Beautiful Slovenia

Guess what? I'm on another hiking trip. Not much of a surprise for those who know me. I have continued my exploration of the Balkans and I'm this time checking out Slovenia. I have earlier hiked in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania (Transylvania). I like to hike in this part of the world. The mountains are beautiful and quite friendly. Not as tough as they can be in other parts.

Once again I'm traveling with my friend Erika. She is as found of hiking as I am AND she also enjoys food and wine. I have travelled with friends that haven't enjoyed the later and that is so boring. So Erika is kind of the perfect travel partner for me.

With that in mind we started of our trip by drinking champagne on the plane down to Venice to celebrate the start of our vacation (we flew to Venice and from there we took the bus to Slovenia) and continued with having a beer in the sun as soon as got down to Kranjska Gora in Slovenian, which was our base for our trip. Just the kind of start that I like.

Since the days are not that very different on a hiking trip: You get up early, eat a big breakfast, prepare your back-pack and go hiking while enjoying BEAUTIFUL views I decided to do it a bit different this time. I will make just one blog post, but a bit longer and with the most important headings. And I will just upload a slideshow instead. Let me know what you think.

Views
When you spend your whole day outdoors hiking, the views are quite important. Luckily the views of Slovenia where amazing. You could see both rough rocks, beautiful grass hills, cozy forest, plenty of flowers and of course many sheep and cows. On top of that we actually got to see 2 countries, since we hiked on the border to Austria. You can sum it up in one word: Amazing! Check it out on the slide show on Youtube. You find the link below.

Hiking trails
I think I have tried it all, except of climbing when it comes to trails. And of course I have developed a certain taste for it. I like the trails to be trails, not roads. I want them to be quite steep uphill at times, but of course I enjoy the flat hikes as well. I'm not too found of trails with a lot of downhill. It hurts my knees and I'm very slow. On this trip I got what I wanted when it came to the uphill and flat, but it was a bit too much of downhill hikes. One of the days our uphill part of the hike was only a couple of hours and then it was downhill for  more than four hours. It was not my favorite. Luckily the views were still amazing.

Accommodation
We stayed at a 4 star hotel, so I can't really complain about the standard, but I found the trip to loose a bit of its charm when everything is so fancy. I like the tents, simple hostels and home stays that I have experienced on the other trips. But of course - everything is a lot simpler when you are staying at one place.

Food
We ate at the hotel every day except one. I don't really like that. You don't get to experience the food of the country then. At the hotel they also had some theme nights (Slovenian, Italian and Mediterranean). So what can I say about it? It was OK. Not fantastic, not bad, just average. And I think I,  the final night of the trip, drank the worst red wine I have ever had. We left most of the bottle on the table.

Weather
When I go on a trip I usually don't have any expectations on the weather. For me the trips are much more about exploring a new place, meeting new people, learning new things than enjoying the sun. But of course I'm happy if it is not raining the whole time. So when the weather report showed, before we started the trip, thunderstorm and rain every day, I got a bit worried. Would my gear even manage that? The first day started of quite cloudy, not too warm and we got to see the sun in between. The second day started in the same way, but just after lunch the rain came. And what a rain!!! I have never seen so big rain drops in my whole life. It was just pouring down for hours. When we finally reached the end of the hike we were all soaked. No rain gear in the world can take that kind of a rain. But the next day the weather changed and it was hot and sunny the rest of the week. So we can't complain about the weather. It just meant that we had to carry a lot more water. :-)

The Group
To travel with Erika is a joy. We seem to be synchronized all the time and we have a lot of fun. But we are not alone on a trip like this. We were in total 15 people including our 2 guides (one in training). The strange thing is that we, this time, didn't have any local guide, which has been the case on every hiking trip I have done so far. I missed the local guides a little, since they always know a lot more about the country in general and the area we are hiking in particular. But I can't complain - we had a great guide. The group itself was a lot of fun and we managed to discuss mostly everything (politics, travelling, work, therapy, love and so on) during our breakfasts and dinners together. While hiking we didn't start any heavier discussions.

Summary
So how would I rate the Slovenian hiking trip? I would give it a 4- out of 5. The long down hill hike and the lack of charm and great food at the hotel took down the grade. The views and the great company provided the plus points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg72R2MXF-k&feature=youtu.be