We Interrupt Venice to Experience Slovenia 01/07/20 Day 14

Slovenia interrupts our tour through Italy simply because of the challenges we would face flying home from this tiny Slovik country if we waited until the very end of our trip. 

We trekked from Venice into Slovenia by way of a driver. This is the same company that drove us from Meteora into Athens in Greece several days ago. This driver was from Slovakia. He was a great conversationalist. It was interesting to hear the public opinion from various people in different countries.

Once within the borders of Slovenia, James remarked that the countryside was vastly different than the countryside of Greece where we saw miles of defunct factories and overgrown fields.

Instantly our driver remarked: "Yah, the Greeks are very lazy, this is why. They import everything."

Me, playing devil's advocate: "Our Greek driver seemed to think their relationship with the EU forces them to import everything which strains their local industries."

Driver: "They import oranges from Spain when they grow plenty Citrus they refuse to use. It is crazy, I'm telling you."

James and I laughed because he is not lying. In Greece we saw what looked like orange trees bearing fruit growing all over the city. On our bike tour James pointed the Citrus trees out. The tour guide promptly said, "Those are not edible citrus, they are tangerines. Only can make jellies from them, otherwise they are garbage. They grow everywhere."

Caption: Greek citrus trees.

Our driver also taught us about cars. His country is 5 million people and they produce 1 million cars per year. Their factories generate Volkswagens, Citroen, Kia, and Jaguar (he explained, now that England is part of Brexit, the EU moved the Jaguar plant to Slovakia from the UK). James asked about electric cars. Our driver said, "That's more of a California thing. It will not work in Europe. Electricity is too expensive. Also works in Norway and Sweden because their electricity is not expensive. They have many wonderful turbine and wave energy." He also pointed out that solar power is not for many countries that have snow and clouds for several months of the year. He pointed out instead the log farm they use for energy production in homes (as in planting fast growing trees and leveling them five years later and starting again all in the name of firewood). Lesson here: Get to it California,  save the world one electric car at a time, but don't expect the world to follow suit. 

Formerly part of Yugoslavia, Slovenia by itself has a population of just 2 million. Tourists venture here mostly in the summertime for a variety of recreational purposes such as camping, hiking, lake sports, etc. Those of us that come in the winter are avoiding the crowds for one of Slovenia's most highly trafficked attractions: The ice caves. They have 14,0000 caves, 28 are open to the public. We explored the Postojnska Jama Caves. 

This cave is 3 million years old, the stalagmites are 500,000 years old. The rate of growth is 1 millimeter ever 10 years, 1 centimeter every 100 years. 

From the ice cave, it is popular to go to Pradjama Castle built into the caves. This castle was used as a home for families seeking safety from their government. The original owners were stealing from caravans on their way to Vienna, Austria and giving the treasures to the local people, think Robin Hood. The castle is half human effort and half natural caves. There are several secret tunnels that went into the caves and out into towns on the other side. So when armies came looking for the owner, they thought they could wait him out or poison his stream. They were wrong. He simply went into the caves and procured cherries and other foods from town without being seen. He also collected water from the drippings of the cave that fed into barrels that dripped into other areas for use. The armies end up killing him off from catapulting rocks at the upstairs bathroom and letting it fall away with him in a vulnerable position.  This happened by way of bribing a maid. 

The rest of the journey was to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, which will be the brunt of our 15th day.

Although Slovenia is one of the Mediterranean countries, it feels completely different, like an Eastern European Block country. The foods they eat are more familiar to Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia than to it's Mediterranean bordering countries: Italy and Croatia. It is a refreshing feel and a nice change of pace after such a long journey. 

 
Travel Tip: If you check into the Venice hotel late at night and then tell them you are leaving for one night to Slovenia the next morning, expect the morning shift to know you are skipping out on them and they will not be shy when expressing their chagrin about it in their most friendly national pride way.

We look forward to exploring Ljubljana more completely on Day 15 before returning to Venice.