Day #219 - Lake Bled, Slovenia

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Castle up on the adjacent hillside

Great walk around lake

Cool island in the lake

Snow-covered mountains in the distance (a little blue sky would bring it out)

Tuesday, October 19th

Coming to you live from Zagreb, Croatia. I'll be staying here tonight and will head toward the southern coast of the country tomorrow morning.

Today was solid - I just wish the sun would come out. The place I visited today was awesome, fantastic scenery, I would recommend it to anyone --- but it could have been so much better with a little blue sky.

I checked out of my hotel (Ljubljana Resort) and took the bus downtown. I then took a combination of 2 trains, a bus, and a taxi to my destination for today - Lake Bled. (I would later find out that there is a bus direct - this is how I returned to Ljubljana).

Slovenia is a country located just south of Austria. Bled is a little town in the northwestern part of Slovenia. Therefore, it's in the Slovenian Alps. I didn't know their were mountains here. Yes sir. Actually, no way you could tell if you were in Austria, Switzerland, or Slovenia if you didn't know better.

My 1,000 Things Book has nothing concerning any of the countries which make up the former communist state of Yugoslavia. Therefore, I'm going with 'word of mouth' and 'information I read'. I think Slovenia is a sleeper. It's filled with English speaking people, uses the Euro for money, and has some great outdoor scenery. I ran into a couple from Denmark. They are spending their entire vacation in Slovenia and Croatia. People from Denmark are the happiest in the world - so their words/actions should be noted.

This small town of Bled is positioned in the middle of this valley enclosed by huge snow-covered mountains. The taxi dropped me off at the lakefront. Wow!! I just stood there for a while and took it in. A castle stood high up on this hill overlooking the lake from the opposite side I was standing. Autumn colored trees filled the mountainside around the perimeter of the lake. There was this small island to my left with some picturesque buildings.

Even though I had all my gear, I decided to walk around the lake. I headed toward the island. I took pictures all the way around. I'm bummed because I know the pictures don't do this place justice. I made it to the island and then decided to walk back the way I came. The trail had turned to rock and I wasn't hauling my bag all the way around the lake 12 days shy of a marathon.

I had lunch at this place overlooking the valley. Good stuff. I think I had some kind of lasagna. I again apologize on the food aspect of this trip. The place where I ate was a big seafood spot. I like alot of seafood, but there are many things I don't like in this area. So, I tend to stay with what I know (especially when I'm by myself).

I took a 1-1/2 hour bus back to Ljubljana. I had an hour wait and then took a 2-1/2 train to Zagreb, Croatia. I got into town around 8pm or so - not bad. Now, I'm fired up for Croatia. Actually, this is the one country I'm most interested in seeing in this part of my trip. If you do a vague search on google - "Ten must see things in Europe", you'll see a couple places in Croatia pop up. I mentioned when I was in Prague how I felt some of the former communist countries may become a bigger tourist area in the future; whereas, others will continue to struggle. The two places I don't think will have any issues are: Czech Republic (because of Prague), and the country of Croatia.

Tomorrow I'll begin to see if this theory has any merit.