soldiers who were lost too young doing their duty for their side. It ultimately is the common man the suffers from the decisions of those in power, and that is true no matter where a person is born.

After I got up and had breakfast, it was time to get on the road. Driving through southern Germany and into the Alps was incredible and I got to see some incredible mountain and river views

Someone I met in Germany recommended that I take a slight detour to Klagenfurt, which is on the Wörthersee (lake Wörther), for some great views of the lake from the Pyramidenkogel. The Pyramidenkogel is a giant tower built on top of a mountain overlooking the lake and the views are incredible. When I got there, the ticket seller highly recommend that I pay a couple Euros extra to take the slide back down from the platform. It was a slide that went about 20mph basically straight down from about 25 stories. Needless to say, when I got up there and saw it, I had second thoughts. But I did it anyways, and came out unscathed minus some rugburn on my elbows.

After leaving Klagenfurt, I made a straight shot for Ljubliana, Slovenia, which was only 90 minutes away. Upon arriving, I found my hostel, and got situated for the evening. The guy working at the hostel, Pir, is a great guy and he gave me lots of tips on where to go while I’m here. The big thing tonight was to go to Metalkova, which is something like an independent area of the city located on a former Yugoslavian military installation. The area is covered in graffiti and is now a mix of squatters, punk rockers, hipsters, tourists, and locals out for the evening. The place has an anything goes, laid back type of atmosphere. I wound up meeting a lot of people there, including a gentleman from Belize by way of Chicago (who talks Jamaican) who has been living in Slovenia for 6 years and a Slovenian guy who has traveled the entire European continent on bike and has the biggest calves I’ve ever seen. I even wound up in a jam session and found that many people liked my songs, which was highly encouraging because I wasn’t sure what Eastern Europeans would truly think of American country music. But they seemed very much into country and bluegrass! I’m very much looking forward to playing some tunes with my PA here soon!

Finally, I got word from Anna Maria that her flight connection was missed in Washington D.C. So now she will not arrive until Monday. I’m bummed about that because I was all set to pick her up in the morning and she’s been looking forward to this trip for a long time. But we will adjust and make sure she gets to see as much as possible without the one day that she’ll be missing.

Sorry for the long post, there was a lot I wanted to tell you guys about. That’s all I have for now. Talk to you soon!