This was such a long day that I’m writing this the next morning!

Note: This is the seventh post in this series. Go HERE to start from the beginning.

Our take-off time was 7:45 this morning, at least for those of us who’d signed up for a workshop at the fifth annual wild Food Festival at the Kozjanska National Park. Others came along a bit later. So it was a quick breakfast and off we went!

This festival was in a quite remote, but very beautiful, area. There were a lot of windy roads and gorgeous views along the way. We didn’t run into any traffic that seemed to be going the same way, but when we arrived there were a good number of cars. The whole thing was very low-key on the way. Someone said you could even live in the area and not know it was going on. There was only one handmade-looking sign at the turnoff, and all it said was “festival” (in Slovenian, of course 😉 ). From the parking area, we walked up a hill, and voila! One building with booths set up all around.

Our workshop was a local expert talking about the edible plants that can be found in the area, many that get overlooked as weeds such as dandelion, purselane, and some others I don’t recall. Our expert was a young lady who not only knew a lot, but switched well between Slovenian and English. We were a bit late arriving, but everyone seemed to take that in stride. After showing and discussing the individual plants, it was off to a portion of the meadow-orchard to show how to find them in the wild.

Jen and I did a selfie to send to the Utah River Rafting group. The shirt I’m wearing was a gift from one of the ladies on that trip (thanks Linda!), so we wanted to let them know we were thinking of them.

We had time to visit the booths, many of whom were selling medicinal herbs, teas, and oils. Some had crafts such as jewelry, ceramics, and woodworking. After one swing around, I returned to a couple of the booths to purchase a couple of things. I won’t say what, exactly, because they’re gifts for friends, but these are the booths of the things I got.

The whole atmosphere was like a craft fair in the 70s. It was nice to meet the folks actually making the items for sale. The lady is putting a cord on the item I bought from her.

After grabbing lunch here, we headed off to our next stop, the Olimje Monastary.

Very ornate inside. I used to kind of recoil at all the imagery inside Catholic churches, but since learning that most of the parishioners were illiterate and these images were like books for them, it makes more sense. The picture from a distance is from our next stop (more in a moment), but shows a good overview of the monastery grounds. And the last stop here was the chocolate factory. So much chocolate, so little space for sweets! Since anything we bought would melt in the heat of the day, it was eat on the spot. Good thing they had individual portions.

In the same general area was a reindeer farm. This area was really crowded, so kudos to Jen and Ellen for maneuvering the vans in the area. (I did have an opportunity to play traffic cop at one point, which was fun. 😉 ) The reindeer are obviously very used to people, and you can buy food to feed them. While remaining a bit wary, they come right up to people to be fed. They are beautiful animals, aren’t they?

Bonus, from a viewing station, I caught a bunch of our group looking out over the farm.

After a nice respite at the restaurant here, it was off to our last stop for the day, the Podsreda Castle. This structure started life as a Roman fort, but why they chose this remote and off-the-beaten-path location is a mystery to me. It’s a very beautiful area (of course!), but there must be some strategic reason I didn’t catch. Anyway it has gone through many iterations of building and re-building to be where it is today. The outside walls are three meters thick. And we got to see the construction in the attic area; not an original Roman portion but a later addition. And the mosaic-type picture is a detail of the flooring in one of the upstairs rooms, most likely an area not frequented by the common soldiers.

Here’s where we had dinner. There were several courses, and we took two tours in between the courses–both to let our food settle and give the cooks time to prepare, I’m guessing.

What a meal! Another so-much-food-so-little-room experience. Our main course was a variety of meats (mostly) served on a tray that took two people to bring it in. Those two people just happened to be the chef and his son, who was our waiter for the evening. And there was another tray for the vegetarians among us.

This was not a restaurant, per se. We were the only group here eating this night. What a unique experience!

Last pictures from the day were from exhibits and a window high in the tower. If I’m not mistaken, the exhibit pictures were of the places visible from the window. This gives you an idea of the beauty of this place.

We were scheduled to be back at the hotel by 9 PM, but we didn’t actually leave the castle until then. Glad I didn’t have to do the driving. We arrived safe and sound and happy to be back from this long but wonderful day. Luckily the next day’s schedule is a bit more leisurely, or at least with a later start!