Sometimes I struggle with getting up in the morning – not just due to the backache problems, not because I am lazy but because I am somehow reluctant to get up and face all the problems, issues and tense situations that I know await me at work and at home or even just meeting a neighbor whose sight I cannot stand because he woke me up at 5 30 in the morning because of his/hers rumblings. Seems like everywhere I look at, we are all fighting some sort of a battle. Like my good friend who divorced her partner and now is battling life with a teenage daughter. Or my friend from high schools whose wife decided she needs him to move out of their family house and now he is battling time, money and divorce issues while trying to stay a good dad. Or my friend from Ukraine, whose whole Country is at war with the aggressor Russia. Or me, who has to battle just to put on his socks in the morning because his back decided that putting socks has been much too easy of a task before. More important, even I find it difficult to make any significant successes at my work, everything I tackle seems to find some way to go awry. Battle battle everywhere I look. Even hanging out with my kids seems lately to turn into some sort of a battle. I am realizing that there were very few moment in the last few months that I really felt at ease, felt as if I can completely relax and be in the moment. Well as it turns out, today was such a day.
We went to the Celje Castle (Celeia), which is the Štajerska region of Slovenia. We have visited the castle before, but we didn’t visit the city. Today we went for the whole shebang. For some reason the kids didn’t object (much), they enjoyed the sights and were patient enough when the adults wanted to read the historic information in the museums. This level of unity or harmony was mostly out of reach for us in some of our previous outings, so it feels good to discover we still have it in us to be Hertourage. However, it all makes sense that the kids will protest when dragged on outings that we planned for them. They have left their innocent childhood behind and have walked bravely into their teenage years, which has influenced their behavior and their attitude towards us as parents quite visibly…and painfully. But I accept that, I am just realizing that I miss us as we were, but at the same time I am enjoying them as they are becoming now – regardless of the effort. Independent (sometimes to rebellious degrees), smart and a handful – the latter mostly because they are healthy and energetic and I should be thankful for that fact…should be, but it is still hard. Therefore, having a trip where I could feel the unity, we could achieve before so effortlessly, feels so relaxing, that the words just rush from under my fingers. Otherwise, when I try to sugarcoat a trip where we mostly fought and argued if we are going to the left or right at every turn, I admit I struggle. Cause on one hand I do not want to write only about how we argued, while on the other hand writing as if everything is nice and dandy feels fake – is fake, like most of my connections on Facebook. This time I write it as it was – the most negative thing about today was the farts in the museum – I will refrain from stating any names, but it was a she and it wasn’t my wife.
Truly is a sight to behold. 
There are so many things for the kids to occupy themselves with. 
Or be creative. 
even the big kids can make fun of the Celeia’s counts. Thankfully, he was virtual, or he would have kicked my ass. 
And the views from the castle are breathtaking – we just need to catch a more sunny day. 
In the city museum, we learned a lot about a very important time for the Celje city, which is amazing and tragic at the same time – the history of Celeia’s counts feels like a real life game of thrones without dragons. I cannot believe nobody made a Netflix series about these guys yet. For us, the most interesting thing was dressing up into knights. 
The last room in the Town history museum was the skull room, which features the skulls of the last living male descendants of the Celeia counts lineage – the room was aerie to say the least and I hope I managed to capture that feel with this picture.
The skulls of the dead – now I am certain I want to get cremated.
ojoj…to pa ni bilo lepo prebrati, si kje zraven??