Milan and Back Home to France

We had an overnight stop in Milan on the way back. We had a bad time finding the place because we missed the exit and we had to drive for miles further away before there was nowhere we could turn back.

It was a slow old trip through Italy. I don’t know if it was the volume of traffic or what it was, but wherever an exit appeared off the motorway the traffic would be backed up for miles coming up to it. We left Milan at 9am and by 12 noon we still hadn’t crossed the French border. Very slow going. A few times the traffic was so congested that we had to stop in the middle of the tunnel which is definitely not my favourite place to be stuck. Samuel likes the tunnels because they’re good for playing his DS.

We planned to go shopping in one of the new big shopping centres before we left but I forgot it was a public holiday and all the shops were shut. Slovenia is not particularly touristy like other European cities but that is changing. I found it difficult to buy a postcard because they don’t have tourist souvenir stuff everywhere you go. I’m always complaining about all that tourist trash but when I actually wanted some I couldn’t find any. We found that Slovenians are very open to speaking English which was something we found especially appealing after our struggles in France.

So back to France. Our trip to Slovenia has been wonderful and exceeded all expectations. We had an incredible time meeting the family. The warmth and hospitality was beyond anything we expected. They were so thrilled to see us. We talked and talked and we made them laugh with our attempts to speak Slovensko especially Andrew. I was quite anxious about the language but I amazed myself by understanding way more than I thought I would. Of course, the conversation was stilted at times but it made for some hilarious conversations which we videoed for Mum and Dad back home.

Andrew also had a great time. He is an excellent communicator and can relate to people even when he doesn’t speak a word of the language. Everybody loved him. We were treated like royalty everywhere we went.

We plan to return to Slovenia at the end of June for the annual reunion of my father’s family.