Eurotrip 2018 - part II

As I was looking for accommo-dation in Portoroz, to ensure the lodgings would be located near a beach. Quite easily I found one some one kilometre from the sea shore. Sadly (or not), I forgot to check the terrain shape. As it turned out, the Slovenian coast is featured with the highest cliffs by Adriatic sea and each walk to the beach or to the city centre involved a steep descent and then a steep ascent back. According to my estimations, the higher parts of Portoroz and nearby towns are close to 100 metres above sea level. The first climb was a nasty experience, however with each consecutive day we grew more and more seasoned and fitter!

Visiting the Adriatic seaside in the third decade of May has most advantages of low season. Though on Saturday and Sunday some locals and probably some visitors from central parts of Slovenia, popped over for a weekend rest, droves of sun-thirsty tourist were unseen. On Thursday the beach looked like that. The snap is somewhat misleading since we were not the only holidaymakers around. There were less than plenty but more than few tourists from Germany (judging by licence plates of cars, not only language audible) and Russia.

After a day of sunbathing and swimming in the sea (water temperature around 20C, similar to what one can enjoy in Polish lakes in July or August, so bearable, not yet comfortably warm) we marched towards Piran, the historic Italian town which in the wake of political decisions was adjoined to bygone Yugoslavia in 1954. The architecture reminds of Italian roots of this place. The town has its climate, especially near sunset (a pity we did not take an evening trip there), but when the heat reaches +30C sightseeing conditions are not at their best, yet we were in Mediterranean climate, it should not have been chilly actually. 

Each evening we took a bottle of local wine (less than 2 EUR per litre, an excellent beverage for my not refined taste) and sauntered to a promontory to observe the sun going down into the sea. Unfortunately, each day the western sky was kind of cloudy and clouds lingered above the horizon, so we missed the breathtaking sight, being out of luck just as in January we missed out on Northern Lights, but a week after we few back a massive aurora explosion was witnessed in Tromso. Yet sipping wine and staring at the smooth sea was a sheer bliss anyway.

Monday, 28 May 2018

After spending four full days in Portoroz, we headed back towards Poland. The first stop, recommended by a friend who had also travelled to Slovenia by car in 2016, was Bled lake, one of two picturesque lakes (the other is Bohinj) in the central, hilly part of the country. Out stopover there lasted just an hour, enough to catch the climate of the place and grow fond of it, yearning to come back for more one day.

On the same day we turned up to Maribor. The accommo-dation there, a three-star, just refurbished apartment one mile from the very city center set us back mere 42 EUR (cheapie!). Maribor is the second biggest city in Slovenia, yet it smacks of a bigger town and I must say one afternoon is absolutely sufficient to get about it. We roamed around town, but climbed up a hill called "pyramid" (due to its shape), from which we could lap up another city view from above. We pitched up atop more than one hour before sunset (not the most magical time of the day), yet gazing at such landscape compensates the strain ascent involves.

Tuesday, 29 May 2018

The last stop (actually the penultimate one, before spending two days in Bielsko-Biała again) was the capital of Slovakia, which was the let-down of the trip. My memories are negatively skewed as all cards were stacked against us. As we were driving in, a massive downpour hit the city, then it cleared up, but air humidity was far higher and temperature hit +30C - not a conducive temperature for sightseeing. Our hotel (Hotel Turist) turned out to not to have undergone a renovation since the split of Czechoslovakia (in Poland one would struggle hard to find hotels where time stopped before the collapse of communism), odour of cigarettes was in the air, breakfast was worse than indecent. Fortunately we just stayed one night there (but escaped on Wednesday before 8 a.m.) and the location was two miles from old town. I did not even bother to take out a camera too many times. Had I taken pictures of Bratislavia and stripped them off advertisements and modern cars, the photos would have been easily eligible for Michael's old-school photo challenge. Truth be told, I recommend visiting Bratislava to nobody.

Eurotrip 2018 - part I

Decided to split the blog coverage of the recent holidays into two posts (expect the second chunk and snaps of the story next Sunday).

I had hatched the idea of taking longer trip by car several years ago, yet this year I managed to put it into practice. Within 12 day we covered 2,583 kilometres through four countries, visited three capitals, did not fall into troubles…

Day 1, Sunday, 20 May 2018

We set off to Bielsko-Biała where my girlfriend’s parents live. A visit there was our first stop on the way south. The drive would have been a smooth one, had it not been for being stopped by the police for speeding (ignored the 70 kmph limit somewhere between Częstochowa and Katowice and carried on with 100 kmph on cruise control) – upshot: scored 4 penalty points and the first fine in my driving career, 100 PLN down the drain, paid with credit card on the spot (traffic patrol officers had had payment terminals since February 2018). Nevertheless, I have to boast about economical driving – fuel consumption over the whole trip – mere 6.11 litres per 100 kilometres (I drove 100 – 110 kmph most of the time). Had it not been for air-con on, my Megane would have consumed less than 6 litres.

Day 2, Monday, 21 May 2018

We headed for Vienna early in the morning and pitched up to our hotel, Ibis Budget Sankt Marx, just after 1 p.m. A long afternoon is far too little to do the decent sightseeing in Austria’s capital, therefore one day I will definitely have to return there. My greetings to Bob, who has virtually kept me company and advised where to go!

Hundertwas-serhaus was the first stop of our Vienna-wide journey. The concept’s originator claimed he had designed it not to let anybody build anything uglier in such place. Actually I find the idea quaint, but rather as a tourist attraction, not as a place I would like to reside in (those who know me know I am fond of order, not chaos).

From the housing district we headed for Schoenbrunn palace. Our underground ride was impeded by railway modernisation, forcing us to take part of the route by bus. We roamed around the scene, dropped in on ticket office to learn our museum entrance time would come in an hour. We spent that time strolling around huge gardens behind the palace (this was the first hill to climb during the holidays).

After eating out a hearty dinner (was not a lunchtime anymore) we made our way towards Prater, the famous amusement park. We could not do without buying tickets for the Riesenrad wheel, from top position of which tourists can enjoy sights of Vienna’s panorama. We timed our visit there to roughly match with the sunset, yet found ourselves at the top more than half an hour before sun went down. Nevertheless, the views were memorable (even in camera’s eye).

As it was getting dark and we were already tired out, we took a short walk around the centre of Vienna, here we sauntered past Graben, but also saw from outside St. Stephen’s cathedral. Anyway, we could have done with at least a day of intensive sightseeing in Austria’s capital.

Day 3, Tuesday, 22 May 2018.

After a decent breakfast in the hotel, we set off to Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital. That city is far less remarkable than Vienna, with less than 300,000 inhabitants, is the biggest city in Slovenia anyway. Our lodgings was mere 3 kilometres from the city centre and was surrounded by terraced houses whose dwellers grew vegetables in their gardens. The city was small enough for us to get about it on foot only (buying bus tickets is quite complicated). Here, the snap from our stroll – castle hill seen in a distance.

There was no excuse not to scramble up the steep castle hill from which a beautiful panorama of Slovenia’s capital splays out. The weather was conducive and actually this was the only day of our trip when temperature in the afternoon oscillated near pleasant +20C.

Day 4, Wednesday, 23 May 2018.

Early in the morning we spontaneously decided to take a stopover in our 130-kilometres trip to our destination, to see Postojna caves. The attraction is absolutely breath-taking and tough quite expensive (spent over 70 EUR for tickets, audio-guide and parking), worth visiting. Snaps taken with a camera without a tripod and proper light enhancement do not render beauty of the place. If you happen do visit Slovenia, Postojna cave is a must.

To be continued :)