Bled, Ljubljana, and Piran Slovenia

I don't know why I thought people in Slovenia rode in the back of carts filled with hay while waving warmly and smiling with mouths half full of teeth.  Maybe I was thinking of another country, or a World War II film, but I clearly knew nothing about Slovenia.  In fact, we found Slovenia very similar to Austria except for the roads (they have more pot holes), the signs (they have fewer vowels), the mountains (they're more stark and brown), and the prices (they're much cheaper).  There are no carts on the road, but plenty of hay along the side, hanging on drying racks due to the damp weather.  Many of the businesses in Slovenia belong to the same chains as those in Austria, and although you technically change languages, you don't change currency since Slovenia is part of the Euro Zone.  The only really noticeable difference is that the people seem less wealthy and more severe than the Austrians, but only in a way that speaks to the harshness of their lives up until fairly recently.  As with most people we've met, the majority of Slovenians are friendly and welcoming when engaged.

Bled:
The name Bled, Slovenia evokes images of spooky dark days and vampire-filled nights, but its not scary or dark at all until the afternoon thunderstorm hits with its many-tentacled lightning (my husband calls it "spider lightning") and thunder that sounds like you're sitting at the bottom of a steel drum while an angry man pounds on the top with a rubber mallet.  It's as scary as you imagine a reoccurring thunderstorm can be, but if you hear rumbling in the distance, don't rush home. You have an hour or so before the storm reaches you.

Before or after the storm, you'll want to sit alongside Lake Bled.  It is a placid light blue lake with an island in the middle whose stairs lead up to a 15th century church (church and steps pictured below).

Lake Bled in the afternoon.

Lake Bled at dusk

The view from the island in Lake Bled.

View from the top of the island stairs

Overlooking the lake is Bled Castle (also pictured below) which turned 1,000 last year, but looks only half its age.  It hosts a museum which bored the kids to tears, but if you want your kids to work for their gelato, it's worth the small admission fee.

Bled Castle (Taken from the island)

On the other side of the lake is a ski hill which has been converted to a "luge" track during the summer.  One takes the ski lift to the top and the cart to the bottom which goes only as fast you want since each cart boasts a substantial brake (my picture below is less blurry than the boy's because I may have used my brake more often). 

(Above and Below): The boy and I sledding down the mountain.

I said Lake Bled is placid and that's mostly true.  There are no motor craft of any kind allowed on the lake so the area boasts skilled local rowers, but if you thought they were more conservative in Slovenia and teenagers wouldn't yell five seconds before stripping off all of their clothing and jumping into the lake, you're wrong.  I'm not going to explore that subject further, but it's good to know that skinny dipping isn't necessarily for the evening and it isn't necessarily for the skinny.

Pletna Boats/Water Taxis. They have no rutter, just two paddles that serve as both power and steering.

Besides swimming, hiking, sledding, oohing and awing, you can also bring your kids to the enclosed swimming area on the lake which has a slide and a moderately interested lifeguard (picture below [the swimming area, not the lifeguard]).  

The boy jumping into Lake Bled at dusk.

You can also watch your son get bitten by a swan who wants nothing to do with your kid's attitude.  It's perfect, really. In fact, if Bled were in either Switzerland or Austria, you wouldn't be able to afford the apartment that cost us 70 Euros per night and was within walking distance of the bright blue lake, the castle, and the historic center which is almost exclusively filled with locals. 

The boy learning a lesson from a swan.

Making peace with the swans.

By the way, if you have a hard time finding the historic area because you keep stopping for gelato and staring at the lake (we didn't find it until our last night), follow the man walking his pony upstairs near the lake (half way between the green water slide and the Casino) each afternoon.  The pony lives in the middle of the old town area in a not-so-small barn.

Lodging Aside:
It's often cheaper to rent an apartment than a hotel and makes a lot of sense if you're staying more than one night (though many apartments require a three night minimum). We found http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk to be a very good resource for apartments in Europe. They charge no fees for the "lettee," they conduct business in English, the consultants are generally very friendly, and they often have last minute openings when other apartment sites and hotels have none. In Bled, our landlord was on vacation, so the holiday lettings people made sure a key was left hanging on the outside of the door, and we were instructed to pay the neighbor at some point during our stay.

We could have seen Bled in three days, but we stayed for five per Post-Vienna Council rules.  The day we arrived in Bled, we walked around the lake, hired a boat in the shape of a swan and rowed to the island (10 Euros/hour), dumped the kids into the water somewhere near the island (they weren't behaving badly, they just wanted to jump out), then towed them to and from the island's public dock when they became tired of swimming. 

Swan Boats on Lake Bled

The kids contemplating a swim in Lake Bled.

On the second day, we found a gelato man near the Casino who charges only one Euro for a cone, but we found a way to give him about 10 Euros per day anyhow.

