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SB14: Škocjan Caves Park, Slovenia

May 20, 2014

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After our morning in Ljubljana (still David’s birthday!), we drove 50 miles southwest to Škocjan Caves Park. The caves are on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The visitor center was under construction, so our tickets were discounted. Also due to renovations, part of the caves were closed, but we got to see a different section that wasn’t usually part of the tour.

We piled into an elevator that took us down the hill closer to the entrance of the cave.

The caves were carved out by the Reka River:

We followed a trail of stairs up and back down a section of the caves. I think the tour guide said it was around 100 meters high where we stood. It was cool inside the cave, but not as cold as I thought it might be. Photography wasn’t allowed inside, but David accidentally took this one:

It was interesting to see the structures and ledges the early explorers used. There was a super old bridge high above where we walked. Amazingly, very few people died exploring the Škocjan Caves. Young boys did a lot of the initial explorations. They were good at squeezing through tight spots and climbing the walls.

You can see a 360 degree virtual tour on the cave’s website.

After the caves, we walked to a lookout point that had a fantastic view of the valley:

We love to explore a balance of both city and nature when we travel, and we really liked the caves.

After a few hours at Škocjan Caves Park, we drove back to Croatia. Our lack of pre-planning caused a few troubles in Krk…

Here’s a recap of the trip:
» Day 1 & 2: Zagreb, Croatia
» Day 3: Bled, Slovenia
» Day 4: Ljubjlana, Slovenia
» Day 4: Škocjan Caves Park, Slovenia
» Day 5: Krk, Croatia
» Day 6: Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
» Day 7: Split, Croatia

SB14: Ljubljana, Slovenia

May 15, 2014

Leah

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After our afternoon in Bled, we drove 35 miles south to the capital city of Ljubljana. (One of my Slovakian students who lived in Slovenia for a while attempted to teach me how to say it: “Layub-laya-na.”)

Where we stayed
We stayed one night at Hostel Tivoli and highly recommend it. It wasn’t a very big hostel, but it was super affordable, modern, and in a great location. (With a towel rental and free breakfast, it cost €11 per person a night.) We were in the 8-person room. It worked great for our group of six, and there was one other lady in the room with us. The room was really tall and the bunks stacked three high. There were individual storage drawers with keys and the hostel was very, very clean. (One of the cleanest I’ve seen in a while!)

Where we ate
After we settled into the hostel, we walked to the downtown area for dinner. It was around 8pm and we had issues finding a place that was open. We finally came across Vodnikov Hram. It was near closing time, but they let us in anyways. The food was so, so good. They had tasty soups and an awesome cheese plate. David got a beef medallion dish and I got pasta. One of our friends had these amazing pumpkin puree rolls.

The next morning (David’s birthday!), we walked back to the downtown area. We really loved this city:

Everything felt so relaxed here. Our group split up for the morning and we all did our own thing. David and I found a cafe along the canal and had a cup of coffee.

We poked our heads into a few shops and browsed the outdoor markets. Spring was in full bloom!

After some shopping, we found a grocery store, grabbed a few goodies, and found a spot to sit in the park.

Some cheese, crackers, prochutio, and chocolate made for a great birthday snack!

After our morning in Ljubljana, we drove to Škocjan Caves Park!

SB14: Lake Bled, Slovenia

May 12, 2014

Leah

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After our first two days in Zagreb, we picked up a rental van and drove about two hours northwest to Bled, Slovenia. Our first stop was Bled Castle. See it in between the houses up on the cliff?

Sadly, the castle was less than impressive. Part of it had been converted into a museum. The museum didn’t have much worth seeing, and I was disappointed how heavily renovated everything was. The interior didn’t feel authentic at all.

But the view? So worth it.

If we had extra time, we would have checked out this alpine slide:

The castle overlooked Lake Bled and Bled Island:

After a while at the castle, we drove down to the lake. We rented a rowboat and took it out to the island. (If you visit, give yourself at least 2 hours to row out, explore the island, and row back.)

Lake Bled is a natural lake formed from glaciers. There were a couple of buildings on the island with the main attraction being the church.

Though the sanctuary was small, the inside of the church was ornate. There was a rope near the front you could pull to ring the church bell.

We really liked the gift shop here. And it was so peaceful to sit outside and enjoy the scenery.

After a row back to shore, we headed into the capital of Slovenia Ljubljana for the night!

» Read about day 1 and 2 in Zagreb here.

SB14: Zagreb, Croatia

May 5, 2014

Leah

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We traveled with four friends around Croatia and Slovenia during spring break! We flew into the capital city of Zagreb on a Saturday afternoon.

Where we stayed
We found an awesome attic apartment on AirBnB (alliteration much?) for two nights. It was an easy walk from the city center in a calm little neighborhood. It was a great space and we recommend it if you’re looking to spend a few days in Zagreb. The day before we left ended our third quarter at school, so we were happy to simply relax on Saturday. We had brought an HDMI cord, connected our laptop to the TV, and watched some movies. It had a great little kitchen and we made a couple of meals there. (At the end of our trip, we spent one night at Design City Hostel. Don’t stay there, especially if you only have girls in your group. It’s a corporate building that was converted into a hostel. It’s not in a good location, the sheet were dirty, and it was super creepy.)

We were in Croatia during the last few days of March and the first week of April… which I’m pretty sure was off-season as far as tourism goes. It made traveling easy since places weren’t too crowded, but it seemed like nothing was open. Either that or businesses closed really early. We went into the city on Sunday. Most of the museums were closed, but we enjoyed walking around. We poked our heads into the Sunday service at the Zagreb Cathedral (aka the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and browsed the red umbrella-ed Dolac Market.

