A Slow Day with Natural Beauty -- Day 14.5

Today was one of the optional days on the EPW, where you can take a day trip to Lake Bled from Ljubljana. My advice: 100% do it. The lake is absolutely breathtaking, is a nice 6 km walk around, and is...just wow. We took the 9 AM bus over to Bled (busses run on the hour starting from 6 AM), had some coffee (or in my case, ice cream), and started our slow stroll around the lake!

There were definitely a lot of tourists around, cycling, walking, running, sunbathing, or swimming in the crystal clear water. It's amazing because you can see all the way down to the bottom! There is an island in the middle with the Bled Castle, and it's very cool seeing it in all angles as you walk around the lake. There were ducks and swans swimming around, and I just leisurely strolled around, listening to who else, but Ed Sheeran and breathing in the fresh air.

For the most part, I was strolling by myself, but I soon ran into Jakob and Eva, as they were getting their picture painted by an artist who was sitting on the side of the lake! As we walked farther, we came across a couple of people rope swinging from a tree and stopped to watch. As Eva and I talked, we realized that we had both bungee jumped off the same cooling towers in Soweto, South Africa, and as we watched the rope swingers, we finally decided to do it because why the hell not! We were definitely not dressed for it at all (I was wearing a dress), but if you say you're gonna do something, you sure as hell better do it, and you betcha we both jumped into the lake (with a little help from a nice guy from Oregon)!! The water was cool & refreshing and walking in the sun soon dried our clothes.

We ended up coming full circle to where we first stopped in the morning, and now, we were having our lunch! Lake Bled is famous for a dessert called Kremsnita, which is a cream cake with powdered sugar on the top, and that for sure made my day :) After enjoying a nice meal, we took a taxi to Vintgar Gorge.

Vintgar Gorge: another breathtaking place. It is a gorge just a few kilometers away from the lake, and it has beautiful rocks, a rushing stream, a waterfall (that is the tallest in Slovenia!), and the most beautiful colors I've seen in water. We walked to the waterfall called Šum Falls and back, which took approximately 2 hours, and I just have never been more happy and grateful for what beauty the Earth holds. It's crazy to think that this gorge was "discovered" in the 1890s, and my oh my, I'm sure glad it was!

We then caught the 6 PM bus home, and arrived back in Ljubljana ready to eat! We had dinner on one of the oldest streets, and I had a veggie burger & fries, and mmm, that is exactly what was needed!! The last group of Peacewalkers had also arrived in Ljubljana, and so we met up with them and chatted for a bit before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Wow. What a truly wholesome day. Tomorrow, we will leave at 6 AM because it is supposed to get super hot in the middle of the day, so we are trying to beat the heat! We now are on the home stretch to the end towards Trieste, and if you can believe it, have 6 days of walking left. I have truly not understood how time has been passing on this walk, but I do know two weeks have flown by. To a hopefully good walking day tomorrow, cheers, and thank you Ljubljana and Lake Bled for an amazing stay!!

xx,

​cat