Bled

---

Tuesday July 23 – Today Tina and I got up early and had breakfast at the hostel. Nice to have it included, but so much of it not healthy. We walked to the bus station a little early and got there at just about 9am. There was a bus loading up and nearly ready to go so I thought we would just get the next one. But the lady at the counter sold Tina the tickets and told me to go tell the bus driver to wait, so I did. He opened the luggage hold and we dropped our bags and off we went. We got to Bled at 10:30, thirty minutes earlier than we’d told Laura, the woman meeting us there, to show us the room we rented. Luckily a taxi driver named Darko called her for us and she came to get us early. Laura showed us around on our five minute walk to the room. We rented the room from her friend, but the friend was out of town and the husband didn’t speak English. The room was nice and had a small kitchen area. Laura also gave us some information about things to do, which was really helpful.

Yesterday I was worried that three days here might be too many, but one look around and I knew it wouldn’t be. But it must be said that I was wrong about the temperature. Or at least, the internet was. It is not cool, it is quite warm here. Tina and I got settled and then went out for some lunch. Laura mentioned that there was a good restaurant that had a cheap lunch menu, but when we got there they said they didn’t. We ate anyway, and the food was good. I had the grilled squid again and enjoyed it. After lunch, we got our suits on and headed for the lake. We thought we could swim a bit and walk around the lake as well. It’s about four miles around or so. Apparently there was no need to change ahead of time – everyone rocks up in their normal clothes and changes on the beach or the grass, wherever they have set up a place. Some people change under a towel they have around their waist. Some just change in the open. I saw some naked bodies over the next couple of days as they went about their business. You would never see this in the states, but it wasn’t a big deal. We walked around and found a few nice places to sit. But by then, it was getting cloudy and we could hear thunder. The bigger problem was that the lake was on the colder side, at least for two girls from Florida. We tried to swim but since it was cloudy, we just weren’t hot enough already to justify it. I always have problems with cold water. One nice thing was that the ducks are pretty ok being near people, and this one duck just kept swimming around us. It was very cute. We saw it happen to other people too. We finished our lake experience with only some wading around, no swimming.

When we made it around the lake, back in Bled we stopped at the information office to ask about some plans for the coming days, and then headed towards a place where they make Bled cream cakes, the traditional dessert of the place. So of course we stopped and had one. The only problem was that we sat down and the guy did not come over to help us. I think we sat there for ten minutes. We finally went to sit inside instead, to see if the service there would be better. Plus, it looked like it might rain, so we thought that could be better too. And as a benefit, no one is allowed to smoke inside, unlike on the patios, and everyone in Europe smokes. So this way we could eat without the smoke. And the cake was tasty. It was also dinner. The lunch was pretty big, and neither of us was hungry after that.

It rained lightly and we went back to the room. I spent some time being annoyed that my computer would not use the wifi signal reliably. I don’t know why it wouldn’t, but it didn’t. Frustrating. At 7:45pm we walked up to the castle for sunset. Laura said you could get in free then and that the views were great, as the castle is perched on a cliff over the lake. She was wrong about the fee – they charged it right up until 9pm – but right about the views. We found a path that went behind the castle and right up alongside it. We went even able to look into one of the museum rooms, and we had a terrific view of the lake and the sunset, and no one else was there. It was great. We found another path going towards the lake, at least, we hoped it did. So we took it, hoping it wouldn’t be too dark before we were done. It felt really adventurous to do, but also safe as it was clearly a well established path. It just didn’t have a sign on it. We followed it down and it eventually connected with another lit path that goes up to the castle. We just followed it down and made it to the lake where we saw some swans with two babies. They were ridiculously cute. We took some pictures and watched for a while, and then headed back to the room.

