The Colorado of Europe

This weekend I visited one of the most beautiful, pristine countries I have ever seen. “Slovenia” was the third-most googled word when America played them during the world cup because people had no earthly idea what the country was all about or where it was located. In my opinion, Slovenia should be at the top of every traveler’s destination list. As Pedro and I drove through the countryside to the capital city of Ljubljana where we were staying, I noticed that the forested hillside overshadowed by the luminous Alps strangely reminded me of one of my favorite states, Colorado. However, once we carted our luggage through the city-center of Ljubljana, I was brought back to Europe as the cobblestone streets and alleyways weaved overtop a majestic river flowing directly through downtown. We made our way to Hotel Antiq, which is just as its name suggests – a truly antique hotel with the cutest façade, quaintest furniture, and friendliest staff. My two colleagues in Slovenia, Teryn and Michael, live there, and had booked me a room overlooking the city from the front of the hotel – so beautiful! We enjoyed some Slovenian wine the two of them had received during a meeting with a vineyard, and relaxed on Teryn’s baller private rooftop deck before heading out for the night to distress from one of the longest and most tiring weeks of my life.

The next morning we all slept in and then I ventured out to explore a little of downtown Ljubljana. I walked through the terraces overlooking the river and made my way to the market much like Zagreb’s where I grabbed a lunch of “buckwheat bread covered with cottage cheese, sour cream, spices, and other cheese that is then baked in an open oven” (atleast that’s what the sign at the stand said) I figured I would try it and it was delicious! Again, don’t know exactly what it was but I’m thinking it was pretty Slovenian, and that’s all that culturally matters.

River Ljubljana running through downtown

After walking around a little more, I got dressed to go CANYONING with the group! Michael drove us to Bled, Slovenia, which is a gorgeous lake town about 30 minutes from Ljubljana. In the center of the town is Lake Bled; an enchanting castle sits high above the lake, as does another one that is situated on an island in the middle of the bright blue water. Bled is also known as “the extreme sports city” of Slovenia, so we figured we would do a little extreme-sporting ourselves. After meeting the other 4 members of the group going canyoning with us (2 extremely nice newlyweds from Ireland), we drove to a deserted part of the river, saddled on our wet suits, and started trudging toward the canyons! After a 20 minute walk we had a 15 minute STEEP hike (“Canyoning Bob”, our guide, said if we wanna jump down, we gotta walk up) and finally we reached the top, although we weren’t really sure what we were at the top of…

Getting in the zone in our wet suits

It is difficult for me to describe exactly how this canyoning business worked, but I will try. We first started by repelling down the canyon a little to reach the first “jump-off” point. We were given the option to repel down the rock or simply jump off of it into the small well of water below, and Teryn, Pedro and I decided to jump. The guide was even a little hesitant that we were doing it, but Teryn went first and I of course had to follow. I still have the image of looking WAY down (about 5 stories) into the water below, and only paying attention to the rocks jutting out of the canyon directly below me. “Make sure you jump OUT, so you don’t hit those rocks” Canyoning Bob warned me. Uhhh ok. After a couple more jumps I was mimicking Pedro’s battle cry and screaming “HIJO DE PUTA!” during the fall just as he did every time he jumped. The water was the coldest I have ever been in, which is why we wore wet suits; it literally took my breath away. The scariest to me was repelling sideways; sometimes I had to move laterally from one standing place to another, trusting only my harness connected to a horizontal rope as I leaned backwards to shuffle across a canyon boulder. Finally we reached our final jump, which was the highest, and then instead of walking back we were able to float downstream to our van, which was so relaxing after a seriously intense 2 hours of climbing, swimming, leaping, and praying.

We rewarded our brave selves with a few Union beers at a pub in town and watched Germany beat Uruguay, and then called it a night and headed back to Ljubljana. The next morning we woke up early enough to have breakfast in the hotel (cha-chinggg cappuccino and orange-juice machines galore), and then headed back to Lake Bled for some lake-side sunbathing and picnicking. After a peaceful afternoon beneath the brilliant Alps and beside the stunning lake, it was time to again face reality and get a little work done for the week back at the hotel.

Lake Bled, with both castles in the background!

This weekend was so much fun, and we all commented how activities such as canyoning truly take your mind off of work, stress, or any responsibility other than staying alive. We vowed our next weekend trips would exponentially get more extreme…sky-diving, anyone?