Ljubljana, extending Christmas, & our Christmas presents

A postcard in three parts

I’m Scott and welcome to your 5-Minute Vacation for Dec. 29th. I share these snippets of our travels in the hope that my photos and stories will allow you to go on a vicarious vacation and “get away from it all,” if only for a moment. I appreciate you inviting me into your inbox today.

Hello, Friend ~ It’s been a busy end to a busy year. I’ve opted for this “postcard in three parts” format to allow for more photos, fewer words, and a (hopefully) better reading experience. So let’s get at it...

Part One: Ljubljana, Slovenia

We spent the last Christmas of our European adventure in Ljubljana. Friends who had lived there for several years had nothing but nice things to say about the city, so when we got the chance to visit, we took it. I’m glad we took their advice.

Ljubljana Castle overlooks…

Ljubljana’s charming old town.

We capped each day off with the city’s bright and festive Christmas market.

Speaking of Christmas markets…

Part Two: Extending Christmas

Early in our European adventure, we learned that Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7th. In countries with large Orthodox communities, the Christmas markets are open through January 6th (of course!), extending the Christmas season by a dozen days compared to what we were used to. We took advantage of this extra time by visiting at least one additional Christmas market each year.

That’s what I’d like to do with this postcard: extend the Christmas season for you by sharing a few of my favorite Christmas markets with you.

Copenhagen

Tallinn

Wrocław

Vilnius

Bruges

Mainz

Santa’s secret workshop, Budapest.

Part Three: Our Christmas presents to ourselves

You’ve probably heard of the Dog Days of Summer. This year, we had the Dog Days of Christmas. I’m very happy to introduce to you our Christmas presents, Mr. Big and Blue:

Mr. Big is “Mr. Big” because he was one-third bigger than his brother when we picked them up in early December. Blue is “Blue” in reference to Little Boy Blue. Plus, Blue is Rosemary’s favorite color. They are white miniature schnauzers with natural ears, natural tails, puppy breath, and a boatload of wonderful puppy energy.

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To complete this postcard and this year, I’d like to reshare this story with you:

One December in Poland, our cleaning lady wanted to wish us a Happy New Year. Because neither of us spoke the other’s language, we resorted to Google’s Translate app. Its translation of her wish:

“Wish you joyful worlds of champagne fun.”

I have no idea what she really said, but I appreciated the sentiment. I hope your 2025 overflows with joyful worlds of champagne fun.

Thanks for reading. See you next year.

Cheers!

PS ~ If you are new to my photography, you can see more at scottgilbertson.com.