Oh Ljubljana, it took me about a week to get the spelling of this Slovenian capital memorized and a few days to stop butchering the pronunciation. Slavic names are not so easy for the Western tongue, but practice, practice!
My Airbnb was located about 15-20 minutes’ walk from the Old Town but was right on the edge of Park Tivoli, so I was able to stroll through the park multiple times a day. It has everything from beautiful fountains, biking paths and skateboard ramps to even a miniature golf course, literally something for everyone. One of the areas that perked my interest, was the park’s Jakopič Promenade, which guides you through a tree-lined walkway, one picture at a time, from the current photographic exhibition. While I was there, the photographs revealed the growth and contrast of Ljubljana architecture from early 1900s, compared to how that architecture looks today. One of the most recognizable architectural pieces included in the photographs, was the Triple Bridge, an icon to Ljubljana.
When walking around the city, you’ll soon realize that Jože Plečnik is to Ljubljana as Antoni Gaudi is to Barcelona. You can see his designs everywhere, including the Triple Bridge, leading into the flower shop that begins his large, designed, central market arcade that sits on the banks of the river, following it east. Take a walk through the markets early in the morning, and you could also pop over to the nearby funicular, to take it up to the Ljubljana Castle. Heads up, if you are in a time crunch, I would honestly skip the castle. There isn’t a whole lot to see from the top – you get a couple nice views, but if you’ve been to other castles in Europe, you may walk away like me thinking, “Eh, it was fine.”
Now what I thought was much more than “fine,” was one of the most amazing places to experience while in Ljubljana – and Eastern Europe in general. It was Lake Bled, which is absolutely a place of beauty. I wanted to go there with a SUP (stand-up paddleboard) company, Bananaway. They had day trips to the lake, so I snatched one up. We started bright and early for the hour-long drive to Lake Bled, and upon arrival, we began with a hike up Ojstrica Hill. Once at the summit, you’ll see the large rocks on the cliff, with a sole, weathered, wooden bench perched on top, calling your name to take a rest on. Sit and take in the most peaceful views of the entire lake, with its teeny tiny island in the middle. It’s a reprieve from the summertime crowds up here. We only saw a handful of people. One of those people was a backpacker who was hitchhiking his whole way through Europe. I thought, “Wow, do people still do that?” Maybe I’ve seen one too many Lifetime channel movies to attempt that, especially as a female solo traveler.
After the hike down, we spent about 45 minutes paddling around the lake, and the quietness was incredible, truly unrivaled to any other lake I’ve been to. It felt like we were the only ones there, that it was our own private lake with the sun glimmering down on us. We must have been incredibly lucky with our timing because Lake Bled is a popular place. The only other living things with us on the lake were the giant fish, which I’m sure could have made a nice dinner for 20 considering the size of those suckers. I was ready to just lie down on my board and spend the day floating on the lake, but alas, we continued paddling over to the island, which houses a church.
Because we knew we were going over there, we had to keep ourselves covered with shorts and shirts over our bathing suits, as it’s frowned upon to paddle in the vicinity of the church in just a bathing suit ... even though it’s in the middle of a lake. However, you could swim there in a bathing suit, if you had that much energy, but you’d have to drag behind you a dry bag of your clothes to put on once you got there as you can’t get on the island in just a bathing suit. It’s definitely a curious rule. The only other ways to get to the island are renting a rowboat or the most popular way: buying a ticket for the gondola-like Pletna boat. These Pletna boats actually have the monopoly on getting to the island, and from what I’ve been told, have a bit of a mafia-like hold on the transportation around there.
It’s 99 steps from the boat dock to the church. Tradition says that for every wedding at the church, the groom must carry his bride up all 99 steps for good luck. HA! I’d love to see that. Seriously, that’s a bit cruel, though, because by the time the groom reaches the top, he probably wouldn't be able to walk down the aisle … or maybe that’s the hidden agenda. Luckily for me, there was a nice ice cream stand at the top of the stairs, so that way my motivation. ICE CREAM! ICE CREAM! Ljubljana is well known for its ice cream and doesn’t disappoint.
After rehydrating and the ice cream sugar fix, we headed back down the 99 stairs to get back on our boards and do more paddling and “balance” exercises. At this point, we had to paddle to shore first so we could peel off ours layers because balance exercises really translates to water cannonballs. You jump up and down on the board, walk up and down the board and perch on the edge of the board while doing donuts as you can spin faster at the edge. In reality, I lasted about five seconds on each of these exercises before losing my balance and tanking in the water ... over and over again. There’s video of this, which will never see the light of day, but it was hilarious. Bottom line, my balance needs work. We ended our time there over a banana snack ... you remember the company name, right? Bananaway, so very fitting.
Tipping is not as expected in Slovenia as it is in the U.S., but considering the efforts Bananaway made to take me out on a private trip, I wanted to make sure I did tip. I didn’t have any cash on me, though, so I talked to the guide who was doing another SUP tour that evening in Ljubljana so I could catch her before/after that tour, so that’s exactly what I did. As the small group was finishing their evening tour and saying their goodbyes, I hung back to give my tip and saw another guy from the group hanging back to give his as well. He turned out to be a Cali guy, and we ended up swapping travel stories over drinks and more ice cream. It’s amazing how many great people you meet on a journey ... oh and how much ice cream you can eat!
