Slovenia - Ljubljana & the Julian Alps

After a 7 hour wait on the steps of Venice station, which was actually a lot more fun than it sounds, the strike finally lifted and we were able to get an overnight train to Ljubljana. There was a party atmosphere on the train, with everyone onboard in the same situation. Despite it being packed and with many standing in the corridor (all night long!), there were bottles of wine and whiskey being passed about and even a few sing-alongs complete with guitar accompaniment.

On top of the world

I arrived in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, at about three in the morning and grabbed one of the few cabs still running to my hostel and collapsed into bed. In the morning, after a brief walk through the rather pleasant but tiny old town, I caught a bus into the countryside, stopping off next to a lake. On the bus I met five English people travelling together, all from very close to where I study in London, which was quite a coincidence. Together we decided against waiting for the boat and instead walked around the lake to the cable car at the other end.

Hiking in the Julian Alps

We took the cable car up to the summit, which was quite a dramatic journey, climbing over 1km vertically. At the top we hiked around for a while and climbed up to another peak, before being forced to return for the last cable car in the evening.

A novel method of recycling

Later, back in Ljubljana, we met up again and went on a bit of bar crawl, more to find anywhere still open than for variation. With the students away for the summer, the city seemed to be quite dead at night, but we still managed to find a couple of places, although disappointingly (or not) the Horse Burger takeaway was closed, which would have made quite a novel post-pub snack.

A typical wall decoration in Metelkova

At the end of the night we went to one of the most interesting places I've seen - Metelkova. A former military prison, it has since been converted into a hybrid hippy squat and hostel. In fact, it was rated the best hostel in the world last year by Lonely Planet. The entire area is decorated by modern, somewhat anti-establishment artists in quite an unconventional manner and there are even the remains of military vehicles and what looks like part of a helicopter lying around. The disco was quite an experience - seemingly everyone was on LSD and kept dancing even when the music stopped. Shame I didn't get to stay in the hostel!

Austria - Wels, Innsbruck & Jenbach

I was on my way to Wels, a small town in Austria where my friends Guenther and Clemens study. Unfortunately, the journey was a bit of a nightmare. Due to engineering work, the announcements of which I obviously could not understand, instead of taking an already-complicated 3 trains to get there, it ended up as 5 trains and a bus.

Tasty wheatbeer!

I eventually arrived at Wels station and was met by my friends, who took me back to Clemens' place where we enjoyed a wheat beer, which is quite a novel idea to me, involving a specific way of pouring it upside-down into a special glass. Needless to say, I made quite a mess on my first attempt but thanks to plenty of practise that night am now quite adept at it! My timing in Wels was very lucky, it was their last night in the town before moving back to their family homes for the summer. That night we went to a barbecue party at a friend of theirs' house, which was really more of a mansion and had its own swimming pool and sauna, which was great fun.

Inside Innsbruck Cathedral

The next day I tagged along with Clemens back to his hometown of Innsbruck, in the Austria Alps, which again was excellent timing as it was a place I was going to visit anyway. This time I stayed in a hostel where I met my first Icelandic person (which is quite rare, there's only 300,000 of them!). He mentioned how much he wanted to go hiking in the Alps, so I invited him out with me and Clemens.

Climbing to the summit. Not pictured: terrifyingly long drop below

Together we took 2 cable cars up to the top of the large mountain that dominates the view from the town. We climbed on foot a bit further to the summit, then gradually hiked back down the mountain.

The view was spectacular

At times it was quite scary, as Clemens, being a native of the Alps, is not particular used to staying on paths and instead seems to prefer ridiculously steep routes, which managed to bring us down the mountain rather quickly indeed. It was a lot of fun, if a bit exhausting in the heat.

The Achenseebahn Steam Mountain Railway

That night we embarked on an epic tour of the bars in Innsbruck and randomly ended up at the only all-night waiter-style restaurant I've ever seen, at about 4am. In the morning, I said my goodbyes and began heading toward Munich, but first stopped at the town of Jenbach for a nice little side trip. Clemens had recommended to me the steam train up to a lake in the mountains, where I took a boat across and then hiked back along the rather precarious cliff-edges surrounding it.

Lake Achensee

The lake was beautiful and the steam train journey very impressive, being of the rare cog variety, allowing it to climb at a very steep angle. I wish I had more time there to enjoy the scenery further, but Munich was calling!