Slovenia, September 2017

Short one!

This was one of the yearly road-trips David and I go on. The decision to go to Slovenia came up just few days before we started - Initially we thought about either driving to Sweden or to Croatia. Well, I'm glad we decided to go to Slovenia!

The only thing that was really important to me, except for the fact that David and I will take a trip together was, that I wanted some peace and quiet. Not too much tourism. No hectic. We found the perfect spot.

After picking me up at the airport (arriving in Frankfurt from Kuwait) our journey started. We drove south east, all the way through Germany and Austria, a small part of Italy and then entered Slovenia. As our destination (Bovec) was close to the Italian border we were as good as there.

The drive was pretty exhausting as it was raining cats and dogs at most times. That and the heavy traffic made life harder for us and in the end it took us about 10 hours to reach Bovec. Except for the fact that our arses and backs hurt from the long drive (yeah, we're old.) we had a good time driving, chatting, catching up and (on my side of the car) drinking beer.

So we finally reached our destination: A farm house at the very end of a valley. The last 10km took us down a narrow well-paved road to the middle of nowhere. Perfect. Everything was green and lush and smelled amazing.

We were greeted by an old lady who hardly spoke a word of english and dropped our belongings. The house was perfect for us, tiny. A small living/dining/kitchen combination and a bathroom on the ground floor and 5 beds in the attic. I have no idea how 5 or 6 people would be able to fit in this tiny place.. but for us it was just right.

After 'unpacking' we drove back to Bovec and found a nice little restaurant where we ordered some pizza for take-away.

This evening was nothing but pizza, beers, some games and watching old videos.

The next day started early. For me. I was up in the morning and as David was still asleep I decided to go for a nice long walk. So I got dressed and started walking down the valley, simply enjoying the area. After about two hours I returned to our house where David was just getting out of bed. I believe we didn't do much else that day. We had an amazingly big breakfast on our terrace and.. well the rest of the day we just hang out, stacking stones (new record: 25! Yay.) in the near river bed, chatting, taking Depeche Modes advice: enjoying the silence.

The old lady who rented the place to us even passed by and brought us some noodle soup.. how thoughtful!

The next day we went for a hike together. After a decent breakfast on the terrace we packed a few essentials (like some warm clothes, a pocket knife and beer..) and started walking down the road. Our first stop was a small suspension bridge crossing a river. We rested on a big boulder in the middle of the river, right next to a tiny crystal clear blue lake, filled with fish (trout?). So we had a rest and a beer before continuing our walk until we reached a camping site - according to David the food at those places is usually decent and cheap. Well he was wrong. It wasn't decent.. but it gave us some energy for the hike back - uphill.

The way back was without any stops, just an occasional two minutes for us (or David) to catch our breaths (Again: we're old.).

So as you can imagine we were a little shattered after this hike so nothing much else happened that evening except for one trip back to Bovec (just me) to organize some dinner.

Day three, our last full day.

We decided to go for a drive to visit the 'Vintgar Klamm', a beautiful gorge. The road took us north towards a mountain pass, dozens and dozens of serpentines uphill with heavy traffic (hundreds of motorbikes due to a harley-davidson-meet-up nearby) and roads under construction. On the way we picked up some hitchhikers (Germans) with whom we had a nice chat. The view from the mountain pass was amazing although it was pretty chilly. The rest of the way - after leaving the mountain behind us - was pretty easy. Well it could have been easy. But as we tried to avoid motorways (we didn't want to pay for using them, plus there were long traffic jams) and the other roads were full of redirections.. we got a little lost and ended up driving on a bike lane. Long story short.. we arrived at the 'Vintgar Klamm' and had a nice walk along paths and manmade wooden bridges overhanging the turquoise river below. Of course we took the time to stack some rocks when we got the chance as this was pretty common around here. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of piles of stones were around.

Once we reached the end of the gorge we sat down, had a drink and some ice cream and watched some people bathing in the river (I'm not exaggerating when I say that the temperature of this water was barely above freezing. I had my arms in the water and even that was highly unpleasant. No idea how the group of girls were able to bathe and swim.).

On our way back we had one more stop for a coffee (well, David did. I just sat there.) and then drove back to Bovec. We just had one more stop to do some shopping.

This evening was lazy for David as he just decided to have a long nap while I sat outside just chilling. Once he got up we drove back down to Bovec and sat in our favorite restaurant. After dinner David tried to install his new phone, which took ages. So I thought to myself: You're in a Slavic country. They must have Rakia here. I have no idea why I wanted Rakia (as I really hated it when I was in Serbia) but I just felt like it was the right thing to do. I asked the waitress to bring me some Rakia that she'd recommend. Which she did: It was a blueberry Rakia. And this was different to what I drank in Serbia. While the one in Serbia tasted like turpentine and death.. this one was fruity, sweet and delicious (One might say that the Serbian one was for real men and this one was for kids. Well, whatever. D'uh.). I asked the waitress where I could buy a bottle of this ambrosia and she told me that it's not sold in shops as they got it directly from the manufacturer. After a bit of begging she agreed to sell me a bottle - Yay!

That was it for the day - back to our house, some packing and off to bed.

The next morning was just a quick breakfast, packing and cleaning. The old lady gave us a bottle of liquor as a farewell gift and then we headed off. The way back to Germany was just as bad as the way to Slovenia. This time the weather was better but the traffic was worse. Again, it took us almost 10 hours to reach our destination, with just one stop in Traunstein (if I'm not mistaken).

Once we reached Davids place we had a little gathering with some BBQ and some nice folks - what a pleasant way to end this little trip.

Summarizing: Amazing Place, weather could have been better, way too short. Had a great time!