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a year of travels: 2014
you know those facebook “year in review” things where it shows you your year as if it knows you? (and how well can a social media website know you, anyway?) when i clicked on mine, a photo from 2013 popped up as the centerpiece and then a load of random photos: reggie watts (?!), a landscape shot of hel, poland, a still from big brother 16. just pathetic, facebook.sometimes, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. in that spirit, here’s my travel year in review of only my favorite travel memories… and it’s been a heck of a year and i’m feeling really thankful about…
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vintgar gorge
while in slovenia, i wanted a hike! it didn’t have to be a big one, but i definitely wanted to be immersed in the nature of the area and see something cool. enter vintgar gorge, on the southeastern edge of the triglavski national park, where the julian alps are also found. from bled jezero station, we took a train one stop north to podhom (5 min), and walked for about fifteen minutes through a nice little village, the kind where everyone says dober dan to each other. vintgar gorge for nature and water lovers, is stunning. it’s also easy to get to and doesn’t involve a day-long time commitment. one…
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julian alps
hello all! i’m back to tell you more about slovenia– specifically, the mountainous part. i was telling you last tuesday about my lovely camping trip to lake bled and how it was anything but relaxing, for better or worse. it was because i wanted the full slovenia experience, and this meant journeying deep into the triglav national park (located in the northwest corner of the country including a little bit of italy) which includes the julian alps (named for julius caeser). i know you may have not known slovenia had an adriatic coastline, but did you know there were alps too? yep. mostly known for the time ernest hemingway spent…
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lake bled
dober dan! i can’t believe i haven’t told you about the rest of my full week in slovenia yet. i spent four nights in ljubljana soaking in all of those good vibes and day tripping to a sweet cave and a fantastic little town on the adriatic sea. but it was time for (what i thought was going to be) some lake-side relaxation. for that, we headed north on a easy seventy minute bus ride to bled, slovenia.bled, bled, bled. i had heard so much about you… maybe too much! we arrived in early afternoon and pitched our tent at the campground. yeah, there’s likely only one campground. even if…
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day at the adriatic
the continuing saga of my week long trip to western slovenia continues with a day trip to the adriatic coast– a town called piran to be exact. what’s that? you didn’t think slovenia had a coastline? au contraire, mes amis. check this out……… not only is there a little stretch of coastline smushed between italy and croatia (27 miles of it, or 43km), but it is on the adriatic, my friends. i’d never been to this particular part of the mediterranean before. and damned if i was going to be two hours away from it in ljubljana without making a day trip out of it. so i spent a whole…
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škocjan caves
when visiting slovenia, you will certainly find out that visiting one of the huge karst caves in the western region of the country is the most popular attraction near ljubljana. i’m sure there’s more than two, but the two biggies are postojna (post-oy-na) cave and škocjan (skoe-tsian) cave. they’re both huge, as in, some of the largest caves in europe. they’re both firmly on the tourist trail. but upon duly doing my research as i am want to do, i discovered that postojna is definitely the most popular choice and therefore, much more crowded. it’s a bit larger than škocjan, more well-lit, and you tour by riding in a train…
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ljubljana
in slovene, “ljub” is a root word that means love. which is perfectly fitting for the capital of slovenia (as the tourism slogans are branding it these days), a small city that is easy to love. it was a wonderful place to land on a first visit to slovenia. everyone is relatively friendly and helpful, speaks near perfect english, are excited about sharing the best their country with you. it’s easy to make comparisons to other cities, like prague, vienna, or even perhaps venice near the waterfront. it felt like a welcome strangeness to see famiiar slavic words written all over, but a much more mediterranean feeling to the actual…
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Makin’ Plans
although it may seem too early, january is an excellent time to begin travel planning! the weather’s pretty crap (ours is hovering just above freezing with never-ending slush rain) making it both tough and undesirable to venture out on day or weekend trips around the region. best thing to do: trip research with a nice steaming mug of tea. and try not to hide out in the house… too much. the first item that is looming over our heads, or at least mine is THE WEDDING: when the heck is it going to happen? planning a wedding when you live abroad is daunting and really almost impossible when we don’t…
