Slovenia: the only country with the word LOVE in its name!

After Austria, I took a bus to the capital of Slovenia, which is called Ljubljana.

***Apologies in advance for the amount of photos, but this place was just so darn beautiful!!

City: Ljubljana

How Long: 5 nights

Accommodation:

I stayed at Hostel Vrba in Ljubljana. At first, when I arrived I feared it would not be that social, but I found some awesome people at this hostel! Mainly a British couple who have quit their jobs and are riding their motorcycles all the way to CHINA! Crazy cool! (Check them out here) Lottie and Ryan were super fun and sweet to me, even getting me a bottle of champagne for my birthday 🙂 Anyway back to the hostel itself, there was a good kitchen/ common room and plenty of bathrooms and showers. It was about a 15 minute walk to the center of town, but it’s a lovely walk along the river. The lockers were good-sized and the beds had personal sockets for charging devices.

Drinking Birthday champagne in the common room of the hostel!

The walk along the river

Where to eat:

Because I was here so long, I went to the grocery store and loaded up one eggs, chicken, and cereal. Saved a bunch of money and hung out with people in the common room while cooking/eating. BUT the highlight of Ljubljana food was an ice cream store called Vigo. Ryan seemed to go every day and I managed to tag along a fair bit of the time. It was just so good (+ cheap)!

What to do:

Wow Slovenia has so many things you can do! The first day I was there I went on the free walking tour and saw most of the major sites in main part of the city, as it is not very big. I ran into an Australian guy I had met at my hostel in Vienna so we did the tour together and after walked up to the castle!

On my way up to the castle

Still on my way up

The final stretch!!!

Finally the view!

and….. on my way down

View of the castle from the town!

The next day I decided to do a day trip to small town about 30 minutes outside of Ljubljana called Škofja Loka. Lottie and Ryan joined me as we headed out to explore a bit of the countryside. The town was tiny, tiny, tiny, but super cute. Of course there was a castle and a church (as every town in Slovenia seems to have) and an old town so we walked around all these areas. We also grabbed a bite to eat and a beer (cider for me, though).

The main part of town along the river

View from the church

Then it was my birthday! I decided to book a day trip around Slovenia so I was doing something fun for my bday. I visited Predjama Castle, then the Lipizzan horses in Lipica, Piran, and the Škocjan caves.

Predjama castle

Predjama castle feat. me

Piran, Slovenia

Above the caves/river that runs through it

Where we exited the caves

Overall thoughts:

I really enjoyed my time in the capital of Slovenia. After traveling for so long, I’ve determined that I tend to like cities on the smaller side with a few obvious exceptions (London, Paris, and of course BARCELONA!) Ljubljana is a good base for seeing other parts of the country as well! It’s a quaint town that only needs about 2 days for the city itself, but if you want to explore the region, add a couple more days to that.

City: Lake Bled

How Long: 3 nights

Accommodation:

I stayed at a great hostel called Castle Hostel 1004. I would highly recommend staying here if you ever get to Lake Bled. It was 5 minutes from the lake and 1 minute to the bus station. The hostel itself has a great communal kitchen and common room. There are big lockers in the room, but you needed your own padlock because sometimes they run out. The only annoying thing was that sometimes all the bathrooms were full (right before bed + in the morning) but overall wasn’t that big of a deal.

Where to eat:

I mostly ate food I bought from the grocery store to save money and then I would eat in the common room with everyone else while they were eating food they had bought, but the hostel had a deal with some of the restaurants in town so I went to Pizzeria Rustica. We got a 10% discount and the food was great!! I had a yummy white pizza with truffle oil and bacon.

What to do:

WOW, there is a lot to do in the Lake Bled region if you want to spend the time and money. You can go canyoning, sky diving, kayaking, rafting, hiking, swimming, and paragliding. It’s amazing all the outdoor activities that are within reach. As I am on a budget and I was here in April, where it wasn’t quite warm enough for some of the above activities, I mostly stuck to the hiking. BUT the hiking is spectacular, so I definitely did not feel like I was settling. The first day I hiked around Lake Bled with a stop at an incredible view-point. It was about a 5 mile hike in total.

The starting point of the hike along the lake and already it is so beautiful

Ducks!

So peaceful

Hike up to the viewpoint

Unreal!!

At the viewpoint I ended up sitting on the bench next to a girl from South Africa. We got to talking and decided to hike up to the Vintgar Gorge together. It was stunning. Definitely recommend going here. It’s a 5 euro entrance fee (cash only) and about 2 miles roundtrip.

Headed through the gorge on these cool pathways

So pretty!

THIS WATER

My second day consisted of hiking around a different lake called Bohinj Lake. This lake is bigger and less developed when compared to Lake Bled. It’s about 40 minutes away by bus. I went with an Australia guy I met at the hostel the night before. He had just hiked to Base Camp of Everest so needless to say I was much less fit than he was. I managed to keep up with him (for the most part) up to the waterfall, but once we started on hiking around the lake, I was left in the dust. I meandered along at my own (slow) pace and enjoyed the marvel that was this valley, which had been created by a glacier many, many years ago.

The start of the climb to the waterfalls!

The valley as we climbed to the waterfalls

THE WATERFALLS

Lake Bohinj

The day started off cloudy

but the sun turned up for us towards the end of our hike!

Can’t get enough of this place!

Overall thoughts:

I stayed 3 nights in Lake Bled, but really only got 2 full days out of it. At first I thought 3 nights would be too much, but I wish I had booked more time here. After spending so much time in large cities, it was so relaxing being here. I loved being in the nature! Overall, I would highly recommend a stop here in Lake Bled.

Off to Croatia now 🙂