Hotel Jama Postojna

... Sangria, diary products, ham and STEAK!!! Guess, what are we having for lunch? We just wish now the fridge would not stop working a day later... <br><br>Off to the cave now, we cant wait, its so exciting but... just at the entrance we are getting to know that there are 8 degrees inside and we have no jackets. Romain makes the world record in getting the jackets from the truck, 4 ...

... in the dark, which aren't allowed anyways....but you'll get the idea.<br><br>Other attractions include the "human fish" found in here, basically a really early fish species with feet, and the nearby Predjamski Castle built right into the side of a mountain<br>

... a cliff of a building on each side, from the "other side" of a car, certainly takes a little getting used to!), we stumbled upon the castle. Predjama Castle is a castle built into the side of a cliff; kinda like finding really large cave and sticking a solid castle wall. Great defensive position, although a little cold and damp for me :) (photos to follow) After Predjama castle, we moved onto explore Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, which I will create a separate post for.

... to the cave. At the ticket box, I chose an English guide and waited in front of the entrance. It was hot on the day, but very cool inside. The cave system is the second largest in the world, and so we had to take a train up to the main sightseeing point. Taking pictures were prohibited, but nobody couldn't resit the temptation to shoot gorgeous staractites and stalagites even from on the train. I met a couple from Slovenia, who gave me a ...

... was full of people, but we managed, and the bus driver was very helpful, allowing us to keep half of the bags at the front of the bus, near his door. We made the train with heaps of time to spare, which allowed us to leisurely get our bags on board and find a compartment. The seats are arranged into little compartments with exactly six seats in each. It was lucky we had boarded the train early, because we were able to grab a complete compartment just for us ...

... s nothing that interesting but provides a great view of the city. There is a small café in the castle in which we decided to have a coffee. So we sat down and ordered and then the waiter came up to us again and asked if what we wanted to have and we told him again not knowing that there were 2 waiters that looked like twins. It was really bizarre since in the 1 hour we were there we never saw them both at the same time. When we told one ...

... Dinner turned out to be a veritable feast of leftovers and tidbits, with only one piece of mouldy bread, and the biggest selection of homemade spreads, cakes and syrups in the Balkan area. Though it took some time, we had definite locations in mind: postpone cave network, with its powerful Disneyland similarities, and endless subterranean landscapes that looked a great deal like lord of the rings under floodlights. Our real grail though was the soca valley, in ...

... Despite the crowds, it was really impressive! Stopped at a pool to see some salamanders and then the train took us back to the beginning. The parking lot was a bit different. We had grabbed a ticket when we came in and assuming that we paid when we left, we headed for the gate with a handful of coins. We had to get the whole line to back up and let us out when we realised that there was a man in the booth at the back of the parking lot that ...

... least we caught the bus without incident: a group of four other travelers were confused by the local transportation system and tried to pay for their bus ride with rail tickets. That didn't work out for them. At the end of the day I cajoled a free ride back to Ljubljana with some smooth talking and a dearth of small change. Bled, anyhow, came recommended by my Nana, who saw it a few years ago. She was rowed around in a little boat by a member of the Slovenian ...

... up with the Soviet style, and Tito considered himself as a bridge between the two world powers. Communism is the "evil empire", though, or so we were always taught. Elena began to tell us about her parents and grandparents. I asked her what they thought about the old days, and to my surprise, she said they missed them. They missed Tito. They missed the affordable housing that the government helped provide. They missed the days when there weren't homeless people begging or ...