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Published: March 13th 2011
Album I’m listening to: Minstry of Sound Chilled II: 1991-2009.
Slovenia is a very cool place. Not only is the city centre a great place to be day or night, but you’re only about an hours train ride from skiing, hiking, swimming, rafting, cave exploring, you name it. With more than half the country covered in forests you can see why.
I arrived in Ljubljana (the capital) on the 9th without a problem. I hadn’t eaten all day so as I got off the train and saw a McBen (they have a McDonald’s so this would be more dodgy than that!) I had a Pleskavica which is a hamburger but on a different bread and the pattie is flattened. Afterwards I got into my hostel and set my things down before I decided to head out to the city for awhile. I took the gondola up to the Ljubljana Castle and had a look at the city (there seems to be a theme here with castles overlooking the city). It got dark and as I didn’t have an idea of the city just yet I got back to the hostel where most of my roomates where there. There were a couple of Japanese, a German, two Portuguese, and a Dave, a Kiwi from Christchurch. He was travelling around Europe for a bit before heading to London where he’s best man at a wedding. He was in Christchurch when the earthquake hit and as he was in the army he was sent to the centre to look for survivors but he said all he did was pick victims out of the rubble, so that was pretty sad to hear. We chatted for awhile and as it was still a bit early for bed we went to the local bar where we watched some football and had a couple of local beers. As Dave had to get up at 5am to go to Bosnia we went back to the hostel.
The next morning I took a train out to Lake Bled, which was about an hour away from the capital. There I saw one of the most amazing sights, including Bled Castle which seemed to be on the edge of a cliff, and St Martins church, which was in the middle of Lake Bled. People had been coming there since the 1100’s to pray to whatever gods there were at the time. I walked around the 6kn lake in a couple of hours and decided to take a hike up to the top of Bled Castle. It was a bit of a difficult hike but was better than going up the same route as the cars took. There was one section coming down where it was a bit icy so was kind’ve hoping I wouldn’t slip and fall and die but I made it out ok. The view from the top was amazing and was definitely worth the trip up. After making it back down I thought I’d seen enough so went back to Ljubljana to take another look around the city, had a burek (pastry filled with mozzarella cheese) and went back to the hostel where the only people in the room were a couple of girls travelling together, one from Idaho and one from London, who were studying in Germany and had a month off so were travelling around for awhile.
I might as well point out that I’ve had a bit of an upset stomach since leaving Salzburg and so hadn’t really eaten much as I was always in pain everytime I ate and I suppose when I wasn’t eating. It got to the point where I went to the pharmacist and after trying to explain in English that I was using the loo every 30 min she gave me some prescription stuff (I didn’t need a prescription as I was a foreigner). It’s helped a bit but I’m trying to be wary of what I eat and that I’m also using hand sanitizer constantly!
The last day I was keen to get up early to head out to the caves in Postejna, which are the biggest tourist attraction in Slovenia. I got to the station, left mu luggage in the locker, and got on the train. 20 minutes later the ticket guy checked my ticket and told me I was not on the right train. FAIL! I’d been pretty good so far with getting around but not anymore. So I got off the next stop 20 min later and ended up in a random town and waited 30 min for the next train back to Ljubljana. By the time I got back there wasn’t enough time to get to the caves before my train to Croatia so I killed 3 hours in the city, after having a Royale with Cheese from Maccas. I know it’s a quarter pounder but Pulp Fiction makes it sound so much cooler and I just wanted to say it. I was a bit gutted that I didn’t check the train number properly but now I’ll learn from it. Saved 30 euro on the entrance fee so that’s brekky lunch and dinner for a couple of days!
So all in all a good trip, met a couple of cool people, saw some great sights, and had some local cuisine, now it’s off to Croatia for the next 5 days. Can’t wait!
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clement
non-member comment
hey!
Dude, I was gonna ask you but u already gave the answer: cathy and I ve been sick the whole week man! must have been those burgers we ate sat night... Anyway, we seem to all feel better now, Don't we?