If you’ve been following along on my Instagram, you may have seen some sneak peeks from our vacation while we were still abroad. In one, I mentioned my newfound love of hidden places which is what I would consider Slovenia. It definitely doesn’t rank high on too many travelers wish-lists and it certainly isn’t up there with the Paris and Rome’s of the world. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t just as beautiful. We were drawn in by the whimsical town of Bled where a centuries-old church sits on an island in the middle of a translucent aqua lake and a castle overlooks the nearby cliffs. But the drive from our hotel in Ljubljana, the capitol of Slovenia, was truly what changed pre-determined mindset. The country was littered with quaint villages that were surrounded by huge mountains or sweeping green fields. Everyone spoke nearly perfect English and were incredibly welcoming to visitors. We only had a few days in the country, but definitely think there are more spots worth seeing. 

Ljubljana was probably the smallest city we visited, but was nonetheless just as beautiful. Street cafes lined the canal and street vendors sold corn on the cob with different toppings — now that’s some serious farm to table, am I right? And in true European fashion, a castle overlooked the city below. 

Kremna rezina was the signature dessert of Lake Bled — I’m not sure what it was, but I do know it was delicious! We ate it before we even had much time to think about it; we’ll just say we redeemed ourselves from the salzburger nockerl incident ;) 

After spending the day in Lake Bled, we headed to Vintar Gorge — a little spot I assumed that was off the beaten path. I was so wrong; we must have waited in line over 30 minutes just to get to the walking path! It was definitely worth it; every patch of water was so clear you could see all the rocks below. 

We also took a day trip down to Croatia to visit Plitvice Lakes National Park — you’ve probably seen it on Pinterest before, it’s this magical little spot that features 16 lakes that funnel into one another creating literally hundreds of waterfalls. The color of the water is unreal; I truly don’t feel like my images capture the beauty of this place. It’s like nowhere I’ve ever been and was absolutely worth the 6 hour roundtrip drive. If you’re ever even close to Croatia, go visit this spot! One word of advice, just go early… we got there about 3o minutes after it opened and had a short wait; when we were leaving in the afternoon, I swear the line must have been over a mile long — it was nuts!! But I honestly cannot say enough about it — just go check out the pictures and I’ll let them talk for me! 

 Throwing my arms up because I was SO excited to find this view — this is the one that’s on all the brochures, maps, pictures, etc around the park and yet it was not actually marked anywhere on the map how to get there! We found a sneaky, hidden path and made out way up here — so worth the extra hour at the park!