The most difficult capital city to figure out how to pronounce in Europe! From lake Bohinj took a bus and got dropped off at the Ljubljana bus station, 1.5 miles to my hostel. Once again no hotels for $100 or less, Slovenia ain’t cheap. I coulda walked but it was an easy, straight shot on the bus. The great thing about Ljubljana buses is that you can just tap your credit card and go. No cash, no specific bus card, super easy. Why can’t all buses be like this? The hostel was fine, small, clean, two French guys and an Israeli guy in the room, one .was trying out being a digital nomad where he’d spend two weeks per city, work 9-5, and then have the evening and weekends to see the city. Ljubljana seemed like an interesting choice, because you can see most of the city in one day. I booked 4 nights in Ljubljana, which was a bit much, but I wanted to do two day trips to some caves.
That first night I wandered around the old town, I’d say it definitely has that generic, old timey European feel that people like! Accordion players walking around and all that. You can basically see all of it in two hours if you’re just walking. At the very center is a castle on the hill that really ties the place together. Eventually I found a street market with lots of stalls set up, so I stopped at the Slovenian dumpling stand, strukjli, which were small dumpling filled with cheese and topped with goulash. Pretty tasty! Eventually some thunder clouds rolled in setting up some dramatic skies for photography, which is always a plus. And somehow it didn’t rain.
The next day I rented a bicycle from the hostel to see some places outside of the old town. And honestly there wasn’t a whole lot going on! Very suburban, quiet neighborhoods, pretty relaxing for a bike ride, but I wasn’t exactly finding a lot of cool places to stop. Although I did fid a popular, well rated Cevapi place, which is like mince meat sausages served in something like a fluffy pita bread with onions and a dipping sauce. I like the ajvar, which is mostly a red pepper sauce, I think with some eggplant and tomatoes in there too.
Getting back into old town there was a funky, eclectic outdoor art space called the Metelcova that was fun to walk around for a bit. It also had some interesting groups of people sitting around drinking and doing some drugs. Next up was a museum, I was either going to do the National Gallery or the modern art museum, but I’ve done enough history related stuff in Italy, so the art museum it is. Nothing to write home about, but a good way to kill an hour or two. Just outside the old town is a huge park, the Tivoli Park, which turned into some pretty steep gravel paths in the interior of the park, it was not the relaxing ride like I expected!
Day two would be taking the train to the Postnoja Caves and the Predjama castle, about an hour away, plus 30 minutes walking. Slovenia has one of the largest cave systems in the world and apparently where the study of cave creatures began (biospeleology) back in 1689 when the underwater cave salamder, the olm, was discovered. It looks basically the same as an axolotl and can live for a 100 years and can go 10 years without eating. Wild. But anyway, to get into the main chambers of the cave you take a 15 minute train ride in, which is a first for me! So that was kinda fun. It certainly is an impressive cave, huge chambers, towering stalagmites, the works.
From there a shuttle bus takes you to Predjama castle, which is built into a cave. Also very cool to see. An extremely difficult castle to attack, and I guess in the medieval ages when they were under siege there was a tunnel through the cave out the back where they could smuggle in food and supplies undetected. So whoever designed this one can give himself a big pat on the back. From there it was a shuttle bus back to the caves, 30 minute walk, 30 minutes waiting for the train, and over an hour train ride, so quite the time consuming day trip! But having 15 hours of daylight helps.
The next day would be something similar, but even longer. I was taking the same line, but a few stops further, 1.5 hour train ride, plus a 45 minute walk to a different cave I wanted to see, the Skocjan Cave. I had to leave at 9am for a reserved spot at noon. You have to book this one a few days in advance because it always fills up. With some delays it was almost two hours on the train, plus the walk. Good thing I have my 700 page book on the history of the Balkans to burn through. Although when the ticket lady came around I was shocked to find the price of the train was 15 Euros! Yesterday my fare to Postnoja was 1.30 Euros, and now this train going 3 stops further was 15?! What?! I guess yesterday was a Sunday, and they give you discounts on weekends, and you have to buy the tickets on the train, because the ticket booths aren’t open on Sundays. So I did the same thing on a Monday, and got whacked with a 5 Euro fee for buying it on a train. And I guess this was an international train, not a local one? So I was a little salty about that, paying 12x what I paid yesterday, ha.
At this cave you can’t take photos, so you just have enjoy the experience in the moment and use your memory. Lame. But the last cavern of the cave is very memorable! Just a massive massive cavern, completely underground, with a river running down below. It’s the largest underground cavern in Europe. It’s lit with lots of orange tinted lights, and it really gives you the Mines of Moria in the LOTR vibes, where Gandalf and the Balrog go crashing into the abyss. And the walk out of the cave is great too, weaving your way through various caverns and tunnels and small waterfalls.
Walking through the caverns on the way out
The ride home would be a bit complicated, I guess there was some construction going on, so I had to take a bus (run by the train company) to a different train stop, ride the train for a bit, and then take a different bus into Ljubljana. Yikes. So all in all it was about 2 hours of caves and over 6 hours of getting to and from the cave. So yeahhh, not totally sure if it was worth it. It does make me miss being able to rent a scooter in SEA for $7/day and being able to drive myself to wherever the heck I want! I was starving by the time I was back in Ljubljana, so I found a traditional restaurant to eat a good ole hearty stew called Jota, and their specific Slovenian sausages, Kranjska Klobasa, mmm. Nothing groundbreaking, but very tasty, especially their horseradish sauce. And then I had a beer at 90’s rock bar that played bands like Liimp Bizkit, Korn, and Disturbed hahaha. And that was about all for Ljubljana. 4 nights there was plenty. Next up would be Croatia, where hopefully I’d have less adventures in public transportation!