Lake Bled Is Simply Magical

 

If you know anything about Slovenia, then you will have heard of Lake Bled, I don't think you can visit Slovenia without seeing it, even just for a day trip. It's really easy to get to Lake Bled from Ljubljana, I headed over to the central bus station and bought a ticket for 7 euros. The bus takes an hour and you will be blessed with some incredible views of the Julian Alps.

However, this place isn't perfect, it's quite a big tourist destination, when I told a Slovenian I was heading there, he told me it was just a big tourist destination and it's worth mentioning how pricey this place is. When I got there I went to a Balkan place for some lunch and I had a Balkan patty with chips and a diet coke which came to 18 euros, which is absurd for a lunch. After that, I walked over to Bled castle, a medieval castle atop a hill, overlooking the lake. There is a museum inside and along the castle you can get some enchanting views of green countryside and mountains. Honestly, the price of admission was quite steep as it was eight euros for a small castle. However the views of Lake Bled make for excellent photo opportunities. 

I went for a walk around Lake Bled, looking for a way to get to the island, another criticism I have is that if you can't hire a kayak anywhere which would make getting to the island a great deal easier. If you want to get to the island, you can either hire a rowboat for 20 euros or pay someone to row you there for 15 euros. I chose to do the latter and on top of that, you have to pay 4 euros to enter the tower and the church inside. You can even ring the bell which is pretty cool.

It feels really cool to sit in the boat despite it setting me back so much, it's a great place to look out and see the landscape around the lake. However, what you should know about Bled is that it's a really small town, there aren't many places to eat and there aren't many convenience stores around. If you find a place to get a drink, take the chance as there aren't many places around. I was silly enough to go on an impromptu hike without any water and in flip flops. I took it upon myself to walk up to Mala Osojnica as I had heard that it had some stunning views of the lake, if you're gonna hike, wear some real footwear and take something to drink. The 40 minute walk up the hill was brutal, but when I reached the top, it was definitely worth it. 

I then walked all the way back to my hostel and I met some guys from Macedonia who invited me to come out to get something to eat with them. We went to get some Balkan food and they told me about cevapcici, which was another dish native to the Balkans. It's pretty much a Balkan kebab which was completely different from the doner kebabs which we know and love back home. If you're from the UK, you wouldn't really have a kebab for your dinner, you'd get a kebab from the place next to the club after a night out for drunk food and you'd expect it to be meat inside of some bread. When I ordered a cevapcici and a beer in my best attempt at speaking Slovenian, what I got was some pieces of meat, without any sort of bread, but with some ajvar, a sauce which is had with almost every Balkan meal. 

Being in the Balkans for the first time made me only crave more of it, unfortunately, as things are now I will have to return to the Balkans another time, I sincerely believe that the people are really friendly and hospitable which is more of what I want to experience. Lake Bled is a great place to visit, however you have to take into account how pricey it is, dinner at a restaurant will set you back 14 euros at the cheapest and to see the island it costs an arm and a leg.