In case you can’t tell by now, Al and I really love Slovenia. We’ve had several half-serious conversations about how we can make it work logistically to move here permanently.

If the amazing historic cities, stunning mountain ranges, and friendly people weren’t reason enough to want to come to Slovenia and never look back, it turns out they also have one of the most beautiful (albeit tiny) coastlines I’ve ever seen.

When you book a trip like this in advance, you always hope you are giving yourself enough time in each place. The fear is that you’ll book too many nights in a place that you end up not connecting with, or not enough nights in places you end up loving.

With Slovenia, I think we gave ourselves the perfect amount of time. If we stayed any longer, we would never leave. After we left Lancovo, we headed to our last planned stop in Slovenia’s coastal town of Piran, located on the southwestern edge of the country, along the Adriatic sea. The town’s origins date back to 178 BC, after the Romans conquered the Istrian Peninsula, where Piran now sits.

When we arrived to Piran, we were exhausted from going non-stop from the past week, but were infused with new life immediately upon entering the city. It also felt completely different from the rest of Slovenia. The town is only made up of 26 miles of land, and doesn’t allow cars, so it is a perfect walking city.

It is made up of narrow cobblestone streets that twist and turn at every stop (which are often compared to the streets of Venice), colorful pastel buildings, and more outdoor restaurants and bars than you could possibly need, all while being surrounded by the shining blue waters of the Adriatic sea.

Friendly tip: do not go to Piran on a summer weekend. It was so crowded to the point of suffocation when we arrived on Sunday night, but completely cleared out for us by Monday.

We spent our time here walking around the city, swimming and reading by the sea, visiting some of the historic landmarks, and of course, eating and drinking. It was the perfect Slovenian city to get us ready to transition into our next country, Croatia.

Here are some shots to give you an idea of what life was like in Piran:

Loved every street.

Piran from inside the old wall

View towards the ocean

St. George’s Parish Church in the background

Sun setting over St. George

The Pier of Piran

loved the colors on these buildings.

The water is as blue as it gets.

happy in Piran

Once again, the church

I want to steal those shutters.

Steets of Piran

Red roofs everywhere

How do I get on one of those boats?

Walking along the water

Al and I laughed a little bit too hard at this.

ugh, so pretty.

We’ll always love you, Piran.

I have always been a water person. I love to be as near a large body of water as much as possible, and am constantly seeking out the chance to be close to the ocean.

About a year ago, my group of friends passed around the following question to one another:

If there was a hammock hanging with a view of the sea in front, and the mountains facing the back, which way would you choose to face? 

It wasn’t a question for me, the answer was a no brainer. The sea. Always the sea.

Al and I spent the last three days exploring the Julian Alps in Slovenia, and for the first time, I started reconsidering my hammock answer.

Beautiful mountain views before entering the park

The Julian Alps are the most beautiful mountains (or landscape for that matter) I have ever seen in my entire life, and I suddenly realized why people are so drawn to them. On top of how gorgeous they were, being near the mountains and so much nature meant that Al and I were outside and being active nearly every single moment of each day, which was a huge adjustment to what our bodies are used to.

At home in Chicago, I considered myself to be a relatively active person. I went to the gym five times a week and (weather permitting, which admittedly was much less than you’d think) tried to get outside for a walk or do some type of physical activity on the weekends. Then, I came to Slovenia and saw how active Slovenians are all the time, and I realized that I was nowhere near as active as I considered myself to be. They are constantly biking (completely uphill), hiking, walking somewhere, or doing some type of outdoor sport. Every single day. It seems the only time they sit is for meals. If I really think about it, I probably spent most of my waking hours at home sitting down at my desk, in a chair somewhere, or on my couch.

This all changed once we got to the mountains.

