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Wednesday, 16 January 2019

Brilliant Balkan ! Part 1

Day 01/23 Dec : Venice, Italy

17 hours is indeed a very long flight { Jakarta-Doha-Venice } don't you think? We were very glad when we heard that the plane reached our destination. Although Venice, Italy is not part of The Balkan countries, we decided to go there as we missed the city. Arriving at Venice which was also known as "The Floating City", we had a city tour while admiring the romantic view around. We wandered around the main and the largest square in Venice - St. Mark Square enjoying the pigeons flying around. As we had our evening stroll, I didn't forget to take a picture of my origami bird mask, as masks were one of the many Venetian cultures.



🎭仮装🎭 Origami Parnassus Mask designed by Riccardo Foschi

Day 02/24 Dec : Postojna - Ljubljana, Slovenia

A new day a new country! Today we headed to Slovenia to visit the Postojna Caves which is one of the famous tourist attractions in Slovenia. Venturing through the cave was a spectacle as you can see stalagmites and stalactites everywhere ! But I must say that my personal favourite experience was when we rode the underground train. 




As what I have been told, Slovenia is having an 'obsession' with these animals. These are the 'olms', aquatic salamanders, known colloquially as baby dragons. While reaching the end of the cave, we saw an aquarium filled with these amphibians. I can't believe they look so cute!



Related image
Source: newscientist.com
                                                             
We then headed to Slovenia's capital city, Ljubljana. We spent the night there strolling through the main square, eating almonds coated with cinnamon and sugar, while enjoying the beautiful cityscape. This minute city attracted me instantly. Unlike other large capital cities, Ljubljana lived up to its name; it was made with love by the locals.
It felt like I was entering an enchanted realm shielded from the outside world


The salmon-pink coloured church is very cute isn't it? It is called the Franciscan Church!
Source: flicker.com

There was a river called Ljubljanica running between the Preseren Square... So this architect decided to make three bridges connecting the two areas. The middle one was for vehicles and the other two for pedestrians.
 
Related image
Source: 123rf.com

Day 03/25 Dec : Bled, Slovenia - Zagreb, Croatia

This day we visited the town Bled, to visit a church called the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Maria, which is a historic church located in a calm, picturesque setting on the only island in Slovenia that is accessible by boat.


The church





The boat ride was very exciting although it was windy. We got lucky to be able to ride the boat as the lake usually freezes throughout winter.

As soon as we finished the short trip to the church, we soon set off to the well-known Bled Castle. There wasn't really amusing there except that we saw a performance that is a representation of some old folk dances done by people in costume which was a sight to see!



Enough of the Bled talk. We then headed to Croatia's capital city, Zagreb. It took as around 2 hours to reach the capital city. In my opinion Zagreb wasn't that exciting probably because we only just stopped by as we were going somewhere important the next day.




Day 04/26 Dec : Plitvice - Trogir, Croatia



Morning view from our hotel... What a beauty!

The national park was wonderful even though it was very cold. I almost slipped a few times because of the ice left on the stairs. The waterfalls made the scenery there even much more pretty! Although Plitvice National Park was immense we only walked and hiked seemingly half of the park which not surprisingly a tire.. 




We then decided to had a short stop in Trogir which is also known as 'Little Venice'


Day 05/27 Dec : Split - Dubrovnik, Croatia 

It's quite nice there at Split. Split was an old city that was used by the Diocletian Empire. We visited the Diocletian Palace which was quite a beauty! We went early in the morning as we knew there would be more tourists coming throughout the day.


Right in Split, we also got a chance to here some of these people singing in a dome. Their voices are magical... they take you back to time...



It took us about 5 hours to reach Dubrovnik so we reached there at nighttime and went ahead to see the city before exploring it in the next day.

Part 1


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