Best decision I've ever made passed 1:00 am.

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Thursday, February 21st, I decided to hang low and just met one of my friends who works for Euroadventures at a pub near our apartments. Earlier in the day she had text me asking if me or any of my friends wanted to join their trip to Lake Bled, Slovenia for the weekend at a much cheaper price than it is offered. I mentioned it to the girls, and no one was really interested. In the back of my mind I kept saying, why wouldn't we go? It's cheaper, almost the same as Interlaken (which we loved), and we will probably never visit this place again. None of us even knew what Slovenia was let alone where it's located...

Anyway, no one wanted to go so I regretfully declined the offer. At home that night around 1:30 am, I was still thinking about this weekend trip and how I actually wanted to go on it. All the girls were out, I knew none of them wanted to go, so I sent Cathy a text saying I wanted to come.

Her response; "OMG, awesome! I'll meet you on Via De Pepi at 6:20am!" And that was the beginning of possibly one of the top best weekends of my life.

Departing around 7:30, due to some girls running late, 21 of us on our 40 passenger bus took off for Lake Bled, Slovenia.

Located at the borders of Italia and Austria, we arrived to Slovenia around 2:30-3pm. Checking in at Hotel Krim, we all got situated and took a walk around Lake Bled.

Restaurant we found

About a 4 mile walk around the lake, there is a church located on a little island right in the middle. It's beautiful. Every where we walked, there were giant swans walking around or swimming in the lake. 

On the far end of the lake, up in the mountain, is an old, historic castle. The whole scene just seemed surreal. So much snow everywhere and this huge lake with a church and castle. It was awesome. I've never seen anything like it.

After our lake walk, we got back to the hotel and warmed up. A group of kids went night sledding. Apparently there was a giant igloo they hung out. I hate the cold so there was no way I wanted to sled. I also didn't pack proper clothing for sledding, but I was jealous they got to hang out in an igloo. The pictures were so cool.

Me and two girls I met, walked around a bit and found a pizzeria right on the lake. We ate there, got a glass of wine, and just talked for a few hours. We were the only people in this restaurant on a Friday night. I know that Slovenia is really small, especially the town we were in, but it felt like a ghost town.

When every one met back up at the hotel, we changed and decided to go to one of the local bars down the street. Klub Bled is where we hung out for the night. Our group got to know the bartenders and owner and we were given all free drinks just within 15 minutes of being there. They said how much they loved when foreigners come to visit their town, and the owner, who was probably a 67 year old woman, was giving all the guys back massages. It was so funny watching the reactions of all of us and the Slovenians were loving having us there.

Making it an early night, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before hitting the slopes to ski and snowboard the following day.

Compared to other hostels I've stayed at, for being a 3-star hotel, this breakfast was sooo good.

Hard boiled and scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, toast, fruit, lunchmeats, cereal... a coffee machine... it was great.

We stocked up Saturday morning and got on a bus to Kransjska Gora, Slovenia to go skiing and snowboarding!

I rented pants, boots, gloves a snowboard along got a day pass for so cheap. We spent the entire day in the snow and hanging out at the pubs in the mountains. It was so nice out, we weren't even wearing our jackets at some points. I finally got the hang of snowboarding and am so anxious to go again. I can't believe this was my first time going, it was so much fun!

We were on the mountain from around 10am-5:30pm once we headed back on the bus to the hotel. Getting back, we changed and groups of us went out to dinner. We hung at the hotel for a while after, then hit up Pub Bled for a night out. It was fun, since all 21 of us were out. The pub we were at seemed to be catered to a very young crowd. I think one of the guys on our trip asked a group of girls how old they were and they responded with, "17." So, to say the least, it was very entertaining.

We got home later and Cathy and I sat on our balcony of the room and talked for an hour or so. It was snowing out, we were overlooking Lake Bled, and just talking like we've known each other for years.

It's situations like this makes me realize how lucky I am. I know I am probably being so repetitive in these blog posts, but literally every single experience I have, is a constant reminder of what kind of life I am living. The kind of life people would die for. I'm casually traveling to different countries each weekend like it's normal. Could not be happier.

Waking up for the free breakfast the next morning, we pulled a few tables together and talked about how great of a weekend we had. We laughed about stuff that happened, and took full advantage of the meal.

We were planning on leaving around 4pm, so a group took a walk up to the castle, and some of us just walked around town and hung out. I kind of regret not seeing the castle, but I was burnt out from the day before, sore, and cold, so I decided to hang out and go to some of the local shops.

When Cathy got back to the hotel, we walked to the Wellness Spa Center, and bought a pass into to swimming pool/jacuzzi area. Best decision we made all weekend. We sat in the hot tub for over an hour. The best was the hot tub connecting to an outdoor jacuzzi... It was snowing and we were over looking the lake and the castle, in the hot tub. Unreal. Some kid gets out of the hot tub, runs into the snow, and jumps back in. Me and Cathy look at each other, and immediately do the same thing.

I could not believe it. I got out of the hot tub, ran and dove into the snow. Cathy got some hysterical pictures of me... I look naked, but I'm not. Just in my bathing suit, in a pile of snow. Felt so great jumping back into that hot tub.

Can't believe how adventurous I'm getting... I would never canyon jump or dive into the snow in -20 degrees with a bathing suit on back home. I don't know what's getting into me...

After spending a couple hours there, we got dressed back at the hotel and all got lunch before heading out.

The 6 hour ride back actually didn't sound that bad. We all fell asleep for the first 3 hours, watched a few movies, made a pit stop, and were back in Florence around 11pm.

I decided to go on this trip within 5 hours of it's departure. Slovenia... Who would have even thought this was such an amazing place? The whole time I was there, I kept saying to myself, "I can't wait to come back here..." or "Omg, they (talking about friends) would love this spa, we gotta come back!" As if I would actually come back here some day. This place is so underestimated, I am so so so happy I chose to take a weekend there. I cannot speak more highly of it.

For only having 21 people traveling on the trip, we lucked out. I went on knowing only Cathy (since I intern with Euroadventures, and she was the guide), and came back loving every one who was with me this weekend. We all got along, half of the kids on the trip were from Illinois State which was pretty cool, and every one was so laid back and outgoing it was great.

I've never had a problem doing things on my own, but being abroad I definitely thought that I'd need to have a good friend with me while traveling. This weekend showed me that when you have the chance to do something, don't let anything hold you back. When was I ever going to get the chance to do what I did this past weekend? Probably never again. So that's why I jumped at the opportunity. I came home on Sunday night with multiple new friends, a new country and activities to check off my list, and memories that I will never forget.