My Winter Trip

25th Feb- It was a Friday and my holiday started officially! My friends and I, we took a night train at 10:30pm to go to Paris.

26th- We reached in Paris around 7 am in the morning, and then we went to the airport CDG as our flight was at around 11:30am. It's a two hours' flight, and we reached in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia around 1pm. We took a mini bus from the airport to the city center which costed us 5 euros each. Of course we went to the hostel first and only then we had our lunch in a quite high-class restaurant.

My very first meal in Slovenia. Its quite nice, but it costed about 18 euros which was pretty expensive: deer, porc and chicken.

Robb Fountain, if you have been to Italy, it might look similar to a square in Rome, called Piazza Navona, and in fact, this fountain was designed by Robba after his visit to Rome. And three statues signifie three rivers running through the region of Carniola.

I found that my photos have become more and more artistic now! XP

At the back, it's the city hall of Ljubljana.

A church in Ljubljana.

The view along the canal in Ljubljana. It's quite beautiful, isnt it?

My facial expression looked so awkward! Oh man! =.=ll

A narrow, small lane in the old town.

The main square in Ljubljana, where we can find the famous church called the fransican church of annunciation, triple bridge and the Preseren's Square.

France Preseren is a very famous slovenian poet and we can also find him on the slovenian two euros' coins.

Fransican church of annunciation.

A gorgeous organ!

Getting ready to go up to Ljubljana Castle. =))

Up to the castle, I thought I would be able to see the whole view of old town, but, it was quite disappointing anyway..

The main square at night.

27th- From Ljubljana, we took a bus at 7am to Bled, another small town which is 2 hours by bus from the capital. After getting our stuffs installed in hostel, we walked to Vintgar, a small village 4 km away from Bled.

The direction to Vintgar Gorge.

The river is crystal-clear!

I looked so stupid. =.=

Vintgar Gorge.

Unluckily, the gorge was halfway closed, because of the damages of bridges due to the heavy snow. It was quite sad though not to be able to go to the end.

After walking for a few hours, let's recharge ourselves! My yummy mushroom soup, only for 2 or 3 euros.

A meal for two and we paid around 10 euros each. It was so cheap!!

After our lunch, we were going to the main attraction of Bled, one of the reason why I wanted to come to Bled!

The legendary bled lake where we can find a small island in the middle of the lake with a small church. Most people take a boat to the island and ring the bell of the church, it's some kind of tradition. and in summer, we can swim to the island!

Do you see the castle up the hill? that's Bled castle.

The small island in the middle of the lake. We didnt take a boat as it was a bit too expensive. No many boats are operating during winter, as there're less tourist. Well, I dont really like places where we can find tourist everywhere.

Oh yeah, a bad experience, we saw a shop beside the lake and we thought of renting a boat to the main island, but we were scolded by an old woman, working as cleaner of the shop, in slovenian. Please, it's not we didnt wanna listen, because we didnt understand. and she just lost her patience to explain to us and started scolding.

Well, it's also quite pretty during winter with its snow. The view is also awesome during summer.

A sculpture beside the lake. And for your information, the lake is quite big, walking around the whole lake takes about 2 or 3 hours, probably.

We didnt go up to Bled castle, and we went to take some bled's speciality!

The cream and vanilla dessert, in local we call, kremna resina. Well, Im not specialist in cakes, I cant make any comments. it's about 2 or 3 euros, I suppose.

A view of Bled 'village'.

It was a very tiring day though. And we went back to the hostel around 7 and some of us slept till the next day.

28th- Our next destination is Bohinj. We took a bus from bled at 7:30am and we reached Bohinj at around 8:30am. We should be stopping the next stop but we didnt. We had to wait for another bus to go to the another side of lake. It was really early in the morning, and plus I wore my yellow converse shoes again. So, we decided to have our lunch+breakfast first while we were waiting for the sun to come out.

Bohinj, We're here!

A cup of warm and thick white chocolate. This is my first time to taste such chocolate.

Two huge pizzas, and we only paid 7 euros each! I thought it'ld be pretty expensive to have meals in those restaurant because it's quite touristic there. It's not at all!

After the meal, we took a cable car up to the Mount Vogel. The double ways ticket cost about 12 euros. But, it was quite disappointing, and I will tell you why..

From the mount, can you see the lake? That's Bohinj Lake. And up the mountain, there's no place or platform to see this beautiful lake..

Taken from the cable car. Those mountains are part of Alps, and it's also called Julian Alps. And the highest peak in slovenia is Mount Triglav, and we can find it on Slovenian flags and also slovenian two cents' coins.

Up the mountain.

We didnt stay long time up the mountain as it was quite disappointing, and we decided to go to Slap Savica, a 'beautiful' waterfall for those slovenian, which we have to walk about 8 km to go there plus 500 steps to go up to the mountain.

On the way to the waterfall with Converse inside the thick snow..

I'm gonna go up to the mount!!

We heard some water flowing.. We're getting near to the waterfall!!

Unfortunately, we're only in front the entrance to the national park.. We've to climb up the steps up to the mountain. It was quite challenging to go up with only 'COnverse' which doesnt hold at all in snow.

I dont know, after walking and climbing for two hours and more, we could only get to see this small waterfall.. =.=ll wow... *indrecible*

And coming down from the mountains, since there was snow everywhere, we just glided down. We had fun! It was crazy!

We walked for a another 2 hours to get down the mountain, and we took a bus back to Bled at 6:40pm, and we took another bus at 8:30pm back to Ljubljana.

