Author RenegadeTourist
The last two days we have been busy seeing what Slovenia is really all about: the great outdoors. We started yesterday by going southwest to the Karst region and visited the Postojna caves which was nice but a bit on the touristy side. You have to take a rather expensive tour that includes two journeys with a small undground train. Even though photography was forbidden I snapped a few shots on the way out.
From there we went to Predjama Castle that is built in the mouth of a gigantic … Read the rest
The air gets chillier as the small, open train takes us through a tunnel of rough rocks into the underground. The tunnel opens up onto a new world full of limestone formations, stalactites hanging from the ceiling, stalagmites growing up from the ground, free standing pillars and curtains clinging to the wall. Some are lit up by strategically placed lamps while others lay in shadow, creating a captivating play of light. Some times the train winds through narrow passages that then open up into large caverns. The landscape is fascinating for an inexperienced spelunker like me, just too bad there … Read the rest
The cavern we are in gets larger up ahead, the vaulted, stalactite clad ceiling lit up by a soft orange glow, expands outward then opens up on a black void. A string of lights like a band of diamonds stretches out into the darkness, shedding light on a vast canyon beyond. The floor drops off steeply to the river down below and the ceiling disappears overhead. There is a rushing of water from the river and the air feels cooler. A silent, ” bloody hell” rises up in me at the sight of the canyon which is awesome in the … Read the rest
The revised plan looks like it’s a good one. We arrived in Ljubljana this morning and spent the day walking around the old town (like you do). The old town itself with it’s castle, churches and government buildings is rather unremarkable as compared to other east European capitals. A bit more colorful than the almost exclusively sand colored old towns of Croatia but not really special.
What is special as compared with the Croatian old towns is the lack of tourists. Most of the people on the streets seem to be locals going for a coffee and with that comes … Read the rest
We knew pretty early on that we could not move through Serbia due Yini needing a visa, so yesterday we took a bus to Montenegro to try to circumnavigate that problem. Unfortunately visa free entry did not equal hassle free entry. Yini got rejected at the boarder because we did not send a fax to tell them she was coming. So with a distressed girlfriend and in sweltering heat we started walking the few kilometers across the borderlands back towards the Croatian boarder.
As luck would have it, waving my thumb at passing cars paid off, and we managed to … Read the rest
I can say right from the get-go that Dubrovnik is both wonderful and horrible at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, the place is lovely, anyone with even the slightest interest in old architecture, castles, churches and the like ( I believe that covers some 80 percent of the human race) will love the city. What is less nice is the multitude of people visiting the city during the summer, there are people simply everywhere and you can never get some peace and quiet. I guess it’s better to be here in May or September. Now that that’s sorted … Read the rest
Yesterday was wholly dedicated to moving from one place to another. The original plan was to leave Vis in the morning and head for the island of Korcula and from there move on to Dubrovnik. Unfortunately this is only possible over the course of several days, with careful planning. With less careful planning it can take up to one week. However, we were set on going to Korcula so we headed back to Split with the ferry, waited there for a few hours then headed out again to Vela Luka on Korcula. By the time we got there it was … Read the rest
Today was an amazing day; we visited many places, saw many things and had lots of fun. We started off by renting a scooter from a friendly little place nearby our accommodation. We rode off to find some brunch but alas there was none to be had on the road we took. We did however find a sight well worth exploring. A small path led us past an abandoned house up on the cliffs overlooking the sea. There we found a set of stairs leading down into a small bunker with some slits for rifles.
To my left, green mountains with bare Rocky cliffs, a blue sky up above and a slope down towards azure blue sea. In front of me a thin band of asphalt bending of to the right. I slow down and savor the moment of being on a motorized two wheeler once again, my girlfriend behind me and the wind on my face. Then I lean into the curve and twist my right hand, the scooter shoots forward and zooms through the bend while a fizzy feeling of speed bubbles up within me.… Read the rest
I walk down the utterly dark tunnel, my flashlight the only source of illumination. The tunnel is long and narrow and vaulted overhead. The white paint on the walls has deteriorated over the years and a bunch of rusty metal clamps are all that remains of the previous lighting system. As I come closer to the end I can sense a faint glow somewhere, when I reach it, it turns out to be a crossroads. I go to the left because it’s shorter and there is light in that direction. It leads to a small open space within a low … Read the rest