On our second weekend here in Venice I decided to take a trip to Slovenia to go hiking in the Julian Alps! On Thursday morning I woke up early to pack my small backpack with everything I would need for a weekend of exploration. Once my bag was packed I headed first to class and then to work lugging around roughly half of all my belongings here in Venice. Once we wrapped up our project of the day at work, I hurried over to the train station here on the main island in Venice to catch my Train.
The train I took was Austrian and swiftly took me up out of Italy and into Austria. The trip on that first train was around three hours before I had to switch. I ran to my next train as we had been slightly delayed at the border and made it just in the nick of time.
My next train took me down from Austria and into Slovenia where I got off around 20 minutes out side of beautiful Lake Bled. From the train station I took a bus down to the Lake side town of Bled where I would be staying for the night. On the particular night that I was there Italy was playing Spain in the group stages of the Euros. Everyone at my hostel was standing around the bar and cheering so I of course joined in routing for my now home team of Italy!
The next morning I woke up and immediately hopped on a bus over to Lake Bohinj where I would start my hike into the alps. The first day of hiking was just around 10 miles and over 5,000 feet of elevation!! However, I knew I could do it and started out on my trek at around 10am. My destination was a rifugio or mountain hut called Vodkinov Dom. After climbing up an extremely steep mountain pass and considering turning back I finally made it to the hut where I got to sit and enjoy the view while having lunch. After lunch I passed the time by talking with fellow hikers who were staying at the hut. I played a few hands of cards with a german family and even met a couple who was from Boston!
However, this was also when I received the bad news that my trip would most likely be cut short. The route I had been planning on taking the next day was actually not possible due to extreme amounts of snow close to the summit. With this news I was very upset and found out that I would in fact have to try again at another time. With this sad news I planned a new route down the mountain as to not back track and after having mountain hut bolognese for dinner I went to bed.
In the morning I descended back down to lake Bohinj where I ended up staying the night. At the lake I got to swim and sit by the beach as well as cliff jump and read. It ended up being an extremely lovely trip regardless of last minute change of plans. If you are interested in hiking as well I would definitely recommend Slovenia and Triglav national park. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been!
Here are some more pictures from my trip!
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