i feel sLOVEnia

That's the honest to god slogan for Slovenia. Awesome.


On Michael's second Monday we day-tripped to Padova, less than an hour train ride from Venice. (Blog post still to come...)

Last Monday all five of us hired a car and drove to Lake Bled in Slovenia. A significantly bigger adventure.

Lets just say there was a desire from within the group to avoid the tolled highways; no maps; a GPS tom tom with dubious route-planning capabilities; and five adult-sized people in an undersized hire car. Instead of the three hours from Venice it should've taken, we were driving for almost seven hours. Seven hours of incredible winding and climbing into the mountains on an extremely narrow road. The scenery was AMAZING, it really was beautiful and dramatic, just not the best best circumstances to appreciate it.

A quick stop at the top a long ziggy zaggy climb in a mountain village just before the boarder.

This reminded Finn and I of the mountain villages in the Sierra Nevada in Spain. Just a little bit earlier in the season on this trip, so while the air felt cool and crisp, there were no icy puddles. There was a huge walnut tree though and we picked them off the ground to eat later at the lake. Fresh walnuts delicious, but no honey this time.

M and A let off some five-adults-stuck-in-a-small-car-for-hours steam.

We (Finn) really did just drive endlessly, on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road. Finn's only previous experience of right-sided driving was one day five years ago on a scooter in Majorca, and then in LA on our way here. After Amy's graduation, when everyone else was far too drunk, he drove five, or possibly six of us to Fiona's house in wild west territory. Wild west as in the area in LA where they have built a permanent movie set town for shooting western films in. Coincidentally, Fiona has just taken over from Michael in our next door apartment. Anyway anyway, back to the Italy-Slovenia mountain crossing... The hills were covered in apple trees and there were apples falling all over the road. There would've been another great foraging haul if we'd been travelling at a more relaxed pace, and if there had been any safe stopping spots. Instead we kept on, marvelling out the windows, and wishing for a lake.


Eventually we made it to Bled, and it was straight into glamping mode.

Our glamping hut on a hill above the lake. (Hot tub at the back on the left.)
Finn could finally relax (with his new tabby friend) after far too long a drive.

Lake Bled. Surrounded by mountains and with a castle on the other side.

We three take a refreshing swim.
Actually it wasn't that cold, not the Adriatic that we're used to, but not bad at all once you're in.

Back to the huts to warm up.
The hot tubs weren't quite up to it yet unfortunately, but the showers were excellent.

The fire is stoked.

Time to eat. Having anticipated arriving in Bled by lunchtime, we had not packed a picnic, and the pasticceria we searched longingly out the window for never materialised... and breakfast had been early and brief before rushing to pick up the car at 8am. So by the time we'd arrived and had a swim, we were all starving. We set off around the lake to make up for our food losses with a giant early Slovenian dinner. With the essential precursor of chips and beer, of course.

The other side of the lake, with a view to the island with a church and two houses .

Boats. Lake. Island.

Slovenian dinner on the upstairs veranda.
Five happy tummies.

After dinner it was back to our hot hot tubs for a long long luxurious soak under the stars. Finn and Michael spotted satellites and shooting stars, and I saw lots and lots of stationary twinkling ones. It was super great.

The next day was another early start to get me back to the pavilion by midday. This time we purchased a ticket for the highways and plugged the fastest route possible into the tom tom. Finn drove almost the whole way at 130km/h and we would've been back in perfect time had we not stopped for too long in Trieste... Nevertheless, Svetislava eventually got some documents stamped at the Slovenian consulate there, and we eventually found delicious apple-filled pastine and strong coffee for breakfast, and in the end we weren't terribly late...
But my goodness, for me at least, there were some fairly stressed out and frustrated moments for what somehow was also a very wonderful one night holiday.



i feel sLOVEnia alright.

6 October 2011