Slovenia

Slovenia is the most awesome country ever!! it is a tough decision to say whether it was better than turkey.

Ljubljana
Ljubljana was a really beautiful city, not a large population so it was really easy to get around, really clean and very friendly people everywhere. We spent a couple of days there with a very nice old man who picked us up from the train station, after the most helpful tourist info girl arranged our accomodation. Unfortunately he had parked in the bus zone and we got waved down by a cop as we left and he got a parking ticket. doh! His place was above the Vegedrom - a delicious vegetarian restaurant with excellent indian food and chai lattes. We walked all around the city, enjoying very picturesque river side cafes and bars, (buy 1 get 2 cocktails,) huge slices of pizza and a great night at a comedy club. The acts were from the UK except for the first guy who was apparently hilarious. The last act was good - made even funnier to us as he had to explain all his jokes, many of which were a play on english words, therefore completely lost in translation...

Bled
We arrived in Bled and found our accomodation above the George Best Bar (for people who dont know, George Best was a alcholic soccer ledgend who died from liver disease) - good name for a pub!? The hostel owner Robi organised everything for us over a few beers, introducing us to Canyoning Bob and the tour organiser for the Emerald tour.

Canyoning was awesome, right up there with paragliding. Fi says its the best thing she's ever done - what could be better than sliding, jumping and abseiling down canyons and waterfalls? There was even a flying fox! Bob was sensational for an old bloke (40) and the next day we were sorry to hear he hurt his back and couldnt take us canyoning again. He probably hurt it when urged him to jump off a 4m waterfall through a narrow gap that we had all slid down... didn't think he'd actually do it the crazy guy! Crazy Bob with the coolest job ever.

Fi on the speed slide

Rapelling down a waterfall

The "Emerald tour" took us all over the national park's Julliane Alps. We hiked through the highest pass of the alps, saw the face of the lady imprisioned in rock, scrambled rocks to the source of the soca river, then went white water rafting on it - the best in Slovenia. The water was a brilliant light blue colour, and the rapids were especially good due to the terrential rain we had had the previous day. The rafting guide was great, making us walk around the edge of the boat (and therefore fall in), and turned the raft over on "penguin rock" so we could bellyslide down it! So fun, except the raft left without a few of us and we had to bob down the rapids to catch it - a little scary... We also hiked to a waterfall in a gorge, but it was too cold to swim in it- apparently only 6° in the water. Kate and I were gutsy enough to jump off a 12m bridge, despite the freezing waters below, Fi was impressed! We rode a train in the car and had beers on the train. It was a fantastic day and the best way to see all of the national park.

The Goldenhorn monument at the base of the alps with our tour group

Rafting the Soca river

Bled has a gorgeous lake, there is a castle sitting up high on one end. There is an island in the middle of it with a byzantine church. It's about 6km around and I ran it one morning with Kate. There was a nearby gorge which we tried to walk to by i misheard the directions and took us down the wrong road on a 2 hour wild goose chase. But we did see some nice towns along the way. Ther other thing Bled is famous for, so we found out, was there cream cake - pretty much the most delicious french vanilla slice we have ever wrapped our lips around....

Next stop Italy - Venice, Bolognese in Bologna, Florence Rome etc...