Transit to Portoroz (August 17 2012)

Ralph again.  After breakfast, we caught the 11:50am train from Lesce back to Ljubljana.  Nearly all rail transit from one region of Slovenia to another requires a stop in the centrally-located capital; this is at worst a minor inconvenience due to the country’s small size.  We had purchased second-class tickets in the Lesce train station, and thought we were sitting in a second-class compartment on the train.  Indeed, the conductor stamped our ticket and continued on with no issue.  Later in the same 45-minute train ride, a second conductor came by, looked at our ticket, and angrily began shouting at us in Slovenian.  Clearly he thought we were not supposed to be sitting there, even though we were alone in the compartment.  Turns out, we were in first class, and this was unforgivable; we needed to move to the identical, yet second-class, end of the same railway car.  The original conductor (who spoke a little English) chanced upon us and spoke to the second conductor.  When the second conductor moved on, the original conductor gave a “sorry it didn’t work out” shrug.  We picked up our bags and moved about fifty feet down the railcar to the equally-deserted plebian [yet identical] second-class compartments.

When I researched our transportation options I found that Portoroz, our destination on the Slovenian coast, does not have direct rail service; the closest rail station is about 9 miles away and would necessitate a local bus to our final destination.  As such, I decided we would take a tour bus from Ljubljana straight to Portoroz to avoid another transit changeover.  The bus station in Ljubljana is conveniently located across the street from the train station, and thirty minutes after arriving in Ljubljana we were on a tour bus to the coast.

Slovenia’s Adriatic coast is minimal, only about fifteen miles long, and is heavily influenced by Italian culture both because of its proximity (Trieste, Italy is only a half-hour drive away) and also because it was once part of the kingdom of Venice.  No legends of mountain goats here; just a lot of pizza and casinos designed to lure Italians across the border (apparently, casinos are illegal in Italy.  There sure were a lot of Italian-plated cars all over Portoroz, maybe more than Slovenian-plated cars.)

When researching hotels on the Slovenian coast, there was only hotel that was reasonably priced and did not appear to be located within a shipyard.  The hotel website promised ocean views which, we soon discovered, is only possible one of two ways: 1) being located on the ocean or 2) being located well above the ocean level.  Our hotel was about a half-mile inland, so case #2 applied.  The land rises sharply from the coast, and we walked UP UP UP some impossibly steep hills, luggage in tow, attempting to interpret the Google Maps on the iPad. [The hills were so steep that the road we later primarily used to get back to the hotel had steps alongside it.  They were regulation height and maybe 3-4 inches deeper than typical home stairs.]

After a half hour, we came to the location where Google Maps placed our hotel – but nothing.  With both Lynnae and I drenched in sweat from the broiling Adriatic sun, we set down our luggage and I went on a personal expedition to find our hotel.  Indeed, Google Maps was wrong; but only by a little.  We walked a few minutes down a (mostly flat) road and checked into our hotel.

And it didn’t lie about the ocean views!  The room had a wraparound balcony, with grapevines growing along the railing.  While the hotel did not offer breakfast, its grapevines did supplement our daily fruit requirements.

View from our balcony

Upon arriving at the hotel we decided to spend a little time recovering from the haul uphill.  After researching our dinner options we ate at what Tripadvisor called “the best Mexican restaurant in Portoroz, Slovenia,” which, we must say, was better than a whole lot of Mexican restaurants in the US.  After buying a few breakfast food staples at a convenience store (sadly, it was late and the Mercator was closed) we took an unencumbered walk back uphill and called it a night.

Lesce / Bled Day 3 (August 16 2012)

Ralph here.  Because this was our last day in the Lesce / Bled area, we decided to use our rented bicycles to head back to Bled and see the sights there.  As I mentioned in a previous entry, Bled is primarily a spa and resort town, with two main sights – Bled Castle, sitting high above Lake Bled; and Slovenia’s only island, which is in the middle of the lake and has a church on it.

We biked into Bled and were unsure how to get up above the town to Bled Castle.  Lynnae had the reasonable idea to follow all the traffic that was headed in the general direction of the Castle, which proved to be the winning ticket – we soon faced an immense uphill that left us pushing our bicycles for nearly a half mile to the castle.

Bled Castle lit up at night

The island and church

Once we arrived at the Castle, we both rested for a bit at an outdoor terrace café and realized just how far up we really were.  [Not really surprising after our uphill climb with the bicycles.  Once on the castle grounds, we continued uphill on foot.  Also, the café had pretty good ice cream.]  The Castle is now a museum about the Bled area from prehistory until the forging of its identity as a resort town after a Swiss man named Arnold Rikli began touting the healing properties of its water in 1854.  Random Wikipedia fact: Bled is where the Yugoslav “benevolent dictator” Josip Tito had his summer residence in Bled.