We made two easy side trips from Bled to the Vrisic Pass and the Vintgar Gorge.  The latter is nearly in Bled itself and the former is as long and as far as you want it to be. 

Vrisic Pass:
If you can't get to Austria to drive the Grossglockner Road, the Vrisic Pass is a good substitute--without the fee or the guard rails--but don't let your kids feed the rogue sheep from the car or they'll get hoof prints on your doors and harrass a German family when they refuse to provide a similar offering.  Interesting non-scientific note:  A Renault is twice as likely as a Mercedes-Benz to offer food to passing animals... but you already knew that.

The area around Vrisic Pass saw a lot of fighting during World War I. In fact, the road itself was built by Russian POWs, many of whom died during its construction either because of the hard labor or when an avanche buried their camp.  You will pass a church built in their honor en route.

If you drive as far as the Soča Valley, you will see the area which inspired Hemingway to write A Farewell to Arms.  My husband says Hemingway was an ambulance driver during this part of World War I, but the internet says he was a war correspondent. I'll let you decide who you believe.  I promised not to question my husband in Vienna.

(Above and Below): The Vrisic Pass

The Vintgar Gorge:
A visit to the Vintgar Gorge is also a good day trip from Bled (pictured below).  In fact, it has the feel of a primeval forest. So, if you know anyone from Hollywood who needs to film a movie in a dark gorge with mossy green walls and turquoise water, this is the place for them.

(Above and Below): Vintgar Gorge

Ljubljana:
When you go to Ljubljana, don't turn back at the scary outskirts that make you silently call every travel writer you know a liar.  It looks like the gray Eastern Block apartment complexes in every Cold War movie, BUT it gets much much better in the middle of town (see pictures below), and the people give off an enthusiasm you normally only see in Canada on the first warm day of spring. Something big is about to happen to Slovenia, and they know it.

(Above and Below): Ljubljana

Piran:
Piran is a lovely vacation village with beautiful old buildings whose shops face a rocky coastline littered with swimmers and half naked sun-bathers. If you go to Piran, you need to visit the bakery that's situated just behind the tourist office, off the main square.  The bakery version of the "Soup Nazi" works here and she has the best chocolate croissants and the worst attitude of anyone we've ever met. She will pretend not to understand your Slovenian (everyone else pretends they do), and she has a beverage vending machine that only takes tokens, not coins, which she will tell you by slamming her hand on the counter.  If she's busy, use plenty of small change in the machine to get her attention.

(Below): Piran

If you're still not convinced and you think you'd be lost in Slovenia because you haven't practiced the language since high school, don't worry.  Apparently, no one in Slovenia expects you to know their language and they're tickled pink to know you understand English because in Slovenia and (spoiler alert) Croatia, English is king!  In fact, TV shows are mostly in English and any time anyone spoke to us on the road (a road worker, a parking attendant, a passing car), they looked first at our car's French license plates, then spoke to us in English. So, not only does no one in Slovenia (or Croatia, or Italy) know French, but they also think the French wouldn't mind someone speaking English to them--which explains why we only saw three French cars between Austria and Slovenia.

Despite the dominance of English, we ordered in Slovenian when possible. It's not that hard. You just bookmark a travel book, or star your Google Translator App with the following words/phrases:  "Hello", "please", "thank you", "may I have", and "goodbye".  It only takes a few times before you memorize these words (in Slovenian, I mean. You probably know them in English just fine).  In fact, so many times had the boy used these words with the gelato man that he was able to bail his father out at the bakery when Brian couldn't communicate his wish for cake to the only shop keeper in Bled who doesn't speak English. 

So, the moral of this story is don't be afraid of Slovenia.  She's the best kind of friend:  beautiful, casual, cheap (well, I don't actually condone having cheap friends), and she has every kind of landscape you want to see compressed into a country the size of New Jersey.

One more thing. The girl wrote a blog entry for Slovenia and I promised to publish it here:
Today we went to Slovenia. My mom, dad, brother and I saw a gigantic fish strapped under a rock. Then we started to hike to Lake Bled. We rented a swan boat to boat to an island that consists of a church, a steeple, and small buildings and bakeries. When we left, my brother and I swam along side the boat. The next day, we went to town and climbed up to the castle in town. About a half-hour later, it started to rain, then thunder, then this crazy lightning that seemed to strike everywhere. It was very scary. So, it stopped five minutes later. And guess where we are? Still in our apartment, having quiet time. Twenty minutes has never felt so long. Luckily, we will go swimming. Cannonball sounds good to me. Maybe a jackknife or two. So,the next day, my dad is supposed to take us out. But there's a lightning storm. And then sunlight. This is crazy! This keeps happening everyday, and we need to LEAVE on Friday! Horses don't stay alive THAT long! Couple hours later, we're at the pool. Mom's working. So dad watched My Brother and I swim. My brother was SO nice to me!!!

Piran, Slovenia

© 2012 Nicole Wirth
Author of:  Letters to Salthill