The Beauty of Bled

We boarded the 10am bus from the Ljubljana train station (about €6) to bled. The journey itself was well worth the price of the bus tickets as we criss-crossed through mountains and picturesque Slovenian towns all the while the bus driver blaring Slovenian polka. Once at the Bled bus station, we made our way to our hostel, Bled Backpackers Rooms, which was a small place above George`s bar. The place was adequate, but I´m sure that there are better options in Bled.

After dropping our bags off, our first stop was, of course, the lake. This was gorgeous in a pristine setting; the water shimmered an emerald green only interrupted by the small, round island on the far side of the lake which is the mantel to the beautiful Church of the Assumption. We made our way halfway around the lake to the free beach and jumped in the clean, surprisingly warm water. After that we made our way back to the hostel and headed out for dinner to Gostilna Pri Planincu amd had a meal of traditional Slovenian sausages, pork, and potatoes. The food was good, filling and moderately priced. We then headed over to Cafee 1004, a bar in one of the numerous hostels, where we drank and had half drunken conversations with other backpackers and one fun local.

The next day we rented bikes from the travel agency at the bus station for €8 and rode the long, uphill journey to the beautiful Vintgar Gorge. Vintgar is a particularly stunning piece of nature and the one hour hike through the chasm (seemingly cut in two by a giant hatchet) with a cool, crisp river roaring river beneath the wooden walkway was worth the sweaty bike ride from town.

We took it easy for the rest of the afternoon, took a ride on a summer toboggan (€6), sampled Bled´s famous cream cake from the one and only Slascicarna Smon bakery, and rested before our early train to Munich.