Slovenia is a lovely place

Last weekend I traveled to Ljubljana, Slovenia with Don, Noelle, Hannah, and Ilonka. We left on Friday at about 4pm and arrived in Ljubljana at about 10pm. I had a separate hostel the first night since I was late joining the trip, but it was really close to the main drag and was a safe place for the night. Once we all dropped our stuff off, we met back at the river to grab some food and a drink. The place was really busy with lots of young people wandering about, having drinks and chatting at the various restaurants that had outdoor seating. It wasn't very warm, but with a jacket and scarf it was comfortable. Right from our first interactions with people in Slovenia we knew it was something special.

Dragons on Dragon Bridge

The buildings on the river at night.

The town center's Franciscan Church.

Even though we only spoke a couple words of Slovenian (thank you, hello, please), people were very accommodating, and most of them were happy to speak English with us. And they were all so nice! We had yummy drinks and sandwiches, and then walked down a little ways for some ice cream. I had stracciatella, and it reminded me of ice cream I'd eaten in Kenya (yummm!). After walking around for a bit we parted ways back to our hostels.

In the morning I got up, packed my stuff, and moved to the hostel where the rest of the girls were staying--I'd be there the next two nights. This first morning we figured out how we were going to get to the Skocjan Caves. Then we split up for a morning of exploring the town's weekly art market and daily farmer's market. The variety of fresh food items available was amazing, and the art at some of the stalls was really beautiful, too. I spent too much money, but it was totally worth it, especially since this was my first big trip out of Vienna. After grabbing a quick bite of fresh pizza, we dropped our purchases off at the hostel and headed for the train station to make our way to Divaca for the caves.

Butcher's Bridge, where newlyweds put locks and throw away the key.

Some fruit stands at the farmer's market. Much of the fruit was grown and/or
collected locally.

Ilonka became part of the entertainment when
she belly danced to a street band.

Flowers and mushrooms also at the market.

My pizza was literally made on the spot.

Our train ride to Divaca was pretty quick and uneventful. When we got off the train we were a little late and had just barely missed the free bus to the caves. The walking trail to the caves was really well marked (up until the very end...) so we had a nice walk through the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Skocjan Caves are a really interesting natural phenomenon where a river drops underground. Because of this, and through millions of years of rock erosion, the caves formed. We were all really excited to see them. The last turn to head up to the entrance was not well marked like the rest of the trail, so Don and I got a little bit lost, but we made it with time to spare for the last tour of the day.

The group (me, Hannah, Ilonka, Noelle, and Don) on our walk to the caves. Took about an hour.

The trail we were walking on.

Our first view of the caves area, where the river drops underground. The scale of the place is
hard to understand with this photo.

We saw some pretty plants and insects on our walk.

It was 11 Euros to tour the caves with a guide, which is mandatory.  We also grabbed some dinner before heading into the caves, since there was a full-service restaurant at the top. I snagged some of Ilonka's gnocchi and ate the free table bread (read: I had a free meal by mooching). We were then called over by the tour guide and followed him for about ten minutes before even getting to the cave's entrance. At this point we were informed that NO photos were allowed in the caves. :( I had lugged my bulky tripod all the way there for nothing. Oh well!

I would have photos here, but they weren't allowed....

The tour of the caves was really fun though. We started in the Silent Cave, which is where the river course was millions of years ago. There were thousands of stalactites and stalagmites forming from water seepage and deposition of minerals. At one point our guide (Luka) stated that above the ceiling of one particular spot was the parking lot for the UNESCO site. The air was chilly and still, but because we were walking up and down stairs so much we didn't really get cold (in fact, I had to take off a layer). There were some pools of water in various places that I asked about. Some of them were for drinking water, while others were probably used to help power carbide lamps, which were used by early cave explorers and are still actually used today. Now the cave we were in was lit up with electric lamps, but it was neat to see this historical relic of exploration. Towards the end of the tour, we walked across a bridge that was 45m (135 feet) above the river, and it was neat to see the river flowing below, underground. After we crossed the bridge our guide turned the lights off on us, and it was completely and totally pitch black. It was really awesome.

One of two crappy pictures I got at the end of the cave tour.

Second of two crappy pictures. But if gives you an idea of the
size of this part of the cave as well as the darkness.