Castle grounds

View of the countryside near the lake, from the Castle

Castle chapel

While we were touring the castle grounds, storm clouds began to gather over Bled.  We thought it might be a short shower, so we retired to the castle restaurant to eat some overpriced broth (I refuse to call it stew, despite the menu’s deception) and wait it out.  [We also ordered the cream cake the region is known for.  I’m not really a huge fan of cake in general but I was unimpressed.]  This was a losing strategy, and we eventually realized it wasn’t going to stop raining anytime soon.

[Other than the views, the castle was disappointing.  The museum detailing the history of the area was good but everything else was kind of meh.  It was all set up as shops.  For example, walk into a blacksmith’s forge; it’s a gift shop.  See the wine cellar; it’s a gift shop. There weren’t any demonstrations or displays, just wares for sale.  Of course, they also had the official gift shop.  I would have felt we overpaid but the views were pretty great and it was nice to rest after the long trek uphill.]

Because we were getting rained out, we decided to scratch the island and its church off our to-do list – neither of us was eager to get soaked rowing a boat out there, so we smoked the brakes on our rented bicycles and skidded our way back down from Bled Castle.  As the rain continued steadily, we rode to the tour company office and picked up a CD of photos from the previous day (included in our fee), returned the bikes, and sought refuge in the town bus shelter.  A local bus took us back to Lesce, and we walked the short remaining distance to the warmth and indoorness of our hotel.

[We were really fortunate that this was the only time the weather interfered with our plans.  We were especially lucky that we weren’t particularly attached to these specific plans.  However, it was quite cold riding through the very cold rain.  We were most definitely inappropriately dressed for the weather.  Hereafter we resolved to consult the weather forecast daily.]

After buying some groceries from the “Hofer” (ALDI) adjacent to the hotel, we ate dinner in our room and planned our next day’s travels to the Slovenian coast.

Lesce Day 2 or Triglav Adventure Tour – Part 3 (August 15, 2012)

This was a very long day so we are breaking it into three parts – this is part three of three.

Eventually, we were all settled in and we headed off.  Everyone was talking about how great it was and our group was definitely feeling increased camaraderie.   Our next stop was just a short drive away but I can’t remember where it was.  We had a bit of hike, so we put on our shoes and socks.  We walked along a dirt road, then partway down a valley, where we crossed a wooden swinging bridge.  One man from the other van refused to cross it.  It wasn’t really surprising as you could feel the effects of every step on the bridge or gust of wind and the river was a long way down.

We continued down the valley and walked along the river bed.  In the spring, the river is much, much higher.  There were bridges built to cross the river then that were wholly unnecessary now.  We kept walking until we found ourselves in a very large cave like space with a huge (for Slovenia) waterfall, the Kozjak Waterfall.  We went up on the viewing platform to get a better view and then we backtracked a bit, removed our shoes and socks and waded in towards the waterfall pool.  The water was shockingly cold.  We were told it was five degrees (about forty degrees Fahrenheit) and it felt it.  When we got to the pool we threw ourselves in before we could change our minds and swam to the waterfall.  We didn’t linger long before swimming back to the rocks.

That’s us behind the waterfall.

Luca hustled us back into the van away we went to our last stop in Triglav National Park, a bridge over the Soca River.  Here from a height of 12 meters (about 40 feet) we could jump into the river.   So we did.  We even have photos (see below).  You’ll have to take my word for it that those blurs are us.  It was perhaps my favorite part of the day.  You had to be careful though.  If you hit the water with anything other than your feet, you could end up with some nasty bruises.  Fortunately, Ralph and I fared well.

[Lynnae looks pretty happy as I plunge to an uncertain river bottom.]

Lynnae jumps.  You can see me in the bottom left corner.]

[This part of the tour wasn’t anything I was particularly anticipating.  As I edged onto the platform, Luca told me “just don’t look,” which is great advice.  I stepped off the platform and almost immediately jammed my eyes shut.  I did this to ensure I didn’t lose my contact lenses (I didn’t).  Unfortunately I don’t even remember the two or three seconds it must have taken me to fall, I only remember realizing I was several feet underwater in the river, and still alive.  I happily surfaced and swam to the side of the river to tread water and watch Lynnae jump.]

Luca told us it was time to go.  We needed to hurry because we didn’t want to miss our train, the last one of the night.  One of the girls in our van insisted on jumping again because it hadn’t been captured on camera the first time.  Luca said no but she jumped anyway.   We did make it to the train in time but we didn’t really have any time to spare.  It was a car train.  I’d never heard of such a thing but you drive your car onto the flatbed railcar, park it, and the train takes off. 

