http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Slovenia en-us Thu, 03 Dec 09 03:57:35 +0000 Thu, 03 Dec 09 03:57:35 +0000 we were making our way to slovenia. after enjoying some beers and crisps talking shit listening to music things can get quite boring specially if you still have 5h left from budapest to ljubljana it takes 9h. sooo what to do well if youre a couple alone in the compartment all the boredom is over if but be carefull if you realize that the train is slowing down for no apparent reas http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/blog-452747.html Bled day 1416 September 57We had the luxury of a private transfer two cars to take us to our final stop in Bled Slovenia. It was a pleasant journey on good freeways. Our driver was a young guy who had a rafting and other adventure sport business was a taxicarhire person as well as being a policman. Very hard working We had a long wait in a queue to cross the boarder into Slovenia an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Bled/blog-442289.html We left Croatia for at the beginning of October and drove north toward Slovenia. Our first stop in Slovenia was The Skocjan Caves. These caves are a Unesco World Heritage Site and boast the world's largest subterranean canyon replete with a rushing river seen from hundreds of feet above and waterfalls and filled with stalagmites and stalagtites of strange and wonderous shapes and sizes. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/blog-442003.html Excerpts from my book OUR SUMMER IN SLOVENIA Amazon.comAs I have noted before a major factor in Elysee and I deciding to spend a summer in Slovenia is it being excellently situated to enable side trips to other countries. It is possible to easily drive from Bled to Budapest in six or seven hours. In our case being in no hurry we took several days stopping overnight at Celje Slovenia visit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Styria/Celje/blog-441737.html Monday 14th SeptemberBlobbing in BledThe weather has turned to custard overnight and after the thunderstorm had passed through last night it had rained a fair amount and it was still raining lightly this morning.It was just as well that we did our walk around Lake Bled and drive to Lake Bohanij yesterday while it was at least dry.The guy who showed us our apartment on Saturday had said that it was http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Bled/blog-437961.html A BLOG BY BRETTOSo after a very long and drunken expedition of Croatia and Bosnia we set sail for Slovinia on the whim of a drunken memory of a recommendation from a guy in Dubrovnik and Kirra Lauren and Amy Through the border we go with the girls perving on the 'hot' customs guy and choruses of hey jude changed to hey norm being screeched throughou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/blog-437707.html We had checked the weather forecast for Bled last night before we went to bed and it was supposed to rain all day today but we have woken to just an overcast sky and we can still see the Julian Alps that surround the town of Bled.So perhaps the weatherman is going to be wrong again.However we decided not to chance it and got up for a relatively early breakfast so that we could walk around the lake http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Bled/blog-436517.html The day has dawned overcast but the prospect for the day is improving weather as we cross the border into Slovenia.Gretchens wasp sting on her elbow from last night has made her arm swell up considerably and from hereon she will be nicknamed Arnie after the Governor of California as she could match him for the circumference of her arm at the moment.We had some concerns that we might not have hot http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Bled/blog-436460.html The last few weeks to me have been about beauty both whats natural and unspoilt and also what humanity at its best can achieve. I have certainly felt more like a tourist and haven't felt that I've gained much of an understanding of the nations people ... not that this can always happen with a visit certainly as brief as ours. Sometimes though beauty speaks for itself although with the lengt http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/blog-432655.html I left early in the morning to cat ch the local bus to Lake Bled. I had heard this was not to be missed and its so true. I hiked up the hill to take photos of the church surrounded by the lake. Its absolutely beautiful here. I spent the whole day hiking admiring the cute cottages and watching the swans. I met a man who carves boats out of oak trees in various designs. He said he gets his inspita http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Bled/blog-430580.html I spent the day wandering around old town Ljubljana. Its beautiful there Its charming and quaint. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Ljubljana/blog-430572.html After 30 min of sleep in Annaberg at 500 we headed to Slovenia. I was pretty tired and sleepy and after 300 km there was a drivers change and then I could slumber a bit. When we arrived in Slovenia I was really really sleepy because it was extremely hot. We arrived on the festival ground and I spent the whole day at the festival hanging around and drinking slovenian beer. In the evening I went t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Ljubljana/blog-430444.html I know exactly where I am. Do you know where tiny Slovenia is on a map The country was a part of Yugoslavia the most northern region of that excountry sandwiched between Austria to the north and Italy to the west. The southern border of Slovenia is now Croatia and there is a small border with Hungary to the north east. I left Zagreb with one of my hostel room mates who was travelling in th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Ljubljana/blog-429763.html So I am here in Ljubljana in a hostel which used to be a prison. Cool as that is it wasn't an aesthetic choice more a practical one as it was the closest budget accomodation to the train station where I have to get a train from at 6.20am tomorrow morning. However I have heard this place waxed out by plenty of backpackers blogging about Ljubljana on here so I was hoping to be able to see it.The http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Ljubljana/blog-429021.html After a few days exploring the Soca River we decided to head back over the mountain pass for a bit of RR at Lake Bohinj. We decided to bypass the famous Lake Bled and drive a further 20km on to stay at the Bohinj Lake which is less developed. This turned out to be a great move as Bohinj Lake definitely suited us better. We stayed at the campground at the edge of the lake and managed to get a pit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/blog-428199.html BeforeTo get to our next destination we weaved in and out of countries as we followed the Alps towards Slovenia. We broke our journey up and spent a night in a camp near St Mortiz and a night near Doube in Italy. We finally drove into Austria before crossing over into Solvenia. It took two long days of driving but ask Chris what his highlight is and he will definitely say lsquoStelvio Passrsqu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/blog-428196.html DAY 108So we are on our way from Split to Ljubljana Slovenia Loo be yarna. Francine and Angie thought that they would be really really smart and take the back seat of the bus so that they could stretch out during the night and have a good night's sleep. So we raced to the back seats and were lucky because there were very few people on the bus. Our luck held out until about the 6 7 stop and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Ljubljana/blog-424445.html Slovenia is beginning to be a popular destination in Europe despite its tumultuous history it has bounce back economically.Bled is one of the country's beautiful city. It has caught my attention because of its proximity to the Alps and its unique Lakes surrounding the Upper Carniola. The best way to describe Bled is that its picturesque the best adjective I can think of. Totally worth going there http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Bled/blog-424346.html We took up an invitation from Tone our CS contact in Ljubljana to attend a picnic for his name day i.e. June 13 Saint Anthony day. So we drove about 70k's from Ljubljana and found our way thanks to GPS to a small village where we stopped and called Tone for more directions. Within a few moments we found ourselves in a field with views to some mountains and out over the surrounding farm land http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Ljubljana/blog-422216.html Oh our aching heads Our night drinking with the Irish newly weds in Bled certainly helped us kill a lot of brain cells When will I ever learn not to mix my drinks an aching head eyes that did not want to open and a mouth that tasted like the bottom of a budgie cage. If we had not already booked an apartment in Ljubljana then we would have extended our stay in Bled. We packed up and did our be http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Upper-Carniola/Ljubljana/blog-422187.html