Blogs from Ljubljana, Upper Carniola, Slovenia, Europe - page 9

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Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana August 31st 2011

On arrival, my first impressions of Ljubljana were that it was bigger than I thought. The new town is built up with modern, multi-storey buildings and I actually felt a little uncomfortable with the hustle and bustle, having just come from the relative isolation of Bled and Bohinj. Our hostel, Fluxus Hostel, was one of those cool boutique hostels that was bright, spacious and more sociable since there are fewer guests. The pamphlets on offer there managed to plan our next day for us too; a free walking tour during the day, and a pub crawl in the evening. Too easy. We were pretty buggered that night from our exertions in Bled (lying around in the sun and swimming is hard work aye) so we just did an initial scout of the town to get familiarised ... read more
Presenov Trg
Showmaker's Bridge
Inside St. Nicholas Cathedral

Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana August 12th 2011

(the photo uploader is acting all crazy, so sorry if they don't load properly!) Decided to actually stay in town today and take in its sights. I started my adventure with another lovely panini from Back Werk - such a great find. I then headed off to the artist area. The walls were plastered with grafitti - I was in heaven snapping photos. From there I wandered thru the sleepy sidestreets until I came upon Dragon Bridge - great dragon statues to be seen! Next was Butcher's Bridge (weird little statues of fish heads I believe they were...? haha) which also had all the love lockets that you see all over Europe. Sweet. And from there I took the furnicular up to the castle (for 2 euros return as a student, I couldn't resist!). The view ... read more
Dragon's Bridge
Looking down the river
Love locks

Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana August 10th 2011

I had a very touristy day today - but it was lovely. I decided to go to the zoo, which is a little bit out of the city... but I figured, why not? It's at the foot-hill of a mountain, in a park - looked pretty. Now, there's a shuttle to get there... but that's too easy! I decided to walk. So walk I did. Didn't think it would take 35min, but hey, that's cool. The zoo itself was nice - nothing spectacular though. The "cages" for the most part are large and appropriately sized for the animals which is always nice to see. Now, when saying it was in the "foot-hill" - it's kind of misleading haha. To see half the animals you have to hike up into the mountain - I felt bad for ... read more
Sleepy bear
Elephant
Sleepy tiger

Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana July 17th 2011

Over some Pivo we look a bit confused watching some Slovenian debate about the Ex-Yugoslavia war. We are drinking Czech beer in a pale imitation of an Irish pub in Maribor. The Lent festival is on the agenda for later in the evening. I feel I have to drink a bit before attending the Slovenian literature/music concert our host has plan for us. Not too far from our table, on a small stage, a guy is doing covers of American top hits in Slovenian. We again are somewhere we were not supposed to be. Thinking of the plan, what a stupid idea of taking the train to Trieste instead of the free boat to Croatia or Greece! Just getting to Slovenia from Trieste was hard enough. We took a very early bus across the border ... read more
fire
and the river
ljubljana

Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana June 20th 2011

Hi Everyone, Our Control Panel tells us that some 50 + of you are looking at the Blog - fantastic, we are flattered! We hope that you are enjoying it as much as we are enjoying our journey. PLEASE .....leave us some comments good or bad, we are missing you all! The comment box is right at the bottom of the page, below the additional photos. x C & D x... read more

Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana June 20th 2011

Day 31 20th June Otocec Le camping is right by the river and just 50 yds up the lane is a wooden bridge leading onto a tiny island which houses Otocec Castle. This is, apparently, one of Slovenia’s loveliest and most complete fortresses and the only one on an island. It has been much renovated and now houses a rather grand hotel but it has retained most of its original features and is indeed impressive. The river Krka is wide and fast flowing and neither of us have ever seen so many wild swans – we must have seen about 35 just in the short stretch of river between the castle and le camping. The vineyards of Trska Gora are above Otocec and atop the hill is the beautiful Church of St Mary. Our Lonely Planet ... read more
This is the cycle route that FANNY suggested...
Neat and tidy....
Wine lady

Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana June 19th 2011

18 June Sat. You get used to the spelling of Ljubjlana, but working out the order of the L and the J is a bit off-putting (apologies to Slovenian readers) – henceforth just Ljub. Got the 11.30a.m. bus out of Bled and had a very interesting chat most of the way with Peter and Alice – who did not sound very Kiwi (tho born there) cos they had been living on the North Coast of NSW for longer than I have been here. He was 62 and she had taken a redundancy from the NSW govt and were both clearly very active – having done the Santiago di Compostela pilgrimage walk in Spain/Portugal and generally seemed to like running around the outdoors. If I had had an extra day in Bled might have been nice to ... read more
cafes + castle
the Parliament
the Natural History Museum

Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana June 19th 2011

Day 29 & 30 18th & 19th June Vrsic Pass, Lake Bled – Dolenjske Toplice Day 29 18th June It is with regret that we packed up and left Lepena but nevertheless we waved goodbye and headed up towards the Vrsic Pass (not the Triglav Pass as previously mentioned). The Vrsic Pass is only open between late May and the first snows and was originally built by Russian prisoners of War, 400 of whom were sadly buried in an avalanche in March 1916. El Piloto & Big Bess relished every single bend and every switchback was another tick in the Lorry Log of Achievement! There were a number of ‘moments’ but none scarier than the one at Switchback No. 32 when a large coachload of tourists arrived at the turn in a bend at exactly the ... read more
Read on to see more of this...
Up Vrsic Pass
Castle & Island Lake Bled

Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana June 18th 2011

Zadnja dva dneva bi prav za prav morala biti predzadnja, ampak so se stvari tako zasukale, da sem šla domov že v petek in ne v soboto. Ampak smo šele pri četrtku. Ta dan je bil večinoma posvečen naši petkovi akciji. Dopoldne smo sicer še imeli predstavitve različnih evropskih okoljskih kampanj (folk iz VB, Nemčije in JAR je predstavljal kampanje Power Shift, Push Europe, Hot Times itd.), po kosilu pa je sledilo delo. No, ne ravno takoj, kajti Max je iskal prostovoljca, ki bi v trgovino vrnil prejšnji dan sposojeni nakupovalni voziček. Napaka: za nalogo sta se namreč takoj javili (poleg mene in Poljakinje Gosie) še Henar in Helena, in tako ni trajalo dolgo, da je voziček postal dirkajoče prevozno sredstvo. Naj ponovim, da je Jugendakademie na vrhu griča, tako da je bil recept za katastrofo ... read more
Einkaufen party
Wheee
Off to our own action

Europe » Slovenia » Upper Carniola » Ljubljana June 4th 2011

Baroque buildings, riverside cafes, and delicous (Italian!) food. Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and, according to Greek legend, where Jason and the Argonauts dismantled their boat while trying to find their way back to Greece. Slovenia considers itself to be the heart of Europe and the point where the four European ethnic groups meet (Slavic, Latin, Germanic, and Urgo-Finnish). Ljubljana has a castle that you can walk or funicular your way up to, lots of nice little shops, a local farmers market, many bridges, and a milk vending machine where you can fill up your milk bottles any time of day or night! I also went to Lake Bled for the day, just over an hour from Ljubljana. It's beautiful to walk around, with a castle towering over one end and a little island in ... read more
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