Bled, Slovenia

I arrived in Bled, Slovenia this morning after a short 1 hour bus ride. This was the shortest travel day of my trip and I enjoyed it! The woman at the bank in Ljubljana told me that Lake Bled was a "National Jewel." She wasn't lying. Lake Bled is the pride of Slovenia without a doubt. The lake is at the foot of the Julian Alps. I walked all the way around the lake today. It took about 2 hours, but I strolled and took a lot of pictures. People were swimming and lounging around in the sun. I dipped my feet for a little while and the water was great! It is so clean and clear. You can see fish swimming around and straight to bottom along the shoreline.



There is also a castle up on the top of a cliff that overlooks the lake. The hike up was not pretty but when I got to the top of the castle the view of the lake was amazing. The castle was built in 1051 and they had a great little museum and printing press. It was actually really interesting. (history nerd alert). I also stayed and saw the play they put on in the courtyard. It was like when the castle was really functioning. There was singing, dancing and a jester making jokes. There weren't very many people watching, maybe 30 people. So, it seemed really small and you got a sense of what it was probably like back in the 1200's.

I asked a few people today about Slovenia becoming an independent country and no longer being a part of Yugoslavia. People seemed to not care much about that process. They became independent relatively easy compared to the other former Yugoslav nations. There is a dispute with Croatia right now about a border and Slovenia blocked Croatia's admittance to the European Union because of it. There is clearly some lingering hostilitites there and don't forget no bank would exchange my Serbian money. That can't be a coincidence. Bled is close to both the Italian and Austrain borders and has always been a recreation spot for the wealthy. I assume that during the breakup of Yugoslavia, people here probably felt relatively protected. It continues to be very interesting learning about the politics and the ethnic and/or religious divides throughout these countries.