Note: this was typed on a smartphone. Proofing etc etc not worth the effort.
The attendant at the international ticket window in the Prague train station looked at us confused when we requested tickets to Lesce-Bled. Which we pronounced leskee bled. (Actual pronunciation, leska bled). We clarified by noting it is in Slovenia. Blank stares. She then passed a scratch piece of paper where I scribbled the name. She hesitantly plugged it into the computer. Success!
We received similar confusion from other travelers we encountered en route when we said that, in fact, we had not visited Vienna, or any other place in Austria. You see, Austria lays smack dab between Czech Republic and Slovenia and is most certainly on 'the circuit'. I'm sure its a great place, however, decisions must be made when traveling, and as I've said before, not all must sees can be seen.
Our general area of interest for this trip has always been the balkans, especially Croatia,Greece and Turkey. We flew into Amsterdam and spent Christmas in Prague more for trans atlantic flight practicalities (and for the fact that Clare was not keen on spending her favorite holiday away from family and in a country that doesn't recognize it.) Any excuse is good enough to spend some time in Amsterdam. Our flight home is from Istanbul Turkey.
We decided that we wanted to break up the trek to Croatia with a visit to the country side. Clare honed in on the Slovenian national park in the Julian alps and we booked our tickets.
It's a long haul from Prague to Triglav National Park, but we took advantage of the daylight train to gaze out over the beautiful Austrian country. We are listening to the audio book version of The Cartel. Great book, very engaging. Reminds me of the days I spent in the barrios in Santa Fe. An interesting juxtaposition with our pure and idyllic frolic.
Lake Bled is the crown jewel of Slovenian tourism. It sits right outside the park, so it has been heavily developed with hotels, restaurants, shops etc. It's not a large lake, about 12 km in circumference. There is a castle on the island and another one perched high on the cliffs above. Very picturesque. We stayed here one night, as it was between the train station (and our late arrival) and our destination inside the park. The following day we walked around the lake and hiked the mountain over looking it.
We pulled the bus schedule out while on the top of the mountain and realized we were cutting it close. A quick decent, a couple trespasses and a sprint with our luggage paid off as we flagged the bus down on its way out of the station. We rode up the valley 30 minutes to lake bohijn.
We got off the bus and as we stared at our map trying to figure out how to walk to our accommodation, a car pulled up next to us. The window rolled down and the friendly faces of Sue and Tim Furey (and Rosie the dog) of Missoula were there beaming at us. They jumped out and a cacophony of hugs, smiles, and stories filled the crisp alpine air. Tim and Sue are on sabbatical in Serbia, visiting their son Kevin and grandkids (who are stationed there for work.) It was a great coincidence to run into them and exciting to see friendly faces so far from home. They gave us a ride to our rental apartment and they headed back down the road to Ljubljana, Slovenia's capitol.
The place was very spacious, on the top floor of a middle aged couple's home. We had a bedroom and a separate kitchen/living room and two full bathrooms. No bidets. (We have been in Europe three weeks now, and still no bidet. Wtf.) The view out our window was of Mount Triglav, the highest point in the Julian alps.
On a typical year, it would be a winter wonderland at this point. But, it's not. So instead of inquiring about xcountry skis, we were asking about bikes. As it goes, we were stuck in recreation purgatory and left with only our hiking feet.
The first day we hiked the length of the lake, up off the shore, on a meandering trail through the forest. We arrived at the far side of the lake at the base of Vogel ski resort. It was pretty quiet, but we poked around and learned that the following night, new years eve, there was a party up on the mountain, a gondola ride up the hill. We walked back to our place along the lake shore (about 10k total). It was cloudy with a low ceiling, but this lake resembles lake McDonald in glacier national park. Super clean and clear and rugged, steep mountains around.
That evening we cooked dinner in our apartment, preparing some much desired vegetables after the meat and potatoe heavy czech diet. While cooking dinner, we flipped on the tv in search of the Nordic ski jumping the local celebrity was competing in. I scrolled through only to stumble upon the series of erotic channels provided, apparently as a part of the cable package. We received the pleasure of Balkan Erotic, Red Xxx, and Hustler. We got some meat with our dinner after all.
