Well I am not sure about you, but I knew nothing about Slovenia before I came here. I don't think I ever even looked at a picture of it, in fact I wouldn't have been able to point it out to you on a map. It is a beautiful hidden gem of europe and without a doubt, probably the prettiest country so far.
We opted for a 4 night stay next to a lake in a hostel called Castle Hostel 1004. This is by far one of the better hostels we've stayed in. As soon as we arrived, Miha (the owner) said we could have an extra night free because we booked 4. Bonus. It cost us €10 per person per night. I will help you with the math. This means we paid €40 each for five nights in a beautiful hostel, with the amazing kitchen facilities and a view of the lake. This was a great start! Unfortunately, both Matt and myself were at a point of exhaustion. The 70 or so days of constant bed swapping, planes, trains, automobiles, castles, churches, endless paintings and tours had worn us down. These 5 days were filled with pure relaxation and an opportunity to recharge our batteries. With that being said, we didn't do a whole lot of anything really! We wandered around the 6km path of the lake, fed some ducks, hiked up to the forest and enjoyed the tranquility. We made home cooked meals every night, including steak, mash, chicken, veggies, pasta.. all the good stuff, and it was delicious!
The hostel only has 8 rooms, the biggest being an 8 share I believe, but also had a double, we slept in a four share. So it was a cosy little hostel with a great living room, easy to meet people. Oh, I forgot to mention it had a PlayStation 4, so as you can imagine, matt was thrilled with that. We first shared with a very friendly irish couple, but after they checked out, the worst was to come. Around 10pm at night, two 40-something year old men showed up. They were weird. At night, I have literally never heard snoring so bad in my life. I had ear plugs in, and he woke me up through that. I tried the classic single clap really loud to wake him... nothing. With my patience wearing thin at 2am already not feeling well, I reached over to my locker, unlocked it, and slammed the door as loud as I could... nothing. So I turned the light on, got up, went to the toilet, came in and slammed the door, and still nothing! This wildebeest needs to be checked. Not only was the snoring annoying, but both of them had some sort of sleep walking issue. Around 4am, when I was still clearly wide awake, one of them got up, was mumbling away to himself and proceeded to stretch himself over the side of his bed, crawled onto the floor and lied down with his head, underneath my bed! Oh and I forgot to mention, his pajama choice was y-fronts, aka little boys underwear and a ripped shirt, showing off his capital D, pregnant, hairy belly. So that was really cute. We had planned on leaving the hostel 2 nights early, but found out they were only staying one more night, so we just dealt with it.
Having met other people in the hostel, we played a game called cards against humanity. If you have no shame in all levels of inappropriateness and a great sense of humor, this is the game for you. Basically there is a black card that asks a question like "what would be the next storyline to a disney movie?" And then you have 7 cards to choose the funniest answer. It gets really innapropriate, really fast, but it is hilarious! We also played the game spoons and quite a few rounds of chess. Great hostel atmosphere.
On one of the last days, I decided to go horse riding. Matt isn't a fan of horses, but its been on my bucketlist to go horseriding in europe, so I couldn't miss this opportunity. I paid €45 for 2 hours of pretty much a private tour through rivers, around lakes, alongside the mountains and through the forest. It was breathtaking. My horse was 6 years old named Venetu and she was beautiful. We also stopped along the forest, to meet two little bears that had been rescued when they were just cubs. They were found without a mother, so were taken and protected and fed by a family that was friends with the ranch owner. We had a shot of home made blueberry wine with schnapps and hopped back on the horse. It was such an amazing day and definitely my favourite part of the trip so far.
We left lake bled, and headed to the capital, Ljubljana for two nights. We stayed in Tresor hostel, which is a converted bank, in the middle of the town center. It looks quite funky and we slept in a 10 share, but each bunk is divided into little cells with curtains. As far as privacy and comfort, it was spot on. However, that is it for anything good about this place. The showers were bad, having to turn them on again every 15 seconds, the staff were appalling and there were no plugs near the bed so everything that needed to be charged, had to be left out in the open. Due to its location and funky idea of being an old bank, the hostel clearly felt that it didn't need to put in any extra effort or be helpful in anyway. Its a shame because it has the potential to be such a great place. The only reason we went to the capital was for easier access to the Skojcan Caves.
These are a UNESCO world heritage site, so we took the bus 2 hours to see them. After arriving in the middle of nowhere, we took a 3km hike down the highway to find them. We then did about 5 hours worth of caves and hiking up and down and It was well worth it!! The caves were amazing. Its unbelievable that it is all natural, other then the bridges to walk through it. We got to see waterfalls and where the river runs through it. A truly spectacular day. Worth the crap hostel and extra money.
We didn't spend loads of time in Ljubljana, but what we did spend was really nice. Its quite small, and very clean. A river runs right through the center with plenty of pretty bridges to walk across. We went to a local slovenian restaurant recommended by the hostel and recieved a free Drink upon arrival. It was their homemade wine. It tasted similar to a cinnamon, christmas mulled wine and it was heavenly. I wanted a bottle, but they didn't sell it unfortunately! We both had Ljubljana styled steak with fried potatoes. The steak was wrapped in ham with eggs and cheese and then deepfriend! How Slovenians eat that and stay skinny is beyond me! I finished about half of it before being defeated. It was our first time In awhile actually sitting down in a restaurant for dinner, and it was a lovely date. Overall Ljubljana is a great little city.
You can't spell Slovenia without love and that is exactly how we feel about this beautiful little country.
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