Carinthian Beauty: Lake Bled, Slovenia

The most intriguing sights in and around Lake Bled are definitely Triglavsky National Park and Vintgar Gorge (which you'll see on almost every postcard in Bled),the pure and fresh smelling countryside, town markets and the gastronomically enthroned local restaurants. The 9th-century church on the island was well worth the trip in the motorised boat and a walk along the entire lakeside will prove fruitful upon seeing Tito's residence and the unspoilt nature surrounding the village. The castle atop the cliff is a must and create an excellent view of the Julian Alps and Bled from above.

Quick Tips:

You MUST try Okarina - one of the best restaurants and strangely mixed cooking sensations I have ever experienced! Vila Prešeren is also a great choice along with Pub restaurant "Pri planincu" which will give you a good, authentic taste of Slovenian gastronomical injections!

Best Way To Get Around:

The Alpen Tour buses are amazingly on time and cheap . . . you could do best in a rental car going on a day trip to Ljubljana or to Lake Bohinj, but we got around just fine on the buses and trains.

Being a budget traveler, Hotel Jelovica offered everything I could imagine--at a great price, too. Go in the fall when there are off-season rates and fewer tourists. It was immaculately clean and the staff was very helpful and spoke English.

Hotel Jelovica Bled
kategorija ***
Cesta svobode 8, 4260 Bled
tel.: + 386-4-5796 000
fax.:+ 386-4-5741 550
www.hotel-jelovica.si
e-mail: jelovica@hotel-jelovica.si

Okarina: small clay flute . . . Okarina . . . what can I say -- if I could have afforded it, I would have eaten here for all my nights stay in Bled.

What an amazing and strange combination -- the owner does a traditional Slovenian menu and mixes in, here and there, a bit of Tandoori Indian tikka masala and naan bread!!! Fantastic trout fresh from the lake that day was amazingly pan-fried and topped with maple syrup. Also serving traditional dishes like jota and venison (the best in the area!!!) and for dessert, they make a mean kremna rezina, the most tantialising cream cake concoction you'll ever see, taste, and experience!

A must at least one night during your stay in Bled because once you go you'll never stop talking about it - plus, most visitors will go and because it's very intimate and close dining, you'll meet many interesting travellers there!

Walking into the Blegas was as traditional a sight as you can get here in Slovenia. Servers dressed in traditional costume and usually there is Slovenian entertainment every night. The night we went there was a magician who did half his show in English and half in Slovenian -- very bizarre atmosphere.

But well worth the experience for the local cuisine!!! And VERY affordable! We ate for two with a bottle of wine for under $20 for both of us -- that included starters( more than one each!), mains and a dessert! A Gastronomical explosion -- literally. The portions are amazingly large. I was intrigued by the description of my main being in the shape of a boat -- so I ordered it our of curiosity -- and, well, it was shaped just like a boat!

Most servers spoke English or German and an extremely warming atmosphere and scrummy Slovenian red wine made us stay for the magic show!

Bizarre enough, but this place is open late and its specialty is, well, pizzas! Along with much of the local cuisine, we actually didn't feel like the BIG served dinner that's very common in Slovenia . . . so we had starters and pizza!

The atmosphere is great as you walk in there is a bar to the right where you can sit to wait for a table -- strangely decorated behind the bar and on the ceiling with licence plates from all over the world -- many were from provinces of Canada!!! And drivers licences are posted behind the bar too -- probably reminants from the guests at the youth hostel up the street!

Wine is great and cheap, food is hot, satisfying and the server threatened to make me wash the dishes if I didn't finish everything on my plate! A great place to go for a relaxing meal and some fun!

Miraculously, the 1600m of woodwork that follows the gorge was built in 1893. It's still mostly the original wood and work -- but you can see the patches where they have replaced many planks along the way. Looking down into the Gorge, gives you a sense of coolness as the water looks purely green. You can watch fresh water trout swimming by under your feet and may alos enounter bears along the way -- don't be alarmed as they are mainly fishing in the river and could care less of passers-by. Just make sure you make a lot of noise -- they are more likely to ignore you if they know you exist! The waterfall along the gorge is called Sum and the walk only costs 400 SIT.