Slovenia blog …
In this Slovenia blog we describe how Slovenia was yet another surprise to us – we’d been told that it wasn’t as touristy as Croatia, and that it was mainly a place for camping and hiking. What we hadn’t realised was just how stunningly beautiful it is, the mountains along the entire Northern border with Austria are incredible! And the Julian Alps between Slovenia dnd Italy are simply stunning. It’s one of those places that you drive around and suddenly have to come to a screeching halt – just to admire the wonderful views. It really is beautiful. If you’re a mountains fan, it’s a must-go-to place!
And just how immaculately kept the whole place is! It’s more pristine that Switzerland – almost unbelievable! Slovenia is definitely the land of the grass cutters! There are not many places as clean and smart as Slovenia – it seems that grass trimming salespeople made a fortune here! 😉
The wedding in Italy was imminent by now, so we kind of felt a little rushed in Slovenia, and we felt like we were crisscrossing the country several times in order to try to maximise our time here. Plus, it’s expensive! Not quite on the level of Norway and Finland, but much more than most of the countries in Eastern Europe. It seems that we’d become accustomed to a cheaper way of life!
Entering Slovenia from Croatia
Initially, on entering the country, it seemed like the whole place was one massive traffic jam! From the border, all the way to the coastal town of Piran, we were stuck in slow moving traffic! Ugh! This was a big change from the free flowing driving in Croatia!
The cause, it seemed, is that beautiful Piran sits on a tiny coastline which is only 29 miles long. For a population of two million people, this can mean that it gets very overcrowded. Perhaps they should make use of the fantastic Croatian coastline!
After a short visit, we headed North – the Croatian coastline and the Slovenian coastline are very similar!
Lake Bled
Lake Bled is a stunningly beautiful small town that we were keen to visit. In the same vein as Piran however, there were massive traffic jams just getting to it, and it was almost impossible to drive through or park, even in expensive parking spots! We did eventually find a field not too far out of town where it seemed that locals were parking for free – although it all seemed a bit unnecessary. We did visit on the last Friday in August though, which is probably one of the peak times. Perhaps this is what people meant when they said that it wasn’t really properly set up for tourism yet?
Entering Slovenia from Italy
After having visited the Julian mountains area, we found that accommodation was fully booked everywhere we went, including all camp sites – don’t let anyone tell you that Slovenia isn’t set up for tourism!!
So we left Slovenia to find accommodation over the border in Italy. Unbeknown to us at the time, but this took us on some of the most amazingly twisty-turns roads we’d ever driven on. If you ever het the chance, definitely try the 401 road (Slovenia) – SR646 road (Italy), between the two countries 🙂
Travelling into Slovenia from Italy across the mountains is an absolute breeze compared to coming in along the coast!
Slovenian floods
In our Slovakia blog, we wrote about the storms that we were in the middle of. Well it turned out that the storms covered a much wider area than we thought – including Slovenia, Italy and Croatia. In Italy there were 14cm hailstones apparently! In Slovenia, wherever we came across rivers, the damage was apparent.
The floods have been devastating for Slovenia, and weeks after they happened the clean up and reconstruction is still ongoing. Many bridges have been completely destroyed and temporarily rebuilt (as of late August 2023). Most of the landslides have now been cleared from the roads – although the wreckage remains. Many of the trees that were felled are yet to be taken down and made safe. And many of the roads that collapsed are yet to be rebuilt.
For a country that prides itself on cleanliness and having a spotless manicured look, it’s obvious to see where the floods hit hardest. We restrained from taking many pictures, but took some less devastating ones as minor examples.
Camping in Slovenia
There are loads of campsites in Slovenia, and from what we’ve seen, they look to be pretty good standard. Camping Cvet Gora in Zgornje Jezersko on the Northern border with Austria was particularly good. Tanja, who runs the site is super friendly and helpful and knows everything about all of the hikes and activities in the area.
It’s a small site, and the atmosphere was great – a French guy played his guitar throughout the evening, including some Pink Floyd songs, and everyone showed ‘bravo!’ – I wanted to get up and sing along but was too shy!
Planšarsko jezero
The Planšarsko jezero lake is a heart shaped lake that was made by local inhabitants in memory of the larger glacial lake that had drained away, and after which Jezersko got its name. There’s a decent restaurant by the lake that is open all year round.
We were planning on hiking up some of trails into the mountains, but were warned that local flooding had occurred around 4am, and that the passes across the mountains and into the next valley were really dangerous.
Triglav National Park and the Vršic Pass
WOW! Amazing! Simply stunning!
The Vršic Pass is the highest mountain pass in Slovenia, as well as the highest in the Eastern Julian Alps. There are 50 hairpin bends. The old trail was upgraded for military purposes as well as for logging and timber transportation in the early 20th century. The road was greatly improved in late 1915 to supply the Front during World War I. The current name, Russian Road (Ruska cesta), refers to the approximately ten to twelve thousand Russian prisoners of war used as labourers in the 1915 construction.
Some vehicles appeared to really struggle up, and down, the pass, so be aware! It’s a beautiful road to cruise in a Golf GTI though! 🙂
At the bottom of the pass the Soča river flows. It’s a stunning colour and the waters are crystal clear. Beware though – it is freezing cold – as we found out quickly when we jumped in – despite the high air temperature!
The road to Ljubljana
Having practically rushed around Slovenia due to the imminent wedding, it seemed that we’d mostly concentrated on seeing the mountains and countryside – which is the correct thing to do 🙂 It did seem remiss though that we’d not seen the capital Ljubljana. So we raced back along the awesome mountain passes between Italy and Slovenia – almost crashing into a woman who’d parked in the middle of the road on a blind hairpin corner inn order to fill water bottles from a mountain spring – like you do!
Slovenia is a fairly small country, and by now were; used to driving all day, so getting to Ljubljana didn’t seem to take long at all. We stopped off for lunch at Most na Soči, mostly because I liked the name, but also because it has a beautiful lake.
Ljubljana
What a great place Ljubljana is! It”s only a small city, but it’s packed with restaurants, cafés, bars and pubs to suit all tastes. It’s an interesting place because it still has all the sights of the old communist regime, and yet right next door the full trappings of capitalism.
We were there on a Sunday evening, and the centre was busy with a great atmosphere. Outside of the centre though, it is very quiet with virtually no people anywhere to be seen! The whole city has a dragon theme going on, so you see lots of them everywhere!
The Ljubljana dragon
The Ljubljana dragon is the most recognisable symbol of the city. It appears on car registration plates and buildings and it stands at either end of the Dragon Bridge. The city flag brandishes the dragon as well. It comes from the legend of Jason and the Argonauts. Jason was a Greek hero who stole the Golden Fleece from the king of the Black sea. According to Slovenian myth, Jason and the Argonauts fled on a ship called Argo to the mouth of the river Danube, instead of the Aegean Sea. As it was winter, they decided to camp near the spring of the Ljubljanica river. Near Ljubljana, they came across a large lake and a marsh where a swamp monster lived. Jason heroically fought this dragon and finally killed it. And so Jason became the first citizen of Ljubljana.
The faces of Locksmith Street
We came across this weird exhibit in an alleyway by chance. The long line on type ground contains lots of little inndividual bronze faces. It’s the work of Slovenian sculptor Jakov Brdar, based on the writing by poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
