Some of Slovenia--Ljubljana, Vintgar Gorge, and Lake Bled

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Warning: my longest entry ever! If you don't have time, just scroll to see the pictures!



From Zagreb I took a bus to Ljubljana. The Zagreb bus station was a bit strangely organized. Unless I’m mistaken, everyone has to enter through the second floor. Then, I had to ask the ticket desk (also on the second floor) for which platform the bus would come to because there didn’t seem to be a sign or screen anywhere. Finally, I walked down a different set of steps to the bus platform. Everything went very smoothly getting on the correct bus.



I was relatively nervous for the entry to the Schengen Zone. Although all my research indicated that I would be entering legally (this gets complicated but it’s because I’d been on a student visa in Spain which had expired a few days earlier which should have automatically given me 90 days in the EU as a tourist), I wasn’t sure if the border agents would agree. I had been through more than one European bureaucratic nightmare so it was easy to anticipate the worst. I’d printed out all the info I found online, emails from embassy officials, and travel documents in case there was a problem. And it was all fine. They gave me my stamp and that was that. Back in the Schengen!



I arrived in Ljubljana thinking I had just a day and a half in Slovenia. My plan was to visit Ljubljana in the afternoon/evening that I arrived, then do a day trip to Vintgar Gorge and Lake Bled the next day. However, the weather for the next day wasn’t looking great—really rainy. Luckily, as I lay in bed the first morning thinking over my schedule for the week, I realized there was an extra day/night that I hadn’t accounted for. I really don’t know how, after all these years of traveling, and after writing out my itineraries very carefully and re-visiting them multiple times, I had skipped the day. I had reserved my transportation into Italy on the correct day, so that meant I could stay in Ljubljana one day more than planned!



I asked the hostel if I could extend my stay, and they said I would just have to move to another room for the third night. Success! And the weather on my “newly found” day was supposed to be great. So in the end I had around slightly more than one (mostly rainy) day to explore Ljubljana and one day to do a trip to Vintgar and Lake Bled.



My first impression of Ljubljana was good. I walked along the Ljubljanica River through the center to get to my hostel. There are super-lovely willows, cafes, and buildings, and lots of cute bridges along the river. That part of Ljubljana feels like a smaller, calmer, brighter, (even) more cosmopolitan Vienna. It’s an area filled with pedestrians and cyclists with not many cars in sight. The cyclists tend to go at a leisurely pace one-handed. I have no idea how they are so talented.



Slovenia in general, well, they thrive on tourism, so the prices are more than you’d expect. For that reason I had a lot of trouble trying to decide where to go and what to see there while sticking to my shoestring budget. There wasn’t anything in Ljubljana I really wanted to pay money to see, which in the end led me not to have a ton to do.



The first morning, I walked around the city center. Unfortunately it was a bit drizzly—not great weather for taking in a city. I decided to spring for something hot to drink and maybe a snack.



The café I ended up at didn’t really have snacks, but it was worth it. Time Café Ziferblat was a really strange find. In fact, once I decided to go based on where I was and google reviews, I had a lot of trouble actually locating it. What I didn’t know until I showed up is that a time café is a specific kind of café in which you pay based on how long you are there. Then whatever you eat or drink while there is included. The inside was like an old house with lots of cozy furniture, quirky artifacts, and art/speaker/miscellaneous event posters. There was a chalkboard with an open-ended question that customers had written creative answers to. It and its customers would fit right into Lawrenceville in Pittsburgh. It was exactly the kind of thing I wouldn’t expect Ljubljana to have . . . a bit of a rough, hip youngster edge.



A guy explained the whole concept to me in excellent English. Once I agreed, he allowed me to choose one of the many old-school alarm clocks to carry around with me. Instead of asking my name, my time was tied to the clock, so that when I left, they would look up the clock’s name (each one had a persona I guess) and tell me how much I owed. They host language exchanges and events for foreigners to meet locals, so it seems like a great community-oriented space. They also have some cool displays of places to check out in Ljubljana. I’d love to have one of them near where I live! Check it out if you need a bit of a break.



After that break, the weather was a bit clearer, so I walked up to Tivoli Park. It was nice. I climbed up the hill in the park to see views, just like I’d done in Zagreb, and although I did make it to the top of this hill, there actually weren’t many views to be had because of the tree line. I had some leaving-Spain culture shock in that even out in nature no one greeted each other, smiled, or even made eye contact. Typically maybe in a city you don’t make eye contact with everyone, but the more rural it gets, people are friendlier. Well that was not true in Ljubljana. At least the forest there was great—a cool escape from the city.



