Slovenia

Friday:

Arrived in Ljubljana via a very very bumpy flight in a ridiculously small plane with propellers, flying over amazing mountains (which presumably caused the turbulence that left me feeling like I was going to die). Checked into Hostel Celica, the trendy rehabilitated prison. Our cell, like all the others was individually designed by local artists. Took a meander through the town and was shocked by the emptiness of the streets at 4pm. We had our first experience of Lasko Dark beer and on returning to our hostel later in the evening found it overrun with drinking teenagers.
Saturday:

We visited the town market where you could find anything edible and decorative (as long as it was cabbage). We used a strange hybrid language of Czech & Slovenian to buy fresh bread, young (and brilliant) goat cheese, and fruit. Then we hiked up to the unimpressive castle and had a picnic. The original 12th century castle has been added too with a monstrous combination of glass and metal and was still under construction. I think we are spoilt!
For dinner we searched everywhere for a restaurant that was not completely empty and eventually stumbled into a Mexican restaurant and found everybody in town.
Back at the hostel we picked up a couple of old men and drank some more of that nice dark beer.


Sunday:

We got morning coffee alongside the river then bought sandwiches and a half bottle of champagne for our picnic in Tivoli Park. We people watched and climbed trees and then took an unintentionally long walk over a hill. We may have been a tad lost. We recuperated in the hostel cafe before going out again to another empty restaurant where we ate delicious Slovenian dumplings and garlic soup in bread bowls.


Monday:

Bled. We caught a bus from Ljubljana bus station where we bought (or thought we did) 2 return tickets to Bled. We were pleasantly stunned by the scenery on arrival in Bled and started on a clockwise walk around the lake. Taking far too many pictures of the Castle on the Cliff, the incredible green water, the Alpine mountain backdrop and the Island.
We took a short but near vertical path up to the Castle on the Cliff to take yet more pictures, and at the top we met a woman wearing 4 inch heels. Coming down from the castle we put our feet in the snow melt lake water then went to catch the bus home.
When happily seated on the bus the driver came along and told us our return tickets were not valid on his bus. So a little grumpily we left the bus to wait the three hours for another one. This in the end was not such a bad thing, we found a lovely Pizza restaurant (apparently the only place in town open) and caught the sunset over the lake. Eyegasm!



Tuesday:

We returned home on another one of those silly planes.

Notes:
The Ljubljana Card is published in many places but is probably not really worth unless you plan on using transport. We found a number of the restaurants were no longer in business and some would not accept the vouchers.
Hostel Celica is definitely worth visiting for the artistic prison experience but for more personal service you could probably find a smaller more welcoming hostel that doesn't have guaranteed custom.
Ljubljana itself is a very small place which probably only needs two days, however Slovenia is a lovely country with a combination of Slavic and Mediterranean culture food and atmosphere.