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Published: August 23rd 2014
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We are sitting on a ferry with a lovely view of Split waiting to set off to Hvar at 7:30am after a long overnight train, which arrived at Split at 6am, I have just had a double espresso and am now awake enough to reflect on our time in Bled!
We arrived at Bled in the evening, and managed to use our newly developed navigational skills to get the bus into the town and walk up to our Hostel. We stayed at 'Travellers Haven,' and despite booking a 7 bed dorm we got lucky and we were lodged in a private 'room' within the dorm. The room just about had enough space to open the door and fit a bunk-bed inside, but we appreciated having our own space. The hostel was nothing special, even Ami the ticket lady at the bus station turned her nose up when we told her where we were staying, but I'll get back to her later. As you walked in a sign asked you to remove your shoes, and slippers were provided. The kitchen was quite small and we often had to wait for other groups to finish cooking to use the hob,
but we were still able to cook the pesto-pasta dishes that have become our specialty on this trip! The bathrooms were fairly basic, with showers divided by frosted glass and shower curtains, but it fit its purpose and the owner was very friendly, pointing out the must sees while in Bled.
Bled itself was beautiful! On our first day we took a stroll around the Lake and up to a couple of the viewpoints the Hostel owner had recommended: 'Mala Osojnica' and 'Ojstrica' were well worth the muddy, steep trek giving a stunning panorama of the Town, the lake and the pretty church on the island of the lake. I'm especially grateful that Tom insisted I swapped my flip flops for trainers; we passed a couple of fellow travellers and one guy had given up sliding in his flip flops and proceeded barefoot to the viewpoint. That same day we also took a dip in the crystal clear lake and went for a little swim, it was quite chilly at first, but once you had gotten used to the temperature it was rather pleasant! We then enjoyed a little picnic by the lake.
On
our second day we spent the morning having a panic about how we are getting back home, we were both a little worried about the prices of flights and someone in our room had informed us of the volcano in Iceland being on amber alert! So we both did some research into flights and came up with a few options. After that we headed to the bus station to book our train tickets to Split, this is where we met Ami, a middled aged, fairly attractive German women who was quite obviously flirting with Tom and said he would make a 'great psychologist' whist caressing his arm! Although finding the situation awkward at the time, Tom was clearly quite pleased with himself! After all the planning was done we went for a walk to 'Vintgar Gorge' which was spectacular. The trip out was lovely, an hours walk there, a couple of hours walking through the wooden path built into the rock face, and an hours walk back.
On our final day I convinced Tom to try rafting; despite him being ambivalent to start with, we both thoroughly enjoyed the trip. We were kitted out with a wet
suit, a helmet and 'booties', as Tom calls them. There were 7 of us in the raft, plus the instructor who was steering. We each had a paddle, Tom thinks I did less work then everyone else, but I was on the side with 4 people so having a break made it more even! The trip was made more exciting by the instructors games, such as having to run around the edge of the boat whilst he rocked it, 'body surfing', and jumping off a 25ft bridge during which Tom lost one of his 'booties' and had to carry on without it. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos, they were selling a USB with all the photos on for €10, when there were about 3 photos of us!
After getting back, we decided to head off for some lunch and found a nice Pizzeria. Service was a little slow as there was only one waitress who looked very rushed off her feet, but the pizzas were delicious! We then headed back to the hostel to pack and I had a nap, exhausted from working so hard during rafting! We were able to chill in our room right
up until we had to leave as we accidentally paid for one too many nights and were not able to get a refund as we paid on card, c'est la vie.
I'm looking forward to catching some sun in Hvar and relaxing on the beach, we haven't been lucky with the weather so far but it's lovely and sunny now.
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Jim
non-member comment
Glad to hear all is well
Sounds like you both are having some great trips, lots of fun, and enjoying culture and cuisine everywhere! Enjoy the rest of the trip and keep on blogging.