Bled

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After spending around two days in Ljubljana we rented a tiny white Citroen and drove to the lakeside city of Bled. It was an amazing drive in, the rolling hills full of light and dark colored evergreen trees, making the mountain a rolling carpet of mottled green with white rock cliffs and castles popping up seemingly at random. In the center of “town” is a two mile long lake. Out of one side rises a sheer rock face and loftily perched on top is a tiny castle that surveys all that is below. It is said, there has been a castle on this spot for 1000 years. And in the center sits a small island, no bigger then a house, with a church built rising out of the trees. This has long been a sacred site, for hundreds of years the pagans worshiped this spot as well, building a Slavic temple to a goddess in the 8^th century on the exact same spot. 

The Alp Pension

We hadn’t made any reservations in advance so after driving around randomly for a bit, we decided to consult our guidebook. It led us to a small place called the Alp Pension. It was a tiny little mom and pop establishment in the middle of nowhere, but they had a tennis court! As soon as we left our bags in the room I switched into my gear and headed for the court. It was my first time playing on a red clay court and to my surprise it was a completely different game, the ball gets slowed down and every little bit of spin is exaggerated. Unfortunately it started to pour shortly after we arrived so we had to stop. We had a huge dinner at our hotel, of potato salad in mayonnaise and goulash, which is a bunch of meat and sauce in a bowl, which you then put on polenta.     

Some delicious Hungarian Goulash 

Lovely weather!

Today the rain has continued unabated, so no tennis for now. We spent the morning trying to get some work done, reading and journaling. Eventually, we managed to rouse ourselves into a state of action and walked down past the lake and into “town” (town consisting of a couple restaurants and shops).  In the summer this place is hopping with tourists from all over the globe but on a gray and rainy May afternoon there were just a few locals hurrying by under colorful umbrellas. We took advantage of the relative solitude and walked around the lake and had pizza at a small restaurant. Then we hiked up to the castle that sat high above the lake, it commanded a view of several miles in all directions and had the rainclouds not been in the way, it would have been quite a bit more. But all the same, the clouds and soft pitter-patter of rain added a significant mystery to the scene. With clouds drifting through the soft green carpet of trees and continuing through the valleys, the rain dulling the view made everything seem softer in a way. It was as if the whole world had stopped and there was nothing but the rain and the clouds and the lake far below.