Heather (was) in Hungary: Lake Bled

11/1/10

Woke up in Bled and found our CETP friends Greg and Danielle next door on their way out to a tour. We headed down to find breakfast and figure out our plan for the day. We decided to nix LakeBojinj because of the time and weather, and found a pizza place recommended by our hostel owner, which happened to be advertising gluten-free pizza. The pizza place wasn’t open yet, but the restaurant beneath it was, and so we had omelettes served by our very own George Clooney-esque Slovenian. It was sprinkling, but by the time we headed up the hill towards the castle, it was pouring. Bled Castle is perched on a cliff overlooking the lake, and it was a pretty neat little castle. The views though, were stunning. The mist, rain, clouds, fog, and how they came in waves and cleared moments later were magical. This castle was only dampened (pun intended) by some crazy rude Italians at the counter of the souvenir shop. On our way back down the hill (again it was pouring) I slipped and fell in the mud... apparently it was actually quite graceful, and I somehow managed to not destroy my coat on day 3. We wandered into the big church, which was beautiful, except for the weird electric candles you plugged in. We spent some time trying to find a boat ride to the island—we found the gondolas easily but couldn’t find anyone to row them. After a trip to the tourinform (where we unsuccessfully tried to get directions to an open grocery store (all saints day = national holiday = everything was closed) we finally got a boat—a glass-enclosed boat instead of the gondola since its raining. We met a nice American couple on our boat. The woman’s grandfather was theoretically the minister at the church on the island. It wasn’t the most spectacular church, but it was such a beautiful setting. We each rang the bell three times for good luck or to make wishes come true or something. We also saw Tito’s summer house and the Slovenian national rowing team’s practice grounds. We headed back to Andrea’s Home and found Greg and Danielle, so we all went for a walk around the lake, munching on roasted chestnuts and drinking gluhwein with a man who lives in a van that he has taken all over the world. Alex read in his guidebook that Slovenians were extroverted, and this one was! We enjoyed the lake at dusk and ate the famous Bled Cream cake... which turned out to be an extremely overpriced Franciakreme cake I’ve eaten in Hungary numerous times. Angie, Alex and I went back to the pizza place and had some of the BEST pizza ever—and not just because of deprivation, but because we were two hours from Italy and it was incredible. After that feast, we reunited with Greg and Danielle for drinks at another Irish bar before heading back. Our hostel-owner gave us directions for the next part of our adventure, and we all showered and went to bed.