Slovenia
Our last morning in Budapest was an early wake up to make a 7:00 am bus, so there was no hotel breakfast and no good coffee before we left. With the early morning, we mostly slept on the bus, and made it to Ljubljana, Slovenia at about 1:00 pm. We had a 15 minute walk to the hotel through the town, and I fell in love with the city as soon as we started walking along the river down to the hotel. The town was beautiful, clean and quiet without being empty. It may not have had the same feel in summer, but November is the lowest season in Slovenia, along with the rest of the Balkan countries, and we were ready for this escape from the crowds of tourists that still filled Prague, Vienna and Budapest.
We checked into our hotel, an art deco style building that had been renovated in a way that was new but highlighted the original aspects of the building, and we dropped off our bags before heading back out to find a coffee. We found small shop that only did takeaway, but it had the best coffee we’ve had since leaving Australia, surpassing some very nice coffees in Budapest. With flat whites in hand, we wandered around the town, popping into some of the boutiques that lined the old streets until we reached the edge of town. Then we walked back up along the river to the other side of the old town. It’s a small place and this whole outing took less than two hours.
Having seen the whole town, we went on a bit of a mission in the afternoon to find Millie a new suitcase. The one she had travelled with thus far kept splitting at the zipper, spilling half the contents into the street, so she needed one slightly bigger with an uncompromised zipper. That took us another two hours, and we found something but would have to go to the shopping centre on the edge of town with our car the next day to get it. So with everything sorted, we returned to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
I was absolutely loving all the little bars and restaurants lining the river, so before heading to dinner, we walked along the river to find a nice bar and a hot drink. We found one that had good tables with heaters and blankets, so we didn’t freeze as the temperatures approached 0 deg C. The server was quick to help us, and we ordered a hot gin and a hot wine on his suggestion. The hot gin was mixed in with some spices and tasted more like hot cider, and the hot wine was just hot red wine served in a teacup. I don’t know what it was, but sitting out in the cold in this quiet little town with our hot drinks made me so happy. I could have stayed here for months, but unfortunately, we were only here for the night.
Despite wanting to stay here for hours, it was getting cold and we were getting hungry. We had a look through the restaurants and ended up choosing one right next to our hotels. It looked like a nice place with good food, but the determining factor was that we wouldn’t have to walk far after once dinner was finished. So, not having many expectations about the restaurant, we were very surprised when we were taken into this empty little back room with only a few tables, exposed stone walls, and big windows looking out to the old town streets. We had unexpectedly found ourselves in a fine dining experience, and we were getting excited for the food.
The food looked delicious, but the thing that I was most impressed with was the beer menu was longer than the wine menu, and the waiter spent longer telling me about beers that talking to Millie about wines. I ended up ordering a red ale from a local brewery, and Millie had a Slovenian pinot noir. Then we ordered a couple of starters and our mains. The meal started off with an amuse-bouche, and some Slovenian focaccia. Then we were served grilled octopus to start, and steak and trout for mains. We finished off the meal sharing a crème brûlée, and we were left sitting in awe about the fine dining experience we had just found ourselves in. It was an incredible meal, in a beautiful building with great service, and there were only three other tables occupied. We left the restaurant in a bit of a food coma, but we only had a 30 second walk back to the hotel where we could lay down to digest.
The next morning, we woke up and went down for the hotel breakfast. It was nice food and very quiet, a welcome change from the chaos of the Budapest breakfast buffet. After breakfast we had to go out for a coffee, as we weren’t satisfied with a black coffee from the hotel when we had the best coffee of the trip just up the road.
After breakfast and coffee, we walked back through town and up the hill to visit Ljubljana castle, which overlooks the city. It was another cold overcast day, which was really nice weather for walking up the steep hill to the castle. We didn’t end up going into the castle, but we just walked around the hill at the top before taking a different route back down the hill back into the old town.