After we left our unexpected hotel room in Bled, we checked into our Airbnb about 10 minutes outside of Bled, in a tiny neighborhood called Lancovo, which is part of the bigger town, Radovljica. This turned out to be the perfect base for us to spend our days hiking and exploring Triglav National park, as well as getting a real feel for what life is like in Slovenia (thanks to our amazing Airbnb host). Over homemade Slovenian wine and fresh tomatoes paired with cheese that melts in your mouth, our host gave us every recommendation she had for things to do, as well as beautiful hikes to take in the area.

After that, we were out the door and constantly moving around. I couldn’t believe how many things we would fit in a day: hiking up waterfalls all morning, followed by an hour of canoeing, and a two hour hike before dinner in the evening. I am not saying any of this to brag, I am saying it out of amazement over how much being in an active environment can make a difference.

This is particularly significant when I think about the fact that after a day of work at home, Al and I would actually argue over having to go to CVS (which was basically connected to our building) to pick up toilet paper on a Tuesday night.

Al and I felt like we were spending days on end walking on some type of an uphill incline. When things would get particularly challenging, one of us would say to the other,

“Let’s do this. We gotta earn that Laško.’ (the local beer in Slovenia).

We would say it to encourage each other by imagining how good that cold beer at the end of the day was going to taste after we had spent the day earning it. And it really worked. The satisfaction of a Laško after so many hours of non-stop activity, was so much greater than having my favorite beer in the world after a day at work sitting behind my desk.

Here are some of the highlights over our 3 days in the mountains, and how we tried to earn those beers.

 Radovlijca and the hike to Pusti Grad

Streets of Old Town

The medieval old town of Radovlijca is a historic town built in front of a church dating back to the 1300’s, and was about a 20 minute walk uphill from our Airbnb. We loved walking around and reading about the history, and imagining what it was like for people walking the streets centuries ago. Another great memory was having wine next to the green hills filled with vines, mountain views, and beautiful ancient buildings.

Can’t even feel the cold when it’s this beautiful

Another highlight was the 2 hour hike we took from the old town to the remains of Pusti Grad, a medieval castle (that is relatively unknown, as there is very limited information on it) from around 1100.

Castle Grounds

The ‘trail’ went through winding dirt roads, huge mountain passes, fields with sweeping views of the surrounding land, and we would randomly run into herds of sheep or chickens crossing the road. Getting to the castle remains was an adventure in itself, and Al and I both felt like we were on some kind of medieval quest the entire time (gotta entertain ourselves somehow).

Some beautiful sights along the trail:

Drooling over this mountain view.

Bohinj Lake 

Bohinj Lake is about 35 minutes from lake Bled. When I was doing my research, I read that many people like it much more than Bled, reasoning that it is less touristy, still breathtakingly beautiful, and the water is even more clear than what you’ll see in Lake Bled.

I definitely can’t argue with any of those points. I found it to have a much more natural and ‘Slovenia’ feel to it, and there’s much more to do from an outdoorsy standpoint. Al and I spent our time in Bohinj hiking around the lake, and we even decided to rent a canoe (for 9 euro an hour) to get more up close and personal with the water. Al has been itching to swim into one of these lakes ever since we arrived, so he was finally able to check that first-week bucket list item off the list.

He Swims:

I sleep:

Guess I’m not really earning my Laško here, am I?

After canoeing, we walked uphill (again) for about 30 minutes to the famous Slap (waterfall) Slavica to get a glimpse of this natural beauty:

I guess it’s cool.

Triglav National Park

Gasp

I probably need to write a whole separate post on Triglavski National Park. The park takes up a whopping 4% of Slovenia’s entire country, and is named after the highest mountain in the range, Mt. Triglav, standing at 2864 meters high. The Julian Alps are what make up the bulk of the park, but there are also lakes, giant waterfalls, miles of green forest, historic passes and museums from WWI, open Alpine meadows, caves, gorges, interesting vegetation, and SO much more.

