Canyoning in Slovenia

This country is brilliant. Slovenia is tiny, about a quarter of the size of Tasmania. In fact it's so small that on our wall map of the world it only squeezes in the first four letters- so it is forever known as "Slov"! Anyway, we had heard great things about this place so decided to go for my birthday this year. Slovenia has a pretty chequered history, having being occupied by Croatia/Germany/Hungary and Italy at various points in time, and it was part of Yugoslavia until 1991. It is bordered by Croatia, Hungary, Italy and Austria.

The capital is Ljubljana, where we started our trip. The city is small compact so its really easy to get around on foot. While we were trying to find our accomodation we stumbled past a giant stage being assembled, and found out there was a free Gorillaz gig there that night. So our first night was spent partying with what seemed like the entire population of Slovenia! We spent most of our time in the old part of the city (the tourist centre runs daily walking tours so we joined one of these). The river runs through the centre of the old town and is flanked by bustling markets selling everything from souveneirs to jewellery and food.
As part of the walking tour we caught the funicular up the hill to the castle which was one of the stranger things we saw in Slovenia. From below it looks like your typical medieval castle but once you get inside it has been somewhat modernised, complete with a 1980's style function room addition and a spaceship art instillation! Weird. I thought the point of it was that it looked like a castle. It didn't exactly look bad (well, except for the 80's bit!) but it just didn't seem right... Anyway on the plus side it did have fantastic views of the city so it is still well worth the visit. Lots of little cafe's and restaurants border the river so we hung out there people watching and laughing at the other tourists- like the guy with the badge saying "I'm a Canadian tourist". Not sure if he was just sick of being asked if he was American or there was a whole busload of oldies from Canada wandering around Ljubljana with the same badge!

We hired a car in Ljubljana for the rest of the trip, so Ian bravely took the task of driving on the wrong side of the road in a left hand drive car. I decided not to mention to him at this point the Vrsic Pass, a road through the Alps consisiting of about 50 hairpin bends. Hehehe. We got satnav but didn't really need it for the first part of the trip (RECALCULATING! RECALCULATING!) but it made it easier when you had to concentrate a lot more when you were driving. Anyway, Bled is about an hour or so drive from Ljubljana. Lake Bled is a gorgeous lake set against the backdrop of the Julian Alps. In the middle is a tiny island with a church on it. You can either get take out on a boat or hire your own rowboat like we did. There was a wedding on at the church while we were there so we didn't go it (unlike the American family who went in in their swimmers!) but you can have a look around and ring the church bells in the little tower outside. There was also a castle on the top of a cliff looking over the lake which we hiked up to. It is lit up at night as well which looks really dramatic from below. We wouldn't want to be there in the height of summer as it was still pretty busy when we went, especially on the weekend, but you could stay further around the lake where it was quieter. I had the best fish in my life at a restaurant called the Ostarija Peglezn ("Iron Inn").

The second day at Bled was the highlight of our Slovenia trip- canyoning with Canyoing Bob at 3Glav Adventures and two other German couples. We didn't have much of an idea of what canyoning was except that friends who had been to Slovenia highly recommended it. Basically you start at the top of a gorge and make your way down by abseiling, climbing, sliding down natural rock slides, jumping off waterfalls or going down flying foxes. The water was about 5 degrees but we had layers of wetsuits so we were toasty warm. The best bit was jumping off the waterfalls, about 4 or 5 in total. The highest one was the last one, about 12m high. Canyoning Bob was great, he made you feel really relaxed about it all, as if jumping over a 12m high waterfall off slippery rocks was the most natural thing in the world to do! After the last jump we crossed over to the river and floated on our backs downstream to the van. We had such a great time, we can't wait to go back and do it again!

Before we left Bled we called in at Vintgar Gorge. We drove there but you can walk from Bled through the little villages, it's about 4km from Bled. Suspended wooden pathways and bridges follow along the sides of the gorge, through which flows the Radovna River. We went early, which is well worth doing to avoid the crowds. The water is a stunning aqua colour, and combined with the rocks, waterfalls and the filtered sunlight coming through the trees, it is just beautiful.

After Bled we made our way to Piran via Kranjska Gora, through the Julian Alps and the Soca Valley, basically following the Soca River. This is where we had to cross the Vrsic Pass, which is about 1611m above sea level. We were lucky there wasn't much traffic but I wouldn't want to drive there in the wet! I had a great time checking out all the scenery through the winding roads, but Ian had to really concentrate at it really was hairpin bend after hairpin bend!

We arrived in Piran late that afternoon. Slovenia only has about 40km of coastline so it gets pretty busy in the summer. We were not overly impressed (I think it is hard to be impressed by European beaches when you are used to the Australian coast. The beaches that are nice are usually completely swamped with people!), it was a nice enough Mediterranean style town with narrow cobbled streets, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot to do except eat and lay by the water. Not that there is anything wrong with that!

We only stayed overnight (at a lovely hotel called the Hotel Marko) and the next day made our way back to the airport via Ljubljana. We are definitely going back though- there are still so many thing we wanted to see and do like the caves, canyoning, the National Parks, more canyoning!