Slovenia

Slovenia

What, Slovenia? How did we get there! Isn't that where they shoot each other?

Well, we have consistently said that we wouldn't go anywhere where there are risks to us. But it turns out that much of the Balkans has cooled down very rapidly and returned to being vacation destinations. Even the US State Department has no warnings anymore cautioning against travel to Slovenia or Croatia (except a few border areas with land mines, which we gave a wide berth).

Slovenia is not part of the EU, so we had a real border check, and had to exchange money. Well, sort of. The border check consisted of waving our passports (they didn't open them), and many places already accept Euros in anticipation of joining the EU someday. The place is full of vacationing Europeans. In fact, this is the first place where we found English is the not the second language --after Slovenian is German and Italian, but little English.

Speaking of language, Slovenia needs desperately to buy a vowel on (Wheel of Fortune) Jeopardy. How in the world do you pronounce names like Ljubljana?

We stopped at the Karst caves in Postojna. We didn't really know much about them, but with Fran's love of dark, confined spaces (ha) we figured we'd check it out.

Turns out that the Karst limestone formations we have seen throughout the world (such as Guilin China) are named after this region, the Karst region, and this is the granddaddy of them all. The cave we entered is 20 miles long!!!! And there are many other caves in the area also...

The cave tour starts with a toy train ride in two miles, where you then have a walking tour with a great guide. The place was gorgeous. Caverns 100 feet across were connected by a labyrinth of passageways. Many areas were white stone, others red. Some areas were very smooth, as the limewater poured over puddles, and others were very jagged, as drips fell from above. The water table has dropped so that the water now runs through additional passageways deeper below, and nearly everywhere we go is fairly dry.

The caves are definitely worth a visit. Check them out at http://www.postojnska-jama.si/en/cave.htm or http://www.postojnska-jama.si/en/cave.htm.