Wednesday July 24 - See Bohinj

Thursday July 25 – (This morning when we woke up at 7am the weather was a little cloudy, but it cleared up quite nicely by the time we got the bus to Vintgar gorge at 9am. The gorge was part of a national park and it was beautiful. They built a wooden walkway to walk on next to the water and it was so scenic. The only problem was that it was super crowded. Everyone seemed to be there. I didn’t think it would be that bad, especially since there were only two buses a day from Bled, but there were many other tour buses crammed with people coming all day long apparently. The walkways were really crowded and everyone was stopping to take pictures while others tried to push by. It was so awkward. But we still enjoyed it. It took us about an hour to get to the other end, as we also stopped for many pictures. We walked a few minutes to a small waterfall, where we had some more nuts. We planned to hike a circular route to a church and then back to the bus, but we only had an hour and fifteen minutes, and we weren’t sure if that was enough time to get back to the only bus back to Bled. Or at least the only bus we knew about. So instead we walked back through the gorge. It was a little less crowded that time, but not much. I even saw someone walk past me with her cat in her hand bag, meowing. She then took the cat out of the bag (!) and was holding it. I’m not sure how that would work, but I know my cats would never be ok with it. The sun was coming down into the gorge by this time, so that was nice. It was striking just how cold it was to walk through the gorge compared to the areas just outside of it, like to the waterfall.)

We made it to the 12:30 bus with no problem. We were in Bled before 1pm and got a gyro wrap (durum kebap) for lunch. Then we changed and went back to the lake to swim this time, since it was warm and sunny. We swam a bit and then a swan came up to us with her kids. Unfortunately, she wanted to eat Tina’s suit, and maybe Tina. What did Tina do? She hid behind me. What did I do? I splashed water at the swan and she left. Right after I yelled at some kids were pouring water on the swan. She was kind of scary though.

We also wanted to go to the island in the lake, and Laura had told us that we needed 10 euros to rent a rowboat and she gave us a coupon so the second hour was free. We should have known by now that her advice was mostly, but not entirely, correct, but we believed her. So we took 10 euros and no more. It turned out that the boats were 12 euros per hour, and the guys who have bigger boats and take you out there charge much more, so we decided to swim to the island. It’s not that far away, but it took more effort than I expected. We took our time and it took about fifteen or twenty minutes to get there. I had my dry bag, so we brought a few things with us in there and left the rest under a tree at the shore, as some others had done. I pushed the bag ahead of me as I swam, and was quite tired when I got there. On the island, we walked around in our bathing suits. Some people were wearing theirs but not many. Then we saw a wedding couple, drinking champagne in front of the church. That was surprising for some reason. Maybe because it was Thursday, or because we were on a tiny island. We wanted to go into the church and the tower and it cost us exactly ten euros, which is exactly what we had. Good thing we did not rent a boat, or we could not have gone inside. So here we are, in our suits with no shoes, walking around in a church. The ticket salesman lent us some fabric that we could use to cover our shoulders – shoulders, really? Church rules are funny – and we went in. We rang the wishing bell and then climbed the tower. There was also a small art exhibit, and we visited that too. Finally it was time to go, and we realized we would have to get back in the water again. Being mostly dry, this was no small task. But in we went, slowly, and we made it back to the other side. It did feel really vulnerable to be out in the middle of the lake though. I mean, what would you do if there was a problem?

Back on shore, we found a place in the sun and stayed an hour until we were mostly dry. It was already 6pm by then, so we started to walk back towards town. It took us 45 minutes to get back. I hadn’t realized we were so far away and I was pretty tired. Back at the house, the owner was outside, putting his boat on his car so he could sail a bit. We met the Irish guys who were staying in the room next to ours, and the owner offered us to sit on his patio and have some homemade plum wine. He did this through this friend who spoke English. I just had water, but we talked for about 30 minutes and then it was time for dinner. We had seen a sign for a cheap dinner menu, so we went there, but it was a hostel. The girls who had just eaten said it was not good, so Tina and I left and went back to the place we had eaten the first day. The guys stayed behind because they were hungry and there was a lot of food. After dinner I showered and packed and dried my hair and went to bed. It was already 11pm and we had to get up at 5:30am the next day. So much for getting enough sleep.

---

Comments

[steph]

OMGH that swan photo is awesome!!! well, all of them are awesome but that 1 is amazing safe travels J -- luv Steph