[This runs several times a day.  The reason it exists is because it is much faster to take the car train from one valley to the next, than to drive all the way around the mountain.  The car train we took was the last one of the day, which is why Luca was so insistent we hurry.]

While Luca parked, we had time to change into our dry clothes.  I was also able to experience a very interesting bathroom.  One room – no stalls.  I walk in, close and lock the door, turn around and… there’s no toilet.  That’s maybe not a fair statement; there was nothing I immediately recognized as a toilet.  Instead there was an elongated toilet bowl insert in the floor.  On either side were porcelain treads on the floor.  So I guess it was a female urinal of sorts.  It was definitely a different experience.  At least it seemed clean and I didn’t have to pay to use it.  (Years ago in Italy, my first pay toilet experience was similar but worse.  There were stalls without doors, a hole on the ground to squat over and rope to support yourself if necessary.  To think I paid for the privilege!)

We milled around the car talking amongst ourselves.  Luca briefly disappeared, then came back with Laskos for us all.  We got back in the car as the train started.  It was interesting and kind of nice to be both in a car and on a train.  The weather was nice and the scenery good.  We had the windows down and the sliding door open except for when we went through long tunnels (because of the smell).  I saw a family of deer.  It was very relaxing after all the activity of the day.

We also passed through Slovenia’s longest tunnel.  It’s about 6.4 kilometers and took quite a while to go through.  I guess I had thought the train was moving faster than it actually was.  The second longest tunnel in Slovenia is actually longer but part of the tunnel is in Austria and the Slovenian portion of that tunnel is shorter than this one.

When Luca drove the car off the train, I thought the tour was over and we were headed back but we had one more stop.  We stopped to see Lake Bohinj, the largest natural lake in Slovenia.  It was very beautiful.  It lacked an island and a castle but I think I preferred it to touristy Bled.  I’m sure Guide One told a story at this point but I can no longer remember it.  I do remember we ate delicious cheese samples from a street vendor on our way out.

We were the last people Luca dropped off.  He was going to take us back to our hotel but we felt we’d exhausted the dining options in Lesce so we asked him for recommendations and to be dropped off in Bled. [Additionally, “the jam” going from Bled to Lesce was pretty severe and we didn’t want to put him through driving us all that way in bumper-to-bumper traffic, only to turn around and return to Bled.] We wandered around for a while and eventually decided on a rooftop pizzeria for dinner.  Our table was a converted Singer sewing machine.  We split a decent pizza, walked back to Lesce and called it a night.

Lesce Day 2 or Triglav Adventure Tour – Part 2 (August 15, 2012)

This was a very long day so we are breaking it into three parts – this is part two of three.

Immediately after lunch was one of the highlights of the day, optional whitewater rafting.  Of course, we had opted in.  We put on our “swimming costumes” and then our wetsuits (mine was a child size 😦 wetsuit). [It was adult-sized. Lynnae is just unhappy that it was a different color design than the rest of the group, and instead resembled wetsuits worn by children in a different rafting group] and helmets and met our navigator.  This was not Luca.  Luca and Guide One were able to relax without us for a while, as everyone had opted in.  Our raft was composed of our van members.

[Brief interlude on the “swimming costumes.”  Luca and Guide One/Mr. Pink both spoke excellent English, which is good since our van was composed of 7/8ths native English speakers.  However, some of their vocabulary just seemed odd to American ears.  I know swimsuits are known as swimming costumes in some English-speaking areas, even though it makes me think of clowns on the beach.  But when Luca kept referring to car traffic as “the jam” – as in, “Oh no, the jam, we will be late” – it reminded me that not all colloquialisms are created equal.]

After a relatively brief safety briefing we got in the raft and shoved off.  Almost immediately, we grounded ourselves on a rock.  (The river does get pretty low in the summer.)  After some rocking back and forth and jumping up and down we finally freed ourselves and continued on our way, when we steered directly into another large rock.  Our guide steered us into calm water and used this opportunity to remind us that we need to follow his instructions exactly and we cannot paddle like “little girls” but must paddle like “strong men.”  In spite of these remarks, he was overall pretty agreeable.

We took advantage of this calm water to get out and practice getting in and helping others in.  The water was quite cold. [The wetsuits helped to a point, but the wetsuits resembled bib overalls – so when the water was up to chest-level, it got inside the wetsuit and the suit wasn’t too useful .]  We went through a series of small rapids without much incident.  The navigator had said one of his rules was we could not be quiet in his boat so the family began singing a river song in parts.  They were pretty good.

