Small but beautiful. This was my first impression the first night in Ljubljana.

It was busy, but not completely packed – so busy enough to provide a great atmosphere, but not so busy that you feel stifled by tourism (or tourists). There also didn’t seem to be that many Brits – quite a few Italians and German speakers, but refreshingly devoid of Brits Abroad.

The Slovenians really do seem to have made a real effort to regenerate the city – many of the beautiful buildings had recently undergone (or were undergoing) renovation and the area of the three bridges was beautifully lit at night, and bustling with life.

The plan for our full day in this city was just to see as much of it as possible so that tomorrow we could head out of town and on to the next – two nights in one place; a total luxury!

Above the town, Ljubljana Castle sits on the hillside, overlooking the old town and keeping watch. The castle, like just about everything else we came across in Slovenia, was not only well preserved, but also well presented – the Slovenians are taking their fledgling tourist industry very seriously.

I particularly liked their strapline – I FEEL sLOVEnia – takes me right back to the Communards on repeat play (vinyl of course) in my teenage bedroom while I worked through my angst!

The streets directly lining the river and most of the bridges (there must have been at least 7 in a 500m stretch) were dotted with stalls selling jewellery, wooden crafts, handmade things and BBQ’d corn on the cobs – making just about anywhere a great place for just watching the world go by.

Food – I have to mention this, just so that I can upload this picture. We always try to eat local when we are travelling as what’s the point of going to new places and experiencing new cultures if you only eat what you know (for this, insert British/American/Italian or your food of choice). I don’t mean all the time of course (in fact, we ate Mexican in Ljubljana) but at least once. Checking out the traditional eateries however, all of the local menus we saw all had at least one dish made from horse meat. Not mouthwateringly inviting! The best of all though? This sign – horseburger anyone?!

Weirdly for a major city which has seen some turbulence in the not so distant past, there were no museums or anything at all telling tourists about Slovenian history. I was hoping for at least something celebrating (informing?) independence from Russia in the 1975 revolution, or even the 1990 Balkan ‘troubles’ but no, nada, nothing.

By the evening, the town was busier; more Brits had arrived, so a budget airline must have flown in from somewhere. We whiled away a few hours with beers in an outdoor bar playing the ‘guess the tourist nationality’ game, which is highly inappropriate and extremely un-PC, but provides endless entertainment. Frustrating when you never get to hear any talking so you don’t know who was right.

Oh! I almost forgot to say – I got my first ever wasp sting today. After spending most of my life running away from wasps like a girl covered in honey, this one snuck into the side of my sandal and got me under my foot! I actually couldn’t walk, and when I’ve got my foot up in the air saying to my husband ‘Look! It’s swollen!’ He’d be as well to say ‘Yes darling, I can see it’s really swollen’ instead of ‘Swollen? Where? Looks just the same as the other one to me!’.

Our second and last of the two days we are spending in Slovenia. The day started well – we had booked a hire car over the internet, and on leaving home Nigel picked up his driving licence – except he didn’t. He picked up mine! Having been gutted that I might have to do all the driving, I was delighted when the rental guy accepted just his photocard without even asking for the paper bit. What a result!

We drove out to Lake Bled; about a 40 minute drive away from Ljubljana, parked up and started walking.

Shame the swim stuff was left in the car, because there was a board at the bathing area that claimed that the air temp was 24°C and the water temperature 25°C – we did have a bit of a wade in, and the heat of the water was a surprise!

The lake is really beautiful, and you can see why it is one of Slovenia’s top tourist attractions.

Unfortunately Nige had only paid for 2 hrs parking, otherwise we could easily have made it the full 6km around the lake, as it was, we walked for 50 mins, stopped for a beer, and walked back again the same way.

On leaving Bled, we took up a recommendation from the car hire guy and drove on another 30k or so to go to another, larger, lake that sits at the foot of Slovenia’s highest mountain. This time, we took the swim kit, however, as Nige dived in (and I gingerly paddled at the edges) he soon found that the water was not nearly as warm (in fact, not in the slightest bit warm) as the lake at Bled. Ha!

Next – Serbia!