We visited a few more little boutique shops and grabbed some lunch before walking back to the train/bus station to pick up our rental car. They gave us a brand new VW and upgraded us to an automatic transmission for free. We had a slightly stressful drive through the city traffic to get closer to the hotel so we could grab our bags, but we made it and with everything packed up, we drove to the freeway and out to Bled. This was about a two hour drive and we arrived there just after dark. We checked into this nice little AirBnB that was ten minutes down the road from the town centre, and came equipped with a sauna out the back.
After checking out, we drove back over into town for dinner, where we found a nice little pub that served gluten free pizzas. It was another big meal, but the food was excellent, and we were carb loading to prepare for some big hiking days. In hindsight, Slovenia is right next to Italy, so it makes sense that they have great food, but we hadn’t expected it to stand out like this.
The next day, we hiked the full circumference of Lake Bled with some detours up the hills to get the views of the lake and the island. It was another overcast day, but it didn’t take away from the beauty of the place. The pictures do it more justice than my words could so please enjoy the photos below.
We finished the hike around the lake before noon, which left us time for another hike after lunch. There was a place we wanted to visit called Vintgar Gorge that had these walkways across the clear blue river. When we looked it up, it said closed, but we didn’t know if that was reliable because google had said it was open just the day before. It turned out the day before was the last day of the season and it was now closed for the winter, so we changed our plans and drove out to another gorge nearby for our afternoon hike. It was still a great hike that ended with a walk along a platform bolted to the cliffside to get past a steep, narrow section in the gorge. The sun was getting low by the time we finished this hike, but we made the most of this day and still finished in the daylight.
After a long day of hiking, we opted for another pizza place for dinner. We had to make the most of the pizza quality this close to Italy, and we were even having a lot of luck finding good gluten free pizzas for Millie. We finished the day with a session in the sauna, then packed our bags to get ready for the drive over the mountains to Bovec in the morning.
The next day, we had breakfast and coffee in the Airbnb before heading off to drive over the pass. We had a stop at a waterfall and a suspension bridge before winding our way up the mountain. When we reached Vršič pass at 1600 meters elevation, it was -4 deg c and there was snow on the ground. We got out to look around for a minute, but the icy winds forced us back into the car within a matter of minutes. So, we continued down the winding mountain roads on the other side until we reached a nice lookout where we could take pictures of the steep valleys and back towards the bald rocky peaks of the pass.
Slap Peričnik (Peričnik waterfall)
Once down in the canyon on the other side of the pass, we stopped for a hike along the Soča River, known for its slot canyons in crystal clear, blue water. This turned out to be a ten km hike that took us longer than expected because I had to stop every two minutes to take more photos (again see the photos below instead of relying on my description).
After our hike, we had some time before we were allowed to check into the appartment, so we drove twenty minutes past Bovec to visit Waterfall Kozjak (Slap Kozjak in Slovenian). We did another small walk up a gorge here, complete with boardwalks crossing back and forth over the crystal clear blue water. It wasn’t quite as impressive as Vintgar Gorge would have been, but the boardwalks and the waterfall inside this massive cavern at the end made up for the views and photos that we missed out on from Vintgar Gorge.
Finally, with sunset closing in, we drove back toward Bovec to check into our hotel, but we were forced to make one more stop on our way back. While the sun was going down behind us, it was illuminating the mountains in front of us in bright pink and purple, and the full moon was perfectly placed above. The whole scene was reminiscent of the Slovenian flag and highlighted again why this little country is so incredible.
When we made it to Bovec, the town was completely dead. We had trouble contacting our accommodation to get let in, and when we went out for dinner, every single restaurant except this nice Italian place was closed for the low season. We ended up having a good Italian meal, but it wasn’t the pub feed we were hoping for, and our ‘we’ve been hiking all day and haven’t showered yet’ look felt out of place in this nice little restaurant. I was feeling very negative about the town after the evening’s experiences and started looking for different accommodation closer to Ljubljana for the next night. Millie had to be my voice of reason, because this place wasn’t bad, they had a washing machine and dryer that we were relying on. It also had a kitchen so we could just cook the next night in the absence of restaurant options.
