I have no clever title, but I went to Slovenia.

We all had yet another holiday weekend--this time for May Day, so I went to Slovenia with Ray and our friend Kat, another English teacher from Chicago. It was a beautiful country. We were expecting a relaxing trip, but we ended up exhausted, because we rowed in Lake Bled, went biking (after a long, two-city odyssey to find bikes available for rent), walked many, many miles, and finished it all off by boarding a 2 a.m. train home.

We stayed in Ljubljana, the capital city, and took two day trips by bus to Lake Bled and the Postojna Caves. Both were incredible, but I'm afraid that the cave pictures aren't so good. (You weren't actually supposed to take pictures, so I didn't get to do a good job setting the camera up right.)

View from the train on the way in--the Slovenian countryside.



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Ljubljana

Ljubljana town center at night.



The Ljubljana town center, with the Ljubljana Castle on the hill behind.



Down the river, into the suburbs of Ljubljana...still pretty, but very backwoods Mississippi, leading Kat to coin the phrase "Creek Culture".



Limited success with a swing on the Ljubljana Castle grounds.



Ljubljana from the Castle Hill



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Lake Bled

Mountains and Lake Bled



Rowing us to the island



Ray and me on Lake Bled



Rowboats alongside the island on Lake Bled



The steps leading up the side of the island. Many weddings take place on this island in the church, and the tradition is that the groom must carry the bride up the staircase. About 80% make it all the way up.



The island on the lake.



Kat and me, biking around the lake in a shamelessly staged photo.



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Postojna Caves

These are comprised of five connected cave systems, which we saw by walking tour and by riding on a small train. This first one is of Ray in the Concert Hall, where they have musical performances from time to time because of the acoustics. However, the echo lasts about 6-7 seconds here, so I have to wonder how good it would sound.





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Finally, our "self-portrait" while waiting to catch our 2 a.m. train home. We were angry at the fact that we had just put 2€ in the jukebox, only to be told that they were closing in 10 minutes. We exacted our revenge by playing the two worst songs we could find ("Bette Davis Eyes" and "Neverending Story") over and over, until they actually came and turned the jukebox off.