Slo... ve? Va? Kia? Nia? Slovenia!
Could you place Slovenia and Slovakia on a map? More importantly, would you know which one is which? If you live in Central Europe, probably, but the challenge gets harder the farther away you come from. Fortunately, confusing them is less dramatic than mixing up Austria and Australia: you are unlikely to arrive bitterly disappointed by the lack of kangaroos. The two Slo-countries do have plenty in common. Both are relatively small Slavic countries, both were part of larger socialist federations during the Cold War, and both became independent in the early 1990s. Both have mountains, good wine and a remarkable ability to produce world-class athletes. Slovenia is the smaller of the two, and the only one with a coastline. A beautiful one at that.
I eat too much bread so I chose a stew instead. Anyway, creative and tasty.
I have to admit that my knowledge of Slovenia was quite limited. As a young lad, I listened to Laibach, but to me they were just another loud, German-sounding band. Perhaps Slovenia first really caught my attention when Anže Kopitar, the country’s biggest hockey star, brought the Stanley Cup home and took it boating on Lake Bled in 2012. That’s fourteen years ago?! My life is on fast-forward. Anyway, a beautiful place where people like hockey? I wanted to go too!
As always, the trip was planned by my wife. One of her colleagues is Slovenian and helped her fine-tune the itinerary, which included plenty of hiking and only a modest amount of city life. Oh man, was it hot, though. Fortunately, we spent much of our time high in the mountains, where the temperature was somewhat more tolerable. Even so, in every photo my wife took, I look like I had been marinated in my own sweat. The older I get, the slower I recover, so my muscles were permanently tired. We eventually skipped the most demanding climb we had planned. The official explanation was unpredictable weather and a risk of thunderstorms. In reality, I am not entirely certain I could have made the climb with my already exhausted legs, at least not without an extraordinary amount of whining and whimpering.
Logar Valley. It’s located by the border with Austria.
Instead, we spent half the day at a spa. The “Finnish sauna” turned out to be both mixed and nude, which came as a bit of a surprise to a Finn accustomed to sauna. Cross that shocker off the bucket list 😱. Given that I was the oldest, palest and most wrinkled person there, I declared it a win for me and a big loss for everyone else. For the common good, I chose to discreetly hide behind a towel. You’re welcome.
Slovenia is an outdoor person’s paradise. Every other person seemed to be a professional cyclist, and the remaining half were doing other sports. I only started cycling last year, and I still don’t feel entirely at home bulging out of Lycra, but for the Slovenians cycling tights are the national costume. After seeing the terrain and the locals, it is hardly surprising that the world’s top-ranked road cyclist, Tadej Pogačar, is Slovenian. My misfiring neurons, apparently still stuck in the 1980s, had expected former Yugoslavia to look grey, concrete and generally desolate. Instead, Slovenia was beautiful, tidy and visibly prosperous, while the population seemed alarmingly fit. Travel has once again ruined my perfectly good prejudice.
I really liked Slovenia. It has a familiar small-country atmosphere: people are down to earth, things generally work, and the country is probably not the first, second, third or even seventh place most people think of for a holiday. This works in its favour. With the exception of Lake Bled, nowhere felt oppressively crowded. Want to hike in the Alps in the morning and swim in the Adriatic in the afternoon? Slovenia lets you do both. Five stars and a strong recommendation.
Rinka Falls. First thing after the flight: my wife makes me climb hundreds of meters in blistering heat to view this dried up little trickle.
Same view from above.
Before the trip, we broke in our new hiking shoes doing a “demanding” hike in a local nature park back in Finland. Pah! It didn’t compare at all. Day one and I’m done.
Despite the Melania eyes, this tiniest little tomcat was the friendliest Slovenian we met. We stayed at a farm, and whenever we were coming and going, he was always there to say hi and bye! My wife named him “Soup”. It’s supposedly funny if you check what a soup is called in Slovenian.
Velika Planina is a plateau high up on the mountains. It felt like a video game location. Herdsmen used to spend summers in cottages, shepherding, making cheese etc.
Despite the changing weather, it was a really nice hike.
As much as I love cowtography, cows still frighten me. As I keep saying, they’re more deadly than sharks.
Girls chillin’.
When I win Eurojackpot, I’ll quit my day job and become a cowtographer.
Eight years living on the Finnish plains made me forget how fickle mountain weather can be. It wasn’t supposed to rain, so I didn’t bring rain gear. As always, my wife was smarter. 🌧️☔
Definition of happiness: a back lick.
Lake Bled in the Northwestern Slovenia looks like a postcard and is full of tourists.
The view was definitely worth the steep climb.
More climbing: Bled Castle.
Bled cake is one of the finer achievements of socialism. Marshal Tito hosted world leaders for coffee, cake and cognac at Café Belvedere. “Peace, Land, Cake!” — Vladimir Lenin. 🍰
Traffic congestion on the back roads. For a Finn, travelling abroad just to walk around a rainy swamp is like an American going all the way to Paris for McDonald's or an Italian flying to Tokyo for a pizza.
We hiked around Lake Bohinj and then took a dip in it. Blissful place.
Photography was forbidden in the Škocjan Caves. I took this one after leaving the restricted area. A bit of a shame, but an excellent reason to visit it yourself! I was absolutely stunned by the place. It was like descending to the Mines of Moria. Magnificent!
Next stop: Lipica, the origin of the Lipizzan horse. Famous Spanish Riding School of Vienna uses exclusively Lipizzans.
I was too excited taking selfies with these majestic creatures so I forgot to take proper pictures.
Next stop: Karst coast.
We had a pretty stunning view for the dinner. Worry not! I documented every minute of the blue hour.
Gatekeepers of our hotel building in Piran: baby swallows.
Piran in the distance. The Slovenian coastline may be short but it’s pretty.
Sunshine in Slovenia, gloom in Italy.
Daywalk to Izola. The bus service along the Slovenian coast is pretty good, so it was easy to take a ride back after it started raining.
Want to see a chubby camera geezer run? Point him towards a rainbow.
Predjama Castle is one of the must see destinations of Slovenia. It’s built in the entrance of a huge cave, and it’s been a filming location for many movie and tv productions, e.g. the Witcher Netflix series.
Ghost Hunters filmed an episode in Predjama Castle. They “proved” it’s genuinely haunted!
Last stop of the trip: Ljubljana.
Greek mythological hero Jason defeated a dragon on the marshes near Ljubljana. Allegedly.
Now the dragon is the symbol of the city, representing “power, courage, and wisdom”.
I love it that the loser of the myth became the symbol.
This picture is from the Dragon Bridge.
Ljubljana Castle is definitely worth the visit. It’s renovated beautifully and there’s several interesting exhibitions.
View over the Ljubljana Castle.
Last sunset in Slovenia, then an early flight home. Thanks for reading!