We stopped at a very large boulder in the river.  A couple other rafts from the same company were also there.   They flipped one of the rafts and laid it down over the side of the boulder.  Then after we scrambled up the rock, we could use it as a slide and slide or bounce down into the water.  It was lots of fun.  We probably stayed 20 or 30 minutes.  The water was just as cold here as it was upriver.

We went through some more minor rapids and stopped where a mountain spring was joining the river.  We were told that this water was suitable for drinking, so everyone got out to try it.  Call me paranoid but I went a little upstream to be beyond all the others.

We all clambered back into our raft.  Our navigator told us that the easy part of the river was behind us and the dangerous portion was ahead.  Now we absolutely had to immediately and forcefully carry out his instructions.  He had us do a few practice strokes and then we switched around a couple of people.  This balanced out the force of our paddling and put a more experienced and forceful person in one of the front positions.

You could feel that the current was much more powerful here.  We were going much faster, through more rapids, with more large rocks as obstacles.  It was also much more fun and exhilarating.

[I was on the front right of the raft, so numerous times I had to dodge my head to the left to avoid conking on a rock.  It also meant my views were unobstructed.]

After the dangers were over, our navigator told us we could swim to the end if we wanted but we had to follow the raft exactly or it would be dangerous.  Once again, we all opted in.  We got out and started swimming behind the raft to the little beach. 

Luca was waiting for us.  We gathered the gear, picked up the raft and carried it up to a parking lot.  Luca hurried us along as we removed our wetsuits and toweled off.  Apparently, we were a little behind schedule.  He had placed foam over the seats in the van so we didn’t have to worry about getting the van wet.  We just needed to PLEASE GET IN THE CAR.

Lesce Day 2 or Triglav Adventure Tour – Part 1 (August 15, 2012)

This was a very long day, so we are breaking it up into three posts.

Lynnae again – We woke up early, checked our gear, and went downstairs for breakfast.  Luca, our 3glav guide, picked up us promptly in a large white van.  All the seats in the back were full so Ralph and I shared a bench seat in the front next to Luca.  It’s a good thing we don’t mind being close.  The spot did mean we had the advantage of being able to see the views forward and sideways.  Unfortunately, it also meant that we spent the first fifteen minutes of our drive poring over the audio guidebook trying the fix the radio.  [The van had just returned from the mechanic, and it was displaying an error message.  It did not seem promising to me that the guide’s most pressing issue right after he picked us up was fixing his radio.]  Ultimately we were unsuccessful, we needed the vehicles unique radio code and it was not listed in the manual.

Luca narrated portions of his drive with factoids about the history of Slovenia as a whole and this region in particular.  He shared a lot of interesting information.  I wish I remembered more of it.

Our first stop was in Kranjska Gora.  We stopped at a small pool just off the River Pisnic that flowed through a wasteland of white rock fragments.  In front of the pool was a statue of a goat named Zlatorog or Goldhorn.  Legend has it Zlatorog was guardian of these lands long ago when they were the most beautiful meadows imaginable.  Also, his golden horns were the key to a treasure hidden in the mountains.  In a neighboring valley lived a hunter who had fallen in love with a village girl.  She was unimpressed with him.  He decided that he was going to prove his might and win riches by killing the goat.  He was sure these would win her favor.  High up on the mountain the boy got close enough, and shot Zlatorog.  As the goat lay dying, flowers sprang from the ground where his blood fell.   Zlatorog ate the flowers and was healed, revived and revitalized.  He grew to be stronger than he was before.  Before the hunter realized what was happening, the goat charged the boy and butted him over the ledge to his death.  However, Zlatorog was very angry so he left and he took the perfect meadows with him, leaving only wastelands behind.

It was at this stop we realized that our van was only half of the group.  Another van was driven by Guide One, the man who did most of the storytelling.  [He had a name, which he did share with us.  Unfortunately neither of us remember his name, hence the title.  If you so desire, when reading, replace “Guide One” with “Mr. Pink.”]  We did get to know a couple members of that van over the course of the trip but obviously we were more familiar with the passengers from our van, a British couple with their three teenaged daughters, and an Italian man traveling alone.

