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Published: March 3rd 2009
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Bus ride
Ljubljana - Bled bus ride Ok, Lake Bled with Amy. Sleeping in… horrible way to start this venture, so I grabbed a quick bite to eat at the hostel and took off towards the buses. I actually got on the correct bus where she said she would be and headed towards the lakes on a rainy day in Slovenia. Although it was disgusting out, the scenery was fantastic, everything was insanely green, the fog peered in and out of the mountains along the road, and when the sun peeked through a rainbow seemed to appear every time. We got there around noon and headed towards the only hostel in the 6,000 person town of Bled. It was still raining and looked like it would never stop, so I took a nap in the hostel above a bar. Woke up around 4pm and guess what? Still raining!! I wasn’t happy, there were so many things in the area I wanted to do and rain never helps; white water rafting, NO, canyons too full, canyoning, NO, canyons too full, bike riding, NO, its cold and raining, Bled castle, NO, its raining, a boat to the island, NO, its raining, etc. I was mad… but at least
not mad alone, Amy and a woman from Galicia were also hanging around a bit disappointed.
It finally let up right before dusk, so I basically ran up to the castle. Well maybe I walked up the trail quickly, or maybe just normal. The trail was in the woods with switchbacks the entire way up. Yes, it was slippery and nearly dark; I was waiting for someone with an axe to jump out or I suppose the more logical folly of breaking an ankle. Bled Castle was great; the views from the top of a rock were great, especially since the sun was fading through the clouds in the background. After I returned to the hostel, slightly dirty, wet, and blessed with no flesh wounds, I grabbed some dinner with Amy. The dinner was deliciously random; I basically got mixed vegetables and pasta, but it wasn’t the typical vegetables that come with Italian pasta. I had lima beans, string beans, potatoes, etc. oh well it was good. Also Lake Bohinj hiking came out of the dinner as well. So, we arranged our hiking trip for the next day… pending the weather.
I love waking up to
a beautiful day… hate waking up to grey skies and rain. We left Lake Bled with cloudy, rainy, cold weather following us to Lake Bohinj. We were hoping the clouds would break and we would have a sunny day to hike a mountain, but the nastiness remained. I was bummed, a bit, and wasn’t really feeling like hiking (cold weather makes me want to stay inside). Oh well, we bit the bullet and got our gondola tickets and took the trip up from the lake. We were in a nasty looking cloud and then we broke out into super awesome sunshine. Everyone on the gondola immediately perked up and Amy and I shared a high five. From the top of the gondola, Lake Bohinj was filled with clouds and the sun shined everywhere else. Mt Triglav was straight across from us, which peaks the Juliana Alps.
We had a few options on which peak we can climb to from this spot. We chose Mt. Sija, an 1880 meter peak on the western side of the lake. We realized we could grab a lift up to the more excited spot, instead of walking uphill through snow in sneakers. Finally
we get to climb some rocks and play in some snow… which I haven’t done in years, since it doesn’t snow much in the sunshine state. We stopped for a bite to eat on a rock, while others from our gondola started to fly up the varying surrounding mountains. The packaged croissants and bread from a convenient store are always delicious before a hike.
As for the actual climb up, it was pretty simple. The occasional snowball fight occurred, spelling my name in the snow (the old fashion way), and made a few friends. Once we arrived atop Mt. Sija, we spoke to a Slovenia man that basically yelled at us for wearing sneakers and not hiking shoes. He also showed us we were able to see the Adriatic Sea and basically Venice from the top of the mountain. He also told us the weather was about to go south in a couple hours and it was a good decision to head down, so we did not get stuck in the nasty weather.
On the way down, I rescued a father from his two children that were pelting him with snowballs… I came in firing away,
Juliana Alpes
From the Bled Castle BAM a kid down, WAP another one flew to the ground… the father thanked me and the two kids where never seen again or they were… how accurate does a story really need to be? Back down the lift and to the gondola, where we found Lake Bohinj not covered by clouds. It was a much clearer view, maybe not as cool, but it was definitely cool to see both. Instead of taking the bus from the gondola, we walked the lake towards Bohinj. The entire area is very “campy” and seemed like they should have filmed a National Lampoons vacation there.
I headed back towards Bled as Amy hiked another hill. I wanted to do a couple other things in that area before I had to depart that next morning. After a quick powernap, I grabbed a mountain bike and headed towards Vitgar Gorge. Up hill, down hill, up hill, and then up hill again. It was supposedly a ten minute bike ride that turned into a forty five, why? Well there is a city called Vitgar Gorge and a gorge called Vitgar Gorge… guess which sign I followed? I was about twenty minutes passed the thing
and figured this out, by some nice old lady pointing me in the right direction. I finally got to the darn thing and walked about half way through it. The gorge itself had water rushing through it, kayakers were being crazy, and people walked the wooden walkway that seemed like it could fall at any time in some places. I didn’t even get to the end because it was becoming to dark and I was told the waterfall at the end was another 10-15 minutes from where I was. Once I got back to the bike and on the road, I was back to the hostel in about 10 minutes, compared to the 45 it took me to get there. Once I got back to the bar/ hostel I did over heard a comment from the barkeep --- “I don’t think hell would be fun… I think it would be like a nonstop roller coaster.”
That morning I finally got to enjoy Lake Bled with all of its intended beauty. The sun was finally out, the mountains were still snow capped, the lake and all its surroundings where all at there peak. The only thing missing was
an attractive female and a picnic basket…
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