Day 1 +2: Sydney to Lake Bled

Mum and I left for the airport just after 6am and I was checked in and through by 8. After security I met up with my friend Jess and her boyfriend Tony who were also flyting to Bangkok but on a different airline. After coffee, I headed off to board my flight.

The flight was delayed by about an hour due to turbulence but it still left me with a 6-hour stopover in Bangkok. I was so early my flight wasn’t even on the board so I walked around Bangkok airport for a while to stretch my legs and drooled over the massive amounts of mango (freeze-dried, fresh, smoothie, juice, mango and sticky rice etc. you get the idea!) that was for sale!

The flight between Bangkok and Frankfurt was great as I slept most of the way. We descended into Frankfurt with a really beautiful sunrise. The sky was pink

and orange and the clouds literally looked like cotton wool. Having not been overseas for a long time and never on my own, it was a bit daunting having to talk to people having no German and no knowing if they would speak English! I couldn’t even understand the guy at the airport when he said “English?”, referring to what language he should address me in!

After 3 hours in Frankfurt, I checked in for the Adria Airways plane. All the passengers were piled into a bus which then drove for 15 minutes to the plane. It was a slightly terrifying experience as it was the first experience I had of a car driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road while giving way to large moving planes and golf buggies! The plane ride was okay and as we descended into Ljubljana, I began to get really excited to get to Lake Bled.

During the bus ride, I met another Australian from the Gold Coast, Karyn, who was also doing the G-adventures tour and when we checked in to the hotel, it turned out she was also my roommate. We couldn’t go to our room straight away as it was not ready so we went for a walk to get acquainted with Bled. We walked up to the tourist information centre and got a map which quickly told us we were walking away

from all of the main sites and shops in Bled. Oops. We then walked down towards the lake and saw Bled Castle, the Church and the island in the middle of the Lake. It was so pretty! The water was turquoise and so clear you could see the fish swimming below. After having a look around we went and grabbed some lunch at a café where I had a salad (much needed after the yucky plane food!) and then wandered back towards the hotel.

After we checked in and had a bit of rest, we decided to go and walk around the lake (we were mainly trying to get ourselves awake!). It was a really beautiful walk as it offered stunning views of the historic buildings that surround the lake as well as lush greenery. At the end of the 6km was some small markets which we stopped to have a look at before

heading back to our hotel.

At the hotel we met up with the rest of our group (7 people + guide), who were a range of ages and coming from Australia, Spain, America and Canada. We all went out for dinner at a Slovenian restaurant near our hotel. The meal arrived and it was ginormous! Larger than what I would usually eat in two meals! The menu was really interesting although most of the meals didn't come with vegetables which is a bit different to what I'm used to.

After dinner we were all really tired as we'd all flown in to Slovenia in the morning and no one was used to the timezone change so we all went to bed.