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Slovenia: Undiscovered and UnderappreciatedBY: Kinsey Butler | Category: EUROPE | Submitted: 2012-02-08 01:49:25
I recently spent four months exploring the world of Central Europe. With a home base as the magical city of Prague, I had easy access to a number of countries surrounding the Czech Republic. During the last month of my travels I found myself in Krakow, Poland soaking up the dichotomy of a devastating history and a bubbling nightlife. During a moment of down time, two hostel mates told my fellow traveler and me about an unlikely yet wonderful trip they had taken to Slovenia. Immediately confused, we looked at each other thinking, "I'm not sure if I could even pick out Slovenia on a map, let alone name its capital city". Turns out its Ljubljana, so we decided this would be a good place to start. On our last weekend in Europe, we boarded a rickety old train in Prague and headed out on an 11 hour ride through the south of the Czech Republic, various Austrian mountain villages, and finally to Ljubljana. After months of experiencing European towns and city centers, we thought we sort of had it down. There would inevitably be a town square, a river, often a castle, and most likely some sort of market place filled with food stands and vendors. Naturally, Ljubljana didn't disappoint. But what Slovenia's capital city added to this traditional recipe of a Central European town was a free spirit that can only come from being less main stream than its neighboring counterparts. Being there during the holiday season, we noticed the mulled wine to be a little stronger, the music to be a little louder, and the authority to be a little less evident than in the other cities we had experienced. So that night as we wandered back to our hostel, we thought about London, Paris, and Dublin, typical destinations of an American traveling to Europe. And while each of those cities is miraculous in its own right, we concluded that we had found a relatively undiscovered gem in Slovenia. So on day two, we boarded a bus to go deeper into the heart of Slovenia and to our original destination: Bled. In not much more than an hour we reached this town of 5,000, nestled at the base of the Julian Alps and surrounding a pristine lake. We trudged through the small, winding streets, relatively devoid of sidewalks to a small house on a farming road that would serve as our hostel. As the only customers, we made ourselves at home and made room for two of our friends who would be joining us later that day. Then, we set out to see what all the fuss was about with this idyllic lake. As would be the theme with our Slovenian adventure, the lake lived up to the hype we found online and in brochures. Used most notably for rowing competitions in the summertime, Lake Bled has year-round assets that are not to be missed. The most obvious is the old church that serves as an island in the middle. It is still fully functioning and one can row a boat out to it to worship. Above the lake to one side is the old Bled Castle that sits watching over Bled's lake and its inhabitants. The lake only takes about an hour to walk around and its still water, setting below the Alps, and numerous white swans make for some pretty incredible reflections. On a side note, these swans are surprisingly jovial and offered us a great amount of entertainment that evening. After a night of devouring the best pizza we had in Europe (that includes a five day trip to Italy) at a local restaurant and drinking beers at a pub, we retired to our hostel to get ready to go to Vintgar Gorge in the morning. We had learned about this natural wonder from our hostel mates in Krakow and knew we couldn't miss it. So the four of us ventured out of our hostel and walked along a long country road. This led us through small village neighborhoods and eventually into a forested area. The humble entrance to this park began with a few small signs and a boardwalk along which we walked the length of the gorge. We saw no more than four others the entire time and took pleasure in having this beauty to ourselves. Vintgar Gorge is a long flow of the clearest turquoise water that cuts through a mountain deep within a forest. Every few minutes we passed a set of rapids or a waterfall followed by a still pool of water teeming with fish. It was so clear that we could see the bottom of the gorge at almost every point. The four of us come from all over the U.S. and not one of us had seen something quite like this. Of course, paying homage to America, the boys took the opportunity to "Tebow" in the middle of a bridge over a waterfall. As we reached the end of the gorge and made our way back out of the forest, we were all taken aback by how undiscovered yet stunning the natural landscape of Slovenia is. It may never compete with the Englands or Frances of Europe, but we should be thankful for that. Because what Slovenia lacks in vast infrastructure it makes up for in untouched wilderness, local gaiety, and the chance to see things that most never will. Article Source: http://articles.travelandtourisminfo.com/ About Author / Additional Info: A traveler from the US Comments on this article: (1 comments so far)
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