We made a lot of jokes about Slovenia as the promised land…
people will probably hug us as soon as we get off the train clucking “Oh I know
where you’ve been”… we’ll cross the border and a Pegasus will fly across a
rainbow in the sky etc etc.
 |
| Triple Bridge, Ljubljana |
But here’s the thing, it IS a wonderful magical land of happy
friendly English speaking people, where you feel nothing but love and warm
happy feelings about your life. Outside of my adopted “I wish” homeland of
France, it may be my favorite country I have ever visited. In fact, Slovenia’s
slogan is I FEEL sLOVEnia. How darling is that? It’s true! You DO feel love
there!
We had ½ day and 1 night in their capitol Ljubljana
(pronounce the j’s like y’s and your life is a lot simpler). We walked through
the old town and marveled at the pretty architecture. We were stopped outside
an Argentinean restaurant where a young man attempted to persuade us to eat
there. When we explained it was our first night and we wanted to eat traditional
Slovenian he got his friend to translate “we are having a big party here later
tonight, come back and you can eat and drink whatever you like!” Then, I kid
you not, he gave us a hug and his friend gave us les bises, and they didn’t
even try to steal anything from us during the whole exchange. Our joke “Slovenia
is so lovely, people just hug strangers on the street to make them feel welcome”
turned out to be reality. That evening we had our first hot meal in 3 days and
a few glasses of wine. In the film version of our adventures, our mothers were
cheering.
 |
| Hungarian Goulash. |
Slovenia is a tiny little country, so if you situate
yourself in Ljubljana (dead center) day trips are quite simple. The following
morning we checked out of our campsite/hotel and when the man at the desk
realized we would miss the complimentary breakfast, he pulled out two packed
lunches and asked us if we wanted them. Uhm yes, kindest people on earth, we
would love those lunches. Then his coworker, who had helped us out the night
before when we had a bit of a problem, offered to take us into town to the
train station. Uhm yes, kindest people on earth, thank you for the lift.
 |
| Dragon Babies |
We took a bus for about 1hour to Postojnska Jama and
Predjama Castle. Postojnska Jama is a massive cave system, and while a bit
touristy, thoroughly enjoyable. We felt it worth every penny of what we paid
for the tour. You start out on this little train like you are entering Gringotts
to get your wizard gold for Hogwarts. Then you have an hour walking tour of
incredible awesome stalagmites and stalactites, ending with an exhibit of blind
dragon spawn cave creatures, and a final train ride back to the surface. We
then got a taxi the 11km to Predjama Castle (again, our mom’s were cheering for
our decision not to hitchhike as is recommended by Rick Steves).
 |
| Spaghetti Hall, because these baby stalactites look like pasta |
Predjama Castle makes my list of one of the Top 5 most
Impressive Unbelievable Things I Have Ever Seen in the Entire World. It’s a
castle built into a cliff with an extensive cave system underneath. The knight
that once lived there was under siege for over a year… instead of dying from
starvation as his castle was surrounded he simply used a route within the caves
out to a neighboring town, and then returned. He was finally killed when a
money-hungry servant signaled to the enemy as the knight went to an exterior
portion of the castle to do his business. A cannon was fired into his bathroom
and that was that. Now you can scramble all over the castle enjoying the
juxtaposition of cliff/cave and living quarters.  |
| Photo Credit: Megan |
Back on a bus to Ljubljana, where we picked up our packs
from the convenient and cheap luggage storage at the train station and hopped
on a bus up to Lake Bled for two nights of blissful camping. 1½ hours later we
are kindly dropped off at an Alpine Lake surrounded by snow capped mountains,
swans, clear blue water, pletna boats… is this real life?
 |
| Photo Credit: Megan |
It started sprinkling when we arrived at our campsite and
the ever so kind Slovenian working the front desk asked us if we needed a bigger
umbrella to set up our site. At dinner that night, I not only got to eat trout
with its head still on that I am almost certain came from the very lake I was
currently looking at, but we were also treated to free blueberry mead “just to
warm you girls up”. Slovenia is seriously home to the nicest people in the
world. 
Our full day in Bled involved morning cappuccinos on the terrace
near the lake, a leisurely stroll, a hike up to a viewpoint near the castle,
traditional Slovenia desserts and savory lunchtime pastries, Cockta (the communist
era version of Coca-Cola),a bottle
of wine said to have healing properties, and a rowboat to an enchanted island where if you ring
the church bell 3x it’s said that all your wishes will come true. Quite frankly I'm not sure the people of Slovenia even have any wishes, because they live in the greatest place in the world. We weren’t really ready to leave…
ever. 
But back to Ljubljana we went for a day of exploration
before catching an overnight train to Munich, Germany and then another train
onto to Paris, where flights and trains back to the real world were awaiting
us. We got rid of all our leftover Croatian Kuna coins making wishes in various
fountains throughout the day. My favorite sites in Ljubljana were:
1.
The Dragon Bridge (a dragon is said to have been
slayed near the city so it’s the city mascot. I have no doubt that if magical
creatures do/did exist, it was in Slovenia).
2.
The Library, the only building damaged during
WWII from a plane crash. The Slovenians didn’t want to lose their book
collection and formed a human chain to save their precious books from the
flames. The door handle to enter the library is shaped like a Pegasus head... to soar you into enlightenment. You enchanting little beautiful darling place Slovenia you.
Before our late night train we enjoyed a few communist-era Slovenian
Beers and said Hvala for a truly wonderful end of our trip…
Which turned out wasn’t the end of our trip at all, since
our overnight train didn’t arrive on time to Munich, making us miss our
connection to Paris, making us miss our flights/trains home. It says a lot
about a friendship when you can spend 2 straight weeks together, go through a
mini transportation crisis, spend the night drinking beers from McDonalds in
the Paris airport and pushing chairs together to make a “fort” to sleep in, but
still be terribly sad to have to say goodbye the following morning. Nonstop adventures since the ages of Four and Five.
