I know it's been about a week since I last posted but I just don't feel like I have that much to tell you about. I went to Zagreb. It's a nice city. But I don't really remember anything particularly spectacular about it. Then I went to Ljubljana. Slovenia wasn't originally on my list of places to go but I heard about these caves that sounded worth seeing.
Ljubljana itself was pretty. It has a castle on a hill and architecture and markets and such. It rained most of the time I was there and I got caught in a hail storm at one point.
On my second day in Ljubljana I did a day trip to the Škocjan caves. I looked everything up and so I knew that it was an hour and a half train ride to Divaca and the caves are 5 km from there with buses only going twice a day at very strange times. The bus is run by the people who manage the caves but for some reason the bus goes at 11 am and 2.30 pm when the tours of the caves go at 10 am and 1 pm. So I planned on taking the 9.40 train so I would have plenty of time to walk. But I missed my train. I'm actually somewhat impressed with the fact that I haven't missed any trains or buses before this. I'm usually somewhat paranoid and arrive early (also because I've had experiences with very full trains that don't have any seats left if you get there just on time). This time I forgot how far the train station was from my hostel. There was another train an hour later but it didn't get into Divaca until 12.15 and 45 minutes to walk 5 km is not really enough time. But I wanted to see the caves so I went anyway. The train arrived late and I power walked the whole (at times slightly muddy) way but I got there just in time. The tour left less than a minute after I got there.
The caves were really amazing. It's got Europe's biggest underground canyon. And all sorts of stalagmites and stalactites. And bats. Apparently we were lucky because we actually saw the bats even though they are meant to be hibernating at this point.
From Ljubljana I caught the train to Vienna. Vienna really knows how to put on a show for Christmas. I complained before about the lack of christmas lights in some places. Turns out they're all in Vienna. The giant chandeliers were particularly impressive. I also got my first snowfall of the trip. I was wondering how far north I would have to go to find the real winter and I guess the answer is Austria. It didn't actually snow for long. Only about a minute. But it happened to be the minute when I was wandering through the christmas market with a mug of gluhwein so it was somewhat magical. I had 2 whole days in vienna to enjoy the christmas markets. Which were completely packed one week before christmas. I also did the tourist thing and saw some of the more permanent sights of Vienna like the spanish horse school and the big Stephansdom cathedral.
And today I am on my way to the czech republic. A place called Cesky Krumlov.
Ljubljana itself was pretty. It has a castle on a hill and architecture and markets and such. It rained most of the time I was there and I got caught in a hail storm at one point.
On my second day in Ljubljana I did a day trip to the Škocjan caves. I looked everything up and so I knew that it was an hour and a half train ride to Divaca and the caves are 5 km from there with buses only going twice a day at very strange times. The bus is run by the people who manage the caves but for some reason the bus goes at 11 am and 2.30 pm when the tours of the caves go at 10 am and 1 pm. So I planned on taking the 9.40 train so I would have plenty of time to walk. But I missed my train. I'm actually somewhat impressed with the fact that I haven't missed any trains or buses before this. I'm usually somewhat paranoid and arrive early (also because I've had experiences with very full trains that don't have any seats left if you get there just on time). This time I forgot how far the train station was from my hostel. There was another train an hour later but it didn't get into Divaca until 12.15 and 45 minutes to walk 5 km is not really enough time. But I wanted to see the caves so I went anyway. The train arrived late and I power walked the whole (at times slightly muddy) way but I got there just in time. The tour left less than a minute after I got there.
The caves were really amazing. It's got Europe's biggest underground canyon. And all sorts of stalagmites and stalactites. And bats. Apparently we were lucky because we actually saw the bats even though they are meant to be hibernating at this point.
From Ljubljana I caught the train to Vienna. Vienna really knows how to put on a show for Christmas. I complained before about the lack of christmas lights in some places. Turns out they're all in Vienna. The giant chandeliers were particularly impressive. I also got my first snowfall of the trip. I was wondering how far north I would have to go to find the real winter and I guess the answer is Austria. It didn't actually snow for long. Only about a minute. But it happened to be the minute when I was wandering through the christmas market with a mug of gluhwein so it was somewhat magical. I had 2 whole days in vienna to enjoy the christmas markets. Which were completely packed one week before christmas. I also did the tourist thing and saw some of the more permanent sights of Vienna like the spanish horse school and the big Stephansdom cathedral.
And today I am on my way to the czech republic. A place called Cesky Krumlov.
Gluhwein? You drink gluhwein? Wow. It is so nice to sip while wandering outside in the cold, isn't it? Did you keep the mug? -Momb
ReplyDelete