Tuesday, May 15, 2007

just a short update...ok maybe not so short.











Slovenia was excellent! we loved it there right away. it has a very quiet charm to it, which is our kind of charm. Ljubljana, the capital, was a very nice city. The architecture was grand of course, like many European capitals, and there was also a river through it, which always makes for a nice place to have a drink. The city also had a small area called Metalkova, which was an old army base that squatters took over in the 70s and have since lived there under more liberal rules than the rest of the country. There were a couple of bars there as well as a hostel which was converted from an old prison. some of the rooms were the cells. we didn't stay there, but it was pretty cool to see the rooms with bars still on the doors and windows.

After Ljubjana, we drove our rental car (a really old Renault 5 with 175,000 kms on it) into the Julian Alps. Driving on those mountain roads was a lot of fun, and provided us with some nice views. First we stopped at Lake Bled, which is right at the foot of the mountains, has a very nice old town that overlooks the water, and Slovenia's one and only island in the middle of the lake (it had a monastery of course). After Bled we went further into the mountains to Bohinj Lake, which was much quieter and less touristy. We parked our car here and started to walk. We trekked for 2 days, 4 hours on the first and about 8 on the second day. On the first day we walked up from 650 meters above sea level to about 1500m. we slept in a mountain lodge that is only reachable by foot and had some incredible views of the surrounding mountains peaks and down below of Bohinj Lake. The next day we got up early and walked 4 hours, up another 100 m to a place called Sedmera Jazera (7 lakes). it was fun walking through the snow, which still covered the trails in many places. the views were incredible! its too hard to describe. ill put up some pictures and you can see for yourselves. After having lunch there, we started going down. It got pretty steep at times, we had to hang on to cables that were in the rocks. Looking down it seemed that pretty clear that if we fell down we would roll/slide for a while and likely die, so that made it a little more thrilling. On the way down, we stopped at Crno Jazero (black lake), and then continued on down to where our car was. It was a great feeling when we got to flat ground again. Made us really excited for trekking in Nepal... although Tara said I need to move my ass a little faster.

After the mountains, we went to a cave, one of 7000 in Slovenia. It was pretty cool to see, because the walls, floor and ceilings of it still "grow". it grows by water slowly dripping through the rocks and just hardening over time... like 1cm per 100 years. So there were many of these finger shaped things everywhere. There was a river that ran through the floor of the cave as well. The only downside was that we had to tour the cave as part of a huge group with a guide, which we don't really care for, mostly because you have to deal with stupid people who don't be quiet, or are drunk like a few Polish guys.

Right now we are in Khestely, which is on the western shore of Lake Balaton in Hungary. Tara`s family came to visit us and we are spending the week with them around here before we head to Budapest on Friday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey guys your adventures keep getting better and better, you are really exploring it all. Keep the pictures coming & Bida your beard is getting to be Tenachoius.

Daniel said...

I have to apologize to the fans of my beard, it came off this morning. I shaved my head and my beard. Its a trip reset! Im like a bald again!

ps. you should learn how to spell.

Anonymous said...

at least im not bald....