Travel Log Part 4

Ljubljana, Slovenia (lu-blee-YAW-na) 19 March 2008
On the bus from Bled to Zagreb, Croatia

The demographic of this tour group is interesting. It's not what I expected. I'm not sure what I did expect, but this isn't it. Fern is the youngest member of the group, followed by Kevin. I'm close to being the next youngest after that. There are several people in their 30's-40's, the rest, all older. My parents would have fit in nicely with this group. I kinda expected more families with kids. We chose this trip because it coincided with spring break and the price was about the same as a cruise. And, it's someplace we've never been. Different is always good when it comes to vacations. Or so I think now.

Casino Report:

Last night was Tuesday, a quiet night for restaurants in the U.S., and it seemed quiet for Bled, too. We ate dinner at the Panorama Restaurant, with a wonderful view of the lake, and were the only diners. Fern and I had different preparations of trout, Kevin had spaghetti carbonara and Dan had seafood risotto. The casino just happened to be on the way back from dinner and I just happened to have my passport with me to get in. Dan took the kids back to the hotel and I made my detour.

Roulette is pretty much universal. American and Caribbean casinos have 0 and 00, European casinos just have 0, but the rest is about the same. I made a loop around the place to check it out and noticed one roulette table was open and there was someone there playing already. I don't like to play alone, I like the camaraderie of fellow gamblers, cheering them on for numbers hit. I payed 20 euro for a stack of chips and joined the table. This other woman make no acknowledgment of my congratulations when the ball dropped into the slot with one of her numbers. I felt slighted at first but there is a language barrier so I wasn't offended long. She lost her money soon after that so I played alone. I tend to play conservatively, I wasn't out of chips yet and I wasn't ahead, so I kept going.

The wheel was cold, I like to play the "street," one chip to cover six numbers, so my numbers would hit a round too late, or I was off by one row. I had resigned myself to be just playing to play, not to win. I started betting on red or black and hit a couple times, but still I was down. I had 4 or 5 chips left and was mentally ready to leave when a new dealer came out to my table. Then it got hot. Needless to say, I have a lot more fun when the table is hot. I got up to over 30 chips, and after a few losing bets, I cashed in, mostly because no-one else had joined my table, I was still playing alone. Maybe gambling alone is like drinking alone? But I was 10 euros, $15 ahead, not a bad little detour after dinner.