Category: Jane&#8217;s Journal

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After 107 days and 18 countries, I returned to Idaho. If fun was the goal of the sabbatical, it was a roaring success. I had some really great experiences and saw things that have been on the ol’ bucket list for a while. As a bonus, I never once got kidnapped or caught a waterborne…

Dublin and the North of Ireland

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Dublin I have some very important advice for people driving to Dublin. Don’t drive to the touristy area of Dublin during rush hour traffic. It was truly terrible. Lots of roads closed to only taxis and busses (which didn’t stop us from driving on them) and both Google and Apple Maps led us astray. It…

Brighton and Western Ireland

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I arrived at London Gatwick airport after a somewhat sketchy flight from Italy. Who knew you could take a prop plane over the Alps? The poor little girl behind me had to use her puke bag, but I did okay. My plan was to overnight in London and then fly to Ireland the next day.…

Dolomites

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After an uber ride, a shuttle van where I was once again the middle seat of the front row right next to the driver, a tram, three trains, a bus, a hike up a hill and four flights of stairs, (all of this in 93 degree weather!) I made it to my place in the…

Bled and Other Parts of Slovenia

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If people know anything about Slovenia, they know Lake Bled. This beautiful blue lake features Slovenia’s only island right smack dab in the middle of it. There is a big white church with a red roof on that island and the color contrast of red and white with the green mountains and blue water and…

Ljubljana

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Slovenia: the final country I needed to visit in the former Yugoslavia. Did you know yugo means south and slavia means well, Slavs, so the federation of Yugoslavia was created for Southern (south of Russia) slavs? Fun fact. Ljubljana is the capital city of this small but potent country. With a population about the size…

Zagreb

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We flew a quick 55-minute flight from Dubrovnik up to Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb. I am not sure what I was expecting from Zagreb, but it exceeded my expectations handedly. This city is very reminiscent of other Austro-Hungarian cities, with big beautiful buildings and good public transportation. Old Town We stayed in the Old…

Dubrovnik

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B and I decided that life would be easier if we just hired a driver to take us from Bosnia to Croatia. A very nice man picked us up and we started on the two hour journey. He made a pit stop by his house so he could pick us some fresh grapes from the…

Mostar

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We took the train from Sarajevo down to Mostar. We had a hot tip from several blogs to make sure we sat on the left side of the train and for the first two hours that didn’t really make sense, but the last 30 minutes went through a stunning canyon with some epic views that…

Sarajevo

Aug 13, 2026

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