New Thing #86 - Balkans Trip - Day 6 (Slovenia)

June 18, 2015

Since Nikki and I knew next to nothing about Slovenia (I'm not kidding, I knew zero about it), we had done some earlier research to determine what we could do to fill our time while here. Turns out they have some great day trips from Ljubljana, and today would end up being one of my favorite days of the entire trip. But I'm getting ahead of myself. You know I've got to give the entire story. :)

First things first was breakfast, but our hostel offered little more than cold cereal and canned fruit cocktail again (blech), so we walked across the street to a charming little bakery and each picked out some treats to eat in the square. We couldn't read the signs, so just pointed to what looked (hopefully) tasty. We ended up with essentially a pig in a blanket and a toaster strudel, but dang, they were still pretty good!

Beautiful morning for breakfast in the square.

Slovenian Pig in a Blanket

Slovenian Toaster Strudel. I want one right meow.

Our guide Barbara (pronounced BAR-bar-ah...and you have to roll those r's to truly get her name right) picked us up shortly thereafter, along with five more people along for the ride: a Korean woman now living in Vienna, a retired couple from Britain, and a young couple from Indonesia. (I love doing these pre-planned trips because you meet so many cool people!) The British couple was asking us lots of questions about the U.S. as they are planning an Amtrak tour of our great country in a few years. (After my experience with Amtrak a week earlier, I wasn't sure that was the best idea, but I kept my opinion to myself. No need to burst their bubble.)

Pretty building next to where we were picked up for our trip.

Van selfie!

Barbara was a charming tour guide, and she filled us in on all kinds of fun Slovenian facts. It's roughly as wide across as Missouri is, so traveling from one edge to the other takes about 4-5 hours (Okay, I threw in the MO fact....she has no idea how wide across Missouri is). They are mostly land-locked, but there is a small stretch that reaches to the Adriatic Sea, and they're very quick to point out that they do have a coastline, albeit a tiny one. It's also still a young country, only breaking away from Yugoslavia in 1991. They are likely most famous for their stellar Olympians, particularly the Winter Olympics. Two-thirds of Slovenia is protected forest/parks, etc, so there are tons of opportunities for skiing, hiking, biking, ski jumps, etc. Triglav in the Julian Alps is also their beloved tallest mountain. Not sure it's really beloved, but Barbara spoke of it with great pride.

Triglav!

But, enough about this charming country. You should go visit yourself to learn more. :) Our first stop on the tour was Lake Bled, which was home to their only island: Bled Island. We came at a beautiful time of year because the trees were full of leaves and the sky was clear. Once we arrived at the lake, we boarded a Pletna boat that would take us to the tiny island. Pletna boats are beautiful locally carved wooden boats manually rowed by oarmen called "pletnar". The traditional boat can carry 20 people, and has been in use since the late 1500s. The pletnar is a highly respected position that can't be held by just anyone. There are only certain families allowed to do so, and the tradition gets passed from generation to generation. Oh, and only the men can do it.

Bled Island.

Our pletna boat.

I just love this photo.

Bled Castle on the other side of the lake. We'll visit there later.

Pano!

Our boat's name was Barbara, too!

Our pletnar. I don't remember his name.

The ride across was incredibly smooth, and the pletnar rowed with extreme ease. I couldn't get enough of the beautiful scenery and took about a billion photos in the short 5-7 minutes trek across. The island itself was quite small, with only a tiny church and souvenir shop at the top of long staircase. We had a half hour or so to explore at our leisure, take more photos, and peruse the little shop, though it didn't really take an entire half hour. This island is pretty tiny.

Stairs! (Hey, if this lady can do it, so can I.)

The views were amazing.

Bled selfie!

Our van wasn't quite as decked out as this one was.

Once we all finished, we hopped back in our pletna boat and headed back to the shore. From there, Barbara dropped us off in the town of Bled to sightsee along the lake's shoreline and have a snack. We had heard that we HAD to try the kremsnita (krem-shneeta), a Slovenian tradition that originated here in Bled. It's basically a puff pastry base with the addition of a custard cream. Today they happened to also have a strawberry version, so naturally we got one of each to try. We're equal opportunity dessert eaters. The weather was magnificent, and it was a great place to enjoy our cream cakes. While the original was good, the strawberry was divine. I really think this is where the inspiration for toaster strudel came from.

Dessert time. No, we hadn't even had lunch yet, but don't judge me.

Traditional kremsnita.

Strawberry kremsnita

Birds were everywhere!

Clearly they are not afraid of humans.

I felt a bit like Snow White.

Lake Bled

In the winter, you can ski/sled down this hill.

In the summer, you can kind of rollercoaster your way down that track.

Nikki found big beautiful Slovenian dogs.

The illustrations on this sign terrify me.

Lake Bled selfie!

