Hiking Lake Bled

So before I go any further I'd like to say that I've had this song stuck in my head since Budapest. Several of the buses on the street had this add that depicted someone in a pig costume. It looked exactly like the Griswalds costume in the "Pig in the Poke" game show in the movie National Lampoon's European Vacation. So, I've had the "Pig in the Poke" theme song stuck in my head. It's ok, I laugh every time I think about it.

I woke before sunrise and packed my stuff. I still had over an hour before I needed to leave to walk to the train station so I walked back into town for some coffee. I found a nice little cafe called, "Trubar" and sat on the street while sipping my coffee. It was very quiet and relaxing. Now is a good time to bring up coffee in Europe. The Europeans know how to do coffee well! Especially since I've been in Eastern Europe. When they make a capachino they are able to make the espresso rise to the top of the glass so that first sip had a really nice flavor. Also, in Croatia and Slovenia when you order a Cafe Latte they say, "Oh, you mean a White Coffee". I dig it!

My Ljubljana Sunrise

Trubar Coffee

After my coffee (or cafe) I walked the town. It was very quiet for a Sunday morning I'm sure most people were sleeping in or at church. The market from the day before was now empty and silent. I pretty much had the town to myself. It was nice and calm. You know, Ljubljana is an awesome place! I think my family should go here because there is something for everyone: Plenty of little (and cheap) shops for mom and dad. Trails, Parks and a castle for all the kids, Heather, Steve, and I. Classy local restaurants and good wine for Jeff and Jen. Then there is Metelkova for Megan. A great family vacation spot! I made my way back to the hostel/hotel, picked-up my things, and headed to the station. I waited on the platform for my train to arrive. It did, but when it arrived it was COVERED in graffiti! You could barely see out of the windows. Crazy! If this was the Polar Express I doubt that kid would of gotten on. Anyway! Now, I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but the attitude around graffiti in Europe is different than in the US. Europeans view it as kids being kids and the graffiti is a little more artistic with a few messages here and there. In the US it's kids being kids, some art, and gang tags....yet it's not really tolerated. So, Sabine from Innsbruck explained this to me and Daporkandbill confirmed. Daporkandbill (I really love saying that) really had wanted to know what my impression on the graffiti was. Anyway, didn't remember if I mentioned that, but it's a little bit more tolerated around here.

My Train

The train ride was short and I arrived in Bled just before noon. Bled is a sleepy little lake town. When you step off the train the view is right in front of you.

Lake Bled

My hostel was on the other side of the lake and in the summer they have a train that transports you around. However, in the winter they don't. So, I slung my bag over shoulders and began to walk it. I was lucky that there is a pedestrian trail that goes all the way around the lake. Very convenient! The lake was clam and beautiful! There is an island on the lake that has a church on it. Toward the end of the hike around the lake it did begin to sprinkle a little bit.

The Island

I found the tourist office and picked up a map to locate my hostel. I began to walk. Well, my hostel was outside of the tourist area. Very much so! I'm walking down this road and it begins to turn rural. I'm now in farmland. There are roosters, bails of hay, farmhouses, and plenty of scenery. I thought to myself, "I'm fricken in Slovenia!" I find my hostel which is like a converted farmhouse. I met the owner Tom who was an odd character. I would be the only person staying at the hostel. Which is great because I have the whole place to myself. I was alone in Zagreb, for my last night in Ljubljana, and now in Bled. Sweet! Tom was overly informative about what I could do while in Bled....too much so. I couldn't get him to stop talking! I was thinking, "Okay, I only have so much daylight here". Well, my hope was to stay two nights in Bled since things are very CHEAP and it was a really cool place. However, it is due to rain tomorrow and all of the stuff I would like to do is outdoors. I thought I'd hike up a nearby mountain for a nice view and take a walk through the gorge. Sadly, I'm not up for a hike up a mountain in the rain and the gorge is closed until the end of April. So, I decided to spend one night in Bled and then two in Venice. I'll arrive in Venice tomorrow in the mid-afternoon so this will give me a day and a half to spend in Venice. Good plan, but Venice IS expensive. I'll be fine.

