Byes in Bled

25/6/22

Today was moving day. I had a final hostel breakfast and then got the tram to the bus station. I was heading to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The bus wasn’t too long and I arrived around lunchtime, checked into my hostel and then walked along the river into town.

The town was beautiful and I wandered around a bit before heading to a large local park to sit in and read for awhile before I went to the 3pm walking tour. I stopped for a bit of lunch in a local bar and rested for thirty mins before starting the two hour walking tour.

The tour groups were pretty big so we split into two and began. There were gorgeous buildings everywhere, a mix of gothic and art deco. I met two lovely girls on the tour, both solo, who had met before in Bled. Brittnee, 21, from Aus, and Aina, 19, from Spain. They were younger than me but very cool and I was impressed they had both dared to solo travel young. The tour was good and included a surprising story about a newly built, but so far empty library that threatened to be used by Nazi’s which were heading to Slovenia to occupy it. To prevent the new library becoming Nazi HQ, the local people made a human chain to move books to the new library for over 48 hours to save Nazi occupiers from using it for the war. To make the story better, when the occupiers arrived, they assisted in moving the books since everyone was treating it so seriously, they thought it must be important!

After the tour, I went to a pretty courtyard with Brittnee and Aina before Brittnee left and Aina and I wandered around a little longer. Then we went back to Aina’s hostel and chilled a little before remeeting Brittnee and going for dinner. We had asked our tour guide for recommendations and headed to a busy local restaurant. We sat in the street and enjoyed the bustle and the Slovenian food. I had venison goulash, which the waiter clarified to me was Bambi!

After dinner, we headed up to the castle by funicular to watch the sunset over Ljubljana. It was beautiful. Afterwards, I said my goodbyes and walked home back along the river. I was pleased to find that the free coffee vending machine in the hostel car park also did hot chocolate so I enjoyed a free hot choc before bed.

26/6/22

Another moving day. I got up, packed up and headed to the station. A guy was packing as I was and when I asked where he was going he said he didn’t know. When I said I was going to Lake Bled, he said he had been meaning to go there but hadn’t found anyone to go with. This seemed to me a strange excuse for a solo traveller, but I had met the like before. He asked if he could join me on the bus, which I obviously agreed to. We got the 09.30 bus from Ljubljana and arrived two hours later. The guy, Ahmed, was Egyptian and wa studying a Masters in Germany. He had come to Ljubljana for a course and had hoped to see Bled while he was in Slovenia. This explained the reluctance to travel alone! We checked into the hostel before hatching a plan. I had agreed with Amanda that we would do the lake together the following day so I wanted to do the nearby gorge instead.

We decided to first go tobogganing and then head to the gorge a little later since the hostel guy said it would be busy earlier because it was the weekend. We walked around a small part of the lake, stopping at a bakery on route for an exceptionally late breakfast (since I had completely forgotten that we had not eaten!!), before walking through a wood and getting a chair lift to the top of a hill. We went for a short walk with lovely views before coming tobogganing down again. We watchedany people go down before we did, some cautious and others out of control! The joy a toboggan brings an adult is wondrous!! After our thrill, we went for a drink in a festival style cafe bar at the bottom. I ordered an Aperol, which came with free peanuts and then Ahmed was tempted, and then we got a second round! By this time, it was nearly 4pm, and we needed to head to the gorge since we thought it closed at 6pm.

We grabbed our swim stuff and set out towards the gorge. We needed to be quick to make it!! We set off mildly in the wrong direction on a longer route. I had forgotten about the time restraints and since I do not like going back on myself, we continued on our longer route chatting. We would arrive just before 6pm!! It was a pretty walk through countryside before we rejoined a road and I power walked with Ahmed behind me! Luckily, when we arrived at 17.45, we were told that the gorge closed at 19.00 so we had plenty of time. We walked through the beautiful gorge, which went on forever. When we eventually reached the end, I got a snack at a cafe before we went to swim in the glacial waters of a waterfall. The water was 9 degrees but we were doing it!! Since the air temperature was around 30 degrees, and the walk had been fairly long, we were looking forward to the cool off. Strangely, noone else was swimming. We changed and went in. It was certainly refreshing!! It was sooo cold, I could barely control my breath! Madness! I did one lap before climbing onto a rock to warm up. Later I braved it a second time, which surprisingly wasn’t as cold. I swam more leisurely this time and a man told Ahmed that his woman was hardcore. What a compliment!! Us Welshie’s are used to the cold I guess!! To me, it was more impressive that an Egyptian could tolerate it!!

After swimming, we changed and started walking back through the woods to Bled town. We stopped on the way for dinner. Then we walked the rest of the way to the hostel. We got back just before 10pm – a long day!

Back in the hostel, I said good night to Ahmed and went to my dorm. In there, there was one guy, Ryan, who was from Nottingham but sounded northern and was very nice. We chatted for ages before going to sleep.

27/6/22

Today I was meeting Amanda for the final time (this trip at least!). I headed out for breakfast with Ahmed first since Amanda wasn’t arriving til later. Then we headed to chill lakeside. Ahmed went for a swim while I lay by the lake and read my book. When he returned from his swim, we had a relatively heated discussion about cultural and societal roles for women. Unsurprisingly, his view was more typically Arab and mine more typically Western. We left our discussion unresolved before saying our goodbyes and parting ways.

I briefly went to the hostel before going to meet Amanda at the bus stop. I wasn’t too sure what time she would arrive so I had gone early. While I was waiting, I got chatting to a German Vietnamese girl who was waiting for her own bus to the mountains. She loved hiking and had gone on many solo trips! She was also studying to be a paediatric GP. We had a good chat before I waved her off. Amanda arrived shortly after this.

We headed towards town for lunch and stopped at a local cute cafe for sandwiches and smoothies. Then we continued on to walk around the lake. The perimeter was apparently 6km and unsurprisingly, it did take quite some time to walk around the whole thing, especially when you stop every five minutes that you think is even better than the one you took five minutes before!! The view was stunning. We stopped around halfway for a swim. We swam in front of the church on the island but not too close to it since its apparently disrespectful to be in a bathing suit near the church. When we got out, we went to sit in a nearby park area to dry off in the sun. We watched people playing frisbee, burnt people resort to wearing a tee far too late and best of all, we watched a dog chase and attempt to catch splashes made by his owner – it was so joyous!!

After awhile, we left there and walked further round. We stopped for a drink and a famous Bled cake and then Amanda went to toboggan, while I stayed lakeside to read. When she came back, we hired paddleboards. Typically, although the lake had been calm all day, as we went to hire the SUPs, the wind picked up and the lake became choppy somehow. After thirty minutes of struggle much like the storm Liz, Jess and I faced on Edgbaston Reservoir, the lake finally settled and I found paddleboarding much easier than I originally thought!

It was fairly late by this point so we walked around the rest of the lake and got dinner – a pizza slice each, a G&T for me and a kombucha for Amanda. The two guys working in the deli were very friendly indeed! After our pizza, we headed to the bus stop. This was goodbye! After meeting in floor-length shapeless clothing with hijabs in tow, Amanda and I had spent our last day together in bikinis paddleboarding – what a journey!!

I headed back to the hostel after Amanda had left and went to my dorm to find Ryan chilling out and two name badges ‘Stan’ on the two free beds. Awhile later, the two Stans arrived, although disappointingly, only one of them was called Stan. He was Dutch while the other guy, Charlie, was Mexican. They went out for food and Ryan and I slobbed. Later Ryan headed out too and shortly after Charlie and Stan returned. We chatted awhile before I went to sleep.