Next up: Bled Castle

Next up was our first castle of trip: Bled Castle (not the most original names here), which by some is considered the oldest castle in Slovenia. The path up to the castle was stupidly steep with uneven stones, and I was having trouble getting traction in my tennis shoes. I can't even imagine what it was like in the winter in medieval times. Maybe they just skied down it. Not that I'm really complaining. I'm at a freaking castle. Barbara again told us a quick history, but I didn't hear most of it. I was admiring the old castle doors for a ridiculously long time, and was then drawn into a room in the main courtyard where a handsome young Slovenian was demonstrating a printing press. I was fascinated. Partly by him, but mostly by the printing press. Mostly.

Well, hello there.

It's a reconstructed Gutenberg wooden printing press where you can pick out various colors/sizes of hand-made paper and pair with one of 5 different historic blocks to give to the master printer. He then added my name and the date with historic lead letters, and created a one of a kind souvenir - with a little help from me - while I waited. I know I probably missed out some of the other parts of the castle, but I'm so glad I took the time to wait for this. It's one of my favorite souvenirs from the trip, and it's now hanging proudly in my living room.

I picked out the image.

I wrote down my name, so he could pull the correct letters, and arrange them and the date beneath the image.

The ink well.

Adding the ink to the letters/image block.

Waiting patiently.

Putting my back in to the lever that presses the paper to the blocks.

Needed a wee bit more help!

Finished product!

The rest of the castle was lost on me because I was obsessed with the views. Seriously, you guys, the pictures just don't do it justice. Barbara let us know that because of how strongly the government favors the preservation of the forest and land, it's incredibly difficult to get a permit to build any new homes. Because of that, it's quite expensive to buy a home in Bled, and even small homes start around $500K or 450,000 Euros. There was a hotel to stay at, but Bled is a sleepy little town, and there's very little to do outside of the tourist type things besides sleep and swim/kayak on the lake.

You guys. These views.

Someone was out for a mid morning swim.

Aerial shot of the lake and island.

I love all the tiny models of these buildings.

Into the living quarters.

I think they need a better statue.

I think he hates his life.

Medieval bathroom.

This incline was a bit tricky to maneuver.

Our jaunt to Bled was over, and we headed back to The Lube (this is what Brenda calls it, as well as others not from Ljubljana, but apparently the locals do not like this term. But saying The Lube is way easier than typing out the full name.) We dropped off the British couple, as they had only signed up for the half day tour. They were charming people, but I can honestly say I was not going to miss that lady's perfume. We also picked up two tween/teens that didn't seem to care about much of anything. Typical teenagers.

Our lunch spot was a cute little restaurant called Grandma's, and I had the most amazing pork tenderloins with potatoes and veggies. We now headed south of the Lube to visit Predjama (Pred-yama) Castle, one of the top 10 castles in the world. There are probably thousands of castles in the world, and we were headed to one of the TOP TEN. I also recently found out it's in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest cave castle in the world. I had no idea what to expect, but I was completely mesmerized by what I saw. While the castle itself had very few bells and whistles, and was actually quite plain, it was the fact that it was built into the mouth of a cave that blew my mind.

Lunch at Pri Babici: pork medallions wrapped in pancetta with vegetables and grilled potatoes. Pretty good!

It was like nothing I've ever seen before, and I still look at this photo with awe.

Photo stop!

This place was so cool.

The castle was originally built over 700 years ago, and had additions built on at a few different stages. It's perched on a 123-metre (403 feet) cliff, and is impregnable to outside foes. Seriously. There was only one way to enter the castle, which could easily be defended. Because of the upper cliff overhanging the castle, no one could attack from above. There is a legend about a "robber baron" using this castle as his hideout for quite some time, until he was betrayed by a servant.

Barbara warned us that the inside wasn't really anything to write home about, but I was pretty fascinated at how they fused the castle walls with the rough, raw entrance to the cave. Because of the fact that it literally opened up directly into the cave, it was quite brisk in here. Despite us coming in summer, I'm glad I had brought a fleece jacket with me. I imagine some roaring fires helped keep the drafts at bay, but living here had to still be quite uncomfortable in the winter. The steps and little nooks and crannies were bonkers and delightful to explore. Sadly, we were on a time crunch and I didn't get to explore like I wanted to, but I'm beyond grateful that we decided to do this trip.

Can't remember what this was, but perhaps an escape hatch.

Detailed map of the cave itself.

Walls, roof and cave wall fuse as one.

Timeline of the castle construction.

On your left, you will see a castle. On your right, you will see a cave. Discuss.

I don't think any one is going to be climbing down to get you from up there.

I called this the murder room. The small holes are to shoot arrow out of, and the holes in the floor were to pour boiling oil onto foes.

Arrow slit.

Boiling oil hole.

This guy scared the absolute crap out of me. No joke. Not only is this dummy terrifying, but you don't immediately realize he's in the room.

Not sure the mannequin is necessary to demonstrate this was the torture chamber...