Farmland

Anyway, I set down my things to explore the town some more. Tom told me where all the local places where so I never even entered the tourist part of town again. I did make my way to the castle which was touristy. I walked all the way up this steep hill to reach the castle. The castle sits on a high rock that overlooks the entire lake. The castle was...ehh, but the view was amazing! I didn't like the castle because it was completely renovated and was turned into a museum. The exterior was nice though. Also, they tried to sell you EVERYTHING! It was 6 Euros with my student card (Ethem) to get in. As I walked in I was asked if I wanted a photo that I could buy. I declined. Then I poked my head into a little room that looked like a restaurant. Two guys were at the door. I said, "Is this a restaurant?" and this guy who sounded like Boris from Rocky and Bullwinkle said, "No, this is bar". The "R" on "bar" slurred a little bit too. I said, "Oh, I'm just looking around" and then I was chuckling a little as I left. There was a restaurant on top as well as a gift shop. The other "sales" area was this room you'd walk into where these two guys were dressed as monks. It was a wine shop. I guess they had a bunch of local wines and some that were exclusive to the castle. They had all the bottles lined up and he says, "We have wine for every pallet. These are the best wines in Slovenia. He continues as he points to each wine down the row. "This is a good sweet white wine, this one is awesome, this one is awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, and at the end we have a nice dry wine. If I was staying two nights I would have bought one because the most expensive one was about 15 Euros. Most were about 8-10 Euros. I walked out thinking, "It's probably cheaper at the market anyway". I walked around the castle a bit, but that view was worth every Euro. So fantastic!

The Castle

View of Lake Bled from Castle

Castle Courtyard

Me in Bled

I walked down the mountain and headed to the local market that Tom had told me about. I wanted to buy breakfast and lunch for the train tomorrow. When I arrived the market was tiny, but they had a lot of stuff. I bought a TON of stuff. Oranges, grapes, bananas, a handful of drinks, some candy, etc. It only cost me 5 Euros! I'm going to miss Eastern Europe!!! I did check-out their wine selection and local bottles of wine cost between 2-4 Euros. Take that Castle Monk Guy! I didn't get any wine, but I sure wanted to because it was so cheap. I dropped my stuff at the hostel and then set out again. This time I was headed to a cafe called, "Okrepcevalnice Gmajna" for a local dessert specialty called, "Kremne Rezine". The cafe was about another 5-minute walk into the farming area. A real out of the way place. I stepped inside and pointed to a picture of the dessert that was given to me by Tom. The man smiled and nodded like I made a good choice. It came out and it was huge. It looked like a tall lemon meringue with double the whip cream. It tasted even better! I can't describe the taste other than it was sweet on oh so gooood! With a coffee I only paid about 3 Euro. Tom said that if I had gone into the tourist area I would have paid closer to 6 Euro for half the portion and the taste was pretty comparable. Plus, it wouldn't include the coffee. Anyway, while I was in the cafe I wrote down the name of the dessert and the owner (a lady who spoke no English) saw me. She came over and haded me a business card with a picture of the desert on it. So nice! I tried to convey to her that I really enjoyed the dessert and she understood my sediments. After, I walked back to the hostel and took it easy for a while before headed off to dinner.

When I headed off to dinner it was starting to get dark. I brought my flashlight with me just in case I needed it for the way back. I walked all the way down into another village (oh, there are 5 villages in the semi-outskirts of Bled.....right on the water you'll find the tourist areas) that bordered the tourist area. Tom had recommended this place as some good, cheap, and filling Slovenian food. Oh, Tom talked to me for about 5-minutes about how I could feed the ducks and swans in the lake because they were nice.....such an odd guy. However, his recommendations have been good so far. The restaurant, "Pri Planincu" was no different. The bar had a couple of people in it, but other then that I had the place to myself. I ordered the meat platter which got me a little sample of all of the main Slovenian dishes on the menu. I got a Slovenian beer, a FULL basket of bread, and this GIANT meat platter. Sadly I had forgotten my camera at the hostel. This plate was photo-worthy. Oh my God! So fricken huge!!! I felt like John Candy in the movie, "The Great Outdoors" when they bring out the "76er" and his eyes just glaze over. That was the look on my face! It had pork chops, a beef/pork mix patti, pork sausages, and a chicken kebab. It was basically a pork platter with a chicken stick. Let me tell you, it was wonderful! I ate the whole damn thing! I was hungry to begin with and today was a good day for it with all that walking I did around the lake! The entire meal cost me about 13 Euros.

After dinner I hiked back up the hill to the hostel. Tomorrow I'll wake up early and figure out how I'm going to get to Venice. I'll explain more in my next blog.