Day 3-5: Slovenia

When I left Venice, I crossed the boring flat fields of southern Venetia. The landscape changed dramatically at the border to Slovenia in Nova Gorica. Rough mountains and deep valleys appeared. I drove up to Tolmin and proceeded my way in the mountain chain, led by the cyan-blue river Isonzo. 

The street began as an usual state route as I know them from Germany. It didn’t take long and it started to get narrow. At some point, the lines on the roadway disappeared and finally, the street was like a work trail in the vine yards of my hometown. The speed limit remained 90km/h. I tried very hard but I couldn’t reach 90’ once. Luckily, the area was like deserted. Only a few times I passed gatherings of houses that could be called “town”. 

 

The people seem to live mainly from the wood industry. Some towns had bigger saw mills then housing areas.

I crossed a completely snowed pass and in the evening, I reached “Bled” with the famous lake surrounding the church on the isle. It was getting dark, but I found a parking spot right behind a spooky, ruined villa in perfect position to the lake and with view on bled and its castle.

In the dark, I had a short walk-around through the city. There I saw a green Nissan Patrol with offroad-equipment and german license-plate from Freudenstadt. Unfortunately, the owner was not at the car.

At sunrise, a climbed castle Bled but there was a lot of fog spoiling the view. The beauty of Bled was also disturbed by huge hotel complexes on the southern side of the town. In summer times, the place must be crowded.

From Bled, I drove to Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana. The city impressed me. Even on a rainy day, the mixture of older but renovated buildings and modern influences is lovely. Of course, there are huge and dirty suburbs as a heritage from the seventies, but the city center is clean and groomed. In comparison, some other European metropoles seem to be ugly sisters.

I like those small electric cars called “Kavalir”. They are meant as a help for older or handicapped people and are even allowed to drive through the pedestrian area.

  

The same day, I drove to Škocjan. The cave system of Škocjan includes one of the highest caves in Europe and is declared as UNESCO world heritage. I arrived late and it was raining pretty badly so I just hid my car at the farest end of the bus parking area.

The rain became a storm during the night and even my 2,5-ton- car was shaking. At dawn, I spotted a tent in the bushes on the other side of the parking site. Who the f*** would sleep outside in a tent during these weather conditions?!? We had around 1 degree Celsius outside!

It was Ivan. Ivan is a spanish “crazy bastard” as he uses to describe himself in his couch surfing profile. That fits quite well with my first impression. He rides from Spain to Vietnam by bike. After a brief talk, we entered the caves together and left them as friends.

 

  

Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures from inside the cave. The height of the caves is astonishing. In return, I visited the collapse dolines around Škocjan and they are beautiful too. 

 

As we came back from the caves, I saw a green Nissan Patrol on the parking spot next to my car. Once again: The guy from Freudenstadt. His name is Ben and he already sticked a letter on my wipers. 

I talked with Ben but his cave tour started soon and we decided to stay in contact, as our routes were similar and we could drive some parts of the trip together.

After some days of a little loneliness, I left Škocjan with a good feeling after meeting those two fellers and headed for the croatian border.