Slovenia Rocks My Socks!

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Greetings from Slovenia! We have just spent four days here: two in Ljubljana and two in Bled.

We arrived in Ljubljana in the early evening after our time in Villach and found our hostel without incident. The hostel was really cute, with only 14 beds and a very intimate, friendly feel. It was already dark, but we decided to wander down to the river and see what there was to see. It turns out the river is the place to be in the early evening, because the restaurants lining it all lit up their patios with candles and they were all packed with locals. We crossed the landmark Triple Bridge and found a cute cafe for a glass of wine/beer.

The next morning we got up early and walked back to the bridge to get some photos in the daytime. As we walked up the river to the Dragon Bridge (named that for the four huge dragon statues carved on it) we found that the whole main square had been turned into an outdoor marketplace that sold everything from pumpkins to used pants (weird). Teija bought a cute scarf since it was cold out (13 degrees feels cold after Italy and Greece!) After loitering around the market for awhile we ascended the hill where the Ljubljana Castle is precariously balanced. The castle looked out over the entire city and made for a fantastic photo op. But the best part of the castle was the tree swing! Tj fell off twice. The castle was also a hotspot for wedding photos that day and we saw at least thee couples and their wedding parties up there posing. We walked back down the hill to another side of the market and found an awesome brass band playing swing and "big band" type music. They were great, and a big crowd had gathered with little kids dancing in the middle. So cute! We walked a bit further and stopped to listen to a choir wearing traditional Slovenian costume. They sang and danced and it was quite cool. There were three huge barrels of wine there, and when we enquired about the price for a glass we learned it was FREE. Jackpot! So we indulged in *some* glasses of free wine and enjoyed the festivities. We spent three hours in the afternoon hiking through the trails in the large Tivoli Park on the opposite side of town from the castle. In the middle of the park we found huge ski jumping ramps with little 8 year old skiing prodigies bombing down them... sweet.

The next morning we headed an hour north to the town of Bled (population 2000). It is a huge summer vacation destination for Europeans, but as we are in the off season it was quiet. After finding our hostel we set out to the lake. We walked the 6km loop around it and drank in the scenery. It is set in the Julian Alps so the mountains are stunning. In the middle of the lake is a little island with a beautiful old church built on it (circa 1500s). We rented a rowboat for an hour and rowed out to the island to take photos and look around. Tj did not know how to stop the rowboat so he rammed it into the dock...and lo and behold it stopped. We finished off the day with a trip up to Bled Castle which sits on a hill above the lake, overlooking the valley. However, the entry fee was 7 euros so we snuck around the side and climbed up some rocks and got the same beautiful view for free.

The next day we decided to visit Vintgar Gorge in the Triglav National Park, so we hiked about 3km out of the town through farm country. We saw a couple of cows hooking up... hot. Vintgar Gorge has wooden walkways built into the cliff faces so that visitors can walk along the length of the gorge and see waterfalls, deep pools and FISH. The hike is about 3km for the whole thing, and at the halfway point there is a big waterfall (about 16m and quite dramatic). Most people just looked down at it from the bridge at the top, but we found a way down to the bottom for much better viewing. After our hike back from the Gorge we visited an excellent restuarant for some Slovenian goulash and Bled's famous cream cakes.... delicious! We ended the night watching the Arsenal- West Ham match at the George Best Bar below our room which was quite nice.

A couple things about Slovenia that you should know: the people are so friendly and will go out of their way to help, which makes the place even better than it already was. And everywhere you go the little kids are playing hockey. (sweeeeeet).

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