Look how cool that is

The reason I want to write a separate post on this, is because there was so much to do that we almost felt overwhelmed with where to start. We wanted to see everything, but we weren’t sure which would be the best paths for us to hike, and attractions for us to see in just 3 days. Thankfully, we left so happy with what we were able to cover (but we still were left wanting more)

For now, I’ll just leave you with some of our favorites from the park:

driving up to the park

my favorite picture. Al realizing the water was not ‘refreshing’ but actually hypothermia level freezing

you can’t tell, but I’m sitting on top of a waterfall.

this one.

This gives some of our highlights, but there is so much more to see and do, that we probably could’ve spent a month in this area, and still not see everything.

Our time in Lancovo is one of those experiences that I don’t think I will ever be able to put into words in the right way. There were days when I would wake up irritable, or homesick, but after only a few minutes into a hike or being in nature, the feelings would instantly melt away.

These days in the mountains made me realize more than ever, just how important it is for me to live somewhere that gives me access to this type of nature. Plus, that way I won’t have to feel bad about all the beers afterwards.

So, maybe I’ll just turn my hammock sideways from now on.

Down the street from our house in Lancovo

About six (or so) months ago, when we were still planning out and booking this trip, I came across an interesting Airbnb for a stay in Slovenia. It was a listing for a campsite near the Alpine river Savinija, located about halfway between Maribor and one of my most highly anticipated stops, Lake Bled. The ‘room’ was basically a giant triangle, with a tent located inside:

Actual real life footage of this place (that I took, so you can see where this story is going already)

I sent the listing to my best friend on Gchat (yes apparently a huge chunk of our planning happened over Gchat) and I said something along the lines of, “Ugh, can you imagine sleeping in that triangle thing?” She responded with some witty comment, supporting how I felt about the idea of sleeping in an open tent next to multiple strangers and potentially screaming children. I sent it to my husband about the same time, and he simply responded ‘we’re doing it.’

To be fair, it is located on a river in one of the most beautiful locations in Slovenia, surrounded by mountains and lush vegetation, and blah blah blah all of that good stuff.

It is not that I don’t like camping, or the outdoors (in fact, I actually really enjoy both, and have done my fair share of pitching up tents for several nights in a row). There was just something about the triangle rooms smashed together in a row, and the idea of communal living which really turned me off (no offense to anyone who thrives on that, just my experience).

But, I knew that there was a part of me that sort of wanted to do the whole outdoor sleeping under the stars camping experience as well, because I sent it to my husband fully knowing that he was going to jump at the chance to do it. We compromised on one night in the outdoor triangle camp ground, and I booked it while internally reasoning with myself, “I can stay anywhere for one night’

Once we arrived in Slovenia, it hit me that my ‘night in the triangle’ was approaching much quicker than I realized. I would jokingly complain to my best friends about how I was dreading it, but if I am being honest, I think part of me actually believed that we were going to end up leaving the campground with some really amazing memories. Hey, who knows, maybe I would even end up writing an inspiring blog post about how you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, or something equally as heart warming that would surely move millions of people to book their own camping experience.

Well huge surprise, that did not happen.

When Al and I woke up in Maribor, on the day that we were scheduled to head to The Triangle, it was pouring rain. I stared out of our window and just thought to myself ‘I can’t believe of all the days for the weather to be shitty, it’s on Triangle Day.’

We got in the car and plugged the location into the GPS, and realized we would be arriving to the Triangle in about 90 minutes. This was not enough time to wait out the rain, so we decided to just take random detours when we felt like it, to try and buy us some time for the rain to die down.

Our first detour, was a beautiful town located on the side of a hill called Fram. We decided to check it out at the absolute last minute (Al is yelling at the exit SHOULD I TURN OR NOT? TURN OR NOT?!) simply because our group of friends refer to each other as ‘Framily’ (Friends + Family) and often shorten it to Fram.