Up, up we go! These stairs are super tall and very narrow. Apparently the people who built this were tiny-footed giants.

But, the views...

Yes, you could climb around in the cave.

We couldn't go too far, nor did we have time to explore.

I just couldn't stop taking pictures.

Goodbye Predjama.

Our final stop of the day was Postojna (Pos-toynya) Cave, another world-famous attraction that I can't begin to describe in words or photos. If anyone reading this has an opportunity to go here, DO IT! I can't stress this enough. You will not regret it. My photos don't do it justice. Not even a tiny bit.

Postojna was discovered nearly 200 years ago, and has had 36 million visitors since then. It's over 24 km long (15 miles) and is 377 feet deep. We started with a 2km train ride from the visitor center to where the walking tour began. This is the only cave in the world with a train, and it's been transporting visitors for 140 years. Needless to say, with the combined cooler cave temps, and the speeding train, it was bloody cold in here.

Train selfie!

Our tour guide was awesome, and he gave us lots of great facts and tidbits about the cave, but I couldn't stop taking crappy quality photos (flashes are not allowed). The sheer massiveness of this cave is indescribable. Our guide also mentioned their famous "human fish" or olms, that live deep within the cave system. Yes, I just said human fish, and you're probably as horrified as I was when I heard that. Turns out they are just lizard-y type creatures that get their name because of their pale skin tone. Living in the dark not only causes them to be completely blind, but it also doesn't allow for any skin pigmentation. There's also a legend that they are dragon babies, which ties in with the rest of the dragon stories from the area. But, no big deal.

Oh, and while on this tour, Nikki and I decided that I would make an excellent tour guide. Our guide even told me I should move to Slovenia, and they'd train me.

Tempting, good sir. Very tempting.

My pictures stink.

We're about to cross a bridge, but you can't really see it.

Spaghetti ceiling

These two will eventually touch. In a couple million years.

He said this reminded him of prosciutto.

The Brilliant Stalagmite. Yes, that's what is' called.

The concert hall. Just enormous.

They really aren't this cute.

I can't believe they actually made these into stuffed animals. They look like the baby dragon equivalent of a naked mole rat.

We had a few tricky moments walking up steep ramps with wet conditions, but overall, this was another highlight of the day. Have I mentioned how in love I am with Slovenia right now? Perhaps it's because this day was a complete 180 from how our Vienna trip felt (was that really just yesterday and a few days before?). This, right here, is what a European vacation should feel like. Slovenia-1, Austria-0.

Barbara packed up our group and we headed the short distance back to the Lube, and she enlightened us more about her country's people, a melting pot of Austrian and Balkan personalities. Slovenians are like Austrians in the fact that they like to work (though not too hard), and like to earn money. They are also generally on time. Slovenians are also like the Balkans who are more laid back and enjoy life. But, apparently Slovenians are quite mean to one another and she prefers taking tourists on these trips because they are much nicer to her than her own people. That's pretty sad.

We said goodbye to Barbara, who I would highly recommend as a tour guide (check out http://www.slovenia-explorer.com/ for a fabulous tour package!), as well as Danu and Pinkha, the wonderfully adorable Indonesian couple we befriended. They were so cute, and I just wanted to put them in my pocket for the rest of the trip. We had to part ways, but Nikki and I spent the rest of the evening doing some more sightseeing of Ljubljana (a bike race was finishing through the streets), dinner on the river again, and just meandering down the streets. The weather was beautiful, and people were out everywhere enjoying food, cocktails and live music. This was the type of day we had been waiting for, and we weren't disappointed.

The bike race was nearing its end, so we didn't see too many people riding.

Just what every modern day bike race needs: medieval stilt walkers.

Dinner location.

Home-made cottage cheese struklji. Not what we thought it was going to be.

We split the mushroom risotto, though it wasn't the best I've had...not even close.

We also split a margherita pizza. Also, not the best I've ever had.

Just the streets of the Lube.

Love.

I don't even want to think about missing this day if our train situation hadn't been sorted out.

Since we leave for Croatia in the morning (AND I get to see my friends Megan and Brenda), I'll leave with some additional tidbits about our very quick Slovenia trip.

Tresor Hostel pros: Huge room! Very nice and cute staff. Modern decor (loved the play on the bank theme). Electronic locks that allowed both Nikki and I to get a key that we didn't have to return every time we left.

Hostel cons: No sink in the room, though there was enough room for 20 sinks in there. The showers were awful. Dorm style showers, with MIRRORS on three sides, and gross mildewy shower curtains. I really don't want to think about how many hostel hookups likely happened in there. Ew. A/C was tricky to figure out, and even the staff had difficulty resetting the system to get it to work.

We only had to use the A/C because once the sun went down, we had a billion bugs trying to get in to our room. Our huge windows let in a magnificent breeze, but with no screens, we also got a little of the Slovenian nightlife in our room as well. But, overall, I'd recommend this hostel.