Slovenia

Ahhh Slovenia. What a beautiful country. I can't say that Slovenia was at the top of my list for European countries when we were planning this trip... but it definitely is now.

However, we didn't have the greatest start. From Salzburg, we took an afternoon bus to Ljublijana (the 'j' is pronounced as a 'y' sound: 'l-you-blee-yana'). The bus was late, with very minimal AC and an out-of-order bathroom. After 3.5 hours, we were both sweaty and grumpy. We picked up our rental car in Ljublijana, the capital of Slovenia, and drove 1.5 hours to Bohinj, a small town in Triglav National Park.

I know the map says 4.5 hours, but between the bus delays, getting our rental car, and driving, it took about 6 hours of travel.

 We got there just as the sun was going down and breathed a sigh of relief as we looked out on the beautiful lake.

We had dinner and then promptly went to bed, exhausted.

The next morning, we woke up early and took a cable car up into Triglav National Park. This gave us an incredible view of Lake Bohinj below.

From there, we hiked up to Mt Vogel. We had incredible views of the Julian Alps and the rest of Triglav National Park.

We made our way down the mountain back to Lake Bohinj and went for a swim. The next day, we hiked halfway around the lake, around 6km. From there, we rented paddleboards and explored more of the coves.

We then took a boat across the lake to our hotel.

From there, we packed up and drove 20 minutes to Lake Bled, a much more well-known lake in the area. Lake Bled is famous for a picturesque castle as well as a church located on an island in the lake. These photogenic qualities have made it a popular tourist area.

Given that its only about an hour from Ljublijana, it was teeming with day trippers. Even though it was beautiful, we were glad we had spent most of our time in Lake Bohinj.

Although we had to return our rental car in a few hours, I convinced William we had enough time to visit Vintar Gorge near Lake Bled. He had his doubts, given that I sometimes (often) try to pack too many things in. I just want to experience it all!

Well, he was right. I didn't anticipate that we would have to take a shuttle since parking was an issue. We then had to rush to get through the 1.6km gorge (which was pretty cool, walking on elevated platforms above the water).

Thunder started to rumble as we finished in the gorge. Then we had to jog the 5km hike back, William's long legs outpacing mine significantly. We started to feel scattered raindrops. We made it back to the shuttle and scrambled aboard just as it started pouring. We got back in the car and drove an hour back to Ljublijana. He dropped me and the bags off at the hotel at 5:20pm and returned the rental car at 5:28pm (it was due at 5:30pm). William shot me a dirty look when I said, "Well, we did make it back in time..." :)

Slovenia was incredible. I wish we had much more time here. We only saw one little area of this beautiful country, but I would definitely come back!