Lovely (Rainy) Slovenia

Ljubljana - Postojan Caves - Lake Bled - Piran - Berlin

Pozdravljeni!

Ah, Slovenia, such a beautiful diverse little country closed in on all sides by its bigger neighbours. A microcosm of Europe, featuring lakes, mountains, caves, beaches, picturesque towns, and food with Italian, Hungarian, Croatian and Austrian influences. For example, a pizza burek, which is a Croatian/Turkish pastry with an Italian style filling.

Slovenians are such lovely docile people. Only in Slovenia can, during a time where terrorism is the focus of the world, can a strange man approach a bus driver and say "hey, can you deliver this suspicious looking package in the bus luggage compartment for me? Oh, and please put it right in the center of the bus thanks!" and the driver would happily do so with no questions asked.

Anyway..


LJUBLJANA
Is a lovely little town. Note that I said town, not city. Slovenians are deceiving themselves. The size and the laid back quiet atmosphere in this student populated town denotes this status in my mind. Ljubljana is a sheer delight to
wander though, pulling oneself up the steep winding ivy covered pathways to the pretty lame castle on top of the hill dominating over the sleepy town. Never had I seen a castle with a billboard advertising womens lingerie in the centre of its courtyard. Speaking of which, much billboard advertising in this country is rather sexual in its nature. You would see billboards of women in various states of undress being licked or fondled in a rather intimate manner. I’ve seen a girl in a walking billboard, which just displayed a naked woman’s body. Not quite sure what it was advertising there...

More stunning is the river cutting across the town, joined by several picturesque romantic bridges and promenades, with trees turning into autumn colours, and Italian and Austrian baroque and renaissance style architecture, some clad with auburn and green ivy.

The hostel I stayed at used to be a prison, recently converted into a funky hostel complete with oriental waterpipe chill out room, meditation room, bar, and all sorts of amenities to make a backpacker feel at home. The prison cells themselves have been decorated each in their own individual artistic way. In a nutshell, this is a rather hippy hostel, owned by the university and situated in the "free" hippy druggy area of Ljubljana.

This hostel is the first hostel I've ever been to where the bed I was sleeping in is on top of the fire exit, which is a trapdoor leading apparently to poles to slide down. I was tempted to set off the fire alarm so I could pretend to be Batman and utilise it but I don’t think that would go down too well with the hostel. Then again, I’m not impressed with the hostel after they didn’t believe/refund me when the first night I was attacked by bugs crawling from the wooden walls, resulting in me sleeping in the kitchen. Eventually they did believe me when others started complaining about being bitten, but I could not convince them to do the moral right thing. So, 23 euros wasted on a room I didn’t sleep in.


POSTOJAN CAVES
Did a day trip to the heavily touristed Postojan caves, touted as the largest limestone karst caves in Europe if not the world. We entered the cave to be led to an electric train, where we were whisked through like a funfair ride to the first couple of kilometres, oohing and aahhing at the stalagmites and stalactites and taking illegal photos of
everything. It felt like such a funfair ride that I was expecting to see puppets or characters popping up from behind the karst formations with laser lights and smoke screens. It was actually quite fun.

Anyway, we emerged into the main chamber, a massive area filled with stalagmites and stalactites and everything in between, in assorted colours of white, yellow, red, black and brown. In the centre sat a mountain covered with said karst formations. We reached a pool where we were told we would see the famous human fish. It wasn’t that impressive. For one thing, it was a salamander. Secondly it didn’t look human at all; just the colour is the colour of (Caucasian) human skin.

Finally, we entered what was referred to as the concert chamber, as concerts would be performed there due to the acoustics. Everyone thus proceeded to test the acoustics by screeching and screaming rather irritatingly. I must say the irritating screeching did reach my ears quite loudly and clearly even in the other side of the hall...

LAKE BLED
Did a day trip to the famous Lake Bled, on what was probably the worst day to choose to go. For some reason we looked at the dark clouds coming in and thought "hey what a great day to go visit the lake". Thus we found ourselves halfway around the 7km walking trail around the picturesque clear blue lake lined with trees turning into that lovely autumn colours when it started to pour down with rain. Adding to our misery, we decided to climb up the steep muddy trail up to the lovely castle perched up on the hill overlooking the lake, only to find that close up it really wasn't so nice after all, and you had to pay to get in, even if you just wanted to get out of the rain into the
restaurant within. Still, it was a lovely place to visit, surrounded by snow capped mountains, the middle of the lake featuring a little monastery on an island, where resides the bell of wishes - one can ring the bell and make a wish and apparently the wish will come true. I wondered who wished for the pouring rain...


A "ROMANTIC" TIME ON THE SLOVENIAN COAST
I had two options, either catch a train to Bratislava to meet up with my ex-Slovakian girlfriend Jana, or go with Stephanie, a sweet bright Aussie girl studying medicine who I hooked up with, to Piran, a small coastal town on the Slovenian coast. Because Jana had not been able to confirm being able to meet me due to work and family commitments, I decided in the last minute to go to Piran.

We got to Piran just before it started pouring down with rain. Piran is a beautiful city on a peninsula, very Venetian except there are no water canals. We constantly came to the conclusion that 1. Piran is a pretty lovely town, and 2. The pouring rain is driving us #%& insane! To add to the romantic atmosphere, we both had colds that we were
trying to shake off. If going to the coast to find sun and relaxation was the remedy we were looking for we were clearly deluding ourselves. We still managed to have fun though, at one stage playing the most ferocious game of snap I’ve ever played with anyone with my Saddam Hussein pack of playing cards I bought in Jordan.


BEING IN A REALITY TV SHOW IN LJUBLJANA
Parted company with Stephanie back in Ljubljana while she continued on to Zagreb. I had booked myself a flight to Berlin leaving the next day (it was the most convenient quickest cheapest way of getting to my next destination Poznan on the north of Poland. Besides, I need any excuse to visit Berlin my favourite city).

So, the last night in Slovenia was spent going out on the town. Me and some hostel folk ended up in a bar that turned out to be the location for a Slovenian reality TV show, where the bar staff are contestants who are voted off every week by TV and Internet viewers. The winner gets a million Tolars and a car. The bar had cameras all over the place and naturally everyone wanted to talk to the bar staff and perhaps get on TV. I'm sure my crazy dancing and ethnicity got me on if anything else.

Anyway, next morning, slightly hungover, I took off for Berlin, which is where I am now.


NOW WHAT?

Every time I come back to Berlin it always reinforces my belief that it is my favourite city. I just love chilling out here in the atmospheric cafes and going out to the cool funky bars and clubs..

Tomorrow I'm catching a bus to Poznan to explore Northern Poland and
the Baltics.

Dasvidenia!