Our last day in Slovenia started with some breakfast in our little mountain cottage. Last night we had asked what their version of “cottage cheese” was and we still aren’t entirely sure because it’s definitely not what we think of when we say cottage cheese. It was more of a crumbly cream cheese or something. But absolutely delicious! My mom got her coffee served with a rose… I didn’t get any coffee. Obviously some favoritism at work here. Next we hopped in our car and drove to the Soca River Gorge (Soca has one of those little triangles over the ‘c’ but I can’t put it in with wordpress – it’s pronouced so-cha). The water gets to be this really brilliant light blue/green because of all the dissolved limestone in it. And it’s fantastically clear! For good reason the gorge is the most photographed spot of the river, so we joined in
Next we drove up to the “Mangartsko sedlo” or “Mangart’s Saddle.” Well, we drove most of the way and then we took a pretty easy hike the rest of the way up! This is the highest point that you can drive to while in Slovenia and it is actually pretty much directly on the border with Italy, so you can walk into Italy as well. The area was absolutely full of blooming wildflowers which was awesome. It also offered some sweet views of both Italy and Slovenia. Apparently after WWII the American soldiers stationed in the area formed some relationships with the locals and they had a ski race of some sort. I don’t think any of them actually knew how to ski because like 80% of them didn’t finish the race.
Next we stopped at a little fort that has been there in some form since the Roman times and has been destroyed by Napoleon and by Italian solders during WWI. It guarded a bridge over the gorge and provided easier access deeper into the valley. Slovenia was strategically important during WWI because the Alps here are at their lowest point. It’s much easier to cross 2000m mountains than 5000m mountains apparently. Our next stop was to an Austro-Hungarian trench where we had a very pleasant surprise waiting for us – a WWI reenactor! He was decked out like a captain in the Italian army (despite being in an Austrian trench) and gave us the history of the war in the region (the Soca Front) and a little bit more of the specifics of what it was like being in the trench. It sounds like it was pretty much the worst. He showed us some of the “trench art” that he has found over the years and then gave us a little tour of the trenches. They were normally built around a central cavern so that the soldiers wouldn’t get killed during the bombardment and had all sorts of defensive features to make them hard to overtake. The front pretty much never moved in this area of Slovenia, but there also weren’t too many huge offensives (unlike southern Slovenia where there were a lot).
Next we rushed over to the supermarket to grab some lunch before our next adventure – rafting the Soca River! Domen had arranged for us to meet the guides at the river so we’d have maximum time to learn about WWI and eat and change. Of course this meant that the guides then forgot to bring us life jackets so we had to wait for them to realize this, then go and get some. But no worries! In our boat it was me and my mom and a German family of 4. It was really cool because the Germans spent most of the time talking in English so we had some idea what they were saying. They were also pretty much fluent… we definitely miss the boat on that in the states. Anyway, the rafting was a huge amount of fun. The river was… refreshing so you needed a wetsuit, and the guide made sure that we got into the water a lot to stay cool. They also set up the raft as a slide/jumping point which was really fun. Then me and one of the German girls took the opportunity to climb on top of a big ol’ rock and jump into the water. It was probably like a 12-15 ft jump, very exhilarating! (The Germans all wanted to know what exhilarating meant). Our guide had to yell at us a couple times because we were way out of sync with rowing, but we managed to make it pretty much in one piece.
I didn’t take my camera rafting so no pictures of this either unfortunately! While we were rafting pops was relaxing and drinking a beer and reading his book.
All of the pictures of our final stop – Hiša Franko are on my mom’s camera so I’ll try to upload them later. We changed to business casual-esque attire and were seated outside for our 8 course tasting menu. We all opted to do the wine pairing… and I think the only thing I would’ve changed would be to have less wine. I didn’t think I’d ever write those words down but they kept filling our glasses! Anyway, the meal was absolutely delicious – each dish came with special instructions on how to eat it. Some were better than others (I thought the special sardine with carrots pretty much just tasted like sardine with carrots) but I think my favorite was either the first dish we got or the Soca river trout. That was delicious! Also the last dish was immaculately cooked roebuck (doe venison) and it was amazing! Everything was good and we finished our meal with some cheese on the outside terrace. Mom got a little starstruck when Anna Roš came and said “Hi” which might’ve been the highlight for the meal!
We then packed up and drove back to the Venice airport to get some sleep before out flight. Domen and I chatted on the ride back while my parents slept most of the way. It was really cool learning all about Slovenia from him, although he was definitely a little more adventurous than we were (didn’t take much). He was knowledgeable about all sorts of things with the history of the country, hiking, skiing, language, just everything! We woke up and went to the airport only to find that my flight wasn’t until Saturday! After trying to see if it could be changed we decided it’d just be easier for me to stay an extra day in Venice. So I got a room at the airport Marriott and took a nice long nap before navigating the bus system to Venice. It was really easy… I walked out the door, crossed the street and caught the bus that makes its last stop in Venice about 20 minutes later!
My first stop was for some food and sunscreen at the train station. I got a ham and cheese sandwich but I should’ve gotten pizza because apparently they have an actual wood fired oven. Afterwards I decided I was an expert at navigating Venice using the sun and my handy mental map so I set out to find Piazza San Marco. I found a supermarket where I bought some water because it was cheaper than on the streets. Then after an unknown amount of time I found a sign saying that I was close to where I wanted to go. I read what all the things were that I was going to see and decided to brave the ocean of other tourists that were there. I snapped some pictures – the basilica there is pretty darn impressive! I didn’t go inside though because I didn’t want to wait in line with 2 berjillion of my closest friends. I then started navigating back to where I started but accidentally went East instead of North. I found this out when I ended up at a road that bordered the lagoon. I powered up my phone to check my GPS coordinates and re-oriented myself a couple times until I found the old gym building that Lucia had shown us on our walking tour!
Flush with confidence in where I was I went to the amazing gelato place she had taken us to and got some gelato. Then I walked back up to the place where geno the pig was but he wasn’t out and they don’t have a menu so I just ordered some roboso (sparkling red wine) and drank it there. Everyone else in the restaurant was definitely Venetian. I got some pasta then which was good but I think I had been spoiled with food the past couple of days so it lost a little bit of luster. A storm started to roll in so I made my way back to the bus station and took a not so relaxing/super crowded/super hot bus ride back to my hotel. To leave on the correct day.
Great post! Such amazing pictures!