I met my mate Igor at the airport in Ljubjana and my first of many surprises in Slovenia was the heat. It was over 25 degrees celcius when I arrived and stayed that temperature throughout the week I was there.
Igor lead me on a tour through the capital city before we ate the biggest pizzas I have ever seen. Following dinner we heading out to a nightclub in a big warehouse just outside of town that Igor's flatmate knew about. I was often confused by the locals as being a Slovenian as foreigners at this club are a rarity. All the locals were very friendly and after a surprised reaction when I told them I was from Australia they were quick to demonstrate their knowledge of Aussie lingo.
For the weekend Igor took me to his family home in Bresje just outside Bled in the north of the country. After hiking up a small mountain and exploring remains of old castles we made our way to the beautiful Lake Bled where Igor, his brother and I all swam out to the church on the islet. The water was surprising warm considering some of the surrounding mountains still had snow on them.
I met Igor's girlfriend Nina after dinner and we went for a walk through Igor's village while he explained to me the significance of the church just around the corner from his house. Many thousands of people attend the church each weekend. It is an especially prominent church for Catholics as it is said miracles have taken place there. Ericted outside the Church is a statue of Pope John Paul after his visit to the church in 1997.
Sunday morning Igor and I headed out to the airport as he wished to do some flying. After a quick bit of talking he organised for me to go acrobatic gliding with one of the head pilots of the airport. Igor was wanting to fly me himself although the weather conditions and the fact the head pilot was in a bad mood stopped that. It was still amazing. I was just hanging on and trying to take it all in as we flipped upside down, span sideways and did all sorts of tricks on our way back to the ground. The flight lasted about 15 minutes including the time getting towed up.
There was still another surprise in store for the day. Igor, his older brother Ulrich and I went for a walk through a national park just near his house with some very fast flowing rivers with clear water.
On Monday Igor drove me through basically the whole west side of the country. I think he was just showing off today. Our first stop was atop a snow covered mountain before we drove down into a valley past some very light blue lakes on our way to the very squished stretch of coast on the Adriatic. The hot weather made it very inviting to swim although we were unprepared as we had just planned to visit the mountain.
Exploring the natural landscapes had been a welcome change from the city exploring I had been doing for almost a month, although it was now time to head back into Ljubjana.
Igor had to do some work so he dropped me in the city before returnig to his home in Bresje. He gave me a free day to explore the city and just by chance it was the same day that three Aussie guys I met on my ANZAC Day tour where going to be there.
So Dan, Glenn, Andrew and I along with three Canadian girls who were staying at their hostel spent the day exploring the sights of the Ljubjana. You can see all the sights in a day as it is only a small city. We bought breakfast at the local market then made our way up to the city with views overlooking the city.
We spent a few hours just eating lunch and sharing stories about our respective trips before finding the Dragon bridge. The most famous icon of the city, a bridge with Dragon statues at each end.
We ate dinner again at the Pizza restaurant Igor had shown me. It had over 80 types of Pizzas you could choose from. We then drank for a few hours on our of the many bridges across Ljubljanca, the river that runs through the city.
Then on my final day in Slovenia I explored some more before heaving rain kept me inside and I rested up before Igor drove me to the airport for my flight back to London.
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