We had no real plans when leaving England of which countries we would visit. As our journey progressed we found ourselves unintentionally visiting every ex-Yugoslavic country. Time was short but we wanted to make sure we visited Slovenia as it was the only one of these countries we hadn’t visited, and we felt the need to visit all of the countries and hear all sides of the story from each place. Strangely enough, we didn’t see or read much about it during our visit, and the few locals we met didn’t talk to us about it. Very different to our trip to Mostar, but in relation to war, the fighting in Slovenia only lasted 10 days which is very small comparatively.
We arrived in Ljubljana on St Patrick’s Day and, to celebrate in the evening, a green light was projected onto the castle which looked pretty awesome. In good Irish fashion, we decided to go for a few drinks. The two Irish bars in town were both rammed but it didn’t stop us getting merry.
For a capital city, it’s fairly small with a population of about 300,000 people. Despite the size, there is an impressive cathedral in the lovely main square overlooking the river and a few things to see within the city. Slovenia is the farthest county west on our trip so far and the prices reflected this. We managed to find some very good cheap pizza, sit on the cathedral steps and watch the city go by – a great thing to do if you’re running low on money and want to save some pennies.
The real highlight of Slovenia (based on my subjective and small amount of time spent there) is Lake Bled. For us Englishfolk, the word ‘Bled’ is slang, something you may use to call a friend (Urban dictionary give a pretty good definition if you’re unsure) so this sign made us giggle a lot, the translation meaning ‘In Bled’.
The lake is so picturesque and there was a calm atmosphere the day we were there, away from the buzz of the capital. In the middle of the lake is a small island with a church and small museum. Due to our budget we didn’t pay the fee for the boat to get to the island. Instead, we took a stroll around the lake and looked at the beauty. Bled Castle overlooks the lake and we climbed to the top for an epic view.
It was a short but sweet trip to this country but I enjoyed seeing what we could in a small amount of time and think Lake Bled is definitely worth a visit.