Heading East at last!

With an unplanned luxury hotel bill and a €25 fine for not stamping my ticket, I finally left 'Shitaly' and found myself back in the slow lane of Eastern Europe. Gorizia is an unusual town and despite having an hour to kill at Novo Gorica station I didn't really have enough time to check out the museum of seperation so what I'm about to tell you is largely stolen from the Lonely Planet guide. When Slovenia was part of the former Yugoslavia, the government built it's own side of the town as well as a huge fence across the border. This mini Berlin wall was not torn down until 2004 so it is not recommended that you simply wander across at your own will. Given the weight of my bags, I opted to take a bus for the 4KM trek across town through the 'official' crossing where we were simply waved through as if it didn't matter anyway.

From the station you can see the beginnings of the Julian Alps (named after Caesar himself) with their tree clad slopes growing ever steeper in the distance. The station itself was more or less deserted apart from some very old 3rd class train carriages which turned out to be laid on especially for a bunch of train enthusiasts. The steam train that was to haul them pulled in shortly after I learned that my train did not run on Saturdays and so I thought for the sake of an extra hour (and an extra €30) I'd hang around and travel to Bled in style.

Whilst at the station I got the impression that there was some sort of celebration occuring involving the big man, Tito. Several people wearing strange hats and Tito tee shirts (Ti Shirts?) wandered along the platform and 4 Cessnas flew around in circles draping Tito banners behind them. Oh yes, and a huge inscription on a mountain bearing the man's name!

The train journey itself was fantastic, as I hung off the side of the balconies at the end of the carriages whilst the train criss-crossed turquoise rivers along steep sided valleys. All was going quite well until we reached our first tunnel and I discovered what it means to be in an enclosed space with a coal fire! I emerged on the other side covered in soot and gasping for air but nevertheless exhilarated by the experience. My co-travellers were serious train geeks and were discussing such subjects as boiler numbers of locomotives, Croatian line gradients and Austria-Hungarian valve gear. As the train was quite full I was left with the option of joining the discussion or getting covered in soot outside, a decision that was suddenly made easier with the return of the afternoon sun.

Once at Bled I said goodbye to my fellow passengers and got off the train at the station where I was met by an eerie silence and a complete absence of taxis. The station master very kindly ordered me one and then very unkindly demanded €1 for the trouble. I didn't care too much at this point as it was getting late and I still didn't have a bed for the night! The taxi took me straight to Bledec hostel where fortunately they had a spare bed and after a vital de-sooting shower I headed down into the town for an enormous meal before heading back to the hostel. My roommates were a Brother and Sister from Belfast and Tom had just returned from a day of white water rafting. With this recommendation in mind I decided to head out early in the morning to see what adventure sports were available.