One of the special things about being in Slovenia was being able to head out of Ljubljana and explore the areas around its capital city. The Karst Plateau is a vast region stretching through Italy and Slovenia, and we were fortunate to spend multiple days in it.
On our first day, we started off with Predjama Castle – literally, a castle in a cave – and it was awesome! Really unbelievable to see, and the castle itself had a great tour. Behind it was a large cave where the first inhabitants lived. With caves in mind, our next stop was Škocjan caves which had a literal canyon inside! It was one of the craziest things I had ever seen. Unfortunately, no pictures, but it was beautiful and scary.
On the way back from this trip, we stopped in Štanjel, an unexpectedly charming town. We got caught in a rainstorm while dining at a nice restaurant and then explored the little alleys and marveled at the views of the valleys below.
On our second day trip out, we went to the Franja Partisan Hospital, a World War II site nestled in the woods. Camouflaged buildings in the ravine provided sanctuary here for hundreds of wounded. Lastly, we went down into a mercury mine (!!) which was something I had never done before.