The following day the clouds were supposed to break, so we planned a hike up a knoll over looking the lake and surrounding valleys. The hike took us through forest and alpine meadows. The clouds parted and we summited, gaining stunning views of the lake and the jagged Julian alps. The hike reminded me of summiting mount sentinal in missoula in distance and topography, although this hike was forested. At the summit there was a little cache with a ledger to sign and an ink stamp. We made our mark amongst the primarily Slovenian entries. We had a mountain top picnic of pb&honey, carrots, hunk of cheese, oranges and coffee.
That evening I visited with our hosts to pay our bill and to hand over a load of laundry. They sat me down at the table, poured me a glass of apple/pear brandy and chatted. I was particularly interested in the wood stacks seen around the area and why the pieces were so long, about 3ft. They explained that the guys that process the wood up on the mountain prefer that length because there are less pieces. The wood is ultimately cut into thirds before it's brought in to burn. We also chatted about the lady's visit to Calgary Canada and how she dipped down into Montana through glacier park. A small world, indeed!
A few minutes after returning up stairs she knocked on our door. She presented us with a new years gift of a plate of pavitica, fruit cake, and a bottle of wine. Such a generous offering.
That evening we cooked dinner in again and I proceeded to drink the wine. We caught a bus to Vogel around 8:30 where we hopped on the gondola. It was a huge car, holding the 15 or so of us comfortably. Could probably hold 30. Makese sense considering they only have 2 cars,one on each side of the track.
Europe hadn't received much snow at that point, so there was only one run open. Also, because vogel is inside the national park, they are forbidden from making snow.
The party was in the bar, a semi circular glass building overlooking the lake and valley below. We sipped our drinks and watched the distant fire works. It was pretty low key early in the evening, and we decided to catch the cable car and subsequent bus scheduled right before midnight. (The next ride wasn't until 2:30, and we weren't up for that late of a night.)
We counted down the new year in the cable car as it descended the steep cliffs.
As luck would have it, the bus that was timed to arrive with the gondola was driving away as we stepped off. Instead of waiting 2.5 hours for the next bus, we decided to walk/hitch hike. In all my years hitching rides after bar time, up and down the ski hill etc, I have always gotten picked up. Every time. I naturally assumed that would be the case this time too. Especially because we were in a remote location and clearly we were just fellow partiers. Well, luck struck again for us in the wee hours of 2016, and no one picked us up. So we walked the 5k all the way back. Thankfully we had our headlamps, hats, gloves etc.
The following day was gorgeous out. Blue bird, as they say. Clare bummed her knee somewhere along our midnight hike so was feeling the need to recoup. I,feeling a little hung over, needed to recoup with activity. I chose a trail that lead from our back door up to the top of vogel,where the cable car lands. I didn't expect to make it the whole way because of its distance and time requirement,and I was alone, foreign country, pregnant wife worrying etc etc. So, I said, give me 3 hours and if I'm not back, you can worry then. My plan was to hike up for 1.5 hours, then turn around.
The trail was steep, and I hiked as hard as I could. I was breathing hard and my heart raced. The trail wasn't well worn, but was marked by regular blazes in the form of little red circles painted on the trees. So my mind was racing, too, as I constantly scanned for the next marker.
We found out that trail design and maintenance isn't what it is in the usa. Lots of erosion, few switch backs and generally ambiguous. All the fallen leaves didn't help, as they created a homogeneous forest floor. Made me appreciate even more the hard work of conservation workers we have back home. Americorp, montana conservation corp, etc etc who keep our vast trail system in great shape.
I hiked until the trail started getting snowy and icy, and made it about 2/3 to Vogel. It was a great hike.
That evening we had an unremarkable meal at one of two restaurants in our little community.
In the morning frost covered everything, treating us with our first wintery scene of the trip. Feeling invigorated and with happy hearts, we ventured back to the bus stop with our sights on Croatia.
Happy New Year!
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