Slovenia felt very fast. I had envisioned having time each day to journal, read, and draw. In practice, there was always something to do next: pack up camp, bike, shower, food, plan the next day, sleep. Wildcamping is illegal in Slovenia (and enforced by heavy fines), so each day we needed to make a particular campsite. As we biked, I kept looking around, trying to absorb everything into my memory so I wouldn’t miss it. Take a deep breath in, wonder at the landscape, remember this is the only time you are going to be right here.
Each day, we pedaled through one landscape in the morning and another in the afternoon. Bike lanes out of the city center to grassy tracks through cornfields. Shortcuts through small villages to wide open views in a national park. Switchbacks up a mountain pass to winding roads down along a river. Red roofs and vineyards to horses and hills. Cats hunting mice in fields to cows grazing in karst hills. Temperate forest on the border to palm trees in Croatia. Slovenia packs diverse landscapes in a small, bikeable package.
Slovenia is built for bikepacking in comfort. There’s a bike assembly station at the airport and bike lanes from the airport to the city center. Ljubljana has a great bike shop, Loose Cycles, and there are many public bike maintenance stations across the country. Wildcamping is prohibited, so the natural beauty is well protected and there is no litter anywhere. The roads (both asphalt and gravel) are very well maintained. The camping is expensive by US standards (30-45 euros a night for 2 people), but you get what you pay for: hot showers, clean bathrooms, wifi, plugs for charging devices, and maybe a pool or a well-supplied mini-market. It’s clearly an active country- almost every playground has a climbing wall and pump tracks abounded.
All these resources made Slovenia a nice, easy introduction to trip logistics. A lot of other things turned up in our favor, too. We had perfect weather- 70F and sunny, with little wind. The planned routes were safe, away from cars and on high quality asphalt and gravel. My body also felt great. I adjusted to the time zone quickly and had minimal soreness each day. I did the most miles I’ve ever done without getting saddle sores. I was excited to bike every morning. Consistent training and racing this year paid off!
For all that, the first week was an anxious one for me. I planned our Europe route, Meg planned our Southeast Asia route. So I felt like the host, and it was show time. We quit our jobs for this, it’s gotta be great!
It was, but there were also some gaps to my planning. Meg had asked me to verify that we could get white gas in Slovenia. I verified that an outdoor shop in Slovenia had fuel bottles on their website. Turns out that is not a good proxy. White gas is very hard to find in the EU due to strict regulations. (Meg has an international whisperlite, so we had two options: find kerosene or buy a stove to use with canister gas. We found kerosene. Not all of it fit in the fuel bottle, so we found the proper place to dispose of the rest. The stove is harder to prime with kerosene, and kerosene is dirtier than white gas, so the pot was caked in greasy soot after every meal.) Slovenia was also pretty expensive, about the same as the US. This was fine as we were only there for a week, but when all grocery stores closed on Sunday and we had to eat out every meal, it seemed to be adding up pretty fast. My confidence in my planning skills was a bit shaken, but we figured it out.
My anxiety, quick time zone adjustment, and good legs are probably all explained by the fact that I was hyped up on steroids. The day before the trip, I had a strange case of full body hives and I was on an aggressive steroid course the first week of the trip. Once I was off the meds, I chilled out and the fatigue started accumulating. (It could also just be that after the first week the honeymoon phase was over, but probably it was the roids.)
A few highlights along the way:
We went paragliding! In the Julian Alps. I’ve always wanted to fly and it seemed like the best place for it. Surprisingly, the car ride up to the takeoff was the most heart-pounding part. Our pilot drove up the one lane, two way mountain road like it was a race course (he’s been driving up that mountain for 40+ years). Once we were in the air, it was very peaceful. We had ideal conditions and were in the air for 45 minutes, admiring the mountains, treetops, and canyons. You could only tell how fast we were going as we got closer to the ground, and then we had a nice gentle skid on our butts to land, like a slide. If anything, it was almost a let down that it was so calm. Made me want to learn how to pilot…
The Soca river is tantalizingly turquoise. And COLD. Of course, Meg dived in anyways and I grudgingly convinced myself to tiptoe in and half submerge. Some things never change. Later that day we encountered a rope swing on our route! An opportunity to jump in has never so kindly presented itself. We stopped and jumped in again, to the great amusement of the Italian tourists sitting nearby.
As we biked through wine country, we decided to stop at a vineyard. SANTEI wines was on the route. We pushed out bikes up the hill and called Hallo? Sandra came out to greet us and agreed to give us a taste of a wine. She was mid-lunch preparation but graciously hosted us. While her curry was cooking, she chose and poured a glass for us and shared a bit of her story with us. She and her husband left their corporate careers and bought this vineyard – learning as they went! It was amazing wine and amazing company.
-E
Note: more pics to come later!
