Slovenia: Bled

Zirovnica, Slovenia: dusk from the hostel patio
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Another early wake up call in Zirovnica, except this time it wasn't Papa Damien...it was Rachel Verbeek, my travelling partner from Denver who I met in Bulgaria the previous year and travelled to South America with last December.

She had quite the long flight / train from Denver to this small town in northwestern Slovenia, so Papa let us sleep a little longer before our drunk transport into town.

Hiking, Tobogganing, Rowing, Drinking

Bled, Slovenia: view from the top of the osujnica trail
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After walking around the lake again, we rented a small row boat and rowed ourselves out to the island.  Although it only took about 20 minutes to row to the island, it was still a heavy workout since I haven't been to the gym in a hot minute.

The island was quaint, composed of the main church and a couple small souvenir shops.

Everyone is allowed to ring the bell at the church by pulling hard on the long rope...definitely a little harder than it looks.

While on the island we met two great Australians, Scott and Chris, who accompanied us on yet another trek up the steep and tiring Osujnica trail...the view is too irresistible.

Zirovnica, Slovenia: mama, me, papa, and rachel
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On the way back into town, we came across an odd recreational attraction - a long, steep summer toboggan run.  It looks like a winding roller coaster, except you're sitting on a miniature yellow plastic thing with a flimsy brake.

Well, it goes quite fast and can actually be scary at times.

While it looked like a huge run, it only took about three minutes to get down to the bottom of the mountain...an interesting time to say the least.

Back in Zirovnica, everyone had a few Union beers until Papa cut us off because it was getting late (10:00 p.m.).

Bled, Slovenia: ringing the church bell
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We would have been mad if it weren't for the immensely filling goulash from Mama, so we arranged with the Aussies to meet early the following morning for a trip out to Lake Bohinj (bo-heen-yuh) and Mount Triglav, Slovenia's highest mountain.

This sentence is only here so I can get that third photo in the entry - holla!