Yes, Deer!

 

One of the best things about being in Zagreb is that it's so close to many other countries so you can make a weekend trip, or even a day trip very easily! We went with our friends, on Sunday, to two towns in Slovenia: Olimje and Celje. At first, I was a bit apprehensive about how fun and exciting this trip would really be. Tomislav and Lovro had visited Olimje last year and talked about feeding deer and to be quite honest, I wasn't impressed. I mean, I grew up in the Poconos, PA...basically the deer capital of the world. I had no idea how awesome it would actually be! So first we visited this "Witch's Hut" which is an interactive playhouse made completely of recycled materials.

 An optimistic friend greeting us at the Witch's Hut

It's Pippi Longstocking! My favorite girl from Villa Villekulla (aka Villa Kunterbunt auf Deutsch!)

 T-Slav playing "the bells" for us!

This isn't the actual witch, it's Maja :D

In the town of Olimje, it's really neat because this seemingly tiny village has a lot of beautiful and interesting things to see, all within 2 minutes of each other!

There is a beautiful church and monastery.

 

This is inside the church, and Maja

 Big beautiful goldfish were swimming outside the monastery (and Nemo type fish too!), plus the reflection of the monastery looks awesome in the water

 Me explaining stuff about the monastery, in Croatian. Oh yeah, very accurate indeed. Not sure if we were supposed to actually be in that part of the monastery, oh well! Was very cool!

 Such a beautiful view of the town at our next stop of the trip, home of the deer!

 They were so sweet! We got corn to feed the deer and although some of the Bambi baby types were scared, the big guys were hungry and happy to eat right out of our hands. So sweet!

 Maja feeding the deer

 Here's Lovro 

 Here is Jan

 Here is T-Slav feeding the cutie deer

 As the day went on, it got rather chilly so feeding the deer was a great way to warm up my hands too ;)

Beautiful animals!

 Had to take a gluehwein/kuhano vino/hot mulled wine break :)

 One of my favorite things about winter in Europe is that people continue to use outdoor seating at cafes, bars, and restaurants. The cafes often provide those standing heaters (or better yet, feet heaters!), and what's even cozier, are the soft warm blankets!

Next up, we made our way to Celje, which is actually the 3rd largest city in Slovenia. Unfortunately, on Sunday afternoon, we didn't quite get the impression that this was a large city because by 5pm it was very dark and there were so few people out.

 There were a few lit up decorations though :)

 Maja rode home with this nice Celje man on his bicycle :)