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Mostly Welcome-- a brochure at Bled CastleDateline: Saturday 21.8.1999 05:43 Location: The main train station, Ljubljana [Ed. This document is in ISO Latin-2, set your encodings appropriately.]
The waiting room, before dawn. I woke up at 3:50 after a poorly slept night (my constant runny nose seems to be a cold, not just an allergy) and joined the huddled masses. Most of the squeaky-clean brand-new station opens at 5 or is open 24 hours, but the two facilities I need -- international reservations and exchange -- open at 6. So I wait. The scenic train to Nova Gorica via both Bled and Bohinj leaves at 7. The rain (again) has stopped (again), but I'll decide where to stay later: if sunny, Bled, if rainy, Ljubljana. Whatever the case may be, tomorrow night I'll catch the Simplon Express to Geneva.
Dateline: Thursday 12.8.1999 18:16 Location: A bus stop, Bohinjska Bistrica
Yesterday Wien, today Bohinj. (That even rhymes: ween/baw-heen!) During the scenic ride the rain kept on pouring and I'd already decided to loop back to Ljubljana, when lo -- minutes before reaching Bohinjska Bistrica the rain stopped and the cloud-shrouded green mountain valleys looked so enticing that I had to go take a closer look. The station (including its "24h" garderoba) was deserted, so I 4x-padlocked my bag to a bench and headed for this metropolis of 6,000 people. The lake itself is another 6 km away, and my attempts at hitching were ineffectual, so now I'm just waiting for the bus. Tonight to Bled!
Bohinj is really pretty. The bus winds its way through impossibly idyllic little villages, full of white little houses with brown wooden roofs, with pots of little red flowers on every windowsill, set in a pastoral landscape of cow pastures and kazolec hayracks, with a backdrop of deep forest and craggy mountains fading into the clouds... aside from the architecture, it reminds me quite a bit of northern Japan, down to the little donko trains puttering their way through the countryside.
At Ribčev Laz, Lake Bohinj itself appears, calm and colored a bizarre shade of green -- not the sickly dark green of the sea, but a light "emerald green" as the brochures always say. And there's a truly medieval (1400!) church by the lake, although on this particular point I think Lonely Planet's gushes of "the most beautiful and evocative in Slovenia" go a bit too far. Just look at the "angel" in this picture: vampire teeth, neck full of massive goiters and a general appearance of something drawn by, say, me. I think I'll opt for Hell instead, thank you very much...
Naturally, I didn't let such trifles get me down, especially when there was so much else to tickle my funny bone. I would kill, or at least eat nattoo or something if I could get a copy of this authentic road sign:
I couldn't make up stuff like this if I wanted to! And there's more. Everybody at the Helsinki U. of Tech knows Sosa Sola, but only in Slovenia do they actually have not only Sola Cola, but also its improved and multivitaminated Multi Sola version as well!
Dateline: Friday 13.8.1999 12:18 Location: Bled Castle, Bled "Gluck gluck gluck", said the kid as he crawled towards the iron fence protecting the passersby from falling off the precipice. He reached the edge and his eyes widened -- "Blimey!" -- and he scampered away.
Then again, the hundred-meter-odd drop from Bled Castle down to the lake should make you say blimey. In itself the castle is nothing extraordinary (although it has been beautifully restored), but the location is practically impregnable. Far down below, little specks of boats flit to the lake's church-equipped island, and yet more of those cute white houses dot the perimeter (albeit with the odd 20th century invasion). Truly a fairy-tale place.
Which, for that matter, also applies to the Bledeč youth hostel, which puts quite a few of the hostels I've been to to shame. Situated in one of those cute white houses, everything down to the lacquered hardwood furniture and (faux-)gilded water taps in the adjacent bathroom is straight out of a Swiss châlet. A bed costs 20 DEM, plus another 6 DEM for what is -- reputedly -- the best hostel breakfast in Europe. For once I'm looking forward to waking up at 7...
Incongruous moments: a horse carriage passes by, carrying a woman who is talking into a cellular phone.
I probably wouldn't have come to Bledeč if I hadn't read one of Emma's printouts in Pécs, discussing the types of hostels found in Europe and extolling Bledeč's breakfasts. And had I caught that morning train yesterday, it would've rained for the whole day and I would probably have gone to a dump like Ljubljana's Dijaški Dom Bežigrad instead. Randomness...
