The Crawshaws Overseas Trip - Ljubljana Day 2

Tuesday 28 May - we ate breakfast with the hordes of other guests in the hotel dining room, then set off to find the yoga studio. Although there was evidence of rain during the night, the morning was clear and crisp. It took us about half an hour to get to the street address. Miha had said in his message that the entrance was at the back of the building. Try as we might, we could not find it. Eventually I went into a café to ask. The barista came out and pointed to some steps about 3 doors along. These steps led down to below ground level, with a yoga sign on the wall. Relief was short-lived as the door was locked and no amount of knocking yielded any response.  We were too early! Michael hung around until a young woman dressed in yoga type gear showed up and went down the steps only to be faced with the locked door. Then she made a phone call after which she said that Miha was running a bit late. I sent Michael on his way, waving away the map, assuring him I would have no trouble returning to the hotel. 

Miha arrived just before 9.30 am, apologising for being late. I introduced myself and he seemed genuinely pleased that I had made the effort. He announced to the group that he would be speaking in English for this class, a thoughtful concession to the foreigner in their midst. Soon, there were 6 of us being guided through Iyengar postures, with frequent adjustments from Miha. It was an hour and a half of dormant body parts being reluctantly brought into alignment, some protesting more than others at their rude awakening. By the end of the class though, I felt a familiar surge of calm settle over me. Sadly it didn't last. After thanking Miha, I set off for the hotel, immediately taking a wrong turn. Half an hour later, I had no idea where the dickens I was, and with no chance of being enlightened. I asked a passerby where was the town centre. She pointed in the direction she thought it might be but didn’t seem all that sure. By now I knew Michael would be wondering where the I was, as we had an early afternoon tour booked. So I turned on data roaming (hoping like heck that the maximum of $10 per day was in place) and phoned him. Not that he was able to help, it was more to let him know I was still alive, and well and truly lost. He told me to catch a taxi but I had no clue as to where one might be, so I just entered the hotel address on google maps and followed the little blue beacon in whichever direction it flashed. Every now and then the little blue beacon began flashing wildly away from the designated route. I had to keep stopping and turning in circles to get back on track. I finally arrived back at the hotel, a hot and sweaty mess. Of course Michael made mileage out of this latest misadventure. I don't think he realizes how scary it can be, having no shred of an internal compass.

At 1 pm, we went downstairs to wait for the tour guide to take us to  the Postojna Caves and Predjama Castle. We waited and waited, wondering if someone would show up. Finally, 25 minutes later, a young woman hurried into the hotel foyer and introduced herself as Vesna, our tour guide for the afternoon. She led us outside and into her people mover. We were the last pickup of a party of 7, the others being a couple about our age from New Zealand, a girl from Brisbane and a couple in their eighties from Washington DC. It was about a forty minute drive and along the way, Vesna gave us a history lesson about the castle and also the caves, Postojna being one of the largest cave systems in the world. By this time, it had started raining again. When we arrived at the castle, Vesna gave us each an umbrella and off we trooped up the hill to the entrance. It was very fascinating and an indiviual audio device gave us the run down on each room of the castle. However it was also cold and dank, hard to imagine anyone actually ever enjoying living there. 

Next we drove to the Postojna caves. The last tour of the day was scheduled for 4pm. Once there, we hurried to the entrance, eager to get on the miniature train and down into the cave system. Actually, eager might be too strong a word. It was more a case of extreme damp and cold, raining topside, and stalactites dripping incessantly underground. The sooner we got started, the sooner we would be taken back to warmth and comfort. We spent 15 minutes on the train and an hour traipsing after the male English speaking guide (Vesna remained above ground). We never caught sight of this guide, there being close to a hundred people in our group. Michael and I hung back, making sure the couple from Washington DC were ok. They seemed in good health but frail all the same and probably had not bargained for all the arduous walking. Neither had we quite frankly. At times, we were so far behind, it seemed as if we were the only people down there. Twice, the underground lighting failed, only for a few seconds, but enough to scare the living daylights out of us.  We passed through spectacular cavern after cavern, marvelling at the myriad of rock formations and pools of mountain spring water. We might have missed the geological blurb on the caves but we certainly had a visual appreciation of this magnificent phenomenon. Eventually we caught up to the masses, all making their way back to the train. Another 15 minutes of being hurtled back through the caves, perilously close to the stalactites overhead, more incessant dripping. Finally we all flooded to the outside world, where it had begun to rain in earnest. Vesna was waiting, umbrellas at the ready. Our little group piled into the van and Vesna drove us back to town. The rain intensified, visibility was poor but Vesna didn't falter and we arrived back at our hotel safely. We thanked her for the experience, genuinely glad we had made the effort.

There was a pause in the rain so we walked to the town square for beer and marguarita, to the same café bar as the previous day. We had discovered that in Italy and now Slovenia, it was not always an easy task to order a marguarita, so this was the place for me.The animation of the city was palpable, especially here in the square and we enjoyed soaking it in, at least for a little while before fatigue and more threatening weather forced us back to the hotel for dinner. 

Predjama Castle

Postojna Caves

Caveman

The margarita bar