Week 51: Slovenia and Croatia

We kicked off this week with a few days in Slovenia’s capital city, Ljubljana. We really enjoyed this laid back city, and took the local advice about sitting back and relaxing very seriously! It rained the entire first day we were in the city, so we alternated between walking the streets and ducking into interesting buildings. Over the course of a few days, we spent a number of sunny, dry hours testing out a few of the coffees at various cafes along the riverbank, and were delighted with our first real ice coffee (i.e. ice cream IN coffee). We also spent one lazy afternoon sitting right by the water. We ventured through Tivoli Park a few times, which is a large, beautiful park that is very close to downtown. We checked out an eco-project photo exhibit set up in the park, as well as a mask/puppet exhibit downtown and a gallery of Mark Riboud’s photography. We visited a couple craft beer shops and a few funky restaurants and pubs as well. On the day it was pouring rain, we huddled under large umbrellas at a big sports bar to watch the Croatia vs. England game on their large outdoor screen. 

On Fridays, there is a massive Food Festival downtown, where visitors can try foods from around the world. The smells coming from the stalls were incredible! We were able to try cevapcici and burek, both of which were delicious. 

One evening, we headed over to Metalkova Ulica, which was once an army barracks, but has been reclaimed by an alternative group of artists and turned into a series of nightclubs. Since we were there before midnight, we didn’t see or hear any of the nightclubs in action, but we did see lots of skateboarding and interesting graffiti. 

On another night, we participated in a fun Street Walkers Tour, where a guide led us around outside, encouraging us to view the sights we take for granted in a new light. For example, a brick on a stucco wall was now a beautiful painting of the Sahari desert, the crosswalk became cracked sea ice, and the emergency meeting point sign was now three guys playing volleyball. At the end of the tour of the “Open Air Gallery”, they gave us a camera to go and capture our own item to add to their gallery. It was just something fun and different!

We also took ourselves on a little day trip to Postojna Cave, which is a 1.5 hour bus ride from Ljubljana. We joined a large tour group on a 4km train ride inside this cave, and then walked another kilometer or so through large rooms filled with stalagmites and stalactites. At one point, we were 120m below the surface! This cave was opened to tourist in 1819, but the electric train was added in the 1950s. This cave tour also gave us an up close look at a humanfish, a pale pink miniature dragon-type creature (with no eyes!) found inside this cave. 

On Saturday morning, we said goodbye to Slovenia. We were so pleasantly surprised by how much we loved this country, and we would highly recommend it to others!

We travelled by bus into Croatia, stopping first in Opatija. We switched buses here, and landed in Pula later that afternoon. After dropping off our bags at our AirBnB, we walked over to explore the arena/amphitheatre, which is the 6^thlargest in Europe. It was really hot and sunny, so we were pretty slow moving! We then shopped for some Croatian gear in preparation for Sunday night’s game, and I became the proud owner of a jersey! Later that evening, we enjoyed some local food from the Street Food Festival that has started up that night, and then walked along the water. 

In the morning, we took a bus to Stoja, and headed straight for a trail towards a rocky beach and cave. There weren’t many people here yet, so we were able to enjoy jumping into the warm turquoise water and swimming into the cave. We could only swim so far in without a light, but it felt surreal to be swimming in the dark, listening to the water crash further on in the cave. Over the next few hours, we watched as people ventured into the cave in kayaks and on SUPs. We were surrounded by people swimming, slack lining, parasailing, floating, sailing, and diving. 

We swam some more too before returning to the city center late in the afternoon. Our bus was stopped by all of the traffic coming into the city for the big game, so we ended up getting off a ways from our place and walking the rest of the way in. I was beaming ear to ear as we walked through the streets- you just couldn’t help get wrapped up in all of the excitement buzzing through the city! We joined the crowd of thousands of fans in the arena, which was just a sea of red and white checkers. There was music playing and everyone was dancing despite the extreme heat of the sun. Will found us a shady spot to watch the game, and although I had to watch most of the game on the tiptoes and craning my neck, it was totally worth it! Croatia played hard and their fans were just so supportive and excited throughout the game. Although they lost 4-2 to France, the Croatian fans still flooded the streets with flags flying high, singing and cheering and honking. We joined many of them at the Street Food Festival for another delicious meal, and had a great time walking the streets, taking in the celebrations happening all over the city. 

The following day was a big travel day, moving from Pula to Korenica. We took one bus to Karlovac, which ended up being slowed down tremendously by construction and traffic. One of the girls on the bus told the driver we had another bus to catch, and he said he thought we would probably get there in time. We ended up switching buses just fine, and landed in Korenica early in the evening. We checked into our AirBnB, and then went for dinner and a walk around this small town.

On Tuesday, we set off on a bus at 6:25am to reach Plitvice National Park. We had heard that this park gets really busy midday, so we wanted to beat the rush. We entered at Entrance 1, and thoroughly enjoyed walking along a number of different trails, mostly sticking to Route C. Wooden walkways snaked their way through the waterfalls that seemed to be coming from everywhere- big and small, wide and narrow. 

My favourite waterfalls were the ones pouring over the moss. 

We took our time watching fish swim through the crystal clear water and dragonflies dart through the long grass. 

We took a boat across the lake, which connected us to all of the trails that we wanted to walk. We enjoyed a picnic lunch here before returning to Korenica. We spent the afternoon on our sunny terrace, hanging out with couples from Brazil and the Netherlands. 

We are loving the country so far, and are so excited to see what else Croatia has in store for us!