I’m not joking. This is the only reason we decided to turn and visit (beauty of a road trip) and we were rewarded with such a beautiful drive, and views of the country (only a few which I managed to whip out the camera for) :

In Fram, watching two deer frolick in a misty field

View from the top of Fram (in a brief moment where it was somewhat clear)

More of Fram’s natural Beauty

After Fram, the rain still hadn’t let up, and it was closing in on 1:00pm at this point. We figured we might as well just head to The Triangle, and see what happens. About 15 minutes out of Fram, I was distracted by road signs reading ‘Laško’. Laško is the most well known local beer in Slovenia, so I made the genius connection that it must be brewed in the town Laško! (you guys, I know, I’m really smart). We decided to take another detour to Laško to see if my hypothesis was correct.

Well it turns out I was right, and Laško is in fact, where they brew Laško. We explored the town via car, and had a Laško in Laško! (something I couldn’t stop saying over and over, which Al got sick of extremely quickly)

Proof! They make Laško in Laško at the Laško brewery!

I’m drinking a Laško in Laško! Probably the first tourist ever to think that it is cool.

Now see Al drink a Laško in Laško. You see where this is going.

omg look, we’re living our dream! Can’t you tell?

After Laško, the rain still wasn’t letting up, but I knew it was time to face The Triangle. Once we arrived, I could tell (vaguely) through the fog and the smoke, that this was probably an insanely beautiful location, if only you could actually see it.

We trudged through the rain and mud, and knocked on a few wrong doors (to some very confused Slovenians) and then eventually ran back to the car to regroup, and so we could try and call the Airbnb host. We were cold, wet, covered in mud, and tired from driving around in the constant rain for hours. I looked at Al and said, “We have to at least go and look at it.”

doesn’t this look fun?

So, we did. We walked down a long muddy slope, and met the owner of the campgrounds (who was really nice, by the way). He showed us around, and pointed at several different Triangles that were available to us. I had to stop myself from exclaiming ‘you mean we get to choose our very own sopping wet triangle to sleep in!?’ 

How can I possibly choose?!

He explained that the river was too high to do any canoeing, kayaking, or white water rafting because of the rain. He also told us that the place we were standing in was breathtakingly beautiful, when it wasn’t covered in fog and rain.

Al and I took one look at each other, and without speaking, had an entire conversation with a single glance, which was basically ‘There is no way we are staying here.’

We politely let the owner know that we only had one night there, and since the weather was so terrible, there was really no point for us to spend one of our precious few nights in Slovenia shivering in a leaky tent.

I felt a small sense of freedom knowing that neither of us felt any inclination to ‘prove’ that we could stick it out in this place, just because we had previously committed to it. This trip is not about proving we can make it through hard situations, this trip is purely about doing the things that we have always dreamed of doing, and enjoying life as much as possible. And, I have never dreamed of spending 40 euro to sleep outside in a triangle filled with cold, wet mud. (Side note – yes, I do realize that there are people in the world that sleep in much worse conditions, and that my life could be much worse off, so I have no real reason to complain).

The owner seemed almost relieved, and we walked back up the muddy path, and back into our car. At this point, we both decided it made the most sense for us to head straight to Lake Bled, which was where our Airbnb was reserved for the following three nights. This would get us there a day early, but would also mean we would have to find a place once we arrived.

We drove two hours through near zero visibility and non-stop rain, and finally arrived to Bled around 5pm. A little note here, that Bled was always one of the locations I was looking the most forward to, so my hopes were relatively high.

Once we arrived, it was already crawling with tourists, and all we wanted were dry socks and a warm bed. As we pulled up towards the lake, I looked around and was less than impressed with what I saw. It was way more touristy than I imagined. There was even a Bled Casino, and a Bled Mini Putt Putt course (not to mention a McDonald’s). It was nothing like the Slovenia we had gotten used to. Once we got our first glimpse of the lake, I looked at Al and said, “Is that it? That’s not it, is it?” Not exactly the words you hope that will come out of your mouth when you’re seeing a destination you’ve been anticipating for the first time.

It took us about an hour of jumping into different hotels, Airbnbs and Apartamans, before we eventually found a hotel within our budget.

