Sometimes When I’m Travelling, I Crave Something Familiar

What do you eat when you’re away from home?

I love trying the local foods even when I don’t know what they are. I tried a local sweet yesterday instead of ordering the familiar Apple strudel. It wasn’t as delicious as apple strudel but I ate it all. It’s called Gibanica. Try it. You may like it. It’s a famous Slovenian layer cake.

To be truthful, to me, it tasted a little like dirt. I’m sure it wasn’t!

After the not-so-delicious afternoon tea, I wasn’t up to a fancy restaurant dinner — so I just grabbed a chicken tandoori paneer wrapped in a huge naan bread from one of the street markets. It was cheap and so yummy I ate it before thinking of a photo.

This morning, I was craving some real Aussie breakfast food — not pastries or chocolate croissants — and I found a restaurant serving English Breakfast for €10.90.

“Let’s give it a go,” I suggested. Erilyn agreed immediately. We were way past the breakfast serving hours but I sweet-talked the server to have some eggs, bacon and mushrooms for us. We also each ordered freshly squeezed orange juice and a tall latte.

It resembled what I would normally eat for breakfast, but the bacon was tastier than Aussie bacon and you would never be given three eggs for breakfast. We would probably toast our bread a lot longer than is done here, but I’m not a picky eater.

The strange thing is I never have fried eggs at home. I eat bacon and eggs on the weekend but they’re always poached or scrambled, but it felt familiar anyway. During the week I have some breakfast cereal usually muesli and milk or Greek yoghurt or both and fresh fruit on top — bananas, raspberries or blueberries. Sweet breakfast foods just don’t seem right.

I started my meal with the orange juice and finished it with coffee — yes, I like it half-strength. After a fantastic visit to the National Slovenian Museum, we headed home via a chemist to stock up on Nurofen for my knee. Beside the chemist was a SPAR supermarket. “Let’s eat in tonight.”

We shared a salmon spaghetti and some cheese and spinach cannelloni. We’re getting prepared to go to Italy tomorrow. And splurged on some champagne in tiny bottles. The total for dinner, breakfast and snacks for the train journey tomorrow was €23.78 — including champagne. That’s one of the best things about travelling in Europe. Groceries are so much cheaper than in Australia.

My first breakfast in England almost 4 months ago. My travelling days are coming to an end. It’s time to go home.