Caves, castles and coasts- oh my!

Saturday in Slovenia was packed with awesomeness. Mat and I had breakfast with his mum in the morning- I enjoyed cheese and prosciutto on my rice crackers, and we had fruit and poached eggs as well. I also had a delicious cup of Blaženka's homemade tea with flowers from her garden. Mat and I left the house around 8:30 and headed to Postojnka Jama- one of Slovenia's largest cave systems (of which they have nearly 10,000! And they're such a small country!!).

Mat and me on the train, entering the cave system!

It was a brand new experience. I've never seen anything like it- save for in movies and faked caves in Disneyland. We took a 20 minute train ride through tunnels and big open spaces, and then walked around the cave for 40 mins with an English our guide. We learned all about how the cave was formed, saw loads of stalactites and stalagmites- some of which resembled animals, objects, and famous buildings. We saw "galleries" of brilliant sparkling white features, and others turned red with iron. We climbed to the highest point of the cave and walked over the lowest. It was seriously incredible. The great hall where the walking portion of the tour ended had a reverb time of 6 seconds. And was huge. And kind of unreal. Just woah.

Me outside the cave

After the cave, and after a coffee fuel-up, we visited Predjama Castle, a 12th century fortress built into the mountain side. We did a little self-guided walk that took us up old stone staircases, through the rooms, to balconies with beautiful views of the valley below, and even deep into the rocks. It was super cool.

Predjama Castle.  Very cool

The water made me feel at home

Next up, we had about a 30 min drive to the coastal town of Piran. We listened to choir music, which was obviously sweet. Slovenian folk music is so good. Bok Daj Bok Daj!!!!!!!

Piran was just lovely. The sea is so my heart's friend. We just wandered along the shore, enjoying the sunshine and pretty harbour views. We were there for a couple hours I think, and then drove to the nearby coastal town of Pontorož for dinner. Afterwards, Mat popped us over the Slovenian/Italian border into Trieste, so now I can say I've visited 10 countries besides my own. Double digits baby!

Quaint Coastal Town of Piran!

That evening, after Mat had a quick snooze back home in Domžale (he did a lot of driving. It was totally deserved), we met up with his sister Urška, and Blaženka drove us all into Ljubljana. We went to a wine bar in the heart of town where you can sample over 700 wines from the region (of which I tried 2). We were joined by Sanja, and Urška's fiancé Žiga. We had some great conversations, both fun and philosophical, shared some laughs, and got a little drunk. We parted ways with Urška and Žiga, and Blaženka picked me, Mat and Sanja up and brought us back to the house, where we got to bed by 1:30.