Roadtrip through Slovenia

Easter holidays are usually filled with visits of relatives and homework, but my friend Linda and I took the opportunity of having a bit free time to do a small road trip. We both didn’t want to spend three whole weeks at home and Linda had the idea that we could travel through Slovenia. Even though we both live very close to the Slovenian border we’ve never really been to the country aside from short trips to Dravograd or driving through on the way to Croatia. In addition to that it’s a very small country, so you can actually visit the most important places in a few days. We sat together, planned a route, organized a car and searched for accommodation on couchsurfing. 

Our planned route through Slovenia

We started our trip on Saturday morning and our first destination was the city of Bled. It’s a small town in the northwest of Slovenia and it is known for its beautiful lake. The weather was great that morning, so we walked around the lake, took a stroll through the town and relaxed a bit in the grass. Unfortunately the water was a bit too cold to take a quick bath. When we went back to our car we faced the first obstacle of our short trip: we wanted to set up our GPS system, but discovered that it didn’t work in Slovenia. Luckily Linda and I are both fans of the old fashioned way of navigating with a map while traveling, so we had bought one at home before we started our trip. We reached our second destination the city of Ljubliana without any problems, but finding the apartment of our host Jaka was a bit more difficult. However, after driving around for a bit and with his directions we eventually arrived there. Our host Jaka was a friendly guy who showed us a bit around the city center before we went to get some dinner. Afterwards he took us to his favorite spot on the banks of the river Ljubljanica. We had a beautiful view on the water and sat there and talked for a while until it got too cold and he decided to take us to his favorite bar close to his apartment. Tired from driving the whole day we only stayed for one drink and went to bed quite early. The next morning Jaka showed us the flea market that takes place every Sunday in Ljubljana and we had lunch before we moved on to our next destination, Koper. 

 

View on the Tromostovje (Triple Bridge) in Ljubljana and the river Ljubljanica

Koper is a small seaside town in the southwest of Slovenia. While it was still sunny when we departed in Ljubljana, it started to pour down during our drive to Koper. We met outside the town in a parking lot with our host Anja, who took us to her house from there. Although it was still raining outside Linda and I wanted to go to the sea and Anja had the crazy idea to go swimming, so we drove to her favorite beach and jumped into the water. The first dive was freezing cold, but after staying in the water for a minute it wasn’t as terrible anymore. The water actually wasn’t as cold as I had assumed it would be before jumping in. After our icy bath we returned home, took a shower and went out for a drink with Anja and her friend Katja.  Even though we had planned to only stay for one or two hours, the evening eventually ended around midnight, because we had so much fun. The next morning we said our goodbyes and drove to Piran, a small town only twenty minutes from Koper. It’s probably the most beautiful seaside town of Slovenia, but unfortunately it was still raining, so we didn’t stay too long. 

Piran

After Piran we set off to Škocjan to visit the caves there. We were a bit early, because we originally had thought we would spend more time in Piran, so we relaxed a bit in the car, before going on the tour though the caves. The first part of the caves wasn’t too exciting, especially because our tour guide stopped every few meters to explain something – in Slovenian and English – but the second part of the caves, where the underground river Reka flows through was great. All in all the whole experience took us two hours, so we were a bit late at our next destination, the city Novo mesto. The whole day had been so exhausting that we decided to stay at the house of our host, Christian, cook something and watch a movie.

We actually didn’t see much of Novo mesto, because the next morning we immediately took off to Celje. For the first time on our trip we didn’t take the highway, but chose a route on smaller roads. In Celje we met with Klemen, a guy we knew from couchsurfing as well, and he showed us a bit around the city. He took us to the castle of Celje from where we had a breathtaking view on Celje and its suburbs and told us about the history of the town. Fortunately the weather was a lot better that afternoon, so we were able to relax a bit in the sun before moving on to our last destination Maribor.

The castle of Celje with the city in the background

We arrived in Maribor late in the afternoon, strolled through the city, went to the river banks of the Drau and had a coffee in a small, charming café. After that we went back to our car and started driving towards Austria. We came to Dravograd on our way to Carinthia, where we originally had planned to stop for some ice cream, but it was quite late when we got there and the weather was rainy again, so we just passed through. 

All in all, the entire trip was as great as both of us imagined it to be. We had some troubles in the beginning with the broken GPS system and the weather wasn’t as perfect as we would have hoped, but we met an awful lot of new people and saw some incredible places. It’s funny that you can actually travel through a whole country in just four days – although you could probably spend more time in some of the cities we only spend a few hours in. I learned a lot new stuff about Slovenia and realized how little I had known about it although I spent my whole life living only about twenty minutes away from the Slovenian border. I really hope Linda and I manage to visit some other neighbor countries of Austria in the summer.