Bled in Slovenia

Today we started heading West again, leaving the former Soviet states into former Yugoslavia en route to Italy.

Day 24: It took us 10 hours to get from Budapest to Bled, but when we arrived, we were greeted by the most hilarious Slovenian fat man who owned the Mlinar pension. We went to the adventure center to book our Emerald River trip. From there we walked past the Park Hotel, home of the Bled cake, which is like a vanilla slice, only better.Like a Vanilla slice. Only better.

We walked around the perfectly azure waters up the hill to the restraunt. While we were ordering the mayor of the town, who was self admittedly tipsy after his daughters wedding introduced himself to us and recommended the cheese curd scroll which I shared with Jeff. I also got the grilled squid. SO GOOD. After dinner I walked up to the Castle. The view was beautiful, Bled by night, with all the lights reflected in the lake. That night I treated myself to some Bled cake before bed.

Day 25: Adventure day! We had an early start for our day exploring the Triglav national park, Slovenia's only national park and home to the nation's highest peak. We went through the mountain pass and went for a hike up to the mountain peak and then down to the source of the Sava Bohinjka River. It was amazing. We drank straight from the mountain! 

After some lunch in Bovec, half the group went rafting, while I went with the other half to the raftings end point and went for a swim in the icy clear waters and read my book. Absolutle bliss. While we waited we encountered a very entertaining dog, Maxy, who would fetch rocks from the river bed, drunking his head underwater and dragging giant rocks to the shore.

Next stop was Slap Kozak waterfall. We swam right up to, and underneath it. It was heavenly. This was followed by the 10m bridge jump. I was first off the ranks. So scary, but SO FUN! After that, I set a standard, so a couple more people plucked up the courage to do it. Our last stop was the car train to get us back to Bled. There are no tunnels on this side of the mountain for cars, so the cars are taken back through on trains. We sang along to Micheal Jackson with the doors open and drinks in hand as we enjoyed the last hour of sun. Tevz our guide dropped us off at a place for dinner where we had a feed before bed and a well needed rest.

Slovenia was a really cute and simply beautiful country. I wish I had time to go to Ljubliana, the capital, but Bled definitely whet my appetite for this young nation. But for now, bring on Italy!