This summer I had the privilege to visit the beautiful country of Slovenia. Its capital city, Ljubljana, was the European green capital in 2016 thanks to the implementation of sustainable criteria in different areas of the city, and also received awards related to tourism: “The Golden Apple” and the “Tourism For Tomorrow”. The government hasn’t stopped applying sustainable measures and continues working to accomplish their goals related to zero emissions.
Ljubljana, apart from its awards, it’s a little charming city to walk around in a relaxing way that makes it possible to visit the entire city in one day. Don’t miss the historical center; the central market and the Castle, where there’s a good view of the city and you can get there by foot or by a funicular. Along the river walk there are plenty of terraces where you can have something to drink while you rest your feet. A bit further from the center there’s the Tivoli City Park where the local citizens, in my perception, hide themselves from tourists, while the center is full of visitors taking pictures of everything and enjoying their holidays like there’s no tomorrow.
Bled, a cute village 45 minutes from Ljubljana, it’s famous for its lake that has a little island in the middle with a church that you can only reach swimming or with a boat. If you aren’t a good swimmer or don’t like boats, I really recommend taking a walk around the lake and to find a quiet place to take a swim. Bled has some problems with tourism because people want to park the car as near as they can to the water area causing traffic problems around the lake. To solve that and maintain the peace, there are some parking lots next to the center that I recommend using.
What it really thrilled me of Slovenia was its astonishing landscapes: high mountains, big green areas, and rivers with crystal water. In the Triglav National Park there are a lot of places to hike through the mountains and through the valleys. An easy and fresh one is the Soca trail that runs along the river from its source to Bovec where you will find some suspension footbridges to cross to river, incredible forests, impressive gorges, and swimming areas. The water is really crystal and clean; the type of water that is irresistible to enter in; but be careful, it’s really cold!!
And talking about water, there’s a little treasure walking 30 minutes from Kobarid. It’s an impressive and hidden waterfall named Kozjak. I’ve seen a lot of nice waterfalls around the world, but this one was special, because the atmosphere of the trail to approach it reminded me of a magical fairytale. Amazing!
There’s a lively town named Dobrna surrounded by astonishing landscapes and healing thermal waters: the perfect balance to spend peaceful days. We borrowed bicycles and we chose the “moderately difficult” routes, but for us they were just a little more difficult that moderately. Anyway, we enjoyed it a lot and we found incredible places like this:
Slovenia also has a surprising subterranean world, specially located in the Karst region where there are a lot caves. The largest one you can visit is Postojna where there’s a train that takes you to this incredible world with plenty of stalactites and stalagmites and other features created by water.
Postojna cave has 115 meters of depth and the temperature is between 8 and 10 ºC. Can you imagine living there? It’s seems impossible, doesn’t it? Well, based on the information that the guide gave us during the visit, there are more than 150 animal species living there. The most curious is a little amphibian named Proteus (or human fish) that can live for up to 100 years and can stay 10 years without eating; a good example of adaptation!
The best accommodation we stayed in was Bed and Breakfast Miskar located in Žerovnica, very closed to Cerknica Lake. It’s a little cute rural house only with three rooms and the owners are very kind. The food was delicious and they were very careful with my gluten intolerance, adapting the daily menu without problem. But what I really liked of this house was the charming balcony in our room. I spent some hours during the morning preparing the route in a peaceful atmosphere. I really want one like this in my life.
We said goodbye to Slovenia with the feeling that we didn’t have time to see all the places we wanted to visit, but we preferred to travel slowly in order not to impact too much on the destination. And it was worthwhile, because you get to know better the areas you visit unhurriedly.
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Cristina.
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