Julian Alps and the Karst

After spending three great days around Lake Bled, it was time for Erin and I to move on. Taking advice from Rick Steves we got in our rental car and left for a drive through the Julian Alps.  Named after Julius Caesar who founded the region at the base of the mountains they' form beautiful vistas with their limestone peaks.  After driving up twisting switchbacks we stopped at the top of a pass inhabited by sheep. 

We then took many more switchbacks down the other side stopping to view turquoise waters and old suspension bridges.  The end of our drive led us to Hisa Franko in Kobarid where we would have dinner and stay the night.  The fancy meal with vegetables and herbs from their own garden paired deliciously with locally made organic wine.  It was a great place to celebrate our third anniversary.



The next day was our caves and castles day.  We started by driving down to the Postojna Cave.  While the area was very touristy it was hard to get over how cool it was to ride a train through the cave.  It was like a ride at Disneyland but longer and without the ups and downs.  Then, after riding the train there was still so much cave to walk and explore.  After walking through the cave and learning about it.for about an hour we got back on the train and went back to the surface.  See video from the train ride here and imagine 15-20 minutes of this.

After the cave we took a short drive up the rode to Predjama Castle.  Built into the face of a cliff it is an impressive structure.  We did not go inside though as we had more to see.  After an hour drive South we came to another cave system.  The Skocjan Caves are less touristy then our previous caves, but also incredibly impressive.  While there was no train, there was an underground river and a much more comprehensive guide.  With a slew of bats and other creatures we were not allowed to take photos.  After a long hike we came to the end of the cave and were soon back on the road.

After a brief stop for immigration we drove down in to Croatia and our final castle for the day.  Perched high on a hill was the castle and town of Motovun, Croatia.  We had made arrangements to spend the night in the castle...we just had to get up there.  After a long day of driving and cave walking the steep drive up the narrow cobblestone lane was a final test.  With pedestrians and cars coming down the ancient lane we successfully made it up without hitting anything.  It had been an exciting and very tiring day.

Lake Bled

It's hard to exaggerate the beauty of Lake Bled in Slovenia.  Nestled at the base of the Julian Alps it was a wonderful place to stay for three days.  We had made reservations at a popular penzione and soon found the reason for the popularity.  After our bus ride from Ljubljana and a short walk the proprietor greeted us with cookies and a clean room.  Since it was just minutes from the lake we had a chance to look around a little before coming back for dinner at the attached restaurant.  As we enjoyed the delicious food and drinks we saw the waiter greet regulars who obviously returned here regularly.

After breakfast the next day we started off on a walk around the lake.  We soon found a traditional row boat (no gas motors are allowed on the lake) to take us out to a church on an island in the middle of the lake.  The ride gave great views of the castle overlooking the lake.  After our ride we continued to make our way on foot around the lake to a place along the shore for lunch.  It was fun watching the people walk by and trying to determine if they were tourists or locals.

We next made the steep climb up to Castle Bled.  Perched on rocky ledges it seemed to be very well defended and was very well preserved.  The castle included a traditional printing press, a traditional wine bottling room, iron works, and local tour guides in costume to help explain them.  The most fun was when a "monk" walked us through the bottling of our own wine.

On our next day we rented a car and took it out to see some of the local features.  This started with the Vintgar Gorge a short drive from the lake.  There, a wooden path clung to the edge of a serpentine gorge feet from the beautiful turquoise-green waters.  The path was longer than we expected leading to beautiful views around every turn.  As the amount of people on the trail grew though we decided to take the long way back around to where we were parked.

After lunch back in town we drove out to another, larger lake not to far away.  We got wonderful views of this lake as we took a cable car up steep cliffs to a ski area overlooking the valley.  Some more hiking around the area gave us plenty of exercise and we were ready to call it a day as we headed back to our room.

The next day we packed up the car and headed out.  It was a little sad to go, but I can definitely see us coming back to this area in the future.

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Our first stop in Slovenia was the capital, Ljubljana (pronounced: lyoo-BLYAH-nah).  Unfortunately, trains were not running between Italy and Slovenia so we had to get a taxi to take us over the border to a train station in the city of Sezana, Slovenia.  From there we took a pair of trains to the capital and found our hotel.

Ljubljana is a beautiful city and we were surprised at the lack of people out on the Saturday night we arrived.  We took a walk around the old town before finding a nice place to eat with tables out on one of the old streets. 

The next day we went back to the old town for a tour around.  A knowledgeable and nice art history professor walked our group around explaining the various architecture and sights.  Slovenia has an interesting history at the crossroads of Western and Eastern Europe.  We saw evidence of it's different memberships including the Roman empire, the Hapsburgs Monarchy, and Yugoslavia.

After the tour we walked up to the city's castle overlooking the city.  There was a place to get lunch there after which we strolled around the ramparts.

It was very nice to see Ljubljana.  It seemed like a clean city with friendly people.  It didn't seem to have much life to it though.  Maybe because we were wandering around on a Sunday we didn't see as many people, or maybe we've gotten used to the density of people in Asian cities.  In any case, after 24 hours we were ready to move on to our next place: Lake Bled.

Trieste, Italy

When we look back, we tend to forget the difficulties of travel and only remember the good parts.  Last week we had a long day as we traveled from Paris to Trieste.  The trip involved a shuttle to the airport, a flight to Venice, a bus ride to the train station, a train ride to Trieste, and finally another packed bus ride to the apartment we were staying.  Part of what made this so difficult was that our bags are very heavy since we didn't know when our household goods would arrive from Taiwan.  Though we had to lift those bags up four flights of stairs, we we're glad when we finally arrived at our destination.

