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This morning I had a couple hours to kill, so I did it. I broke the pattern, and walked into Italy.

Ciao Italia!

I had planned to see the castle, but only now I realized it was way too far away to come back in time. Oh well, so I ended up just walking 15 min in some random Italian streets of Gorizia. At least, I got to cross the border back by walking over the remnant of the old border fence, and felt like a total thug going over Berlin’s wall.

Pozdravljena Slovenija!

Anyway, once in the train for Bled, I instantly go back to marvelling at the crazy countryside, as we follow the pale whiteish blue Soča river.

Bled train station is quite up the mountains from the lake, and it’s on the West side, while the town is around the Eastern half, so it’s quite a hike from there. I was surprised to find some kind of sport festival event going on just below the station. It was called « Spartians » or something, and was a kind of open obstacle course. It looked fun but quite noisy, and it also meant much more people here this week-end.

Ah, lake Bled, beautiful, wonderful turquoise lake of pristine water. It’s so lovely to be back. Last time, in 2019, I didn’t stay for very long. This time I’ll make the best of it.

I walked on the North shore, and found my hostel very close to the castle. Still, I couldn’t see it from there, as it’s perched high up a cliff that hides it from too close. Following the hostel guy recommendations, I walked all around the South part, and climbed up the small mountain of Ojstrica. Quite why I thought it was a brilliant idea to not take my bag, and thus no water or food, is puzzling. I struggled so hard to climb there (after almost an hour of walking around the lake)! The sickness might have been for something in there though.

Anyway, the view point was well worth it, and it relieved me somehow of my frustration of not having anything to drink. I went down, finally had a drink, but then I still had a good half hour walk back to the hostel. That’s where, funnily, I came across a group of people I had seen in the Split [Split, Croatia]-Zagreb train a few days ago. When i reached it, it was clear that I needed to sleep for a while. I had no energy left whatsoever, and my hopes of getting on a boat to the famous Bled Lake island were drowned.

I left before sunset, for another short climb, to catch a glimpse of the sunset near the castle. And then pizza.