I’ve been keeping a secret from you lovelies. Actually, I’ve been keeping quite a few secrets. I’m not going to drop all of them in one swoop, but today I am letting you in on one of them: I’ve got a new site.
OK, so that is clearly apparent. But, still, it was really hard not to talk about it all the time because I was just so flipping excited.
Welcome to the fresh d travels ’round!
The aquamarine, clear water sparkles in the morning sun, setting off tiny glints of gold in the ripples of Lake Bled’s water against the looming Julian Alps and Karavanke ranges. From where I stand, high above the lake itself, it is truly one of the most beautiful, most spectacular places I have ever had the fortune to visit. This is Slovenia tourism at its best.
I stand above Lake Bled, a dream realized.
I’ve wanted to visit Lake Bled for years — since I was in Bosnia and heard of this gorgeous slice of nature deep in Slovenia. The talk I heard is what those enchanting fairy tales spun in our youth are made of. In the summer, Bled glistens and comes alive with cheer and color with a castle and a whimsical island, and in the cooler months, the fog and gray dip down from the Alps, cloaking the area in mystery and wonder.
Continue reading “Slovenia Tourism: Discover Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj”
There is a whisper of water that gently mists my face, speckling my glasses as I make my way towards the quiet roar a few feet away.
I breathe in the fresh Slovenian air, and let the sheer beauty of the clear Radovna River cascading down, down, down into a rainbow, against a blue morning sky cement my first activity of the day: exploring the Julian Alp’s Vintgar Gorge.
I sit in the front passenger seat of the white Roundabout van as we whir through the Slovenian countryside, passing the lush green rolling hills and striking vistas of the Karst region (and where we had just explored the Škocjan Cave) and criss-cross between towering mountains.
We go through a tunnel and in an instant, the scenery goes from mildly cloudy and green to that technicolor I associate with the Adriatic Sea.
And there it is.
The droplets of water plunk down from the damp ceiling, ploink. Ploink. It sounds like a dripping faucet in a vacuum of silence as we all stand, meters below the surface of the earth, eyes adjusting to the nearly black surroundings.
Ploink. Ploink. Ploink.
It’s cold down here. Far colder than the day I envisioned when I quickly threw on a dress and flips for my day exploring the Karst region and Slovenian coastline that morning when I was picked up from Hostel Celica in Ljubljana.
Down here, the dampness, the dark only magnify my senses. They swirl around me, reminding me where I am …
What do you get when you take away societal norms and merge like-minded individuals with art, music and an entire underground scene that can go entirely unnoticed to people should they not walk down Metelkova 3 Street in Ljubljana, the capital of the tiny Central European country of Slovenia?
Answer: Metelkova.
Located a quick walk from the center of Ljubljana, it has created one of the hottest underground scenes in all of Europe and today is a place where youth mingle, bands perform, beers are swilled at funky bars, NGOs work and art abounds.
Continue reading “Where squatting meets art at Ljubljana’s Metelkova”
You’d think sleeping inside a former military prison would be creepy. I even ask the manager of the property as she guides me down the dark, damp stairs to where solitary confinement used to be, a stone cave-like basement, if it is haunted. She chuckles and responds with a simple “no.”
In fact, other than the darkness of that solitary confinement area, Hostel Celica, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is anything but creepy. It is perhaps the most vibrant and energetic hostel I’ve ever rested my head.
Seriously.
Continue reading “Behind bars in Ljubljana: Hostel Celica review”
For months, I looked for easy ways to get from Trieste to Ljubljana. I searched message boards, read heaps of blog posts until I just got sick of it and decided I’d wait until I got on the ground there to figure out the easiest way to get from Italy to Slovenia. All of the information I was reading was sending me in dizzying circles and frustrations.
According to the great Google and search results, it is pretty much not easy to get to Slovenia from Italy. There are no direct trains, and while the Slovenian Tourist Board does state that one can get to Slovenia via plane, train, bus and automobile, there are no details or links directing ould-be bookers onward.
One of the last memories I have of the Adriatic Sea is standing on its rocky shore in Trogir, Croatia, bending down and picking up a smooth stone to take back to America with me. To place on my grandmother’s freshly dug grave.
It was a beautiful day in September. Blue sky. Bluer water. And, that day, I just knew she was going to pass away. The thought hung over my head much like the gray clouds which tended to rush over the green hills surrounding the beach in the late afternoons there.
She was dead, and I was in Croatia. Alone. Love, life, loss … far, far from home.
Today is Sunday, July 13, 2014. Two years ago today, I changed my life. I hopped on a Trans-Pacific flight to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand, to begin anew. To work with my hero, Lek Chailert, and help raise awareness about responsible elephant tourism with Save Elephant Foundation.
A lot can happen in two years. And, there are plenty of lessons I’ve learned as those 24 months have come and gone and left me, standing here, marveling at how quickly time passes. At how much life morphs and grows and condenses and grows again. It’s been two years of ups, two years of downs, and two years of sheer beauty in a place that draws awe from those who come in contact with it.
D Travels 'Round