Day 4 - Exploring Slovenia

Highlights 

Trying the official cake of Lake Bled

The castle of Lake Bled and learning the History of Beekeeping 

Eating the traditional dish of sausage in Lublijana

Lessons

Always bring the umbrella 

Learn how to Hagel not just pay what they ask - 2.50€ is unacceptable for a water 

This is the tourist part of the trip, and that’s ok. Enjoy it.

Today we met early with a gentleman, Boran, who would be
taking us inland to explore a couple beautiful sites in Slovenia. It was a perfect day to be on land as it was quite cloudy and raining off and on. Here, it doesn’t simply lightly rain, if it’s raining, it’s pouring. 

Turns out as soon as we got going the girls quite quickly fell asleep, the affects of having a AC! I was sitting in the front though and had a good chat with Boran, who was born in Croatia but moved to Slovenia when he was young. He travels to the US quite often and was very well versed in the history of this area. He had an interesting note no matter where we were.

First stop was Lake Bled, one of the most beautiful areas I’ve been to yet and according to Boran an aristocrat felt the same, and so he built a large castle on the mountain to overlook the beautiful lake. We had the choice to ferry out to the island where there is also a church but with weather not on our side we decided to opt out. One day I wouldn’t mind coming back to swim and explore a bit more. It was amazing. 

Oddly enough this area is well know for its honey and beekeeping. I forget the details now but there was a gentleman who wrote quite a bit about how to handle bees from this area. I’ll have to look up some details on that later. 

From Lake Bled we drove through the surrounding village and then made our way to the capital - Ljubljana. I couldn’t believe I had never thought of traveling here. So much history and beauty, walking the streets with Boran was a real treat. He had a couple exciting stops for us and I’ll let the pictures speak for his knowledge. It did rain on and off while we walked which was refreshing but with my sketch book - I regretted not bringing my umbrella (which I very honestly thought I would only really need for sun shade not actual rain!)

From Ljubljana we travelled to our final and most anticipated stop of the day, Postojnska Jama Caves. They are some of the largest in Slovenia and wow wow wow. So incredible to go here - I’ve honestly never been in a cave before. Or that far underground, I guess everything in Canada is more a high ground destination... apparently the caves can also be quite cool - about 10 degrees normally. I was wearing shorts and a tank, brought a light coverup just in case, and not
only Boran but the entire group was concerned for my comfort. I think I had to confirm oh, a thousand and one times that I would be fine. I am the girl who curls in a T-shirt and still sweats... plus I’ve been literally melting every day here on the humidity and heat so I was very very excited to actually feel cold - if that’s actually what was to come. Walking in, they literally had wool cloaks for people to wear, this slightly concerned me but I was still quite sure I would be fine. Here’s the ‘T’ folks, on the ride in I had a slight chill, otherwise absolutely perfectly comfortable and for the first time in 10 days, I did not sweat.

It was amazing to travel underground on a small train, and then from there we walked through many of the ‘galleries’ and main halls of the stalagmites and stalactites. It was a crazy feeling being so far in the earth. Apparently these caves were used in the war. One of the Bridges was built by Russian prisoners and another area which had... hm I want to say Italian but I’m not sure, the Slovenians actually lit the entrance on fire trapping them inside. This was the area we entered and it’s still quite black. Some of the cool things here were the different colors of the formations caused by impurities in the soil as the water filtered downwards, pure
white being the most pure water simply carrying pure lime stone downward. I think I have that right. The other very cool part and the touristy tourist item for sale was the small animal found existing in the lowest area of the cave when first found was so otherworldly that people thought they were baby dragons! They are actually called Olms but exist in pure darkness and only require food every 7-12 years! Their metabolism is so slow, that their hearts beat as little as twice a minute. Upon our exit - there was a small Gallery where you could see a few Olms. The girls made a joke of your job was to remember to feed the Olm every 10 years lol and you forgot... you had one job! I would think there is quite an audience when they are fed. 

We exit the cave to the sun shining and a beautiful evening ahead of us. Boran said his goodbyes leaving us back at the Marina and we dropped off our items and immediately headed for dinner on the pier. Here, I’m sorry have to talk about all the incredible food (J you were right), I took a risk
and went for the fish of the day plate. OMG just so so good. Fresh, and I learned how to properly debone the whole fish by Kathleen (NYC adventurer). We finish the meal with the traditional shot of liquor which this time tasted more like
diluted sangria lol 

Time for bed, oh wait, Gelato, and then it was time for bed. Another incredible day behind us. Tomorrow - we enter Croatia

Started off the day with this beautiful sunrise 

This is the traditional cake we had before exploring Lake Blat! It was of course - amazing 

View from the castle of Lake Blat our to the island church - we were going to venture here butwity the weather the group decided that our time would be spent better somewhere else - which is fair - it’s about 30€ to just get to the island.

Entering the city of Lublijana 

The streets were all cobblestone and apparently it is winning many awards for how ‘green’ and clean they are. 

 The dragon bridge - it’s bad luck not to strike it’s tail when you cross 

The canals here were amazing as well, lots of bridges all along the way with tons of stories and history on each 

Traditional Lublijana Kubasa a dish meant to share but you can just order half and the bread comes fresh out of the oven. Absolutely amazing.

The entrance to the caves

The train ride in, this makes it look like it was going really fast, it wasn’t too bad. 

Massive stalactites and stalagmites. The whole cave is lit with lights which really just can’t be captured in photos. It was a truly incredible experience - water still dripping from the ceiling as you walked through.

Hopefully the scale of the caves can be understood here - some of the halls were 20m

Dinner! It didn’t say what the potatoes were but this seems to be a traditional way of preparing them, lots of garlic and stewed spinach.

The finishing shot