mark his words: Slovenia, small in size but not in awesomeness

I hadn't been to Slovenia before, so didn't really know what to expect. As soon as we crossed the border from Austria, the train line weaved in and out of mountain valleys and over rivers; not a bad start. Arriving in Ljubljana for our connection to Skofja Loka, we stopped off for some food, and on our way to a little takeaway store I was waved down by a man standing outside a shop. It turned out a couple of bits of paper had fallen out of my jacket pocket. As unimportant as they were, it was nice to find some genuine kindness from a stranger in a strange country.

Skofja Loka is a small city, or town, outside of Ljubjlana. The general layout is semi rural, in a spaced out 'in the hills' kind of vibe, albeit in a former Yugoslavian way. We were picked up by Jure, as we would spend the next few days with him and his family. He'd travelled to Australia a few years back and was more than happy to have us stay.

We were given a small tour of Jure's home and the town, including a trip to the outskirts of town to his own family cottage, complete with a wooden fireplace. It was to be our sleeping quarters for the night, but some re-arranging of beds in his home meant it was not to be. We also had our first rakija experience, pre-dinner no less. The home-made schnapps like drink is very popular and customary throughout the region (and all of the former Yugoslav countries as we would find out), and was accompanied by some sliced horse sausage (think salami, but ridiculously strongly flavoured).

Skofja Loka

Luckily for us, Jure had a bit of free time, and was more than happy to show us around Slovenia for the next couple of days. Our whirlwind sojourn started off at Bohinj lake, an arguably more aestheticly pleasing and vastly less touristy version of Lake Bled, which we would end up at later in the day? Personally, I think the jury's still out.

Lake Bled

Bled Castle

Bohinj Lake

We headed back into Ljubljana to catch our oncoming train to Zagreb in Croatia, but not before spending a night in the city itself. Perhaps more influenced by its western neighbours, and also lucky to avoid much of the conflict shared by its eastern former Yugoslav counterparts, Ljubljana could have been any city in Austria. Dubbed as the 'new Prague' for while now, I'm positive this city will become the 'next big thing' in years to come.

Architecturally stunning, a mountain with a castle, cafe culture, shopping, and that tourist friendly combination of modern conveniences and old world charm, it ticks all the boxes. We even had an interesting entcounter in Metelkova, as a shirtless middle aged man persisting we take photos of his dog (how he expected us to give them to him, I have no idea), but given the liberal arts/hippie/squatting nature of the district, I'm not too sure he was in the right state of mind to think that through either. Ljubljana - much like Slovenia as a whole, it'll definitely be a place I'll be singing the praises of for a while yet.