BLED, SLOVENIA

2015-12-13, 22:30, THORIN

STAY: CASTLE HOSTEL 1004

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A day after we got into Ljubljana, we decided to take a quick excursion to Bled in northern Slovenia, which was less than an hours bus ride out of the capital. Bled is famous for its castle on a cliff of a huge mountain range that looks out over a stunning lake with a church built in the middle. Not a bad thing to be famous for. In comparison, Basingstoke, my hometown, is famous for having an unusual number of roundabouts.

We left Ljubljana at some ungodly as expected, and made our way up to Bled. We stayed in the phenomenally named 'Castle Hostel 1004' which is one of the more unique hostel names we have stayed at. The hostel was actually great, and we settled in before exploring Bled. Just before the hostel we saw this pub offering 2 cheese toasties for 1€, so after checking in we were all over that.

Exploring Bled is basically walking around the cliffs of the huge lake, which made it unnecessary to use the map. We first trekked up to the castle on the edge of the cliff, which was very castle-like and in good condition. In Europe, castle's are a dime a dozen so I won't dwell -- we then continued around the lake. It was actually gorgeous, if you ever have the chance to go to Lake Bled you really ought to! We rowed out to the island in the lake, and looked around, before diving into some excellent local sesame cake and schnapps.

As we circumnavigated Bled we also came across the more 'touristy' bit towards the side fo the lake where the bus station and town is. There we stopped for some espresso and a slice of the Kremna Rezina, which is local cream cake. Declicious! 

We shared a dorm room with two girls, who we went out for dinner with that evening. We went (on local suggestion I should add) to a pizza place that had Slovenian pizza toppings and local wine, before going onto the same bar that had the cheese toastie special who also had delicious locally made Schnapps. We tried a few different flavours, but the best was one made from Pine needles - tasted like Christmas!! Anyway, we eventually made it to bed, only to be up at the crack of dawn for day 2 in Ljubljana! Well worth it!