Can you travel to Slovenia with diabetes? Absolutely! Slovenia is a small European country tucked between Italy, Croatia and Hungary, but it’s full of very old historical towns, gorgeous Alpine mountains, and lots of really good food. Be smart, and be careful, and diabetes won’t stop you.
*** #BGNOW STATS
My blood sugar stats were not great in Slovenia, but I did see some positive signs. In total, there were 44 checks and the readings ranged from 63 to 392. The average was 196. That 63 was the only reading below 70 the entire time. But there were only two readings the whole time in Slovenia that were over 300. Compared with some of the recent countries, that’s much better. But overall, there were too many readings in the 200s. Slovenia was a constant battle.
In my videos on this channel I always mention how important exercise and food are to my blood sugar levels. That’s true in Slovenia just like everywhere else, but the food in Slovenia seemed to offset any gains in blood sugars. And that was despite some really good days full of exercise, like hiking up to Ljubljana Castle or Ptuj Castle, or walking around Lake Bled, or strolling through the endless alleyways of Piran.
# ROUGH START
Things got off to a rough start: after the train from Hungary arrived in Ptuj my blood sugar was 86. Dinner was pizza and my readings afterward were 110, and then after some juice 103. But at 6 am I woke up feeling bad — I was 392. I took some Humalog but later at breakfast I was still 232. Then I was down to 71 by afternoon.
Things were up and down like that much of the time. Luckily, all of this diabetic volatility didn’t make Slovenia any less beautiful or interesting. It’s such a hidden little gem of a country full of surprises and captivating places to find yourself.
*** SLOVENIAN FOOD AND DIABETES
It was the food in Slovenia that seemed to wreck my readings. I wasn’t eating as much junk food as usual — no dinners of crackers and chocolate milk from the local corner store. Instead it was mostly restaurants, all of which were pretty great. But, whether it was pasta, fish, fried seafood, or breakfasts in the hotels and guesthouses, the food almost always sent me into the mid 200s.
*** WALKING LAKE BLED
It got pretty frustrating. After a string of annoyingly high readings, one day I walked all the way around Lake Bled, one of Central Europe’s most famous views. By the time I finished I was 106. And here’s where you can overthink diabetes: I thought I might still be dropping due to the exercise, so I had a chocolate bar. That made me 196, and then despite the simplicity of my dinner I was 239 before bed. And by the way these high readings usually surprised me.
*** THE GOOD NEWS
But there was another side to all of this irritating high blood sugar: almost as often, it was better than expected. Morning readings were often pretty good, and for every couple of high numbers there were a couple I could live with. Those are the ones that give you hope, and the ones that kept me focusing on my Humalog shots at meals.
At least half the time in Slovenia, diabetes and travel sparred as usual. Meaning, things were unpredictable but worth trying. It wasn’t Slovenia’s fault that I didn’t know how to calculate a dose for mulled hot wine and gigantic hamburgers from the Christmas market in the capital, Ljubljana. But when you’re in a festive place like this, with the lights and merry crowds and live music and food stalls, diabetes is merely something to factor in, not an excuse to shy away from the fun.
In Piran, an amazing place on the coast I’d never even heard of, my blood sugars were especially dire. Despite the hiking around town and zipping up and down the steps and hills and alleyways, there were way too many readings in the 200s. Then again, the one low I had in Slovenia, the 63, happened here. And there was the occasional acceptable number here and there of course.
*** TAKING A STEP BACK
As we sat at an outdoor restaurant in Piran, having a Laško beer and watching the sun setting over the Adriatic Sea, I reflected on the positivity I could detect in my Slovenian blood sugars. The highs were numerous, but not as high as before, and only two in the 300s. There were more readings in the 100s than in recent countries. There was still work to be done but I was chipping away at my understanding of how to see and experience this part of Europe as a diabetic.
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