The next morning, we got going early so we could fit everything in for the day. Our first stop was Tomlin Gorge, about a 20 minute drive down the hill. We initially thought we wouldn’t have enough time for this, but we finished two days’ worth of itinerary items on the previous day and hiking high up into the mountains was too cold and windy. We arrived at the gorge a bit after opening and went in to walk the paths and boardwalks of the deep gorge filled with the clearest, bluest water I’ve ever seen. It was another stunning location, and another place making up for the fact that Vintgar Gorge was closed. We finished exploring the gorge around noon, which left all afternoon for us to hike up a mountain. We drove back for a quick lunch at the accommodation and repack the daypack before heading straight back out to the hike.
Despite all the beautiful mountains in Slovenia, we decided on a quick trip into Italy to hike a mountain on the border. The time of year had really restricted our options, as we really didn’t want to end up back at 1600 meters with the snow and freezing wind that we experienced going over the pass the day before. We were also getting a late start to the hike and expecting to finish in the dark already, so we needed something relatively close and that took us to Italy. With the timing and weather conditions, we had a well packed daypack, and a solid plan for the hike that would ensure our safety. But while worrying about the hike we completely forgot that we would be entering a different country and that we might need our passports.
When we reached the border, the Italian border guard greeted us with a ‘Buongiorno, passports please’ and we responded with blank stares. Luckily, he accepted my driver’s license and Millie’s digital license as she didn’t even have her wallet. After we made it through the border, we drove another fifteen minutes to the start of the hike, which crossed a dry river valley before turning straight up the mountain. It was a great hike, going through the meadows in the valley and the forests of the lower mountain before we popped up above the tree line and navigated through the steep rocky section guarding the peak.
The Italian Dolomites off in the distance
We had great views the entire way up, with the sun slowly setting, casting an orange and pink glow on the surrounding mountains, and highlighting the peaks of the Dolomites deeper in Italy. We thought we would have just enough time to reach the summit, but hiking straight up the mountain was slower than expected. We had agreed prior to starting that we would turn around at 4:30 pm (sunset), and we were still about a kilometer from the summit when this time came. We had some great views from where we were, and we wanted to make it down the steepest section of the mountain before it got too dark, so we kept to the plan and turned around here.
The way down was still beautiful, watching the orange glow in the sky highlight the dark mountain peaks off in the distance. Then the sky continued to get darker, and we had to get our headtorches out about halfway down the mountain. When we made it into the forest, the light of our torches reflected off the ice in the air and on the leaves. It felt like a dream with the forest sparkling back at us, and the deep darkness beyond the reach of our lights. We managed not to lose the trail through the forest and popped out into the riverbed below. Once we emerged from the forest, the darkness was replaced by the bright glow of the full moon, so we turned off our torches and finished the hike by moonlight.
Navigating the steep snowy slope in the fading light
The border back to Slovenia wasn’t manned, so we had no issues getting back in without our passports and made it back to the apartment in time for dinner. We didn’t feel like returning to the one open restaurant in town, so we picked up some supplies for a spaghetti Bolognese at the store to have with our bottle of Slovenian wine. We ate far too much food after our long day of hiking and drank some incredible wine. Along with their food, Slovenia has some of the best red wine I’ve ever tried, and I will be searching for it in the future. So, filled with good food and good wine, we packed up and went to bed, closing out an amazing five days in my new favourite country.
We had been looking forward to Slovenia, but it completely exceeded all our expectations. The people were incredibly friendly, the capital, Ljubljana, is a beautiful little town, the food and wine were unbelievable, and the mountains were picturesque. We missed out on a few things by travelling here in the slowest part of the year, but it’s also a very small place that could be unbearably overrun by tourists in summer. I want to go back, but we will have to avoid going there in summer to avoid corrupting our perfect memories in this beautiful little country.
