While we initially booked return bus tickets to and from Ljubljana, we thought we would head out of town and spend some of our time in other parts of Slovenia, or even in Zagreb, Croatia (a mere 2 hours by bus). But it only took 3 days for Ljubljana to persuade us to stay put!
Beer tasting at the Union Brewery, five minutes down the road from our apartment... I can't believe we left our visit to the last day!!
Ljubljana is really more the size of a town than a city with only 270,000 people. Incredibly, despite the small size, it lacked for nothing. Most visitors seem to spend 3-4 days in Ljubljana which makes sense for a small city. But even after 2 weeks, I could have happily stayed longer...
I mentioned in my last post some of the things I was loving about Ljubljana in our first few days. And all those things - the free bike share, the friendly people, great coffee and craft beer and gorgeous dogs as far as the eye could see - continued to make our stay in Ljubljana really relaxed and enjoyable.
One of the many unique free drinking water taps in Ljubljana which made walking all day so easy!! They have free wifi all over the city too...traveller heaven!
This is a straight-from-the-farm, raw milk vending machine. You can purchase milk bottles and then fill with as much as you need.
So what did we do for two weeks??
Day trip to the Lake
As mentioned above, Slovenia is fairly compact, so it's quite easy to jump on a bus and see more of the countryside. Apart from Ljubljana, Slovenia's most famous tourist attraction is Lake Bled - a huge lake set in gorgeous mountainous surroundings, featuring an island with a very picturesque church in the middle of the lake and a castle perched on a hill overlooking it.
So we decided, if we were going to spend our whole visit in Ljubljana, we would definitely get ourselves to Lake Bled for a day.
Lake Bled... Not my pic!!
We bought bus tickets to Lake Bled, jumped on and... blew right past it in favour of Lake Bohinj!! Both our lovely air BnB host and our food tour guide had talked up Lake Bohinj, saying it was more beautiful and less crowded than Lake Bled. And because we booked our tickets for a very warm Saturday, we opted for the less crowded option. And I'm glad we did, because Lake Bohinj was absolutely stunning!!!
Lake Bohinj - gorgeous and peaceful
What else??
I definitely rediscovered my love for cycling. Ljubljana is the perfect cycling city with bike lanes on every footpath. It was so easy and fun to cruise around the city on the bike share system.
We spent a couple of days just riding around the city, stopping at interesting looking spots.
In summer, Ljubljana has libraries under the treetops - outdoor mini-libraries scattered around town with deck chairs. It's a lovely way to spend a warm afternoon.
Tranquil views down the Ljubljanica river
I also discovered that the city has a cat cafe(!!) which is totally free to visit - it's just a fairly regular cafe (with regular prices), but has 6 resident cats!
Cat menu, anyone??
Blissed out kitty
We also spent a couple of days in the very central Tivoli park which is all manicured gardens on the outside and a huge forested area if you venture inwards.
Forest walk in Tivoli Park
We found a fantastic restaurant on the top of a hill with gorgeous views and authentic Slovenian food at bargain prices!
We realised that our airbnb host had recommended this spot and on our second visit, we ran into him and his girlfriend and spent Sunday afternoon chatting away in the sunshine. Incidentally, Ljubljana is small enough that we also ran into our food tour guide, Iva over and over again. I think she thought we'd relocated to Ljubljana!
Sauerkraut soup at Gostilna Roznik - delish!!
We visited the Ljubljana castle (mostly worth it for the great views), went on a two and a half hour free walking tour and learned all about the history and architecture of Ljubljana, saw Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at the very alt venue, Kino Siska and visited the central markets - awesome on a Friday for the international food market - and the salami.
Yup, that is bear salami!! It's from local bears who are culled annually to keep the bear population sustainable. And it's really tasty...
We have visited some pretty awesome cities this year and fallen completely in love with a couple (Budapest, Nafplio...) but Ljubljana has definitely been one of the best and an awesome final European adventure!!
What? No more Euro??
Nup!! Unbelievably, after just over six fab months wandering around the continent, it's time to head over to Asia - we're starting with 6 days in Jakarta and then onto Bali.
A Euro adventure recap is in the works. Back soon...
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