Eurotrip 2019 - Slovenia
** My internet is terrible so I'll upload photos to this post another time.
A bloody long overnight bus ride (I'll do anything to save some cash!) took me from Sarajevo to Ljubljana, a place I immediately fell in love with. After the rough around the edges Balkans, Ljubljana was clean, tidy, had fresh air, no traffic, water fountains, free and clean public toilets, was very green, lots of public spaces, loads of recycling facilities including composting, heaps of bike transport, lovely architecture, I loved it!!
I didn't really do much as it was super hot and the hostel I was staying at was a bit far out of town, so I would leave in the morning and just walk around the city for ages, stopping every now and then for an ice cream and a Byrek. As usual I did the free city tour which was OK, wandered up to the castle, walked along the river, and generally just soaked in the atmosphere.
I headed to Bled a few days later which I was SO EXCITED about. I have wanted to go here for the longest time, and was so glad I was finally making the trip. It's a very small town dominated by a very big, bluest of the blues, lake, with a charming little church in the centre on an island.
On my first day I hiked up into hills behind the lake to get a good view of the lake and town below - I highly recommend this hike, look for Mala Osojnica on a map and basically take any of the routes up - steep but so worth it!
The second day I gathered some fellow hostel guests to swim with me to the church in the centre of the lake. The water was warm and clear and tasted so fresh (I accidentally drank some) and an absolute luxury to swim in. The amount of times on this trip I have said 'I wish I had a gopro', I really just need to buy the bloody thing. I spent the afternoon doing some geocaching with a girl I met in the hostel and eating the famous Bled cream cake - which I surprisingly didn't like very much. Was kinda like a custard slice but not as nice.
The next day was very exciting - Anja came to meet me!!!! Remember Anja? I met her when I was working at Kinloch Lodge, and we travelled new Zealand together for 3 weeks. She lives in Austria so I dropped her a message to say I was in Europe and would be cool to meet up, and she said she was going to be in Slovenia around the same time I was - cool!!! She booked some accommodation in Kranjska Gora in northern Slovenia, picked me up from Bled, then we drove north via Lake Bohinj and an expensive waterfall called Slap Savica - I didn't really rate either of them to be honest, after seeing Lake Bled it's hard to beat.
Unfortunately the weather didn't play ball for most of the time we were there, so our dreams of hiking the Julian Alps were smashed to pieces when the storms came rumbling in, but we did still get out and explore.
We visited the Planica Nordic Centre, which has huge ski jumps which you can walk up - they were so high the clouds covered them - those ski jumpers are brave! We checked out the Slovenian Alpine Museum, which is great for a rainy day (and a sunny day too actually - I learnt a lot!) and when we were there they had an exhibition on female Alpine climbers - bad ass! There is a free coach that takes you from the Alpine Museum up into the Radovna Valley, so we walked a bit to a waterfall - this one was really awesome, Slap Pericnik, and free!) then got the bus the rest of the way to the top of the valley and all the way down again. One night we drove to Italy for a pizza, just because we could (my mind is still blown at the fact that in central Europe you can visit 4 different countries in one day).
My favourite day was when we thought the weather was still going to be lame, so we took a drive over the mountain pass in Triglav National Park over to Trenta and the Soca Valley. We left in the cold and rain, and as we got higher the skies cleared and the rain was left behind, and we ended up in a super sunny spot - with no sun cream or sunglasses, oops! But we did a cool little hike to the start of the Soca river, which ended up in a scary scramble along a waterfall, and later on a beautiful walk along the river gorge. It was a stunning day!
A bloody long overnight bus ride (I'll do anything to save some cash!) took me from Sarajevo to Ljubljana, a place I immediately fell in love with. After the rough around the edges Balkans, Ljubljana was clean, tidy, had fresh air, no traffic, water fountains, free and clean public toilets, was very green, lots of public spaces, loads of recycling facilities including composting, heaps of bike transport, lovely architecture, I loved it!!
I didn't really do much as it was super hot and the hostel I was staying at was a bit far out of town, so I would leave in the morning and just walk around the city for ages, stopping every now and then for an ice cream and a Byrek. As usual I did the free city tour which was OK, wandered up to the castle, walked along the river, and generally just soaked in the atmosphere.
I headed to Bled a few days later which I was SO EXCITED about. I have wanted to go here for the longest time, and was so glad I was finally making the trip. It's a very small town dominated by a very big, bluest of the blues, lake, with a charming little church in the centre on an island.
On my first day I hiked up into hills behind the lake to get a good view of the lake and town below - I highly recommend this hike, look for Mala Osojnica on a map and basically take any of the routes up - steep but so worth it!
The second day I gathered some fellow hostel guests to swim with me to the church in the centre of the lake. The water was warm and clear and tasted so fresh (I accidentally drank some) and an absolute luxury to swim in. The amount of times on this trip I have said 'I wish I had a gopro', I really just need to buy the bloody thing. I spent the afternoon doing some geocaching with a girl I met in the hostel and eating the famous Bled cream cake - which I surprisingly didn't like very much. Was kinda like a custard slice but not as nice.
The next day was very exciting - Anja came to meet me!!!! Remember Anja? I met her when I was working at Kinloch Lodge, and we travelled new Zealand together for 3 weeks. She lives in Austria so I dropped her a message to say I was in Europe and would be cool to meet up, and she said she was going to be in Slovenia around the same time I was - cool!!! She booked some accommodation in Kranjska Gora in northern Slovenia, picked me up from Bled, then we drove north via Lake Bohinj and an expensive waterfall called Slap Savica - I didn't really rate either of them to be honest, after seeing Lake Bled it's hard to beat.
Unfortunately the weather didn't play ball for most of the time we were there, so our dreams of hiking the Julian Alps were smashed to pieces when the storms came rumbling in, but we did still get out and explore.
We visited the Planica Nordic Centre, which has huge ski jumps which you can walk up - they were so high the clouds covered them - those ski jumpers are brave! We checked out the Slovenian Alpine Museum, which is great for a rainy day (and a sunny day too actually - I learnt a lot!) and when we were there they had an exhibition on female Alpine climbers - bad ass! There is a free coach that takes you from the Alpine Museum up into the Radovna Valley, so we walked a bit to a waterfall - this one was really awesome, Slap Pericnik, and free!) then got the bus the rest of the way to the top of the valley and all the way down again. One night we drove to Italy for a pizza, just because we could (my mind is still blown at the fact that in central Europe you can visit 4 different countries in one day).
My favourite day was when we thought the weather was still going to be lame, so we took a drive over the mountain pass in Triglav National Park over to Trenta and the Soca Valley. We left in the cold and rain, and as we got higher the skies cleared and the rain was left behind, and we ended up in a super sunny spot - with no sun cream or sunglasses, oops! But we did a cool little hike to the start of the Soca river, which ended up in a scary scramble along a waterfall, and later on a beautiful walk along the river gorge. It was a stunning day!
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