Friday, April 07, 2006

The Opportunity and The Choice

When the company incentive trip landed me in Italy for a week last year, I took the opportunity to extend my stay. Being an avid backpacker, travelling with a tour was not my cup of tea. By the end of that week, I was itching to break out on my own!

But where to go from there? And with only an extra week to spare? That was a tough choice. I was itching to soak in the atmosphere of a place and explore at leisure off-the-beaten tracks. From experience, after a full week of churches, cathedrals and centuries-old historical buildings, I would be dying to get myself back to nature. Looking around the neighbouring countries and considering the Euro exchange rate, I decided to have a sneak peek at Eastern Europe instead. And so Slovenia was the logical choice.

Situated on the north east of Italy, Slovenia may be a small country but she offers a plethora of beautiful scenery that is influenced by the changing climate and topography within a small space of land i.e. from the quaint Mediterranean coastal towns of Piran and Koper to the UNESCO declared World Heritage Skocjan Caves, to the spectacular Julian Alps and the beautiful crystal clear waters of Soca Valley. Dang! This is beginning to sound like a travel catalogue! :p

Thus began the fun of planning for the trip. In fact, half the fun is IN planning the trip and bringing together likeminded travel companions. I managed to rope in an old school friend, Su, who is now based in London. She and her friend Cecile were to fly to Trieste, Italy (an Italian border town) from London, while TooToo (a colleague) and I would take a train from Milan (our final tour destination in Italy) to Trieste. From there, we would rent a car and drive across the border to Slovenia. Cecile, being the only French lady in the group and the only person most familiar with right hand driving was most qualified to bear the burden of having our lives solely in her hands. She was tasked with driving us around.


Map of Italy from www.lonelyplanet.com


Peik Lean Y.

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