We finally settled into our room, and were pleasantly surprised with having a balcony overlooking beautiful mountains for us to unwind with a glass (bottle) of wine.

Finally drying off, right when the rain stopped.

Afterwards, we decided to take a stroll around Lake Bled, hoping to catch the sunset. I didn’t know it as we descended the giant hill from our hotel to the path surrounding the lake, but I was about to have one of the most memorable few hours of my entire life.

I won’t write too much, because the pictures will probably say much more than I could ever blab on about:

views walking around the lake

Bled Castle

So happy to be there. Look at that water!

Alex in front of the lake + castle

We found a path that took us to this amazing view of the whole lake right when the sun was setting (and thanks to the rain, we had it completely to ourselves!)

Blue on blue on Bled

It was like a straight up fairy tale

We spent nearly four hours walking around the lake, hiking up paths, and just basically staring slack jawed with amazement over how beautiful this place is. I completely forgot about Bled Casino, and got to see the Bled I had been dreaming of.

After night fell, we decided to stop into a bar (for a Laško, obviously) for a beer before heading home.

At night, it actually looks like Hogwarts.

At the bar as we rested our feet and drank our cold beers, I told Al that I was so thankful for the rain we had, because it lead us to make so many decisions we never would have made otherwise. We knew when a situation wasn’t working out for us, and didn’t hesitate to make a change, make the right decision for us, and move forward.

Almost everything went wrong today, but somehow, it was still one of the best days of my life.

This small but significant twist allowed us to experience a sunset that will never exist in time again, and a memory of a day that we will always remember as our unexpected, frustrating, messy, yet completely perfect road to Bled.

When Al and I left Ljubljana Sunday afternoon, I was so distracted by the beautiful landscapes flying by my car window, that I forgot where we were going. Once I remembered we were headed an hour and a half east to the town of Maribor, I realized that I couldn’t think of anything I knew about the town, or why we chose to book three nights here. Then, I realized, Maribor had a lot of wineries.

Oh, right. We came for the wine.

I was able to conjure up vague memories of talking to Al on Gchat from my office desk in Chicago almost a year ago, as he told me that he thought we should go to Maribor because ‘it looks like a really cool place. Also, they have a ton of wineries,’ I was sold after I heard wineries. So we booked the Airbnb and I moved on from Maribor, focusing my efforts on all the other things we planned to do.

That is why, when we drove up to Maribor Sunday evening after an eventful yet weird drive (more on that later) I found myself looking around feeling a bit overwhelmed with how little I had prepared myself for Maribor. I can say that my expectations for this town were low, bordering non-existent, and I am now leaving Maribor completely in love with it. Although I wasn’t walking around the city with dragon shaped stars in my eyes like in Ljubljana, I would absolutely recommend a stop here to anyone considering a visit to Slovenia. Huge bonus, it’s only 25 minutes from Austria and 2 hours from Budapest, but that doesn’t really matter when there is so much to see in Maribor itself.

behold; the most rudimentary map of Slovenia for you to get an idea of where we went.

Al and I came here for the wine, but once we got here, we were so distracted by all of the other things the city had to offer, that we didn’t end up making Maribor the wine-infused stop that we had originally planned it to be.

Here is a general idea of what we did during our time in Maribor, and why I loved it so much.

 Exploring River Drava

Life in Maribor seems to revolve around the river Drava, or at least it felt that way to me. Apparently, the river bank along the Drava is the oldest and most historic part of town (which luckily is right where our Airbnb was). Apparently this river holds a ton of pride for the city, but also served as a line of protection during times of war. I loved walking among the history every day as we went to and from the city, but mostly, it is just a really beautiful place to walk, run, bike, or simply sit and enjoy. It felt great to wake up every morning and go for a run around the river, and just be surrounded by so much beauty. I almost fell flat on my face more than once, trying to run and take in the views at the same time.

The river is wide and it’s too hard to cross (Billy Joel anyone?)

swans on the river

So you think you’re like, really pretty?