1st March- We woke up early to go to Postojna, the biggest cave system in Europe. We took a bus to Postojna at 8:30 am and we reached there around 11.30 am. Postojna Cave is quite wothy to visit and we paid 17,40 euros for the entrance fee. The cave system is 20 km long underground, and first we took a souterrain train for 12 km, and we only visit by walking around for another 4 km, and another 4 km can be reached. Since 200 years ago, there're already 30 millions visitors and it's one of the main attraction in Slovenia.

Dragon's bridge, there's a legend behind it. According to the Greek Legend, the Argonauts on their way home after havong taken the Golden Fleece, found a lake surrounded by a marsh. And that's the place where Jason struck down a monster and this monster became the dragon that is present on ljubljana's coat of arms and flag.

The market in Ljubljana, it was still too early. At the back, it's Saint Nicolas's cathedral.

On a cave train travelling 12km of the whole cave.

Inside the cave, the accumulation of mineral by raindrops or water.. it takes years and years. for a formation of 1 cm of stalactites takes about 100 years!! so, can you imagine how cold this cave is?

Two human's breast. 18SX and it's not suitable for kids..

We call it as spaghetti, as if those spaghetti are hanging on the ceiling.

What would you imagine, seeing this? Avatar! The tour guide told a joke that, James Cameron probably had cane to this cave, and this mask inspired him!

It's abit blur, but what did you see in the middle of the photo? a couple who is kissing..

And nine months later, they've got a baby!

A huge ice-cream!!

This is an amphibian, which we call Proteus blabla, it's scientific name.. and we also call it as human fish. It can grow till 30 cm long, and it's only lives in caves, specially in slovenia, and some other countries. and its lifespan is 100 years, and it only needs 4 leaves to survive! Its eyes are blind, and his skin is just like human's colour and that's why we call it as human fish.

Inside the cave, we can also see stalagmites and of course stalactites, and when stalactites meet with stalagmites, that's what we call romeo meets his juliet. what a beautiful name, isnt it?

The concert hall, which is known for its exceptional acoustics and has sufficient space for 10000 people for orchestra, messe or some other functions from time to time.

Postojnska Jama= postojna cave.

A small church in Postojna.

Postojna, a small town.

White wine from the Karst region, it's really sweet, and i took down the name of the wine=pp

The appetizer, some raw porc ham which we eat with bread in france too.

Beef noodles soup, it makes me think of taiwanese spicy beef noodles, my favourite!!!

My main dish, thick beef meat, around 14 euros. In France, it's possible to get it for 14 euros, probably more than 20 euros only for this!

My dessert. The whole meal cost me around 30 euros.

The main square of Postojna.

We took a bus at 6 pm from Postojna back to Ljubljana.

2nd- We took a train from Ljubljana to Zagreb (the capital of Croatia) at 6:30am and we reached there around 10:30am. We had our lunch first in a croatian restaurant first.

My first Croatian meal, a soup with meat inside and also some beans. It's better than cassoulet, a french dish, somehow.

Street in Zagreb.

The main square of Zagreb. That's the statue of croatian king, who i dont remember his name.

The king's statue.

Saint Stephen's cathedral.

Inside the cathedral.

Dolac market.

A statue of a lady. Im sorry, I dont know who she is.

I still prefer Ljubljana and Zagreb than Paris or London, because there're not many people from other countries in africa or what we call 'etrangers' in French. And there're not many tourist either.. And in Paris or London, you can see Asian or Africans everywhere..

Four tourists from Asia with a bunch of bananas, and the fourth one was taking the photo.

Saint Mark's church which was close.

That's my dinner..

The cathedral at night, Im getting good in shooting night's photo.=))

Oh yeah, do you know that our necktie we're wearing today comes from Croatia? Its old name is called cravat, and we only call it necktie in modern english, and cravat is the short-form of 'A la croate' (French). During the thirty years' war, those croatian soldiers who served in France, wore a neckerchief, a scarf made of silk or cotton material around their neck, and the French King, Louis XIV was so impressed by this cravat and more and more people starting wearing it and it's become a trend.

And for fountain pens, it also comes from Croatia. Nicolas Tesla, a great Serbian inventor lived in Croatia when he was small.

3th- We took a bus at 7 am to go to Plitvice National Park and the whole journey takes about 4 hours. The night before, the girl in hostel told us that the National park was close because of heavy snow and some roads were even close. However we still went there just to try our luck, because it's one of the main destination we wanted to go. When we reached there, Entrance 2 to the Park was close, and we walked 3 or 4 km to go to the Entrance 1. After taking our lunch in a expensive restaurant, we went to the Park. We paid 40 kuna (6 euros) for a child price because half of the park was close because of thick snow.

My lamb chop=) It's yummy..

This is Plitvice waterfall. It's gorgeous, dont you think so? there're a few waterfalls..

On the watefall, some water was frozen and it's become ice.. It's so pretty! And on the left, there's a lake where we have a path go through the lake.

Can you see the lake and watefalls?

This waterfall is huge!! and you can see some ice or frozen water hanging there..

The lake, in fact in the mountain, there're a few stages of lakes, and the biggest, we can cross from a side to another side by boat!! can you imagine that? im gonna come back here again in summer to do randonée here.

Waterfall.

Do you see the water flowing down? and some of water was already frozen.

Waterfall.

I love you! Saranghae.

It was so cold because it's located in mountains but the trip was really awesome, seeing those gorgeous waterfall and nature. We only stayed 2 or 3 hours there, and we took some hot drink and we went back to Zagreb at 5pm.

And my very last dinner in Zagreb before leaving Croatia.

4th- We took a bus to the airport at 9:30am to take the flight at 11am. We reached in Paris around 1 in the afternoon, and we took a night train from Paris to Toulouse at 10:40pm and we reached in Toulouse at 6 am in the morning on the next day.