Bohinj and the Mines of Moria

Our adventure in Bohinj (pronounced bwah-HEEN) started out by being over zealous and getting off one bus stop before our hostel. Such is the life of a world traveler. After asking the information center where the hostel was we walked two kilometers (hooray for packing light!) to our hostel. It turned out to be quite a nice walk along the lake and got us oriented with the area. Once we arrived we were told the hostel didn't have a kitchen for making our own dinner, so we walked back into town, without backpacks this time, and ate at one of the few restaurants. Katie and I shared a vegetarian pizza and a pint of beer and then walked back to the hostel around dusk. A lot more walking than we had initially planned.

Bohinj just before dusk

The second day started with free breakfast provided by the hostel and a recommendation to hike up and through a canyon towards Mt. Triglav. A few kilometers from the start there is a hut that serves a few dishes for lunch. We each had a generous portion of barley soup with bread while overlooking Mt. Triglav, the tallest mountain in Slovenia.  The rest of our day was spent hiking back down and deciding how far into town we wanted to walk from our hostel for dinner.  Turns out, not very far.  The closest restaurant was a little grill and Katie had nutella pancakes while I had trout (served whole) with vegetables and salad.

Broken bridge and the hut where we had lunch

Checking things out towards the end of our hike

The following day we caught the bus (at the correct bus stop) to the Bohinj Bistrica train station, and then the train to Divaça. One of reasons we were headed to Divaça (via Most Na Soci) was for the train ride through the Julian Alps. The train actually consisted of a train to a bus to a train because a portion of the track was under construction and the bus transfer was a bit of a winding and harrowing cliffside ride.

View across the street while waiting for the bus in Bohinj

We didn't have reservations for a place to stay in Divaça but we had emailed a bed and breakfast a day or two earlier.  We hadn't heard back from the bed and breakfast before we left in the morning but figured since it was the off season we would be able to turn up and get a room, or at least a recommendation for a place to stay. Once we arrived we walked three kilometers on the side of a major roadway to the general area we thought the bed and breakfast was in and, after asking for directions, found it closed. Crap. Here we were in BFE Slovenia with no place to stay and we had just walked three kilometers from the train station. We weighed our options: go back to the train station and stay at one of two hotels (probably expensive), go back to the train station and try to catch a train to a more major city with a hostel, cry, or try to find some other place to stay near our current location. Just as we were about to pickup our backpacks and execute plan X (I can't remember what we decided) the door to the bed and breakfast opened. What a relief. Tamara said she had emailed us back that morning to say they had a room for us, but we never got it because we were on the train.

The room was lovely, breakfast the next morning was fantastic (orange juice, tea, yogurt with dried bananas and honey, toasted bread, cheeses, meats, homemade peach jelly, and honey on the front porch) and we were right by the caves.

To see the caves you have to be part of a tour.  This isn't Lurray Caverns to be sure (one of two caves I have been to before this).  In the main cave the distance from floor to ceiling was 100 meters (328 feet).  A river ran for two kilometers through the cave system.  And best of all, the walking path was halfway up the wall and illuminated every 10 feet or so by a small light, giving the illusion of being in a dwarf cave.  It was like we were in the Mines of Moria.  Amazing.

No pictures were allowed in the caves but that didn't stop me from snapping a few terrible ones. If you google for Skocjan Caves you're bound to find some better ones.

At noon our delightful B&B owner picked us up from the caves and drove us to Sezana where we could catch the train to Graz, Austria, our next destination.