The slow crawl home: Slovenian Caving and Bosnian brandy.

I’m going to apologize in advance if this little story for today turns slightly slurry. I have a glass of Bosnian cherry brandy in one hand. It’s slightly sweet on the first sip, before the onslaught of alcohol kicks in. I’m worried that I’m going to grow hairs on my chest after a few glasses of this stuff.

The co-owner of our hostel has insisted that we try it, bringing out 4 unlabelled bottles (but warns it’s not a home brew). They’re all a different colour and we are clinking glasses with some Americans. This could get dangerous.

Yesterday was our final day in Slovenia. We needed an action packed day mainly because we had a looming overnight 12-hour bus ride ahead of us. So the decision was made to visit the Skocjan Caves. But that too meant a 2-hour journey to get there.

I’m always hesitate about visiting ‘tourist site caves.’ Mainly because I’ve seen too many glossy brochures that show a camp family sitting in a tuk-tuk train cruising through a well lit cave. That’s not really my kind of day out, or probably yours?

Most of the caves were discovered in the early 1800s. Stretching over 3km in length, taking 1hr 30 to get through the chambers are impressive (even when your sharing the space with a German singing choir group). It completely amazed me in the engineering feats within the cave. A large bridge guided us across a roaring river below, cable wires leading to beacons of light in every nook and cranny. The journey included the common ignorant tourist, who still takes pictures even when they’ve been politely asked to not. But at least there wasn’t a choo-choo train in sight.

I’ve loved my time in this amazing and wicked country. And also learnt to stop using the word ‘wicked’ as a compliment. Any Slovenian will think your referring to something horrible and no one likes to hear bad things about their country.

Back to cherry brandy; no wait, this time it’s a walnut concoction as there are more bottles now coming out for tasting.

Živjeli x (that doesn’t mean Toodle pip in Bosnian but Cheers)