37. SLOVENIA ( + Zagreb)

Slovenia was the last Balkan country I haven't been to yet! Geographically it might belong to the Balkans but my feeling there told me everything else than the Balkans. It's rather related to Austria or other Central European countries.

But before heading to Slovenia I spent 2 days in Zagreb, Croatia and met a friend from Germany there who joined me on my trip for a couple of days. Zagreb is really a nice city, nothing outstanding but worth a short trip. Tourism and costs were much higher than I had expected and people told me that prices skyrocketed since the recent introduction of the Euro. We stayed in a pretty cool hostel there, met some good people in a beer garden and explored the city outskirts by bicycle.

Slovenia was all about nature and it was a great country for hiking, camping and just relaxing at some lakes! Ljubljana, the picturesque capital was our first step into the country and was a lovely town. Probably one of the smallest and most relaxed capitals I have ever been to. It rather feels more like a big town than a city. It kind of lays at the meeting point of Germanic, Latin and Slavic cultures which was really visible. In Ljubljana, we couch-surfed at a legendary place: A big "social house" for bands to practice and we slept backstage behind the curtains. Thanks Klemen for the great expierence!

The infrastructure in Slovenia is amazing. Busses are super modern & run on time and train rides are beautiful with stunning views out of the window crossing village after village. After Ljubljana, we took kind of a random train one hour out of the city and arrived in a beautiful landscape. From the village where the train station was located, we hiked around 40 minutes down to the river, where we camped. Especially after my long time in India, I was super happy to spend some time in a calm, natural and very clean environment and the tent was the best way to experience all of that. We stayed there for 2 days and even did a day hike to Lake Bled. The scenery there was absolutely beautiful: Crystal clear water with that beautiful church in the middle of the lake and lush forest behind. But Bled is extremely touristy and feels more like Disneyland with all the fake shops and international restaurants. Next time I would prefer a different lake; for 2 or 3 hours it was quite a nice place though.

My highlight in Slovenia was the region around Krajnska Gora in the Northwest of the country. The mountains there are just amazing and the two-day hike I did there was one of the best I have done in Europe. We hitchhiked up the Vršič Pass and tried to hike our way down the valley. Sometimes it was really really steep with some snow and we definitely didn't have the proper equipment for that. In the end, we made it down to a beautiful valley though. I found a very friendly local man in the village who offered me to set my tent in his garden, treated me with coffee in the morning and told me a lot about Slovenia and its history.

We spent 3 entire days in nature there and in the end managed to hitchhike into Austria with the help of 3 super friendly Polish girls who even drove back and made space for us in their jam-packed car.

3 Highlights:

- Hikes and Camping around Triglav National Park

- the small town of Radovljica and the forests around

- Capital Ljubljana and our stay with Klemen