Day 3: Skocjan Caves

Just before our departure from Ljubljana train station towards Divaca and the Skocjan Caves, we treated our souls to a delicious coffee-to-go from a barista at the train station. The one and a half hour train ride to Divaca started late, but turned out to be a very cozy journey with breakfast on the train. Upon arriving in Divaca, a free shuttle bus took us to the tourist center of the caves. After Mini's second coffee and a short break, we hiked with a group of about 100 visitors, including 3 guides, through the greenery to the cave entrance. There, the guides divided us into three different language groups and the journey into the dark realm of stalagmites and stalactites began. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos inside the caves - so you have to make do with photos from the cave entrance.

The accessible cave system with all its wonderful rock formations stretched for about 3 km and it took us one and a half hours to explore it. Some sights reminded Mini of the dwarven city of Moria from the Lord of the Rings. We didn't encounter any dwarves or Balrogs, luckily. We only caught a brief glimpse of a bat. After our journey through the darkness, we hiked from the cave exit through a green paradise of a gorge back to the tourist center.

Burgers and veggie toast fueled us for our return trip to the train station and subsequent journey to Rijeka. With the help of Uber, an app for organizing private taxis, we quickly arrived at our accommodation, with an exciting ride. We had booked the room there in advance through Airbnb, it was clean and the residents of the house were nice but strange. Exhausted from the many impressions, we fell into bed and fell asleep.