Jan 10 2008
New Year’s Eve and Skiing in Slovenia
For New Year’s Eve we drove north to Lake Bled, Slovenia. The town had been so highly recommended by many people coming into our laundromat in Split that we decided we had to visit.
The 6 hour drive up the auto cesta from Split to Bled took us around Rijeka and Ljubljana. The thick covering of snow on the ground in Lika got us really excited. However arriving in Lake Bled we were disappointed to see not so much snow on the ground.
In Bled we booked into Hotel Berc run by Luka and his family. It is not really a hotel, but a recently built pension. Luka’s brother already runs Pension Berc across the road in the original family house.
The next day, Luka told us that the temperatures were low enough for snow-making, so Aklie and I decided to try out Krvavec, about 35kms away, for his first day of skiing. We took the gondola up the mountain (approx. 1500m), well above the day’s clouds. We had perfect sunshine the whole day. Hiring skis was a nightmare as the rental store is tiny. It would have been better to rent equipment in Bled. Aklie enjoyed his first lesson on the ‘bunny’ slope and the round-about.
That night we had steaks at Gostilna Pri Planincu, a pub with car number-plates from all over the world plastering the walls. The first thing we noted, coming from Croatia, was the lack of smoke. Slovenia now has laws banning smoking in pubs, cafes and restaurants.
Instead of driving for 40 minutes and catching the gondola up the mountain, the next morning we simply walked 100 yards to the Straža, a small chairlift in the centre of Bled. Going there not only saved time but also money. Aklie again had a lesson and when he got tired we simply walked back to the hotel.
The variety of restaurants in Split is limited, so for something different we went to the Peking Chinese Restaurant. The family which own it arrived 10 years ago from mainland China - how do you decide to leave China and end up in a small town in Slovenia? The food was good.
Not only could we walk to the ski-slope or the town’s restaurants but next door was the Hotel Golf with its heated pools, spas and slides. We dove in for the day. One indoor/outdoor pool had a view across the lake to the 11th Century Bled Castle on the opposite side.
We were invited to join 2 English families and one from San Diego for New Year’s Eve Dinner and their Talent Show after. They had bought a couple of impressive bottles of Slovenian wine during the day and made a big pot of chilli. The Talent Show went from the absurd, with a Monty Python sketch, through the depressing, with a Wilfred Owen poem, to the post-modern, with Kerry’s contemporary adaptations of nursery rhymes. We then headed down the riva, or waterfront, to drink mulled wine, set-off fireworks and countdown to midnight.
The Elan Ski Factory is a 10 minute drive from Lake Bled. Thinking that they might have a factory outlet store selling factory seconds we went over. They don’t sell seconds but they were having a sale so we bought Aklie his first pair of skis. Given that we can go skiing in Kupres, just across the Bosnian border from Split, we hope to get much use from them this year - if there is more snow than last year.
Dinner was at the Union Grill. And though the mushroom sauce arrived late, it was worth the wait.
There is an uneasy relationship between Slovenes and Croats. Croats view their northern neighbours as arrogant and rigid; Slovenes believe Croats are just lazy Balkans. On the way back to Croatia, we stopped into the BTC Shopping Centre in Ljubljana and straightaway we felt like the country hillbillies. Croatia has very little choice in goods and what is imported is usually very poor quality. Seeing the range of shops we felt like we were in civilization again.
We then hit the road and drove 2 hours to Motovun to meet Anita, who is doing the drawings for our house renovation.
Thanks to Cameron Hewitt at Rick Steve’s for his advice.
