Blogs from Bled, Upper Carniola, Slovenia, Europe - page 6

Dober Dan/Bog/Ciao J After several lush sunny days by the pool in Ravenna we drove away from the beautiful sunshine and into torrential rain in Venice! The campsite we ended up at was fab, just a 15 minute bus ride from Venice and full of backpackers from places like Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America. We had a couple of amusing nights at the bar with them, us unashamedly ignoring the skinny 40 something drunken ex-pat who kept shouting ‘I’m FROM Europe’ and starting fights with 20 year old guys from Australia. I’ve never really come across anyone when they’re actually back packing before though several friends have gone and I’ve always been quite jealous and thought it sounded fun. I always assumed two things however; one is that they actually had backpacks and not wheely ... read more

Today we finally arrived at Lake Bled and Suzy is sitting on Camping Bled in Slovenia. We arrived at Bled town after driving down some very narrow and potholed roads along the way . The road looked more like patchwork with patches of black tarmac repairs filling in all the holes. We couldn’t believe we were on a main road and wondered what the B roads looked like if this was the equivalent of an A road. Not much European money being spent in this part of the world. The twisty road was wide enough for Suzy and it made for an interesting route. We passed through the picturesque national park which is popular with walkers and serious hikers and passed by tiny villages along the way. Strange drying racks lined the fields and large bright ... read more

Before my trip to Europe, I was wondering which countries to visit. I had no clue what should I expect from any of them, so it wasn’t the easiest task to complete my vacation plan. One of the first countries that crossed my radar was Slovenia, which was then completely unknown to me. But hey, this trip was meant to be spontaneous, unplanned and fun, so I decided almost instantly, that my first destination in Europe will be Slovenia. I don’t regret that decision now, in fact, I’m sure I’ll visit those beautiful places again! I guess I like Slovenia because it’s not very different from New Zealand. It’s small and green, just the way I like it. Besides, Slovenia has so many gorgeous attractions, and they’re all so close together, perfect place for a visit! ... read more

Just to the north of our village is Vitner Gorge. The river is probably 40 metres from the top of the gorge and there is a walkway that criss-crosses the river. The spray from the cascading water filled the air. The walk went for about 2 kms. The water was extremely clear and quite a few fish could be seen. Bled is only about 35 minutes from Austria. It was too good an opportunity not to cross the border for the boys. So after returning to the entrance to the gorge we drove drove on a country road north to the motorway that runs from Ljubljana into Austria. The motorway itself is a two lane each way dual carriageway with a 130km/hr speed limit. It has a 7km tunnel under the mountains which pops out into ... read more

Bohemian Adventure, but a shady beginning. I woke up feeling like death warmed up, realised I had absolutely no recollection of anything of my previous night on the Split pub crawl and wondered how I had gotten back to the hostel. As I began to get ready, tried to shower and began to feel worse and worse, I decided to wake my roomies to find out what happened. We went to the first venue, had 2/3 drinks and got a free t-shirt which I tied to my bag. That is the last thing I remember, I can recall nothing of what happened next. According to my roomies when I asked them in the morning, it then got weird. I was suddenly paralytic drunk, couldn't walk or talk straight and only barely made it to the next ... read more