Thanksgiving 2011 -- Slovenia

Teaching at an American school, we get the traditional 4 day Thanksgiving holiday break.  4 days?  Where to go.  I was poking around the Internet back in early October and was checking out the Serie A schedule and saw that Udinese (my team, as you all know) was playing at home, in Udine, on Friday the 25th of November.  Usually, Serie A games are on Sunday so this was a special game......and then I find out that Udinese is playing Roma and it's official, I'm headed to Udinese for the game.  If you look at a map, you'll see Udine is right on the border with Slovenia and that becomes the destination for this Thanksgiving day break.  First stop, Lake Bled.

Hawaii?  No, Slovenia.  This is "Slap Savica" or "Savica Waterfall" at the far western end of Lake Bohinj, a more remote and less commercial lake in Northwestern Slovenia.

Thanksgiving day itself was overcast and cloudy, but the lake was calm and we see the reflection of a mountain in Lake Bohinj.

Lake Bled is about 3.5 miles around in circumference, but it has cliff faces jutting directly up from the surface of the lake and has a castle looming over it.

Here, on the foggy first day, is a view of Lake Bled from the castle.  Right there in the lake is a small island, with a church which brings the charm factor "over the top" according the Rick Steves' guide.  I have to agree.

The next day, in the morning, the sun was trying to peek through and we went along the path near the island. The stairs of the island come right down to the shoreline.  This island is known for being the wedding capital of Slovenia and it is tradition for the groom to carry the bride up the steps.

No motorized boats are allowed on Lake Bled, so getting to the island is only by these "pletna" boats, which are rowed by families who pass down the boats (and the plans for the boats) from generation to generation.

No motorized boats, you say?  Well, turns out that Lake Bled is the rowing capital of Slovenia.  Lake Bled, because it is sheltered by the mountains to the west has little wind and is ideal for rowing.  The world championships of rowing have been held on the lake four times, most recently in 2011!

 

 

The area has produced numerous world and Olympic medalists in rowing!

Turns out the place I found to stay was right above the training center.

I used, for the first time, the website AirBnB, to find this one bedroom apartment.  It was PERFECT, quaint, and cost 40 dollars a night.  If all AirBnB locations are of this quality, I'm sold!

For those who remember him, Josip Broz, aka Tito, was the legendary figure who held together the six distinct and separate republics in one unified Yugoslavia up until the country started to break up in 1990.  The first country to gain its independence was Slovenia, the northern most of the six republics.  Here is Tito's villa on Lake Bled.

Taking a stroll along the ground of the villa.

In a ballroom on the second floor of the villa there is a huge mural extolling Tito and the Yugoslavia.  Up in the left corner, the attack by the Nazi's on Belgrade and in the center Tito rallying the people of this region (Yugoslavia) to bind together as a country.

Defeating the enemy...the Nazi's

The ideal of Yugoslavia, the farmer and the worker in the shadow of an industrial factory being led by a woman with a child on her shoulders carrying the flag of Yugoslavia!

Ala Tito, sitting and enjoying the view from the terrace with the Island of Lake Bled in the background!