In slovenia ...Since leaving the south of Italy on Monday, I have travelled to Venice in the north and stayed a day before moving onto Slovenia. From Venice on Wednesday morning, I took a two hour train to the Slovene border at Gorizia. I tried getting on a bus to go to the Slovene side but I was told that the bus was only for EU citizens....so, I tried to find a new way to my destination, the border town of Nova Gorica...luckily a woman buying cigarettes at the station overheard my troubles and offered me a ride into Slovenia....good stuff...only took a few minutes and I was there at the bus station...I changed my euros and got 10,000 SIT...I'm rich!..

From there I took the bus up to Bovec, which is in the Julian alps...beautiful mountians with white sand riverbeds and crystal clear water....great alpine drinking water...Bovec is a tourist center, kind of a resort town, I imagine a bit like Banff..I was there for two nights, one day....Wednesday nite, I roamed around with my pack looking for campgrounds to set up my hammock, but they were packed with tourists and kids and were charging 6 euros to stay...no thanks....I walked about 15 minutes down the main road and found a spot in the woods to set up camp....once set up I hit the town for a drink and watched a bit of soccer before heading back to sleep....It was too cold though, even with my many layers of clothes I was freezing by 2am, so I got up and walked into town and slept the rest of the night where it was a bit warmer...Next morning, woke up at 6am and headed back to camp to collect stuff for the day of canyoning...I rented a mountain bike for the day at a place downtown and took the ride to the 'extreme' sports place....On the way I passed by the Bovec airfield where people were setting up to do some sky diving...there was also someone with a little single prop job in the air pulling barrel rolls, loops and other manouvers at 8 am...

Canyoning was great...you take the jeep up to the start, put on your neoprene suit and hike about 25 minutes up the canyon to the start....from there, you plunge down waterfalls, either sliding or jumping from pothole to pothole...the water at 5m deep is absolutely clear....we did a bunch of nice jumps and waterfalls....my favorite was a 5m waterfall that was into a cave...

The rest of the day in Bovec, I spent on the bike, doing tours and site seeing into the national park and around the soca river...I tried swimming once but it was freezing cold...Also saw a bit of WWI history, as the front line was about 500m from my campsite...Really creepy caves...Near Bovec, in Kobarid, one of the bloodiest battles in WWI took place...At night, I went out for a few beers and a meal and had a little talk with some tourists, saw some local music and dancing and then returned to my campsite...this time, I had a sleeping bag and everything was nice and cozy..

Friday morning, I took the 8am bus to Bled, a mountain lake with a church on an island (the big attraction) and therefore tourist sight...The busride through the mountains was intense, beautiful and stressful...I kept thinking we'd tip over and roll all the way down the valley...once in Bled, I quickly made it to the lake and dropped off my bag to take a swim...I swam to the island to check out the church and it was just a church...but the water was terriffic...there are no moter vehicles allowed on the lake...After a large meal for lunch of traditional cuisine (pork chops, potatoes) I was on the bus again to Ljubljana...

Arrived in Ljubs and after finding the hostel, took off to the downtown for a bit of a stroll...the place is tiny (200,000 people) so you can see all there is in about a day....the architecture is beautiful and it is a very clean and well planned city...the center is lively and there are tons of original shops and cafes....a very good vibe here...Today, just sight seeing...went to the Ljubljana castle and saw some buildings by the most famous of Slovenian architects....Now, using the internet at the bar (free!), drinking a green Zlatorog beer, gettin ready to take a early night....maybe....

Tomorrow I have a 8 hour train to Budapest where I'll meet up with Barna, a hungarian guy who'll be hosting me at his home for the night...Budapest for three days then off to Slovakia...I'll try to keep adding as much as I can, but I don't know if I'll have the free internet all the time....!...and photos, I'll try on that one too....

Ciao,ciao,P  ¶ 09:13