Day 16 - Postojna Caves

---

I had to decide between two caves today... the easy to get to, touristy ones... or the off-the-path ones. Now, 99% of the time I'd go with the off-the-path... but having just spoken to another backpacker who spent forever trying to find the path to the off-the-path caves (haha, oh dear) I decided to play it safe.

Had a wonderful lunch at the little sandwhich place across the road (paninis or sandwhich, 1.99 euro? I'm happy) and then went to catch the bus to Postojna, about an hour south-west of Ljubljana.

The bus ride was nice - great scenery, passing through sleepy little towns in the mountains.

One part was particularly steep with sharp curves - I really wish I had my camera out because the signs were epic - they were warning motorcyclists about sharp turns, and they went like this:
1- motorcycle, standing up right - exclamation point
2- motorcycle skidding on angle around corner - exclamation point, but bolder
3- motorcyclist falling off bike - exclamation point beside the bike and above the guy's head
4- motorcyclist on ground, bike sideways, three crosses on other side of bike

I couldn't help but giggle. That 4th sign... how sad haha.

Anyway, once we arrived in Postojna, I set out to hunt for the caves while the rest of the tourists wandered towards the tourist info. Pfft. It was only about 1 km away from the bus station, so quite easy to find.

Long story short - extremely touristy, over-priced, mismanaged... and yet, the caves are stunning.

As a student, it's 17.60 euro - then they highly recommend you rent a cape for 3.50 euro because you know, it's cold down there... ahem. So all these people are walking around in Lord of the Rings-style capes. Stylish!

Then you're put on a train (after being told no photos... not even without flash! That didn't stop us from being discreet. Ahem) and for 2km you chug-along the caves with no commentary and you're going so fast that you can't appreciate anything. I also spent half the time ducking because the passage were quite low and I didn't trust them.

We were then split up into groups by language... now, you would think the English group would be split up considering it's always the largest... but no. We were just 50 or so people while the other groups were maybe 10-15. I debated going back to find the French group, but it was at the other end, so I stayed English. Tour-guide was nice, but mumbled so you couldn't hear anythign she was saying... and I was only about 5-6 people back. Total fail.

All that being said, for the 30min or so where we actually walked around the cave... it was stunning. Just the formations and the colouring of it all. I really wish we had more time to just wander and take it in... I feel like we were cattle.

Anywho. After that I wandered along the river and just enjoyed the perfect weather while listening to the birds sing.

Back in Ljubljana, we had a live jazz/pop concert in the hostel tonight which was really cool - all covers and the singer (one of the hostel staff) was really great! She has a great tone to her voice.

So that's that. Tomorrow I'm going to stay in town and take in those sights :)

---