Ljubljana (Loo-bee-ya-na)

We decided to take a spontaneous trip to Slovenia this past weekend and it ended up being such a beautiful surprise. It was only a 3-hour ride through the Alps and Slovenian countryside until we arrived to the whimsical capital, Ljubljana. We began our first night with a 5-course Balkan dinner at a small, underground restaurant. Though it was not necessarily traditional Slovenian food, Balkan food is commonly enjoyed all through the ex-Yugoslavian region. The meal lasted until around 1am because we had so much to eat. We ended the night walking in the old town alongside the river, enjoying decorative bridges with gargoyles, the coolest graffiti I’ve ever seen, and the Ljubljana Castle glowing in the distance.

 

The next morning we got ready for our day tour. It was the first tour I’ve done in Europe, but it ended up working out perfectly. Our guide was named Roman and was very informative, down to earth and ended up being our personal chauffer for the day.

We started by going to a castle overlooking Lake Bled. We climbed up to the top, explored the castle and enjoyed the view of the lake. Because it was only about 10am, there was a lot of morning fog obstructing our view, but it was still breath taking. We watched as rowing teams made their way across the lake and little decorative boats were taking tourists to an island where a beautiful church was.

 

Bled castle sits high on a 130-meter cliff above the lake.  Because the castle was geared towards defense rather than luxury, there were no extravagant rooms, but nonetheless it was still picturesque. It was built for a bishop, and there are still monks running the shops at the castle. My favorite part was the wine cellar. A chubby, jovial monk greeted us as we walked in and told us about their wines. I was very hesitant knowing Slovenia was not known for their wine, but it didn’t keep me from tasting it. The grapes were from western Slovenia, right next to Italy. After we talked for a bit I decided I wanted to bottle my own. I went behind the counter with the monk, he gave me an empty bottle and I got to pour the wine into my bottle right out from the barrel. I then corked it with an old iron corker and dipped the top in red melted wax to seal it. The label was beautiful homemade paper made at the castle’s printing press shop. I tied it around the neck and then sealed it in place with more melted wax and the castle’s stamp. Though it doesn’t compare to Italian wine, it was such a cool experience being able to bottle it myself.

We went from the wine cellar to the printing press shop, and then made our way to Lake Bohinj. On the way we stopped at a traditional Slovenian restaurant up in the mountains. We sat outside, drank Slovenian beer and watched skiers hike up a little slope and ski right down. Roman ordered us the day’s special because we couldn’t read the menu. We started out with one of the best and simplest salads I’ve ever had: wild field greens with oil and vinegar, topped with fried pork fat. The greens had such a fresh, peppery flavor that you didn’t need anything else on it, but the pork fat added a crunchy, salty touch that made it so good! My meal was roasted goat with a side of mashed potatoes with onions. As we ate, Roman told us everything we wanted to know about Slovenian culture and the history of the ex-Yugoslavia area – he realized Americans really don’t know much at all about Eastern Europe. Once we finished our lunch we were all ready for a nap. I don’t know how they eat such hearty, filling meals all the time, but it was some of the best food I’ve had in Europe. We headed back to the car and made our way to Lake Bohinj.

Lake Bohinj is a glacial lake in Triglav National Park. It is also the biggest lake in Slovenia, and winds around the base of the Julian Alps. We wanted to rent kayaks but it was too windy so we just walked around and enjoyed all the nature. The water was crystal clear and the brightest turquoise blue, which made it perfect to watch trout swim in the rivers and frogs riding through the rapids. The lake had such a peaceful, serene feeling that I wish we could just rent a cabin and read all day outside. There was too much snow to go on a hike, so after we looked around we decided to go back to Bled.

This time we arrived at the bottom, next to the lake. There was a quaint little town surrounding the lake where we found a restaurant to take a break at. We sat outside next to the water and enjoyed the traditional dessert of Lake Bled – “kremna rezina”, or cream cake in English. It’s a layer of puff pastry, custard, whipped cream and more puff pastry, generously dusted with powdered sugar. Lets just say we didn’t have any problems finishing it…

We road a boat to the island and explored the church and tower. Roman told us that it was a popular wedding location; tradition says its good luck for the groom to carry his bride up the 100 steps on their wedding day before ringing the bell and making a wish inside the church. We spent the rest of the time enjoying the scenery and skipping rocks in the water.

We were all ready to go back to Ljubljana; we were so exhausted from hiking and playing outside all day. We parted ways with our new friend Roman, and took a nice nap at the hostel. We spent the evening enjoying Ljubljana and ate a light sushi dinner at the bar of a fancy Japanese restaurant. I still regret not ordering more – it was the best sushi I’ve ever had.

We finished the night in a  pub, sitting at a booth enjoying the company of good friends. They had a really big menu, and we were excited to see some of our favorites that we had tried before in Belgium. Our bartender brought us a nightcap of Slovenian blueberry schnapps before we left at closing time.

Sunday morning we made our way outside the city to the Postojna Caves, which is the longest cave network in Europe. We took a little electric train ride deep into the caves and then hiked through 3 different layers of where the river had run through. It was so hard to wrap my mind around how long it took for all of it to form!

After a few hours in the cave we went to the Predjama Castle about 30 minutes away. We had lunch at an inn overlooking the medieval castle and the valley. I ordered grilled cheese with bacon and an egg on top, and to my surprise my meal was cheese, wrapped in bacon, with a fried egg on the side. It was not what I was expecting, but it ended up being really good. We finished lunch with the inn’s famous apple strudel and then went to the Predjama Castle. The castle is built into the side of a cliff, overlooking a valley in the countryside with a jousting arena in the front. All the rooms are inside the cliff, and there is another giant cave system underneath. We wandered around all the rooms in the castle, enjoyed the view and then made our way back to home.

I expected Slovenia to be weird and a bit scary (knowing absolutely nothing about the country) but it was the most unique and beautiful place I have ever been to. It was so comfortable, the people were so friendly and everything was so clean. I’d love to go back and hike, bike ride, kayak and adventure around the lakes and mountains at some point. Surprisingly, it’s also made me interested in going to other Eastern European countries like Croatia, Bosnia, or even Serbia; places I never even imagined myself going before coming to Europe.

written March 14, 2014