The European segment of our "journey home" has begun. We're 7 days in and I haven't washed my hair yet. Trying this whole no-poo thing but I always get to about 7 days and give in and wash my hair. I think I might be nearing a personal best. But I digress.
We flew into Zagreb, Croatia and I had almost no interest in going there but it was a very cheap flight out of London Gatwick and very close to Slovenia, a place I actually wanted to visit. Upon extensive research during my term 3 gain time* (sorry Nat) into the cheapest route and order to do these next few countries in, this was the most solid outcome. So 1 night in Zagreb to have a poke around and then get on the bus to Ljubljana the next day. Lesson from Zagreb is to be really smart if you are moving out of your home for the last 2 and a half years and onto the road. Despite trying really hard, we packed way too much. We filled a backpack each and a day pack each and after finding hostel number 1 we realised they were way too heavy. We did a quick sort out and lost a few kilos each.
Zagreb was another European city to me with not much going on. Maybe if we'd had time for a walking tour we'd feel differently as you usually learn some cool facts about a place. The bus the next day to Ljubljana was so easy and so cheap although if you travel with a friend and you want to sit next to them on the bus, develop a system. Will took our luggage to the hold and I got on to save seats for us both. Without that system you will never get seats next to each other and potentially not get on the bus after putting your luggage in the hold which almost happened on our next bus journey. We used FlixBus and the border crossing was smooth and easy despite the 2 people (won't mention nationality) behind us moaning the whole way about something or other.
We spent 2 nights in Ljubljana which was pretty packed out just wondering around. It's such a beautiful city and I love spending time just wondering, watching street performers and getting to know the place. 2 nights was probably enough for us and I wouldn't recommend more than 3 nights there. We did a day trip out from here to Postojna Caves. Although the caves were amazing and the neighbouring castle was very cool, it did feel like a bit of a money grab at times as they have completely commercialised everything. There were ridiculous photos being sold of your entry through the turnstyle of the cave, prettied up with a Postojna Caves border for €5 and the audio device on the castle tour directs you through to a gift shop mid way through the castle where they also offered to take a photo of you. This wasn't even the only gift shop and that's not to mention the €37 entry. On our tight budget it felt a bit like a splurge to battle tourist crowds.
Most Hostel housed us while we were in Ljubljana which did it's job but I'm sure there's better hostels around and would probably chance something different if I were to return. It was a great location, right near Dragon Bridge but the rooms were lacking.
Then the real fun begun when we again boarded a bus (this is the bus that Will almost didn't get on after depositing our luggage) and headed to Lake Bled. What a sight. This beautiful Lake, 6km in circumference, crystal clear, blue waters, houses Slovenia's only island and is set in the middle of picturesque mountains on all sides. An outdoor lovers haven. We took advantage of the free offers at the hostel and became scooter wankers, using these mean modes of transport to jet around the lake on our first exploration. Flower Monkey and Flame Monkey were the names of our rides incase you needed more reason to think of me as unstoppably cool.
From Lake Bled you can visit Vintgar Gorge which is a short and challenging bike ride away. It didn't take us longer than 30 minutes but it was a gruelling 30 minutes. On the flip side, the ride home was about 7.5 minutes and I might have pedalled once or twice. Once there you can stroll over the amazing river and rapids for about 1 hour depending on crowds and your pace. It is sensational and in complete contrast to the exploitation of nature for commercial gain that Postojna was. It was €5 to enter and once in you can spend as long as you like there and really enjoy it. Take your swimmers if you are immune to the cold. There's a great spot at the bottom of the waterfall that I contemplated swimming in for about 25 minutes trying to build up the courage but my foot alone lasted approximately 20 seconds before being painfully cold so eventually reason took hold and we walked away.
We stayed at Garden House Bled which has proven to be such a great find on hostelworld.com and we even found ourselves some pals to enjoy the place with. 5 star mattresses make for a nice treat when travelling on a budget and the garden full of herbs and fruit to help yourself to just makes everything feel very homely.
We got the bus back to Ljubljana and will spend one more night here before our flight out. Tomorrow we pack up and say goodbye and I'll be super sad about that. But ongwards to other great places it is!
Stay tuned.
*term 3 is the last term in the English school year so the year 11's, 12's and 13's go on study leave to prepare for their exams leaving teachers with a little bit of extra time in their timetable supposed to be used to do specific tasks. But my computer screen faced away from everyone else and we work damn hard in term 1 that I didn't feel the slightest bit of guilt in term 3 when I was on sky scanner instead of writing schemes of work.
Notes for the environmentally conscious traveller:
I was very impressed with a few things I saw on my travels so far.
- Waste management
Slovenia (and indeed many European cities) are great at waste. Here along one of the main streets are 4 bins for separating waste for recycling or incineration. This kind of thing excites me and I like taking the extra 5 seconds separating my waste and deciding which bin my waste belongs in because it makes me feel good. Much better than sending everything to landfill.
- Drinking water
Encouragement of people to drink the tap water. There's nothing I hate more than the bottled water industry (that's a lie, but you get the idea) and Ljubljana was a city that actively encouraged the refill with public taps everywhere and signs in hostels telling boarders that the water is safe and of a very high quality.
- Paper bag shopping
Just like the old days! When plastic wasn't invented or widely used and paper bags were the go. I loved seeing this as an option for consumers as an alternative to the plastic bag.
- Wonky veg.
I can't see 1 cucumber in here that would pass the aesthetics test for Sainsbury's or Tesco and this crop would have been rejected and destined for landfill or ploughed back into the ground before even being picked. In fact, almost all of the fresh produce in this particular store was unpackaged, not suffocating from unnecessary plastic wrapping and either dirty, squishy, bendy and absolutely delicious. We have become so out of touch with where our food comes from that when we see dirt on our veg we automatically reach for the cleaner one giving these supermarket giants more ammunition to reject farmers of their crops. I love this box of cucumbers!