Po stotič razbijte žrcalo sveta-- Laibach, Krst Pod TriglavomDateline: Sunday 22.8.1999 11:38 Location: Vintgar Gorge, Vintgar
Breakfast, consisting of bread and cereal (as opposed to the usual "or"), was not exactly the greatest culinary experience of my life. But meeting the Shoko-Kyoyo-Mayumi triumvirate of Japanese girls was fun, as was last night's bathroom adventure. It turns out the aforementioned funky bathroom was shared with the room next door. This was graphically demonstrated when, while I was performing standard post-shower procedures, Evelyn from the other room came in. "Uhh...sorry!" A techno freak from London who is also Interrailing, she revealed that both Derrick May and Carl Cox are playing at a party in London on the 29th. Maybe I'll have to visit all three? My life will become much simpler if there's a message from E. waiting for me in Switzerland...
Where was I? Oh, right, in Bled. So after that extended breakfast I set off into the hills at military pace, hiking the 4.5 km from Bled to Vintgar (mostly uphill) in less than an hour. In complete contrast to yesterday, it was a wonderful sunny and warm day again. My destination was the Vintgar Gorge, where a 1600-meter bridge (from 1896!) hugs the sides of the gorge, crisscrossing over the rapids of the Radovna River. Going down the river in a canoe would be quite a task! The beautiful if somewhat wet walk through the moss-covered rocks and dark forest ends at Sum Waterfall (delightfully known in Slovene as Slap Sum), which would be more impressive if the walkway wasn't positioned directly above it, blocking any good views! But all in all a very worthwhile morning walk -- I can only wonder what treasures await me in the depths of Triglav itself? Next time, next time...
After Hungary, Slovenia is expensive, no doubt about it. One tolar is worth about two forints, but prices in tolars are still about 2x as high! In Bled the situation was even worse due to all the high-spending tourists, with even the simplest restaurant meals costing well over 1000 SIT, but here in Ljubljana I managed a pleskavica (essentially a gigantic spicy Serbian version of a hamburger) with the works for 800.
Dateline: Sunday 22.8.1999 17:16 Location: MV 200 "Simplon Express", Ljubljana -> Geneva
Well well, another bunch of surprises. First off, it turns out this train starts off in Zagreb, Croatia -- this also means that the train itself is a Hrvatske Želežnice model. Surprisingly enough, this wasn't nearly as bad as I would have expected; the carriage is based on the Italian model (a little small, but OK) and is generally clean and functional. The train was much less than full, which came as no surprise, but it seems I'm also the only person in my 6-person compartment! This would be quite a pleasant surprise indeed, although there are still quite a few way stations left, so it's too early to tell... and since my passport wasn't collected, it seems that at least the customs officers will be around to keep me company.
Oh no. The Italy-Slovenia border was bad enough the last time around, but this new customs declaration is just ridiculous. "All articles or objects...must be declared...with the exception of used and personal jewelry articles and goods." And that's verbatim: no missing commas or omitted explanations for the terms "article", "object" and "good". Someday, if I'm bored enough, I'll follow the instructions to the letter...
The conductor just came and brought one (1) set of bedding. That means I will be alone! Woo!
- Two (2) pairs of underwear, dirty
- Three (3) pairs of underwear, clean, machine-washed
- One (1) pair of underwear, clean, hand-washed
- Twelve (12) Q-tips, white
- One (1) plastic bag
- Four (4) balls of lint, gray, in belly button
- One (1) public transport ticket from Pécs, used
- Seventeen million (17,000,001) clips, buckles, zippers, fasteners, strings and pulls, attached to rucksack
- One (1) plastic bottle, containing four hundred eighty-seven (487) mL of tap water from Ljubljana
Mamma mia: customs took less than 45 minutes total, and I didn't even have to hand in my delightful green declaration. It's almost 8 PM maybe I should go to bed...?
But I ended up staying up for a while longer with the window open, feeling the warm, slightly salty air of the Mediterranean at night whipping into my face as the train rolled on through a dark summer night. Nothing else.
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