Lake Bled II

We got up early and had a wonderful breakfast.  There was quite a spread at this place (the Mayer Pension) and it was delicious.  Probably not the kind of place I’m used to staying in, where you can pack an extra sandwich and call it lunch… we left for a day of walking around Bled.  When we got to the lake, we decided to take one of the man-powered boats to the church on an island in the middle of the lake.  The boats are specially made in Slovenia, and (from what I remember) it is the only place they are used.  There is a special flat bottom on the boat, and a single gondolier type person.  It was calm on the lake and we enjoyed the trip both out and back.  We got to talking to the other people on the boat and there was a family of Slovenians who talked a bit about life under Tito, two Japanese who were both studying in Hungary and us.  The island was interesting and (of course) had a gift shop so I was happy. 

After our boat trip, we decided to hike up to the castle that overlooked the lake.  I’m not sure exactly how to put this into words, but one of the three of us was not really thrilled with the idea of walking up this hill to the top… after I encouraged my dad to find some “walking sticks” to help this someone out, we were in a much better place.  My parents have gotten very good at “observing things” in the middle of a taxing walk.  They observed moss, trees, moss, dandelions and moss on their way up the hill.  When we got to the top, we felt good because it’s quite a ways up, but I would have liked to go down that way too… instead we took the easy road – literally- we followed the road down.  The castle itself wasn’t that exciting, but it was a beautiful view and provided for some good picture taking opportunities.  We toured the castle and I purchased some wine from a fake monk.  On our walk home, we stopped at a nice restaurant for lunch.  The place was absolutely packed so that was a good sign.  The owner was a cute man who was very funny and provided a good atmosphere for us to eat in.  We continued on our way home and stopped to purchase some souvenirs.  We got back to the pension and I decided to take the afternoon off – my parents set off on another journey that took them most of the way around the lake again.  They came back and it was then that I realized that I had lost the wine bottle I had purchased that afternoon.  Mom and dad headed back to the souvenir shop to look for it – they didn’t find it there, and then I realized that I left it at the restaurant when I left for the bathroom.  They headed back to the restaurant and when they asked if they had left some wine there, the man replied with “of course- We keep for two months, then we drink.”  Wine in hand, 12 miles on the pedometer, it was a good day for them. 

The next morning we had an early departure.  We ordered a taxi for 6:45 to pick us up.  We decided not to bother with the bus that early in the morning, not to mention hauling all our stuff to the bus station and the potential of running into the driver whose bus I broke… we had a nice smooth ride back into Ljubljana and were at the train station in plenty of time.  We had a drink at McDonalds, retrieved the luggage from the lockers and headed to our respective tracks.  My train was going to Budapest – theirs to Munich.  It was a great trip overall, maybe because we’re all on differing levels of prozac, maybe because absence makes the heart grow fonder, who knows.  It was a great trip, and though I was happy to return to my cat and Tata, I was sad to leave my parents.