It felt really good to be back in Italy.  On our first full day there we took a bus down to a nearby fishing village for a wonderful seafood lunch.  After walking around town for a while we were able to catch the ferry back to Trieste.  We then took a bus out to Castella Miramare passing by the throngs of Italian sun bathers.

For our next day we took in the surrounding countryside with it's distinctive karst rock formations.  On a hike along a road Napoleon had started we got wonderful views of the city and the sea.  After lunch we made our way to the world's largest tourist cave.  Called the Grotta Gigante it was so large and the temperature stayed so stable that they have place large pendulums to measure the movement of the Earth's crust.  That night we walked around town seeing the outside of the city's Roman castle and ruins, churches, and many twisting little streets.

On our last day in Trieste we went for drinks at the same cafe visited many times by James Joyce.  It was sad that we were going.  Partly because it meant we had to carry our heavy suitcases around again!  We had covered a lot of ground in and around Trieste, but I feel like we just scratched the surface.  Our schedule didn't provide us time to take a sailing course or eat locally-grown food at a family-run osmizza in the countryside.  We'll just have to save those for next time we're there.  We were on our way to Slovenia.

Taipei to Paris

I've come to accept over the years that travel and life away from home requires flexibility.  For instance, we had planned to stay an extra week in Kaohsiung to make sure we had plenty of time to pack, see friends, and relax.  Unfortunately, after much back and forth, the shipping company informed us that we had to have our boxes mostly packed by Monday and ready to be picked up on Wednesday.  That left us until Saturday when we left without our household goods.  An unusually wet week in Taiwan also meant that we spent much of that time inside.  At least we got to have a few more outings with friends.

It was great to finally get on the train and go to Taipei to start our trip.  On Sunday, with the rain finally letting up, we went out to Guandu to see a magnificent temple built on the side of a cliff.  It gave some great views of the city.  Even though the sun made it much hotter we went for a bike ride along the river as well.  We finished the day with a dinner of soup dumplings at Ding Tai Fung.  On Monday we made our way out to airport where we again had to be flexible.  Our bags were overweight at the counter so we had to move some stuff into our carry-on bags to meet the requirements.  Cramped in an airline seat for 12 hours required a different kind of flexibility.


Finally in Paris things started going smoothly again.  Arriving at 6:30 in the morning we were able to find the shuttle bus to our hotel and they let us check in without a problem.  After a delicious (though expensive) breakfast and a little nap we were ready to see Paris.  Having both been to Paris before we decided to get lunch at a cafe for some people watching and then take a walk along the river.  It was much cooler out than we were used to, and the diversity of people was fun to see.  After walking around for several hours and drinks at a bar for more people watching we decided to get some food at the store for dinner and breakfast the next day.  It was a long ride on the train back to our hotel as our fatigue caught up to us.  We waited in the wrong place for our shuttle bus forcing us to wait longer.  Then back at our hotel we had to deal with an urgent matter with our household goods shipment and also extra charges for our luggage on the next leg of our trip.


Tomorrow: Paris to Trieste - The difficulties of travel

End of School Year

It has been a very busy past month as we've come to the end of the school year at KAS.  Erin has been doing a lot of grading and I have been preparing the IT office for next year's coordinator.  There have also been several heart-felt goodbyes and last moments.  These have included a birthday party at a place that specialized in shrimp, a strange commemoration for a teacher who has been teaching at KAS for 20 years, and breakfast and bowling today. 

It's certainly sad saying goodbye to many people.  We have worked with some exceptional people over the past two years and we will miss them.  At the same time we hope that we will see some of them again in the future.

For the next week we'll be packing and preparing to leave.  Moving is rarely fun, but we're going to try to experience a bit more of Taiwan this week as well.  We'll then spend two weeks in Europe before heading back to Colorado.  Expect to see more here soon.

Wii, Hot Spring, and Monkey Tattoo

This past weekend Erin and I had a fun getaway to Taipei. Riding the high speed rail on Saturday was a good way to start to unwind after a stressful week of job interviews over Skype. When we got in, the first thing we did was get some lunch at Sumi Sushi which has delicious rolls. Though it was raining, we then went to find a tattoo parlor that had been recommended. Fortunately the girl there spoke English so I was able to show her the monkey design I had made and discuss where it would go. We made an appointment for the following day and went to find our hotel.

For this trip we were staying in Beitou, north of Taipei. We had been to Beitou before and had found a place where we could have our own hot spring bath in our room. We were also excited that we could check out a Wii for our stay. With a variety of games to play we were thoroughly entertained for the rest of the afternoon. That night we went out to a great Mexican food place called the Mayan for dinner. While they forgot our dessert order it was still a good meal.

On Sunday we got up and took a walk around Beitou. The thermal valley was especially interesting as the open spring was sending plumes of steam into the air. Nicknamed "Hell Valley" it had a stench of sulfer and we could feel the heat from the water. After a soak in our hot tub we checked out and headed back downtown. After lunch at a grilled cheese place we headed over to get my tattoo.

It was just as painful as always, but I'm happy with the results. I chose a monkey to symbolize our time in Taiwan and also due to my love of climbing. Though I didn't get to climb as much in Taiwan as I had hoped we did get to see lots of monkeys during our stay here. While we've had our ups and downs here I'm glad we came to Taiwan and I'm sure we'll miss it when we leave.