A night in prison....

Slovenia

Ok, I have to admit, we weren't in prison.  We did not steal or deface any historical monuments, or not carry our address registration cards with us (in Serbia you can actually technically be arrested for that!)  We did however, stay in a hostel that used to BE a prison!

Having so far stayed in not only a convent but also an orphanage, we simply couldn't resist the lure of Hostel Celica in Ljubljana, which only recently held the former president as prisoner for two weeks! So now we have all three under our belts; convent, orphanage, prison. Check :)

But let's just rewind two days before I go into that....

Lake Bled

Our Slovenia trip began at Lake Bled; a rather mediocre lake with a puny island in the middle and with a naff church on it.  It's not much to see to be honest, I wouldn't recommend it, never go there.

 




We may have ever so slightly blown our budget for those days, and went mountain biking, kayaking, up in the cable car, and even swimming in the lake! Whoops. :)









Lake Bohinj

The second day we took a bus out to Lake Bohinj.  This is similar to Lake Bled only wilder, with fewer tourists and more mountains.




This was where we took the cable car up, what a view!

This however was also where I got chased by a wild mountain goat- I swear it wanted to eat me!  See the video below for giggles (although please note I didn't actually realise I was filming for half of this!):

Later we then strolled around the forest, where we both treated ourselves to our naughty indulgences; Gill just can't keep her nose out of a book, and I just can't help seizing any opportunity to top up my tan...

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Ljubljana

We left Lake Bled with heavy hearts, but moved onto the capital Ljubljana, for our overnight stay behind bars.  Here is Gill by one the rooms:
 Our day in Ljubljana was a rather typical one for us, filled with a free tour, and guess what, another performance in the castle at night under the stars!  However this time we were not watching a Shakespeare play in Slovakian, but a French (Canadian!) film! Feeling quite happy  with our level of french, we confidently bought tickets.  However in retrospect we now realise how difficult canadian accents actually are!

Ljubljuna was also delightful by the way. Here is the river in the city centre:



Zagreb

Being hard core, we moved on after our token one day in Ljubljana to Zagreb, Croatia (we're getting rather au fait with capital cities now! lol).  After very nearly forgetting my passport, debit card and ipod (it was a miracle that the train was delayed and I could dash back for them!) we passed a pleasant journey on the train, arriving late morning.

Zagreb is cute but less colourful than other european cities, although it reminds me a little more of London as it is more commercial.

As a rule, we tend to skirt the museums and head towards the 'free thrills', being cheapskates, and I have also been 'over museumed' by Paris (they were great but there were just soooo many!)  However, we were surprised to stumble across the 'Museum of Broken Relationships'; what a concept?!

Curiosity eventually got the better of us, and we bought our tickets and entered.  The idea is that there is a ceremony for so many big stages in life such as weddings, birthdays, funerals, but curiously none for the ending of relationships, which mark us possibly just as much as the former events.  This museum invites members of the public to donate mementos of previous relationships, with an accompanying explanation.  This then functions as a kind of group therapy; it was definitely touching.

Here are some of the exhibits, some moving and some amusing:


Apparently, after a girl cheated on her boyfriend and then foolishly went on holiday leaving all her things at his place, he took this axe and gradually chopped up one piece of her furniture every single day whilst she was away, so she returned to nothing but firewood! eek!

  This I feel, is probably self explanatory. :)

Plitvice National Park

Our second day in Zagreb was another nature day; Plitvice National Park.

We met a charming American lady named Dara, who accompanied us on our walk.  Plitvice was another example of some stunning natural beauty, and also wildlife as there were bears apparently!   The water is so clean you aren't actually allowed to swim in it, because it is drinking water!

I'll leave you with some pictures:


 

Next update will be from Sarajevo!

xxxx