Day 64: Out of the gate, and off for a walk

Date: Saturday 31^st May
Staying: Camping Bled – Bled, Slovenia
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Better be Home Soon – Crowded House

Because Lake Bled is so small, we decided to take a leisurely stroll around, stopping off at the town of Bled on the other side of the lake. We set off at 9am, since the temperatures around Slovenia were a bit warmer than we’ve been used to on the trip so far, and we didn’t much fancy walking around during the heat of the day.

It’s beautiful around the lake, and your eye is constantly drawn across the clear blue water to the island and church in the centre. There were plenty of other walkers around, and periodically we came across watercolour sellers hocking off €4 prints depicting the lake (in other words, good colour photocopies of what were once originals – we’ve seen this before in plenty of places!). We were on the other side of the lake in Bled in 40 minutes, which really only consists of one main shopping street. After stopping for the compulsory postcards and patch, we wandered around the other side of the lake in the cool of the trees, stopping to take frequent photos.

We were well back before lunchtime, so we stopped off at the restaurant to try the Slovenian fare (cheese dumplings, anyone?). After a relaxing afternoon, we decided to take advantage of the free WiFi access to check our emails, and Cam went wandering off to the front of the campsite where reception was better. Coming down to join him 30 minutes later I discover that he had struck up a friendship with the other Kiwis at the campsite (the ones whose flag we saw yesterday), and they promptly invited us back later for a drink.

So after dinner we spent a very pleasant four hours chatting to John and Debbie from New Plymouth who had also been living in the UK. They shared the benefits of their camping wisdom with us (and their camping site book), and it was interesting to compare experiences. Fortunately, we’re not the only ones who have things go wrong, which was very reassuring! We even got to see what the inside of a real campervan looks like (ah, so spacious!), and I was treated to a kahlua. We had a good old chat about all things kiwi, from sport to housing, and it was nice to socialise with some other campers. We’ve found that campers aren’t very social on the whole, unless it’s with others from their home country, so mostly it’s the Kiwis and Brits that spot the “GB” sticker on the back of the van and come for a chat.