The whole group in front of the goat

 wastelands

Next we drove up the mountain to Vrsic Pass, a mere 1611 meters above sea level, and the highest mountain pass in Slovenia.  The road from the bottom to the top is only about 9km so naturally the road is quite steep [Kranjska Gora, the city where we started, is at an elevation of about 811 meters above sea level].  On the side we drove up, there are 24 hairpin turns.  They are numbered and signed with elevation data.  The turns are also cobblestoned.  The entire road was initially constructed this way during WWI to supply the front.  Russian POWs constructed the road using only hand tools in less than a year.   It was able to be completed so quickly because all portions of the road were worked on simultaneously.  Many Russians lost their lives in an avalanche and many others to the elements.  There are two Russian graveyards beside the road as well as a Russian Chapel to memorialize them.  In 2006, the road was renamed Russian Road (Ruska cesta) to further remember their work and their lives.  Putin visited the site during his official visit to Slovenia.   So the turns are also left as cobblestones to recall the road’s history.

Ruska cesta

Vrsic Pass was chilly in the morning.  It was also packed with people.  Apparently, the day was a national holiday so lots of people were out and about.  However, the views were awesome.

The views

We hiked up the smallest mountain nearby for about twenty minutes.  We stopped at an abandoned building that had been used to transport supplies by cable [during World War I].  We were then directed to the rockface of the mountain in front of us, to the “Giant Girl in the Mountain” or the “Pagan Girl.”  According to legend, this girl was one of many fairies that could and would occasionally foretell the future of infants.  The Pagan Girl had gone one morning to see a male infant and she had stated that he would grow to become a mighty hunter who would shoot the goat Zlatorog for his valuable horns.  The other fairies were so angry with her, they put her in the mountain for all eternity and still today you can see her weeping.

[In yesterday’s post I mentioned that the dragon is featured on cans and bottles of Union brand beer.  The other main Slovenian beer, Lasko, prominently displays the Zlatorog.  Lasko is like a weaker version of Bud Light.]

The Pagan Girl

We hiked back down to the vans and took off again.  We headed down the backside of the mountain (26 hairpin turns) to our next stop – the source of the Soca River.   A short, steep hike and we were there.

At the source of the Soca River

Our road followed the Soca River and we could see it widen and become increasingly green (due to the minerals in the rocks).  We stopped here to take and look and see some popular recreational options.

Right after this photo she fell – but she was the best of the people doing it

Then it was time for lunch.  Good thing too because we were hungry.  Ralph and I had resolved to go the Mercator for our lunch.  [Mercator appears to be the dominant grocery chain in Slovenia, because there is at least one location in every little town.  I’m not sure if Mercator means ‘market’ or if the founders were just geography buffs.]  It was pointed out to us on the drive into town, as well as the bakery and one restaurant.  However, the Mercator was closed for the holiday.  So instead we went to the bakery.  Ralph bought a hot dog stuck on a pastry and I had a pizza inside a pastry and some perfectly ripe raspberries.  It was an interesting lunch.

Transit to Lesce and Lesce Day 1 (August 14, 2012)

Lynnae here – Tuesday we ate an early-ish breakfast at the hotel and checked out.  We walked through the heavily graffitied outskirts of Ljubljana to the train station and grabbed a train to Lesce.  Lesce is only 3 miles or so from the tourist destination Bled but accommodations are only a tiny fraction of what they are in Bled.  We checked into our new hotel, got settled and walked towards Bled.  At first, it seemed we were going to have to walk on the street the whole way there but after a few blocks or so there was a bike/walking path not far from the road.  The walk was pretty nice and fortunately a significant portion of it was shaded.

Once we arrived in Bled, we confirmed our tour for the following day with Triglav Adventures.  We were given an enthusiastic sales spiel despite having already purchased the tour online.  We confirmed our address and pick-up time and went on our way.

Bled was packed.  It was full of tourists and traffic but the lake was pretty and the castle above the lake was picturesque. [Though some towns near Bled depend upon skiing for the majority of their tourism, summer is the high tourist season in Bled.  It is a great place for wealthy Europeans to sit around the lake and demonstrate to each other how wealthy and European they are.]  We walked around for a while enjoying the scenery.  We obtained an almost decent map from the tourist center but all we really needed to remember was where the main road was in relation to us.

We found a place that had a decent deal on bicycle rental.  We rented a couple and rode back to Lesce.  The ride back was understandably much shorter than the walk however the uphill climb was a little brutal.  Lesce and Bled are on opposing hilltops so half the ride was great and half was hard work.

We cleaned up back at the hotel and decided on a restaurant for supper.  It wasn’t difficult as Lesce only has five options and two of them were poorly reviewed.  We shared an Italian combo meal for two that was very filling and drank Union, our first Slovenian beer.

We walked back to the hotel and prepared Ralph’s pack for our Adventure Tour the following day.

[Lynnae did not mention that our hotel also was in a scenic location, surrounded by a gas station, two car dealerships, and a “Hofer” (ALDI) grocery store.  [And of course the mountains!]  It was the middle-class American alternative to staying in Bled.]