YOU GO SLAVIA! -Part 1: "Three Hundred Hairy Bears!"

Sunday, August 9th

My alarm went off for the last time in two weeks. I got up and woke up Peter who was sleeping in the living room. He was spending the night at my place, since the day before he had just got back from the LDS Young Single Adult Convention in Berlin.

We hurried and got our stuff together, I had my big and my little backpack, and then we hustled to the bus to get to the train station.

With plenty of time we found our train and hopped aboard, finding an empty compartment. Before long the train departed Munich and as I watched the familiar sites go by out the window I knew that it would be half a month before I would see them again, but that I would come back with amazing experiences, a few fun pictures, and hopefully some exciting stories to tell.

Peter is from Slovenia. He came to Munich to study for two semesters last school year and we got to be friends. He insisted that at some point I would have to come to Slovenia to visit. So there I was, on the train heading to his homeland.

Originally I had planned to just spend about nine days in Slovenia and maybe go into Croatia a bit, but at the last minute I extended my train ticket and worked it out to be away for two weeks. Where would we go in these two weeks? And where is Slovenia exactly?

Well check it out...





View Yugobalkantrip in a larger map


Get used to this map, because I'll be linking to different parts of it throughout this series.

This was all new territory for me and I was excited as could be. In these two weeks I saw a total of twelve countries (visiting eight) and went from the top of the Alps to the bottom of the Adriatic.

But for now I was still in Germany trying to get comfortable in my train compartment. I napped a bit but woke up just in time to get a great view of Salzburg as we crossed the Salzach river. I fell asleep again.

I woke up sometime later as we were passing through beautiful Austrian Alpine country...

About five hours after boarding the train in Munich, we were finally in Slovenia! We got off the train in a town near to where Peter's family lives. Soon his dad, Marko, came driving up in the van and took us to their home in Zgorne Gorje in the foothills of the Julian Alps...

In their backyard is the town church!

...and an inviting hammock with sleeping kittens all around...

Home sweet home for Peter.

We unloaded our stuff, relaxed a bit, and ate a little something. Soon Peter's mom and two of his little brothers (out of three) came home from church. We ate some dinner and then a few of us loaded in the van for a little introduction to the Slovenian countryside.

Of course Slovenia used to be a part of Yugoslavia. When people think of Yugoslavia they often think of run-down communist factories, block housing, and more recently, landmines, ethnic strife, and a confusing war. But Slovenia was the economic powerhouse of the former Yugoslav nations with just 8% of it's land and population but with over 60% of it's economy. That meant that Slovenia was able to join the EU and the eurozone first out its Slavic cousins. Slovenia is also the most ethnically homogeneous of the group and so almost no fighting took place inside her borders.

Driving through Slovenia today, one could easily mistake the clean streets, cute homes, quaint villages, nice cars, and beautiful scenery for someplace in Austria or Switzerland.

We didn't have to drive far before we were surrounded by rocky mountains and lush forests. We parked the van and took a walk.

We passed through green meadows with lonely sheds and the occasional Slovenian hayrack (more on those later)...

Here is Peter with his parents and youngest brother Urban...

Urban showed us how to do cartwheels...

Nearby was a crystal clear but freezing cold river. I took a walk...

Marko was proud of where he lived and pleased to show it to me, and for good reason. It is a beautiful little corner of this world.

Later that night Peter drove me down to Lake Bled, just a few minutes from their home. This famous lake is one of the most picturesque lakes in Europe. It was quite dark when we got there so what little I saw was just a foretaste of tomorrow's excursion...

On Monday Peter and I took bikes and headed off towards Lake Bled.

We passed a handful of small villages, each with their own distinct church steeple...

After a 10 minute ride (almost all downhill) we came in sight of Lake Bled.

This gorgeous lake is made all the more awesome by the island in the middle capped by a cool old church...

We rode our bikes around the lake, enjoying the ever-changing angles of the of the island and the castle on the cliff...

Look at little old nate on his bike having such a great time...

Fed by fresh mountain streams, the water is crystal clear. No motorized boats are allowed on the lake and so it is extra peaceful and clean. You can even see the fish!

We stopped at a little cafe for a cake break. I had to try the local speciality: Kremšnita a fluffy layered piece of goodness. Another Slovenian specialty is Cockta cola. From the Yugoslav days, this sweet cola is apparently made from several different local herbs and no caffeine!

Even the sparrow was impressed...

After enjoying our cake, we headed on our way around the lake. There were some posh houses and even posher hotels, resorts, and restaurants tucked away along the lake shore...

We came back around full-circle and then began the uphill ride back to Zgorne Gorje. We got another view of the island with a little villa to the left that once belonged to Josip Broz Tito, the prime minister and president (or dictator) of communist Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1980...

We ate some lunch and relaxed a bit at home before hopping in the car and going back to the lake, this time to swim!

It was a warm day and the lake looked very inviting...

It was my first time swimming in over a year! The water felt great. We even swam the 1/3 mile to the island to take a walk around and then swam back (that's 70 times the length of the dairy pool in total!)

The next day Peter and I took the car south, a bit deeper into the mountains to the valley of Bohinj. Here there was another magnificent lake (though no island), surrounded by towering mountains...

We drove the length of the lake to one of the rivers that feeds into it. The forest was thick and the river mossy...

We hiked up a bit to a big waterfall...

We could see Bohinj lake peeking out from behind the mountain just begging us to come swim...

So we drove back to the other side of the lake where there was a nice bridge, a nice church, and a nice hotel...

And we joined a few others for a fine swim in the lake...

It was a bit colder than Bled, but it was niiiiice...

Never tell a joke underwater...

If only my face could always look like this...

Yes it was very peaceful...

After enjoying some time at the lake, we took a drive through a bit more of the Slovenian countryside with hayracks everywhere...

These hayracks are only found in Slovenia (so far as I know), and are used by farmers to hang the hay to keep it dry. You can see they even have little roofs.

Hay now. HAY now...

Seriously this was some gorgeous landscape. The Slovenians have a lot to be proud of even if their country is shaped like a chicken...

Here's that map again with a closeup on the area described in my blog today. For geography nuts only!



View Yugobalkantrip in a larger map

It was only my third day in Slovenia and I had seen and done so much. The landscape was amazing. And what about the people?

Well every Slovenian I met was quite friendly. But what would you expect from a people whose worst curse in their own language is the grandmotherly: "three hundred hairy bears!"

Seriously!

Coming Up Next: Hemingway, Narnia, scenes from the Forgotten War, and the top of the Three Heads.

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