Slovenia is home to another section of the alps called the Julian Alps. The pictures we saw of them were stunning, and since we're suckers for hiking in the mountains, we were determined to find our way to Triglav National Park.
We decided to stay in Kranjska Gora, a small ski town near Triglav. Since we didn't book things far in advance, and since it's a pretty small town, we ended up booking a hotel using credit card points so we didn't blow our budget. We got lucky and got the top floor with a large balcony and mountain views. We also got a pair of twin beds and a slanted roof in the A-frame that we bonked our head on a few times, but you can't have it all.
We were still doing our best not to rent a car, and we read online that there were buses that ran in the mountains but that's about all we could find. So, our first stop in Kranjska Gora was to visit the tourist information center. Turns out there are buses that go across the mountain pass and toward Lake Bled, so we were set (this was our first taste of Balkan transportation - it exists, but you can't expect to find much online). That night, we had dinner at a local spot, Oštarija, and ordered one of their local dishes-a large gourmet patty with grilled veggies and potatoes cooked "under the bell". We were told this was not a burger (sure looked like one), but to our surprise it didn't taste like one; it was just a delicious grilled meat patty. We definitely didn't realize how much food we ordered, but we figured we'd need to fuel up for the hiking we had planned.
On our first day we just relaxed at the hotel pool and planned our week in further detail and our next stops on our trip. To get away from our computer screens, we did a short hike from our hotel to Jezero Jasna which is a lake at the base of the mountains with some of the clearest water we have ever seen. It looked like the ducks were floating on air!
Our first day trip was to Lake Bled; it's on nearly all of the pictures that pop up when you Google "Slovenia". We took the early bus to get there early and beat the crowds. It was very peaceful walking around the lake in the morning and enjoying the calmness of the water. The best views of the lake were on the west and southwest side where you could see the church on an island and the Bled castle on the cliff side. We did a short hike up to a Mala Osojnica viewpoint to see the lake and mountains in the valley. It was steep, but worth it to see the lake and castle from above. We then trekked down to a market for lunch and ate by the water. We tried a local dessert called Bled Cake that was delicious but extremely difficult to eat with a plastic fork in a container (needed a plate and knife). After lunch, we decided it was time to get on the water. We rented a row boat and Carson got to workout while Melissa was passenger princess (to be fair, only one person could row at a time!). The water was very blue and reminded us of Lake Brienz in Switzerland. Carson rowed to the island to get closer views of the church and then to the castle cliffs. You could dock the boat and walk up a bunch of stairs to see the church on the island, but we decided we would rather spend our time on the water so we didn't do that. After an hour on the water, we docked the boat and jumped on a bus to go to Vintgar Gorge. We scanned our ticket, donned our complimentary hair nets, strapped on our helmets, and started our hike. This gorge has the same clear blue water as Lake Bled but with jagged rock formations and waterfalls. It was a beautiful one way hike with a boardwalk wiggling its way through the gorge. At the end, we returned our helmets and then had to dreadfully hike up through a forest back to the front of the gorge. We assumed this hike would be easy since the gorge walk was and we saw a lot of families and children, but it was surprisingly challenging. At least when we finished, we got lucky and caught an early bus back to Bled then to Lesce for dinner. Tonight's dinner menu was....Mexican! Look, we knew getting Mexican in a small town in Slovenia wasn't going to be amazing, but we just really wanted something that was not pizza or grilled meat. The chicken burritos were mediocre at best, but they hit the spot just because it was something different.
On our final full day in the Julian Alps, we took a bus to go across the whole mountain pass into the Soča river valley for some rafting. Remember that first bus ride we took up to Vrsic pass? Well, we did that again, but this time there was a total of 50 tight switchbacks when you count going down the other side of the pass. We were really glad they offered a bus ride through the mountains, but after doing it a few times, we're not really sure WHY this massive charter bus was allowed on these roads.
Rafting is a very popular activity on the western side of the mountains in the towns of Soca and Bovec. We booked a rafting excursion in Soca through Abyss Adventures with a group of 8 and a guide. Melissa had been rafting in West Virginia and Costa Rica before, but this was Carson's first time. After about a 20 minute van drive, and donning our wetsuits and helmets, we were on the water. We were directed by our guide that we would be at the front of the boat leading the rest of our team in paddling direction and sequence, so we had to really be on top of things. Rafting down the river was beautiful; the water was so clear and blue with large white rocks all encompassed by tall green mountains. We stopped at a spot on the river with a large boulder to jump/slide off the raft into the water, and it was freezing! Good thing we had our wet suits on, the water really took our breath away. The rapids (per Melissa) were not super crazy, but we did get stuck on a rock and were taking on a lot of water. Luckily our guide was able to get us out and we were on our way again working better as a team to navigate through the rapids. At the end, we got out of the raft and floated with the current to our end point. The frigid water eventually became quiet relaxing (at least that's what Carson was telling himself....or maybe he was getting hypothermia?). We changed, got back to the rafting company, and had a small lunch before hiking to the town of Soca. We hiked along the Soca river gorge which reminded us of the Vintgar gorge, but with whiter rock and sharper rock cliffs. At the end of the hike we grabbed some cheap beers and waited for the bus which turned out to be the mini bus again! Thankfully we got seats this time and made it back to our hotel for our final evening where we enjoyed the mountains from our hotel room. Dinner tonight was Slovenian sausages - Domace and Cevapi (little did we know Cevapi would be one of the main dishes in all the Balkan countries moving forward).
Our time in the Julian Alps was magnificent! The mountains were so green, and the rivers so clear and blue. They were quite a contrast to the rocky Dolomites, but were just as beautiful. We weren't sure what to expect without having a car but it worked out better than we both imagined. We just wish we had more time to explore more locations. So, if this post inspires someone to go to Slovenia, please take us with!
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