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Published: April 15th 2007
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There's nothing like escaping reality for a day...
Today me and my flatmate took off for a day trip to the beautiful Triglav National Park in the north-west of Slovenia. Triglav is home to 2 amazing lakes - Bled, which I visited at the beginning of my trip, and Bohinj, which we visited today - as well as Slovenia's highest peak, largest waterfall, and best adventure sports resorts and vacation spots.
Our day started out just phenomenal. Half way to the bus station, my back tire on my bike decided to kick the bucket. After trying to see if a quick pump up at the gas station would hold (it didn't..), we resolved to try doubling on Elise's bike. This wouldn't have been terrible, except Elise's bike isn't exactly in top shape either: the brakes are stuck half on. So, with not nearly enough time left to get to the station, we jump on her bike together, me in the front peddaling my little legs off to counteract the half-brake action and Elise with her abdominals going into contractions on the back from having to balance so precariously. Really, a great little circus act...
About 10 long
minutes later, we crawled into the bus station litterally JUST as the bus to Bohinj passes us on its way.... I wanted to cry.
But, we were determined! Thankfully the train station in Ljubljana is right beside the bus station, so we checked the schedule and there was a train in 45 minutes. That left time for a quick trip to the nearest Merkator for some snacks and a bag lunch, and then we were on our way!
Actually the train was a bit of a blessing. Trains are so much more relaxing than busses, and provide a much better view as well. The only problem with the train, we found later, was that it didn't quite take us quite to where we needed to go... the last stop was about 6kms from the lake and even farther from the trail we wanted to hike. So we quickly found ourselves roadside with thumbs stuck out and smiling pretty. And Slovenians being the wonderful people they are, we didn't wait long at all... 4 cars later and we had our first ride from a wonderful woman who turned out to work in Tourism in Bohinj, and gave us the
full low-down on where to go! Such a blessing seeing as we had no maps or info at all with us! She wasn't going our entire way though, but dropped us at one end of the lake where we sat down to have lunch and enjoy the amazing view. After, we had to hitch another ride, and again we were picked up by a wonderful woman who went completely out of her way and drove us right to the trail! How amazing!
The hike turned out to be not much of a hike, more of a walk on a nicely kept trail, and when we got closer to the falls, a stair-master of about 50 flights of concrete stairs. We had to pay 2 Euros to use the stairs to get to the falls, but it was worth it. The stairs lead to this tiny mountain hut jutting out of the cascading Alps, and from there is a phenomenal view of the falls, as well as a stunning view of the glacier carved Bohinj valley, with snow-topped Alps on both sides leading down into the gorgeous green waters of Bohinj lake below. It is one of those sights that
convinces you God must exist and He is an artist!
On the way down, we decided we really wanted to go swimming no matter how cold it was, so we searched for a pool in the river. We didn't have much initial success, and finally the path led away from the river. We decided to go off-roading a bit to see if we could find a decent place to have a quick dip, and after a sketchy climb down a steep hill, convinced by the loud rushing sound of the river we would have no luck of swimming, we found at the edge of the raging a beautiful little protected pool, just waiting for us to jump in! So that's exactly what we did... and then jumped right back out again because the water, being glacier and mountain run off water, was absolutely freezing!! It felt great though - very refreshing and cleansing!
After such a huge day, it was time to get some food, and in keeping with Slovene tradition, we opted for a hearty meal of pork, ham, sausage, horsemeal, potatoes, and saurkraut, topped off with a glass of the local Cabernet Sauvignon. Really, it does
not get any better!
Well, that's all folks! Love you all,
Mel.
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sharon
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Sound of Music
"Elise dances in a postcard": reminded me of the beginning of Sound of Music! I thought she was playing Maria!