Rachel’s Interrail Adventures

I took a wonderful train ride to Ljubljana via Schwarzach St. Veit and Villach. Great scenery all around. Thank you for the recommendation- ‘Interrailing for the Older Crowd’.

No meals available on the train so I had a chocolate bar from a vending machine in Villach. Arrival in Ljubljana was easy and there is a McDonald’s next to the train station which I was so happy to see!

I got upgraded at my hostel/hotel, Ibis Styles The Fuzzy Log!! They are overbooked at the moment and upgraded me from a capsule to a single room. Actually they gave me a choice between a tent or the room. Didn’t take me long to decide!!

I have found that staying in hostels, sleeping is fine, showering etc is fine. The tricky thing is having space to sort your stuff and sorting your stuff without waking others up! Sometimes you just wanna lay stuff out, sort out and fold clothes etc. The packing cubes have helped a lot I with this.

Other times you just need that pair of shorts which is at the bottom of your bag. Every zip and every crinkle from your packing seems so loud when everyone else is asleep!

I have booked a free walking tour for 8am tomorrow and also just booked a self-guided trip to Velika Planina on Monday. Self guided means that the company takes care of the transfers/transport but leaves you free to explore the destination by yourself. They give you a map and suggestions.

UPDATE: 8am walking tour was canceled at 7am which is a bit late to be canceling a ‘confirmed’ event. So, after a quick look and think, I am going to Kocevje in the southern part of Slovenia. This is near a forest and has a trail where you can see bears! 1hr 20 on bus or train.

By the way, all the buses to Trieste and Piran at the coast were sold out! Lovely hot weather has this effect I guess.

7pm

Here I am waiting for the train back to Ljubljana. It has been an interesting day. I took the bus to Kocevje and when I arrived everything was closed and everywhere was quiet. Typical Sunday in a small town I guess.

Tourist Information seemed to direct to The Bear Log Hostel so I made my way there.

The woman there gave me a hiking map and a cycling map and said she rarely goes hiking because she’s afraid of the bears! I asked her if I should be careful and she said I should be okay!!

So I set off and decided to do at least a little climb up the mountain – I’d come this far right?

Well I ended up climbing to the top. The whole hike was about 5hrs, 90% of which was steep climbing up/down. It was much cooler under the trees though.

I made it up to the hut at the top and then to the summit.

However I really started to find it difficult and not like it on the way down. I looked for Fredichstein Castle but couldn’t find it. That took me out of my way more than an hour.

Coming back down after that I lost my way and ended up trekking through vegetation and scrambling down unused paths to try to get back on track. Gritting teeth and determination time.

I got back in the end – 25,000 steps and about 20,000 of them were climbing up/down.

The trails on the map were well marked. Even where I got lost I bet I just missed something. I met two other small hiking groups during the afternoon and saw maybe 5 cyclists.

The town was not particularly well set up for visitors though even considering it was a Sunday. There was no option to join a bear trail or even to join anything. I might have been able to hire a bike but I ended up walking.

Tomorrow is Velika Planina – a Shepherd area. I’ll be doing as little walking as possible!