After finishing the tour, we scrounged up some rides from a couple tourists and our tour guide to get back into town to be able to catch our train back to Ljubljana. Our guide was nice enough to stay and have a drink with us, as well, and ordered Teran, the Karst region's wine. It was fun getting to talk with a local and learn a bit more about Slovenia. Unfortunately, Slovenia has been hit hard by the recession and a lot of people are out of work. Luka is on a temporary job as a tour guide, but his training is in forestry. He'll be done in October, and then he has to look for a new job. It's amazing the the country can be in such a rough place but the people are still so friendly to tourists. When we got back to Ljubljana I hit the hay. It was a long day and I wanted to be awake for Sunday's adventures.

 Sunday was going to be rainy, so we were slow getting out of bed. Once we were up, we were slow to spend time outside. We headed straight to a breakfast place and had eggs and toast for breakfast. We spent a good hour and a half sitting and chatting, hoping the rain would die down. When it did not, we braved the rain until (miraculously) we found a store open that was selling umbrellas. Both Ilonka and I bought umbrellas, since the raincoats were simply sending the water straight to my pants. Once armed with rain shields, we headed up to the city's castle, Ljubljana Castle.

Slovenia is 50% forest. Our walk up to the castle was awesome.

Our first up-close view of the castle.

We spent about 3 hours at the castle, taking half of a tour for free (students are good at finding way to not pay for things...). We learned about one prisoner who managed to escape through a secret tunnel after he bribed a guard. The tunnel came out at the toilets though, so he was punished in that way, at least (although I'm not sure he deserved punishment in the first place). There is a staircase at the castle that is a double helix, the purpose of which was explained during our free tour. During battles, some soldiers would need to run up to the tower and others would need to run down, so one staircase was for up only and the other was for down only. Very simple solution!

Our free tour guide and the location of the old well through
which the prisoner escaped.

This is where the old drawbridge was (there was
even a moat at one point!)

The double-helix stairwell.

 After finishing up at the castle, we wound our way back down through green paths to meet for another free tour at 3pm. We were taking the Ljubljana Free Tour for Neja, a local tour guide. The tour lasted 2 hours and we learned so many interseting tidbits about the town. One of the most interesting was about the famous poet who wrote the country's national anthem. The town decided to put a sculpture of him in the town's center. Because it was believed that he had some kind of divine intervention that helped him to write his beautiful poetry, they decided to place a muse on a pillar above him. This muse, in typical Greek fashion, was topless. There was an outrage because of this, especially from the Franciscan church-goers, whose cathedral exit was located with a prime view of the statue. Apparently, every night the priest would climb up the statue and cover the naked lady. Eventually, to make a more permanent solution, the town planted three trees in the line of site between the cathedral exit and the statue's naked muse.

One of the creepy doors on the Catholic church.

Our tour guide with the controversial statue and
the trees that block the view from the church.

The canal that runs through town. Onn the left was behind the city walls, on the right was outside city walls. Taxes only
extended within the city walls, so shoe makers set up their stalls on the bridge I was standing on for this photo to avoid
taxes (long ago, not today). Even though it was so rainy and grey, the city was still beautiful.

We saw the town's Cathedral, with it's crazy doors in honor of the Pope's recent visit, the National Library, the four different bridges (Dragon Bridge, Butcher's Bridge, Triple Bridge, Shoemaker's Bridge) that led into and out of the city center, and the main architects major works. It was a really fun tour, even if it was chilly and rainy. After the tour we found a local restaurant where I had the MOST delicious meal I've had in Europe. It was wild boar with vegetables, potatoes, and cranberry sauce. YUM! At the end of the meal they served us some wine-type beverage. We very much enjoyed our restaurant experience.

My most delicious meal, wild boar. YUM

Our after-dinner drink (apertif?)

Finally, we met up with Hannah and Don for drinks at Scocal, the local tourist-type place. Here I had a traditional Slovenian dessert, with walnut paste (sort of like in a kiefly) and dough. After that I was ready for bed. We woke up early and headed to the train station for our quick trip (~7 hours) back to Vienna. It was a wonderful weekend!

My traditional Slovenian dessert (I've Googled trying to find
this desserts name, but with no luck) and dessert wine.