Another day for a departure. Sun was gloriously beating down, so the drive would be lovely to do all the way to Ljubljana. We packed once again, checked out, and lugged our stuff into poor little Sandra the Suzuki.
Once again, I decided to drive, surprising even myself. We stopped off at the nearby petrol station to get a motorway vignette for Slovenia, and then made our way back to the highway, but this time travelling north.
The Istrian Peninsula is a beautiful landscape to traverse, as experienced on our way to Rovinj. Our route was still some way from the coast for a bit at the start, but we seemed to traverse small valleys or even estuaries whose water flowed from east to west. But as we progressed further north, a lot more greenery returned to the scene. Fewer olive groves, but a more farms with animals.
We hit a dual carriageway that whisked us through this scene change, and we crossed over a large viaduct over one of the wider agricultural floodplains seeming to carry a small river for its size. Traffic started to increase a little, and then all of a sudden, 8km out from the border with Slovenia, the road became single file. This then turned from a fast-paced 70kph to a mere crawl.
We then became stuck in an almighty jam. We understood that this may be to do with a border check, as we assumed that Croatia was still out of Schengen and Slovenia was in it. So, as we started and stopped for a good hour, we contemplated many reasons for the traffic delay. We had been gently rising over the last few kilometres, reaching a plateau just before a roundabout that turned the single lane ‘bypass’ into a very small country road of sorts, that wound down yet another valley.
We were on this stretch for another 30 minutes, but once we saw the border signs in the distance, we realised that the border itself was unstaffed. It was free to go through. We had noticed some aggressive road building work a few kilometres back, so perhaps a new road was being built to replace this current road that had evidently outlived its use. We soon sped up to climb the other side of the now Slovenian valley and took a new motorway in the direction of Koper and Trieste. We were now delayed by 2 ½ hours.
We skirted around the industrial parts of the Koper, joining a larger motorway to first head north, towards Trieste, and then north-east towards Ljubljana. The signs for Italy were a gentle reminder that I have still not visited.
We arrived at the city limits of Ljubljana and soon into the suburban area that housed our accommodation. As we were staying only one night, we opted for a private room in a hostel that was housed in a building that could have been mistaken for an old embassy.
We dropped our bags and went straight out to see as much as we could in the 20 hours we were here. An 8-minute stroll led us to a Roman Wall that I was familiar with on my previous trip. We had a look at the tourist information signs that were on display and then wondered off to the start of the old town nearby. John was impressed by its ‘picture postcard’ twee vibe. But it was also a genuinely pretty place to see. The castle almost dominates the sky, particularly amongst the narrow streets close to the base of the hill on which its perched.
Naturally, we embraced our nerd like passion – transportation - and took the funicular up to the castle. For a fairly priced cost of €10 each, we rose up from the old town and into a spectacular view of the city, the city park, and Julian Alps on the horizon. Exiting the glass box, we almost crawled under the depths of the castle, and up then out into its open courtyard. Here, a number of people were at its central café, so we joined them and had a beer – especially after that gruelling drive.
I took John first up the red pillared staircase in the tower to get the best view. We spent some time up there, taking in the helpful information signs of what we could detect in the distance. We then had a look in some of the nooks and cranny’s that were on site – the chapel was a cooling haven from the sun, with some lovely murals painted on its ceiling. We went to some cellars, again cooling, that hosted a museum. And then we walked around the walls, before heading back down.
We became peckish, so walked up towards one of the museums between the castle and the train station but didn’t see anything we fancied. We then turned back towards the old town, north of the river, and as we entered the realm of the old town, there were a few places that had a younger crowd and pop-up food vibe. We decided on Central Station, that soon began turning into a party venue with a daytime DJ playing some disco remixes. We tucked into our burgers with a growing sense of a connection with the city.
John had heard about an old military site that was near the train station that had been taken over by hip and Avant Garde folk, so we decided to head over and take a look. It may have been that we were there in the early evening why it seemed quite quiet, but there was elaborate graffiti on all the buildings, and a bohemian sense coming from the couple of cafes and bars that were open at that time. Certainly, one to visit again, should it survive gentrification.
As we returned to the old town proper, and walked along the riverside, we saw Chris Tarrant of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire fame. Who knew! We concluded, after a quick Google search, that he may be here recording a new series of a train travel show he apparently presents. Oh, how I wish I could do that! We then walked down an avenue and under the city centre bypass to wonder the Tivoli Park for a short while, before returning back to the centre to look at the square that housed the Parliament building, and then another beer.
After this we walked through the old town again and entertained our other nerd-like passion – town halls. We had a good look around and John had a Google of its political composition. We then wondered to a wine bar I had visited previously, and set about tasting a small variety of wine over cheese as day turned to dusk and we people watched. After this we walked back up the river to yet another dinner of pizza, and then returned to the hostel to sleep in air-conditioned bliss.
We decided to leave early, so checked out and made a plan for Budapest. We anticipated a 5-hour drive, and didn’t envisage we would stop for any extended period on our way. I drove again, and this was a little tricker for me than Zagreb, but after navigating the trunk road through and out of the city, the drive was easy.
As we began to approach Maribor, passing through rolling hills covered in green forests, we stopped at a service station that was set in almost Alpine surroundings. Satiated, I continued the drive towards the border with Hungary. We stopped at a service station that would have been connected to the border patrol to fill up the tank, and to change for John to take over prior to our arrival in Budapest.
Although about 5km away, we drove parallel to Lake Balaton – the only sizeable body of water in Hungary. We coasted along passing the end of the lake, skirted south of Székesfehérvár, and after another spell of rurality, we reached the out suburbs of Budapest.
The motorway system took us easily to the west bank of the river, where we curved around the Citadella – in traffic – before crossing the Danube to the Palace District. We located the apartment block down a narrow lane, managed to park up and then gain access to our rather ‘cosy’ room. It was a sort of a large cupboard that had a high ceiling, the upper half of which housed the bed. It was enough for 2 nights we supposed.
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