I’m sitting at a bus stop in Postojna. For either another 5 minutes or 20. Why am I not sure? Because the woman at the information center wasn’t sure. Nor did she know how much it would cost. This does not strike me as good information. But apparently the highway bus (which would take me 45 min instead of 1 hour 20 min) to Ljubljana may not stop here although there’s a scheduled time. From what I can tell, schedules be damned. It’s about the whim of the driver??!!Ah well, public transportation issues aside (I had issues this morning with my bus as well — and I was at the Ljubljana main bus station. Maybe I’m not asking nicely enough. Maybe I should switch to Italian which Wikipedia tells me is one of their national languages. Maybe I have no clue!). I got into Ljubljana last night. I might add that my reserved shared shuttle from the airport and a taxi today both worked beautifully. Perhaps their private trans is better?Anyway, I managed to walk around a bit in Ljubljana’s center and grab a Slovenian dinner (it was a sausage like kielbasa with sauerkraut, bacon and a polenta-like barley mush. Tasty.). I took a few photos but presume I’ll be back for many more.

Today was supposed to be rainy in both Lake Bled (my other planned day trip) and Ljubljana, so I thought — why not go to dark underground caves and be damp there instead?! The Postojna caves are (understandably) famous and a huge tourist draw — and there’s also a nearby castle in Predjama (and we know what a sucker I am for castles)— though this one is different. It’s built into rocks and caves.

Not only is the castle built into the caves, there are caves above it that we partially went into and caves below that are now closed for the season. But I think you have to go in with a guide and be prepared (not sure what that means but I’m probably not prepared). Anyway this is a bit of the cave above. It’s really hard to see but it was very cool. The audio guide kept stressing how damp and uncomfortable it was to live there but they caught fresh water off the roof holes and had a back “secret passage” so they could get out to get food even when under year-long sieges. Like Stirling castle, it may not have been cozy but it was pretty impenetrable. That said, one famous leader (Erazem, a Robin Hood-type folk hero) was killed when a servant sold his knowledge and poor old Erazem was bombed and killed in the latrine! Anyway here is a cloudy picture of the stairs that are part of the secret passageway.There were also dungeons, arrow slits, drawbridges and moats at one time and you can see where they once were. And built in fireplaces, sinks, and gutters for running water along the hallways — they really figured out how to engineer around the natural stonework!

Speaking of, I then visited the Postojna Caves, which have apparently been open for viewings for 200 years. They absolutely have it down to a science. There’s a tram that takes you about a mile in and then you walk both up and down well-paved pathways (often with railings) to see various “rooms” of massive stalagmites, stalactites, pillars (when they meet), curtains, and other crazy shapes that were all formed naturally from the River Pivka, dripping into the limestone. These pictures don’t even remotely do it justice. We’re obviously not allowed to use a flash though they’ve lit up many of the more spectacular areas so people can try to capture some of it. If you’re into it, I’d just use google to find professional photos. There’s even a room they call the dance hall that has good (though echoing) acoustics and they’ve brought in orchestras to play there (and installed chandeliers in it). We took a looping 1 mi tram ride back out and that was the 90 minute tour! (And I’m skipping the “wildlife” they found in there — mostly insects and things that looked like albino worms. It was a separate tour to see more of that and I’m sure you can guess whether I took it. Eww!)

Overall it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Though I’m not a cave person… but the shapes, colors, and size (not to mention sheer quantity) of them were pretty impressive. And we only saw a portion of the caves. At the height of the walk, I think we were 40m below ground and 40m above the lowest point. BTW, I heard plenty of people huffing and puffing as they were walking and I gotta say — either the singulair is really working or all my walking up hills is making me in better shape — as I never felt remotely out of breath (my Edinburgh max inclines was 70 floors and today was only 28 floors total — and I walked uphill to the caves from the bus, plus all over the castle before the caves. Though I wonder if the tracker works underground?? Oh well, clearly many of the folks on this tour were straight off a tour bus and not in great shape.)

That’s pretty much it for the day. I actually made it back on the phantom 45 minute motorway bus so that was a pleasant surprise. At least I saw a bit more of the town while I was waiting for my bus. I asked my host about the buses and he concurred — apparently the buses here aren’t exactly a friendly, reliable service although they do run regularly somehow anyway.

On that confusing note I’m off to bed. Tomorrow I’ll stay local and check out Ljubljana!