Climbing Piramida Hill

When we drove into the city, the first thing I noticed is that it was all built in front of a church on top of a hill that was wrapped in vines. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew I wanted to climb the hill. After we looked into it a little more, we learned that the hill was actually called Piradmida winery, and was regarded as a really important symbol to Maribor.  It serves as a representation of the bond between the city itself, the wine regions, and wine industry that have been a tradition of Maribor for centuries. It is basically a winery (just the vines though) jutting out of a city, and once we climbed it, we were blown away by how beautiful the views of the city were, and how enjoyable the hike was. It was a definite highlight of our stay in the city.

They also have found castle ruins on top of the hill, which means that at some point, the ‘church’ was actually a castle that sat atop a winery, atop a city. How cool is that?

Almost there.

Vineyards and Views

Taking a Drive to Pohorje

Our second day in Maribor, we decided we wanted to explore the surrounding areas and wine regions. This day turned out to be one of the most beautiful, magical drives we could’ve ever imagined. The best part is that we somehow managed to accidentally drive on Pohorje, which is Slovenia’s largest and most famous ski resort, but in the summer time, is basically a mountain with spectacular views.

Trying really hard to not make a Sound of Music reference (just failed).

See what I mean about the VIEWS?!

Enjoying and Exploring the City

The city of Maribor itself is absolutely stunning. There is a castle in the middle of the town square (which I have to say, didn’t exactly look like a castle to me). You can spend the day exploring the historic buildings, eat delicious food, and drink cheap fresh wine. There is so much to see here, and it never got boring. We even had a chance to eat dinner outside with a bunch of locals while watching their club football team play Ljubljana on a huge screen outside.

The ‘Judgement Tower’ doubled as a point of defense during war time, and a place where ‘witches’ were sentenced in the 1500’s

Maribor ‘Castle’ (I think they’re using the term castle very loosely here)

We’re in Europe! Drinking Coffee! Outside! (This will never stop being cool to me)

Stumbled across this band playing in front of a university (the girl was an amazing singer).

And yes, the wine

I’ll be honest here, we had a few misses when it came to the wine in Maribor. For example, we really really wanted to go to Europe’s largest underground wine cellar, Vinag, which just happened to be closed while we were there, but we didn’t leave disappointed. We got to visit the oldest vine in the world (according to the Guniness book of world records) climb up an actual vineyard, and most importantly, drink delicious wine no matter where we went.

ohhh, ahhhh, the oldest vine in the world (that doesn’t even produce wine anymore so what’s the point?)

This vine has been growing grapes for over 400 years.

Two bottles of wine in front of the world’s oldest vine.

After we left Ljubljana, I was slightly worried that we had started off our trip with the bar set too high. Al and I agreed that we were glad that we left Ljubljana when we did, because we didn’t want to get too comfortable with it, only to be let down moving forward. It was like I wanted to keep the experience exactly as it was; exactly as it had been so far.

My unnecessary fears were put to rest almost instantly upon arriving to Maribor. A memorable moment for me was when we were climbing the hill, we came across a huge open field that had not only stunning panoramic views of the surrounding area, but was also marked with huge oak trees, and native butterflies that would appear and randomly make their way across the path. I happened to notice a small sign jutting out in a random spot in the field, and it read:

Panta Rei– Everything Flows, Everything is Changing: If we would stop mowing the meadow, it would turn into shrubbery and eventually a full-grown forest. Nature is constantly changing. Even these marlstone slopes are slowly moving and changing.

I took a picture of the sign, and told Al that I really loved the message. It’s so simple; life is always changing, things are always moving, even when we aren’t paying attention to it, and especially when we resist it. I can’t control every step of this trip, or the experience of this journey, and I’m not going to try to. I have Maribor to thank for that.

Also, the wine. Thanks for the wine.

In case you are wondering, no it is not embarrassing at all to take a picture of your wine with your phone up against the bottom of a table in public.