Advertisement
Slovenia, the unknown jewel of Europe. Tucked away under Austria's imposing mountains, next to Italy's Venietian coastline and above Croatia's islands, relatively mysterious to most travellers or confused with similar sounding Slovakia. We got lots of 'Slovenia? where's that?' Yet we weren't the only Aussies to have discovered this little gem, and encountered as many similar accents to our own as walking around Earls 'kangaroo valley' Court in London.
Our flight from Stansted was reasonably good for an easyjet flight. It took a little less than 2 hours to get to Brnik airport flying over snow capped peaks. The Austrian Alps are very close to Slovenia's Julian Alps and all much the same, huge dominating rocky mountains.
You could think that the whole of Slovenia is one giant mountain range, infact a good deal of the country is covered by mountains the highest being the Triglavski peaks in the Julian Alps. This is where we based our long weekend travels staying in Bled and with a hire car we could drive into Triglavski national park and nearby Bohinj lake valley.
To say it was scenic is an understatement. Our jaws were permanently detached as we took in the
stunning scenery. Lake Bled is worthy of many many pictures and you can't really take a bad one. A little island sits in the middle of the lake and has a church on it. We rowed out to the lake opting for the cheaper do it yourself option as opposed to the easier more expensive gondola style ride. Rowing proved an interesting challenge with Nick taking a slightly more aggressive approach when the paddles were not behaving. My style was more relaxed and we decided the better of the two. No bragging.
Our accomodations were at the Garni Hotel Berc, a family run pension close to the main part of town. It turned out to be an excellent choice - a newly constructed Bavarian style pension made of wood with our own little balcony and large room. Breakfast was also great and European style meats, cheeses, muesli, yoghurt.
Our first evening in town we walked around Lake Bled so saw it from every angle. Castle Bled sits a top a rocky cliff above the lake and numerous chalets and a church always ringing its bells. Swans and ducks enjoy free range in the lake and so do the
fish, we saw lots jumping out at sunset. Big carp and smaller trout.
Our first meal was at nearby Pension Mayer and even though it looked expensive we were pleasantly introduced to the economical Slovenia. They are on the euro but prices have yet to catch up. So it was great to order asparagus soup and a large sharing platter of three different meats and vegetables with the meal coming in around 25 euros with a beer and a wine. We were to be uncomfortably full everynight with the generous portion sizes.
Sunday our first full day there saw us head to the supermarket for our usual snoop at local produce and usual 'ahhh its so cheap' 'ahhh they have such nice cheese, such nice berries'
Loaded up with wine, cheese, other picnic items, souvenir chocolate..etc.. we made our way to Lake Bohinj for a picnic. We found a secluded spot right on the river stones and one of the ducks ended up a happy bird with our bread.
The days itinerary started with a bike ride to Vintgar gorge about six kms from Bled. With barely any signs we soon got lost in villages and ended up going
the long way. It was a warm uphill slog but we made it thanks to the friendly locals. The gorge was cool and nice with narrow bridges and trails. The return bike ride was great as we found the short way and it was mostly all downhill and I peddled once I think.
The afternoons itinerary saw Nick leading me up the Bohinj gondola to the ski station at 1500m. Now into the alpine region we were surprised at all the snow still on the ground. We were attempting to climb Mt Vogel at 1922m which proved difficult due to the Slovenian system of marking tracks with a single red dot every now and then. We had to walk up ski runs some still covered in snow, rather strenuous! And all without water, yes stupid. We sucked on snow. Ski resorts are rather eerie in the summer and this one was so quiet and we saw one other person out walking. It was a hard walk just to the top of the chairlifts. Then the track got hairy walking along snow covered slopes. We could see the top but the track went down a little too far and up
again. It was now five o'clock with the last gondola leaving around six. So we agreed to call it quits and head back. I then decided to almost fall of the mountain and slide ten metres down the snow. Lucky for me I stopped. Would of been the quick way down though. With icey arms I struggled on and we decided to 'snowboard' down without a board. It was easier to act like idiots and run/slide down the slopes. Back down at the station we could relax with a coke and wait for the gondola. We went down with a bunch of other Aussies who looked out of a Billabong catalogue shoot. Prince Harry lookalike was driving the gondola and was a surly character.
Enough activity for the day I was ready to pass out over dinner and felt rather flushed from the sun and exercise. We had a nice meal at Planicka restaurant, very authenic. I had a giant schnitzel while Nick had a big steak 'bloody style'.
Monday was supposed to be our last day in Slovenia but as it turned out that wasn't to be the case. We packed up and headed in Triglavski national park up the mountain pass at 1700m. It was stunning scenery the whole way and we probably lingered a little too long at the mountains, rivers, picnicking, sauntering over footbridges above aqua coloured rivers.
With three hours left we thought it would be a piece of cake to get back to Brnik. Uh uh. Mountain roads. Winding roads and tractors. I felt trapped by mountains on every side.
Deciding to cut our losses and go a bit longer way but to the one and only motorway may have been a wrong move. Llubjana had traffic and tolls and we did manage to get to the airport by 4pm. However the plane ticket was in the suitcase and we thought we had ages and to cut it short missed checking in by 4.20pm. Easyjet were not sympathetic and we had to rebook on the next day at 5pm!
Rehiring the car we drove out of the airport annoyed but accepting our fate. We actually had a pleasant extra day and visited Savica falls a strenous 20 min hike. Our pension wasn't as flash but had a good breakfast. We lunched at Bohinj served by a waiter that looked like Lurch. Nick had venison goulash which was enough to feed us both.
Back to the airport and we made the flight easily this time. However it was long 2.5hrs and then another 3 hrs from Stansted to get home via bus and tube.
Mt Triglav will have to wait till another time...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.162s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0698s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb