S♡nia - (3)

Day 3 - Vintgar Gorge and Soča River Rafting 

We drove just 15 mins to Vintgar Gorge (which only cost €4/person) and walked for 2 hours to the end of the trail and back surrounded by the calming sounds of water either splashing against rocks or smoothly flowing down the course of the gorge 

Look how insanely clear the water is and also the lovely emerald colour again 

Some stretching!!!

SO CLEAR

My fav photo from the gorge!

We then headed back to the hostel and grabbed extra clothes for rafting and set off on a long 2.5 hour drive to the town Bovec where to go rafting in the Soča river 

Fun Fact: The source of the Soča river is the Julian Alps and the emerald colour of the water is due to the limestone rocks surrounding and in the river that gives off minerals 

Weely didn't join us for rafting as she was furthering her travels after Slovenia and had plans to do rafting then, so she went on her own hike and thoroughly enjoyed it! 

Rafting was so much fun!!! We had the opportunity of swimming in the river which was incredibly cold at 7° (I can't even describe the feeling of being in such cold water - it was almost numbing but I could feel my blood circulating at the same time!!) and we were told that the river had a flow rate of 12㎥/s but during a flood a few years ago, the river was flowing at rate of 600㎥/s!!! At one point, the river was calm enough for us to put the raft upside down, leaning against a huge rock to create a slide into the water! And so we sled down head first, feet first, did canon-ball jumps off it into the river and even did a backward roll into the river - it was an incredible amount of fun! The whole rafting route was incredibly scenic as well - imagine rafting in clear emerald colour water, being surrounded by luscious green forests and tall mountains with nothing but the sound of water currents and the occasional birds chirping :'))))

We met with Weely after rafting and had a meh-dinner at a local restaurant and then drove 1.5 hours back on a different route than we came on - through a mountain range this time and it was one of the most scary drives I have ever been on. Just 15 mins into the drive and the sun had already set and just 30 mins later, we were driving in pitch black conditions and were literally the only car driving up the mountain. We could barely see where the bends were and once even nearly drove off the cliff as we couldn't see the barriers!! BUT WE MADE IT SAFELY BACK TO BLED YAY and I was so surprised that none of us slept on the journey back especially after doing water activities (which I feel really tire you out more than any other kind of activity). We played a few rounds of categories, listened to music and just chatted about random things - it was a really enjoyable drive now thinking about it despite the fear that we wouldn't make it back safely! We slept so well that night and gave ourselves an extra hour of sleep :)

The next day was our last day in Slovenia :((( 

We started the day with the most tiring hike of the trip - to the view point of Ojstrica, but boy was it worth all that inclines!!

View of Bled Island from the ground

View of Bled from Ojstrica!! (and that's my packed lunch hehe)

We walked round Lake Bled after coming down and chanced upon these cuties!!

We headed back to the hostel for lunch (but we had already checked out at 11am that day) and then were told to check out the annual Chocolate Festival in Radovljica - and so we did! However, we drove in the wrong direction for a good hour through crazy foggy conditions (could barely see past 5m) but managed to reach the town in the end! It was really funny actually because even just 30 minutes into the drive, we knew something was wrong as the hostel host told us that it was just 10 mins by bus hah.

We were rather disappointed by the chocolate festival and didn't find the chocolate any special (Lidl's £1 dark chocolate bar is better than any of the samples that I tried) but at least we did experience it since it was an annual thing. After that, we drove to Lubljiana - the capital city of Slovenia, dropped Weely off at the train station as she was continuing her travels in Europe and Clarence, Nicole and I walked around the city centre for a bit, had Japanese for dinner and then headed to the airport!

Slovenia was a dream :')))) I would best describe it as a secret gem - it's like a place that no one really talks/knows about but is absolutely beautiful and pristine and simply breathtaking 

It is definitely one of the most scenic countries I have visited 

Thank You Slovenia!!!!