Day 29 - June 13

Recovery Day

The first half of our day in Ljubljana was spent just taking it in - literally.  We were lucky to be there on a Friday, when all the best restaurants in the area set up stalls in the marketplace and sell samples of their best items for decent prices.  I had some Egyptian shawerma, a traditional Slovenian dessert, another super-traditional and unbelievably tasty twice-cooked pancake-batter-type dessert, and some tastes of other things that I can't remember.  All those delicious eating experiences were spaced out throughout the day, and somewhere in between, we sat and listened to a free concert by a street band playing traditional Balkan tunes, and we took a free walking tour of the historic center.  Our guide was terrific.  She made it fun and interesting and I learned lots about a famous Slovenian architect -  Jože Plečnik, who I didn't know about before but who was responsible for practically half of Ljubljana's buildings and lots of other major buildings around Europe.  Basically, he had a love affair with columns, lots of unnecessary but cool-looking columns that don't even hold anything up. 

Dragon Bridge

Our tour guide explaining the cathedral door honoring Pope John Paul II and commemorating Slovenian history

Market with delicious food stands

View from the castle

Inside the cathedral

Sadly, our time in Ljubljana was short.  If we had known they were having a wine festival the next day, where 15 Euros buys you all the wine you can drink, we might have booked another night, but we had already booked a hostel in Bled.  Then again, Bled is so spectacular, it made saying goodbye to Ljubljana fairly easy.  Bled is a little Slovenian town on a small lake of the same name. The lake is nestled among the edge of the Alps and has a small island in the center with a beautiful church.  After stepping off the bus, we walked down to the lake's shore and were greeted by a scene that was surrreal (and I don't often use that word).  The rays of the sun squeezed between the mountaintops and the massive rain clouds (that had thankfully already dumped most of their contents during our bus ride), directing their golden light right onto the church on the island in the middle of the lake, just as an illuminated halo of white fog rolled directly over it.  To make the scene even more interesting, a mother duck and her little ducklings swam right by our feet as the sounding bell of a rowing competition went off and the competitors began their swift glide across the lake on its clear-and-still-as-glass surface.  Also, there's a medieval castle on a cliff towering over the lake.  We also saw a unicorn.  Just kidding about that last part. So yeah, Bled's pretty great.  Not a bad place to spend a few days, which is exactly what we're doing.