Dear family

I am travel blogging for you for this little trip so you can follow me wherever I go xx Stay tuned...

It already feels like we’ve been flying for ages, but we’re still in Australia. Tlying for hours and still not even out of the country, it doesn’t even really seem right. We’re approaching the NW corner of the country, moving across the Northern Territory. Still another 10 hours to Dubai! I downloaded bunch of things to watch on the iPad but what do you know, my headphones don’t work on iPad Pro and I need a new dongle. Thanks Apple. Ever reliable!

Not much else to say from the plane. Excellent chicken pasta. Karen has gold status with Qantas/Emirates so we got to sit in the nice lounge, get express passes all the way through, and they serve us our food first. It’s worthwhile.

Next landing point to Dubai for the requisite 3 hour 25 mins. \240I always look forward to a proper Turkish coffee, thick with cardamom and the tears of Muslim women. From there Karen’s flying to Ljubljana via Munich, and I’m flying to Croatia and then jumping on a bus for the scenic version through to ljubljsna. HiWe should arrive the same time on Tues \240afternoon

On Wednesday I’m gonna hire a car and drive to lake bled. Google it! Also google the trump mine craft statue is Slovenia. Melania trump is from nearby. I’ll try to get a photo with important Slovenian Trump landmarks to highlight this moment in time.

Thurs fri and sat morn conference but I’ll update you on my moments as we confirm the plan for the rest of the week.

Love you my whanau s xx

Finally landed in Ljubljana after about 27 hours of travelling. I flew into Croatia and then had a shuttle bus take me across the border into Slovenia. Slovenia used to be part of Yugoslavia along with Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro (the latter being where cousin Jovan’s family are from). I got a taxi to my apartment and even though I could have quite happily gone straight to bed, it was still only about 4.30pm. So I found the nearest supermarket and went and got some healthy food. Then my colleague Karen, who is staying at a hotel nearby, came round to my place and we had an early dinner of fresh pasta. It was lovely when I finally got to bed.

The Air BnB I’ve rented is really cute, in a funny old apartment block. It is owned by a woman who is a microbiologist and she does a lot of work for UNICEF in Africa. Most of the decor in the flat is from when she was in Uganda, so it’s pretty interesting stuff. I’ll take some photos to show you.

I had a good sleep and then had a nice FaceTime with Geoff and Stella. Then Karen and I went on a free walking tour of the old town. Ljubljana is really beautiful, a bit like Tallinn in Estonia or \240Prague in Czech Republic, but not so touristy. It had a population of 260,000 (like Hamilton!) and 60,000 of those are students at the large local university. Slovenia has an extremely low crime rate, with only one homicide per year, and the people pride themselves on being very peaceful, unlike most of their Balkan neighbours to the south! They were able to stay out of the Yugoslavian conflicts in the 90s, and were the first of the formerly communist European nations to join the European Union. They were never Soviet communists either; rather they were an independent communist nation which was much more free and progressive. They have maintained a strong public system with free uni education, healthcare etc., and seem to have very good quality of life.

I’m back at the flat now and will have tea with some colleagues tonight before the conference starts properly tomorrow.

Lots of love to you all xxx