After that adventure, because I had not much better to do, I decided to go to the National Museum (which shares a building with the Natural History Museum). This was more because other museums were closing, I happened to be in the area, and I thought it was only 3 euros, rather than that it was a place I had a burning desire to see. Outside the museum there’s a free glassed-in display of artifacts which was relatively interesting. But the inside of the museum wasn’t that big or monumental. It was mostly about the Romans. Uhhh I’d been living in Spain and Italy for the past year and a half, so I was pretty up-to-date on them. Also, the other museums about Romans I’d been to were free or way cheaper (shout-out to Spain!). Oh, and this museum ended up being 6 euros, not 3. At that point, I was just basically in a grumpy mood which didn’t improve when I exited to pouring rain.



It was still only 5:15, so I didn’t want to just go right back to the hostel and waste the rest of my Ljubljana time. I decided to walk up to the castle, hoping the rain would leave. But about a third of the way up, I turned back because it was raining so much that streams of water were coming down the road. Of course, as soon as I got back down, it stopped. But I had had enough. I leisurely returned to the hostel. The exciting news was that I found out where my first ACLE camp of the year would be. I spent the evening cooking dinner and prepping a bit for my adventure the next day and studying ACLE songs.



My next day’s trip to Vintgar Gorge, about 2 hours north of Ljubljana, was great. I chose to take the train to Podhom (required a transfer in Jesenice when I went). I did slightly panic when I got off the train in a tiny village and realized that my phone had inexplicably turned off and wouldn’t turn back on. I had a rough idea that I’d need to walk closer to the mountains, but without a map, I was concerned. Luckily, after wandering a bit, I came across some hand-painted signs to get to Vintgar by either biking or walking. I followed those while repeatedly trying to reboot my phone. It was just incredibly lucky that the path was so well-signed that even without the phone I could’ve made it. I did get my phone to turn back on after 15 stressful minutes. I still don’t know what happened with it.



It was really refreshing to be back in the mountains and forest. The scenery was like Folgaria in Northern Italy, even though they’re around 200 miles apart. I was mostly alone on my walk to the Vintgar park entrance, but as I got closer, suddenly lots of tourists on bikes appeared. I’m not sure how they came in, but it must be a popular method around there.



The entrance fee of 5 euros was well worth it. The area is advertised as a path along the Vintgar Gorge, which has the bright blue-green Radovna River running through it. It was crowded, but not as crowded as I’d anticipated. It just typically isn’t a very wide walkway, and people stop all the time to take pictures. So even though it’s not a very long trail, it takes a while to complete. It was remarkably cooler because of the moving water and shade. You might be sprayed with mist at times, and sometimes the walkway is slippery, so be prepared!



Most information online said you can only enter and exit where I went in. But I happened to come across a blog that said people had just gone one way, then taken a trail to Saint Katherine Church (Cerkev Sv. Katarina), then walked on down to Lake Bled. I planned to do that route. There was actually a little ticket/snack booth/picnic area at the ‘end’ of the path, near the Šum Waterfall, so it would be possible to get in that way if you wanted to do the reverse route.



My phone with GPS did come in handy when I walked towards the Saint Katherine Church. Aside from one initial sign, there weren’t others, and sometimes the path split. I was able to guess which paths to take using my phone GPS. There were some others on the trail, but I would anticipate it being much emptier than the Vintgar Gorge path. If you’re unsure, take the path that looks the most worn. The walk through the pine forest was enchanting, but I was happy to reach the clearing and sunshine of the church area, knowing I’d navigated correctly.



The views from near the church were stunning. There were cows at pasture nearby, with mountains and a blue sky above them. I couldn’t quite see Lake Bled from there, but nonetheless, it was a heck of a landscape. The walk down the hill took me through scenic countryside into suburban communities until I reached Lake Bled.



Lake Bled is probably Slovenia’s most famous tourist spot. I wasn’t totally sure I even wanted to visit. The other options I’d been considering for a day trip were to go to Lake Bohinj or to a small town like Škofja Loka. But once I saw Vintgar Gorge and decided I wanted to visit, Lake Bled was so close it would have been crazy not to check it out.



