Slovenia

The train ride from Budapest to Ljubljana, Slovenia was nine hours. The trip went fairly quick, with the exception being the the  border crossing into Croatia. Croatia is a member of the EU, but it is not a part of the Schengen Area, yet. Therefore ( I now know), your passport has to get checked when entering Croatia. So leaving Hungary, the border control comes on the train and stamps you out of Hungary... then the Croatian police come on and check you into Croatia (and then again out of Croatia and into Slovenia). Not knowing this was coming, I was pretty confused (and alarmed). It all worked out and I made it through....4 stamps later.

I didn't make it to Ljubljana until midnight. It is usually never in the plan to arrive at a city so late, but this was the only train, and I selected a hostel fairly close to the train station. Also, Ljubljana is ranked as one of the safest city capitals in the world, so I was fairly confident and comfortable walking through town, even so late at night.

My hostel was really cool! It was an old bank that had been converted to a hostel. The kitchen was in "the vault" and there were filing cabinets as lockers...lots of nice touches. 

The next morning I got up and did a walking tour of Ljubljana. It is a really small town, but so charming! Unlike a lot of the countries that had been a previous part of Yugoslavia, Slovenia was spared much of the war that it's neighbors witnessed, and therefore, is quite in tact. 

After the tour I took a bus ride to Lake Bled, a town I had been really looking forward to visiting. I happened to be on the bus with three people that I recognized from the train the night before. They were on the same schedule as me, and happened to be staying at the same place in Bled. We arrived at our hostel, a really great place with a friendly host, and inviting atmosphere. Our host warned us that the weather didn't look too good for the next few days. As much as I tried to ignore his comments, he was right! The next two days were straight RAIN (and I mean cats and dogs)! It was really sad, because the lake was beautiful, and usually you can see the Julian Alps. I've added a picture of what it usually looks like on the hike the hostel takes every day (that we didn't get to take for safety reasons). 

Despite the rain, a few of us went out to hike up a gorge. It was still pretty, despite the rain. The water was so green! I can only imagine the place in nice weather.

That night was pretty chill. The good part was every one at the hostel was stuck inside due to the rain, so we all cooked dinner and watched a movie together. 

The next day I walked the loop around Lake Bled. It was a beautiful walk, and a perfect loop (3 miles). I was thankful for my rain jacket and umbrella, that's for sure.

I did get quite familar (along with a lot of others) to the cafe down the hill from the hostel. It had the most delicious, "Cream Cake." What a delicious treat, that was extremely popular, and a treat typical of Bled.

Later that day I took an hour bus ride to get to my place where I was staying (near to the airport). The town, Kranj, was surprisingly really cute and despite the rain I got out and explored the town and canyon that ran right through the middle of town. 

After a very odd evening (too weird to write about) I woke up at 4:30am to catch the bus to the airport. After a change in bus schedule, I ended up having to take a different bus than expected and barely arrived at the airport in time for my flight! Phew, I've never been that close to a flight. I had purchased the flight for really cheap, never got a confirmation, and had never heard of the airline, so honestly, I was just happy the flight was real! It turned out to be a great flight...very few people on board and free baggage check (unheard of, right!).

By 8am, I was in Paris!