The skies were clear and the weather was warm. We soaked up the sunshine as we wandered around the streets and parks.

We wanted to go inside the National Theater, but alas, that too was closed:

Before we traveled to Croatia, we discovered the Triposo app (available for Android and iOS). It taps into WiFi even if you’re not connected to a network and updates your location on a map. It also lists recommendations of things to see and places to eat and has a currency converter built in. (It’s available for other countries, too. Definitely check it out before your next trip!)

The other landmark we were sure to see was the Church of St Mark:

The roof has the medieval coat of arms of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia on the left side, and the emblem of Zagreb on the right. There was a man with a crazy huge lens and fancy camera who stood near us. I asked him if I could see his photos. He didn’t speak English, but he figured out what I was saying. From what I could make out, the tiles were either round or hexagonal and were layered kind of like fish scales.

Day one and two of break were really relaxed. We didn’t have much of an agenda for Zagreb. We approached this trip a lot differently than we had other trips. We didn’t pre-book most of our lodging and we finalized our travel route once we were in-country rather than before. We felt really free because of this, but we ran into some challenges, too… More on that soon!

Eastern Turkey: Van & Akdamar Island

March 27, 2014

Leah

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Before our flight back to Ankara on Sunday, we visited Akdamar Island in Lake Van. Our travel book said the best deal was to ferry with a group of 15 people. We didn’t have enough time to wait for more people, and we found a “private” ferry that cost 130TL for 8 people round trip (that’s about $7.25 USD a person).

It was foggy out, but we could still see the island ahead of us and the mountains behind us.

The Church of the Holy Cross sits on the island. I don’t know all of the history, but it was an Armenian church.

There’s a legend behind this island. The story says an Armenian girl named Tamar fell in love with a boy on the mainland. He would swim to the island to meet with her every time she lit a lantern. Her father found out about it and lit a lantern during a storm. The boy never made it to the island. Before he died, the last words he said were “Akh, Tamar” (Oh, Tamar). Hence, Akdamar Island.

Entrance to the church and island cost 3TL or was free with the Müze card. There were many preserved frescos inside the church:

The exterior of the church was as elaborate as the inside. There were several depictions of Bible stories: Adam and Eve, David and Goliath… This lamb on the outside made me laugh. He looks like such a cartoon:

There weren’t many people on the island with us. It was very peaceful. There were a few buds on the trees and I can only imagine how beautiful it is when it’s in full bloom.

Our friends found a hole in the fence, and we hiked up the rocky hillside for a great view. (If you visit, the hole is quite large – just walk up to the fence. You’ll see it!)

The ferryman let us stay for an hour, then we headed back to shore.

Back in Van, we stopped by the Kedi Evi (Cat House). Basically, it was a small building with windows and fences around the cats. Van is famous for their two-color eyed cats. Most of the cats weren’t in too great of shape. We guessed there was a lot of inbreeding.

This little guy was a cutie, though!

We grabbed some coffee from Kahve Diyarı and then found a cheese market. Van is known for its otlu peyniri. We had some at our hotel’s breakfast. It was good, but it is a STINKY cheese mixed with herbs. It tastes stronger than blue cheese and it’s oh, so salty! We didn’t buy any, but one of our friends did. We did, however, pick up some Iranian tea and Iranian rice to take home.

From there, we went to the airport and flew back home. Visiting eastern Turkey was quite an experience!

» Read about our first day in Van here.
» Read about day two in Doğubeyazıt here.

Eastern Turkey: Doğubayazıt

March 24, 2014

Leah

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After our first night in Van, we traveled 110 miles north to Doğubayazıt. Our goal was to see Ağrı Dağı (Mount Ararat) and visit Ishak Pasha Palace.

We were super pumped to be within a mile and a half of Iran. David pointed out every watch tower along the border.

The drive took over three hours. As we traveled north, we saw a lot more snow. We also ran into fog which made for some scary driving, but David mastered it like a pro.

We finally got to Doğubayazıt only to run into some political protests in the street. (Don’t worry – nothing violent.) Police were blocking the street we needed, and we circled around for quite a while trying to find a different way to the palace. We ended up stopping just outside of the town to regroup and stretch our legs.

Behind us, you can see part of Mount Ararat beneath the fog:

David wanted to say “I ran near Iran!” so he used his GPS watch and went on a little jog:

Since we had driven so far, we went back into town to see if we could get to the palace one more time. Fortunately, a policeman finally let us through! Do you see the palace? It’s directly above the last power pole:

Ishak Pasha Palace was built in 1685 during the Ottoman period. Entry was 5TL or free with the Müze card.

This is the ceiling of the mosque within the palace:

The view of the surrounding landscape was incredible:

It was International Women’s Day so we took a picture of the girls in the hamam:

After a while at the castle, we decided to head back so we wouldn’t have to drive in the dark. We passed through several small towns along the way:

We made a quick stop about 35 miles outside of Van at Muradiye Waterfalls. The Turkish word for waterfall is şelale (sheh-lah-lay) – isn’t that pretty? We walked across the suspension bridge and back, but didn’t stay very long. I’m sure it’s much nicer when everything is green and in bloom.

I never thought I would see so much of eastern Turkey. And we still had one more day!

PS. Did you know there’s Mount Ararat bottled water?

» Read about our first day in Van here.
» Read about our last day at Akdamar Island here.