Slovenia

Slovenia has been the number one destination on my list of Must Visit places in Europe for two years now. It all started when I saw this cover on my MIL's coffee table and read the corresponding article in Travel & Leisure. I was smitten. I loved the idea of visiting a place that isn't on everyone else's top 10.

The train ride from Zagreb to Ljubljana was probably one of the prettiest journeys I've ever been on. We left Zagreb at about 6:30 on a day when sunset was at 9 pm and then marveled at glowing corn fields, a sparkling river, and three hours of gorgeous countryside. I was supposed to read for my #madiss, but the view was just too captivating. (Unfortunately, no pictures. Moving trains heading into the sun are not conducive to good pictures.)

We chose a hotel near Prešeren Square in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia (pronounced Loob-lee-ah-na). Like Zagreb, we had one day for exploring the city and one day for a day trip out of town.

After dreaming about this place for years and planning a visit in the middle of July, we were hit with a freak rain storm that lasted our entire visit. If Slovenia did not live up to my expectations, it is entirely due to sucky weather. I'd like to say that I was a good sport about this and that I quickly rallied around the disappointed travelers' favorite maxim that "it could be worse," but unfortunately that was not the case. I pouted and was cranky. (It didn't help that my only close-toed shoes are ballet flats and the rain soaked my feet or that we spent nearly 3 hours just trying to get our laundry taken care of on the first day.)

Preseren Square

We decided that Ljubljana is a hybrid of Amsterdam and Prague (Pragsterdam). Like Prague, it is situated on a river and has a castle on a hill. Like Amsterdam, there are several short bridges crossing that river and they are all cute and have individual designs. We decided to take the funicular up to the castle and walk around and then walk down the mountainside. For this part of the day the rain (mostly) stopped, which was a welcome reprieve since my one pair of close-toed shoes was already soaked through.

from the castle

the path down to town

walking along the river from the Dragon Bridge to the Triple Bridge. Lots of cool outdoor restaurants and cafes.

Triple Bridge

Across from Preseren Square, we made a few happy discoveries. First was Za Popen't Pivoteka, a craft beer shop that carries brews from all around the world (including several from our local North County SD breweries like Alesmith, Green Flash, and Lost Abbey). This was completely unexpected as we hadn't even thought to look for a craft beer shop in Slovenia. The surprise provided some good beers for Joe to enjoy over the next few weeks in Italy. 

We also came across TaBar, a Slovenian cuisine tapas bar serving local, in-season recipes in small portions. The food here was very tasty, but we'd recommend sitting indoors no matter how nice the weather; we were nearly smoked out by the tables surrounding ours who seemed to be taking their cigarettes in turns that always overlapped, leaving us without a moment of fresh, smoke-free air.

After dinner on both Wednesday and Thursday nights we stopped for a "nightcap" at Cacao, a cafe with one of the prettiest dessert cases I've ever seen. This is just off Preseren Square along the river and makes for a pleasant dessert-and-coffee stop whenever the sweet tooth may strike you.

The "main event" in Slovenia was always meant to be our day in Lake Bled. In most places, our goal city is the capital and trips to the countryside are bonus, but in Slovenia it was Lake Bled, not Ljubljana, that we'd included on our London List.

Originally the plan was to spend the entire day at the lake: swimming, hiking, taking a boat to the island, exploring, and generally taking advantage of summer at a lake. Because of the rain, we had to scrap that idea straight away. Instead, we took a local bus from Ljubljana to Bled (about 14 euro roundtrip per person) in the afternoon and stayed for just a few hours. In fact we were so cold and my shoes were so wet that our first stop was at a sporting goods store to buy SmartWool socks.

Despite the weather, the lake was still beautiful. We walked around about a third of the lake on the south-east side before heading back. We will cross Lake Bled off our list, of course, but honestly I'll still dream of returning on a clearer, warmer day when hiking up a nearby hill and overlooking the central island is more of a possibility.

even the model was full of water!

From Slovenia we were headed to Venice to meet our family. There are only two busses from Ljubljana to Venice and the early one costs half as much. It takes about 3 hours to get to Venice and it's possibly the most lax border crossing I've ever seen (literally a sign that says "Italia" with no officials, no booths, no barriers, and then the road signs all switch to Italian and that's that). It has been just over a week since our arrival in Italy and I have LOTS to blog about so hopefully the internet connection stays strong!