Slovenia & Croatia

Walking across the border

If you like beautiful landscapes, friendly people, and cheap prices, go to Slovenia.

To get from Venice to Ljubljana via train, you usually have to walk between two stations - so we walked across the border between Italy and Slovenia, a slightly surreal experience! There was absolutely no one around at the border. As soon as we were across we started to notice stark differences between the other, very western-european countries, and Slovenia. There were no electronic timetables at the station, you just walked across the tracks to get to your platform, and there was no typical tourist-town English written everywhere. 

Looking like a proper traveller

Brilliant

We navigated our way to Ljubljana by asking for help from the station staff. One of the good things about Slovenia is that a lot of people do speak English, and they are very willing to help! Joe and I both spent the majority of the train journey across the country with our heads hanging out of the windows taking in the landscape. Snow-capped mountains, lush green forests, clear blue rivers running along valleys.. We even waved to some workers on the track who all grinned and waved back. 

Breakfast in Ljubljana..

Ljubljana, for a capital city, was so small! It was where we discovered the wonder of Hofer (Aldi) for its cheap-ness, and quick cooking food ideas. We had one full day in the city, which we spent wandering the markets, crossing the many bridges, watching musicians, and then trekking up a hill to visit the castle. For tea we cooked a spaghetti bolognese - you really do crave vegetables after a while! We picked up some mince meat from Hofer very cheap, but had no idea what animal it had come from... I do hear that horse is popular in Slovenia..

Our day of departing the hostel was a complete nightmare day. Joe plugged his memory card from his camera into the computer in the hostel and somehow all of his photos got wiped. He was devastated - the photos from half of our trip had disappeared (and he has one of those proper professional cameras, too). Then we got our clothes out of the tumble dryer and found that they'd all shrunk. 

Lake Bled

We were headed to Lake Bled to relax a bit, and decided to take our total number of nights there up to three, just to have some much-needed down time. The hostel we stayed in was absolutely lovely - the best one of the trip by far. It had a very homely feel, was clean and tidy, there were wooden beds and floorboards.. and it wasn't expensive, although it felt like they could have charged a lot more than they did! They had free bikes to borrow, and free washing machines to use. We were given a map with lots of recommended walks and bike routes. There was also a shop right over the road, literally ten seconds away. Every day for lunch we had 'gondola rolls' which we split and put pepperoni and cheese inside.. mmmm. 

Rowing across Lake Bled

The weather was iffy in Bled - we got caught out on a walk round the lake and absolutely drenched! We also cycled round the lake, rented a boat and rowed around the lake and to the island in the middle. We spent an afternoon cycling along the Radovna river, through the Triglav National Park. It was so steep to get up to the start of the path, but the rest of the route was fine - we stopped off to paddle in an ice-cold clear river, and also to read a sign about "The Legend of the Fat Stone" haha - I love translations. On our way back home we raced to beat the rain! The cycle was so beautiful, you could see the mountains and rivers, forests.. Oh, I miss Slovenia.

The other brilliant thing about Slovenia was how cheap the beer (pivo) and vodka was...

CROATIA! We hadn't been sure if we would have the time to get to Croatia but we did! The train line in the country isn't brilliant - most people rely on driving or buses, so we could only really get to Split (in the south). We stayed for a night in the capital city of Zagreb, which we were told wasn't much to look at aside from the nightlife. Our hostel was incredibly empty, but we did get cheese and ham toasties cooked for us and coffee brewed in the morning, which was very nice :) 

Ralph the female tortoise

The train journey down to Split took ages, most of the day. It was frustrating as well, knowing we'd have to make the exact same journey on the way back. We found our way to our hostel, rang the bell, and heard, "If your name is not Joe, do not come in!" followed by laughing. And so began the wonder that is Josko. He bore an uncanny resemblance to Adam Sandler, presented us with shots of homemade rakija (very strong!), bought in 20 doughnuts for breakfast every morning, and owned a female tortoise called Ralph who lived in the yard. He went out of his way to make sure everyone was having a good time. He left the alcohol on the side for anyone to help themselves, and he recognised us on the street after spending just one night there. 

In Split, we explored the Old Town, visited the beach every day, sat on benches by the port and watched the world go by, and stared at the ton of stray cats who lived on the roundabout. On the way out of Split, we missed the train to Zagreb in the morning and so had to book seats on the overnight one. It was 22 euros each to reserve a bed, or 1 euro to reserve a seat.. You can guess what we did, and it was not the best night's sleep I've ever had! We cheered ourselves up with a feast, however, buying three massive loaves of bread. We got into Zagreb at 6.30am, spent our remaining kuna on orange juice and croissants, and then boarded the train to Vienna!

Where we slept for a night..

Things we learnt:
1. Slovenia is beautiful. 
2. Slovenia and Croatia were pretty cheap to visit.
3. Be careful when putting your memory card into a strange computer! (Also, do not format it, as you can recover the photos when back home!)
4. Build some down-time into your trip where you are away from big cities.
5. Tortoises will eat anything.