Bled - 17 May

Day 13 (continued) -

Bled was stunning! The emerald lake with the only Slovenian island in the middle with a church on it, then another church nearby at the foothills of the mountain with a castle on it!

I stayed in a dorm room at Ace of Spades hostel which was really well organised and gave me lots of information.

As soon as I arrived I went to explore the town and paid for my trip at 3 glav tours. They were really friendly and promised me I was in for a good time the following day on the 'emerald river' tour.

Next I went to try the famous 'bled cake' very similar to a vanilla slice with layers of custard, cream and pastry. This along with a hot cocoa and those magic views as ate it at Kavanagh cafe lakeside, were amazing!

After all that cake I thought it best to climb up to the castle! It was a decent walk and arrived 7pm an hour before closing. The museum was simple but nice. The photo view points though were amazing!

When I came back down my roomie Alison (from US) was up for some dinner so we went to a kebab restaurant and had a delicious chicken fillet and local (soca?) salad. They were closing at 10 and we arrived 20 minutes before this, so the lady was very kind to continue serving us til 1030. (They don't seem to stay up and eat so late here!)

Day 14 -
I was up early for my 3Glav tour. I went to the bakery as they recommended for my breakfast (a pastry with a sausage in it) and grabbed an espresso from next door.

I was picked up promptly at 8.13am and we continued to pick up the other passengers - an Aussie couple from Toowoomba (Callum and Belinda), Therese from Canberra, friends Skylar and Jessica from the US, and another two friends from Kenya Skeeta and Art who now lives in London.

Our tour guide Yuka was so lovely, friendly and funny.

I fell in love with Bled that day as we hiked to various view points and stopped at other river sections that were truly magical.

The highlight was the rafting on those beautiful emerald waters and Teddy our guide was hilarious! He referred to himself in the first person and acted all very serious about us being the number one raft as there was a bunch of boys in the other one.

Grade III Rapids and a non swimmer on board so it was fairly tame, but we did stop to upturn a raft and turn it into a gain slippery slide which was quite entertaining!

Near the end of the day we caught a train back ... Which was actually us staying in the minivan but the which drove onto the train!

It was 12 hours of fun and would highly recommended it - maybe not as cheap as other tours but you're guaranteed a great time!

That evening I went for dinner at Pizza Rustika with Alison as a few people had mentioned how good it was ... They weren't wrong! Best pizza I've eaten all trip!!!

Day 15 -

After a little sleep in Alison and I went for breakfast at Art Cafe where we skipped the usual European fair of cheese and meat slices with bread and opted instead for the chicken, blue cheese and carmelised onion panini with a good Americans coffee.

We rented bikes near our hostel and rode to vintar gorge which was challenging at times with steep hills and dodgy gears that wouldn't change!

It was worth the effort as the gorge was stunning! More beautiful emerald water and super clear!

We spent about 2 hours walking through then tried the local specialty of trout at the restaurant near the entrance. It was grilled and came with an almond sauce which was chunky and delicious!

Although we were both feeling tired Alison opted to go back to the hostel and I continued onto the lake to ride around it and get photos at every angle!

I stopped at one point to eat the cheese, poppyseed and apple strudel I'd stopped to purchase earlier which was much better than it sounds and not super sweet.

I returned the bike showered and ended up meeting Alison and our new roomie Brent (from Canada) for dinner. Since it was supposed to be bad weather coming and our last night we ate at Kavanagh cafe overlooking the lake. I ordered a salad which was more local with sausages, potato and mustard included.

We returned to the hostel for a few drinks then bed as I needed to be up at 6!

Day 15 -

I was up early for my bus, couldn't find my locker key so ended up waking every one trying to find it (back pocket of my jeans!),
I'd steady dropped my phone on Alison's head from the top bunk during the night as although we had power points next to our bed there was nothing to put our devices on!

I then got to the bus stop with the bus only arriving a few minutes later ... The driver helped me put my bag under the bus and I was kicking it under with my foot when it got stuck around a strap and the driver had to hold me up as I was about to fall over because of it!!!

Hopefully the day will be a bit less chaotic after this but considering I'm stopping at Ljubljana to store my bag then onto Davica then back to Ljublujana and onto Zagreb there is bound to be more things go wrong! :-s

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