It is a pretty nice lake with a castle overlooking it, and they’ve also got a picturesque church on an island, too. Although it’s definitely not the most beautiful lake I’ve been to, what does set Lake Bled apart is being able to walk around the entire perimeter and in each spot get a different perspective of the pretty landscape. If you’ve got euros to spend, energy to climb hills, and haven’t already seen your fair share of European castles, Bled Castle is also supposed to be pretty good. I, personally, couldn’t meet any of those criteria so I’ll save the castle for another trip.



After my loop of Lake Bled, I walked up a hill to Bled Jezaro train station. Beware that the station Lesce-Bled is actually pretty far (more than 2 miles) from the lake! Bled Jezaro is the closest train station, but is up a hill, and the road you walk up to get there probably isn’t the safest to be a pedestrian on because it’s pretty narrow without a sidewalk. There’s also a bus station on the other side of the lake.



I caught a train from Bled Jezaro to Jesenice, where I had to transfer. I had roughly 45 minutes to kill, so after strolling around the town a bit, I decided to go to the grocery store while I waited. I warn you that if you go from Spain (speaking Spanish and hearing Galician occasionally) to Portugal to England to Wales to Croatia to Slovenia (and are planning next to go to Italy, where you have a rough ability to communicate), within a 10-day period, you may have some language issues. Slovenia, naturally, was a language at the bottom of my ability list.



I had memorized words like please, thank you, some numbers that were similar to Czech, and a few other randoms, but I had a language meltdown when I got to the baked goods counter of the grocery store. After choosing a certain thing with apples based on the sign in front of a food, I asked for that food (hopefully saying ‘1 ____ please’ in Slovenian). Well the lady somehow indicated to me that those don’t exist (I suppose the sign was in front of the wrong thing). But I pointed to it, and she said something like “This one?”, and I said “ne.” Unfortunately ‘ne’ is no in Slovenian/Czech, but it’s ‘yes’ in Korean, which is why my brain has some issues dealing with it. The lady took my unintended ‘no’ and went on to another pastry. “This one?” she inquired. Oops, I tried to get her to go back to the first one, using a variety of gestures and languages. After she offered me a few others, I think there was a point where she wondered if I was making fun of her. But no, I was genuinely having lots of issues. She got back to the original pastry, and finally I excitedly said “si!”, which is yes in Spanish/Italian. Anyway, she got the idea and packaged up my little thing. It was the definition of ‘comedy of errors’. I thanked her correctly with “hvala” and went on my way, shaking my head in shock at how that had transpired. As I waited for the train, I bit into it. It really wasn’t too great.



With the trains, you also have to be careful. I had bought a round-trip ticket (I just got off a stop early on my way there), but there weren’t specific times attached to the ticket. So I boarded the train I wanted. What I didn’t know is that if you take a long-distance train like I did from Jesenice (transfer point), you’ll have to pay a surcharge because it’s not a regional train, which I guess makes it faster. I had to pay the guy an extra 1.80, but it wasn’t a big deal.



That evening, back in Ljubljana, I headed over to the main square for a free concert. It was a beautiful location on a beautiful early summer evening, with the castle overlooking the stage up on the hill, and the river making a lower-down backdrop. The concert itself wasn’t great, but it was a good cultural experience because it seemed to be almost totally locals.



Truly, life there seemed idyllic. After the news of terror attacks the last few years and having just been in Manchester, I observed my surroundings. I didn’t see one police officer or security guard. They must not have any expectation that it would happen there. Locals young and old showed up helmet-less on their bikes and joined groups of friends with their bikes already parked beside them.



Ljubljana was also much more chic than I’d expected. People there seemed really stylish in their appearance. Their terrace culture was attractive. Not only were there cafes and restaurants along the river, but I even came across a riverside bar with only candles lighting the tables.



After visiting the time café and observing the great biking possibilities and bar scenes, I surmised that Ljubljana would be a great university town. It’s small enough that you can get anywhere on foot/bike, and yet seems to have a number of cultural things happening too.



I hadn’t seen one beggar or visible refugee since I’d arrived in Slovenia a few days earlier. For any city these days, that’s striking. It almost seemed fake that life looked so perfect. The only other comparison I can draw is my visit to Copenhagen 9 years ago, when we saw people drinking beer along the harbor in mid-February, just loving life, no hint of sadness or difficulty around.



With that, let me go ahead and rate Ljubljana 7/10 on a visiting scale. I would give more points if there was more interesting/cheaper stuff to see. It is a nice place if you enjoy eating out and shopping. If so, it may be more the place for you.

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