Slovenia

6th-10th May, 2008

Bled

Bled is really a very lovely town set at the base of the Julian Alps on Lake Bled. It was a very chilled out town to be when we weren't off on our adventures.

A very long day of travelling to get to Bled via Trieste and Gorizia in Italy. There were spectualar views of the Alps during my flight to Trieste. And the views were equally as stunning on the train journey from Gorizia to Bled along the Soca River which was a very vivid blue. Met up with Harry at the Bledec Youth Hostel and she filled me in on all the adventures she had planned for us.

Emerald River Adventure - so called because of the emerald colour of the waters we saw and rafted on. The morning started with a drive up to Vrsic Pass (1611m.) where we walked through snow and admired views of the Julian Alps. Stopped off then at Kranjska Gora Lake to meet a statue of the golden horned goat (mountain goat) of which there are legendery tales about but the golden horn is featured famously on Lasko Beer -

View of Alps on flight to Trieste in Italy

the most popular beer in Slovenia and golden in colour. It was then on to visit a nearby gorge and canyon before spending the afternoon rafting. Our last stop was Bohinj which was almost as beautiful as Bled set on a huge lake. The end of the day saw us catching a train back to Bled but with us sitting in our van on one of the carriages of the train.

Spent the morning canyoning just out of Bled which involved lots of abseiling, sliding down rocks in to small pools, small jumps in to pools and a bit of walking. We certainly started very high and travelled a long way down in to the canyon. I was most excited though when Harry spotted a Salamander (shiny black lizard covered in bright yellow spots which looked like paint). It was moving very sluggishly across some rocks.

Harry and I hired mountain bikes in Bled and spent the day riding to Vintgar Gorge and then on to Psnak for lunch. The mountain scenery was stunning. Unfortunately our selection for lunch was not what we had expected - our plate of cold meats including salami and ham and gerkins didn't

Ljubljana by Night

quite cut it after we'd been riding for a good few hours!

Ljubljana

Harry and I caught a bus to Ljubljana (Slovenia's capital) which was only an hour and a half away. We checked in to Hostel Celica which was once a military prison. You can stay in the cells which have been converted in to 2 person rooms. It was lovely walking around the old part of town but very busy on the Saturday morning as there was a fun run happening.

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