Skocjan Caves

Tried something a little different today. I learned from my Europe trip three years ago that cathedrals and big cities get old after awhile. I wanted to put some elements of the outdoors (well kinda), or maybe adventurous, on this trip. I wouldn't exactly call my trip to the caves a "wild cave" adventure or anything, but it was alot of fun.

I got up this morning to try to bargain with the rental car reps in person. As expected, they didn't want to offer me anything more than the standard ridiculous rates you would expect from them. I went back to my room in disgust and booked online with one of the places I talked to for TOMORROW, at a lower rate than we discussed in person, of course. I don't trust them, I'm sure they'll come up with a reason to come back to the higher rate.

But TODAY, I reshuffled my schedule and literally ran to the train station so I could catch the 1.5 hour train out to Divaca and the Skocjan Caves. These aren't your Forbidden Caverns (Pigeon Forge) either. The Skocjan system is part of one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It was discovered in 1904. What makes these caves unique is the river canyon that runs underground. Honestly, they put the Lost Sea to shame (even though the Lost Sea is still cool).

The first half of the cave walk was rather ho-hum...nothing new and it was fairly uninspiring. Mind you, I've seen Carlsbad and Mammoth Caves and both are world class. But the second half of the cave beat both Carlsbad and Mammoth, handsdown. The cave opens up dramatically in front of you as you come into a huge room from the ceiling area. It's a 270-foot drop to the river at the bottom that is roaring underground through the cave. It's every bit of a wide canyon chasm...no some dinky underground creek with a 20-foot ceiling. They have the path below lit up along the path and then the river bottom and you can see all of this from your entry vantage point above. It was really incredible. We were underground for nearly 2 hours, with the last underground river portion lasting probably 30 minutes.

Getting to Skocjan was somewhat easy. I had to take a train and then the tourist "bus" was there waiting for me when the guy saw me standing there helplessly looking around. I was the only person that got off the train looking for the caves. He took me there, but his schedule didn't permit a return trip, so I was on my own coming back.

I had scheduled my return train for 3:30p and the cave tour ended up being over @ 2:45. It's 2-3 miles between the caves and the train station. So here I am, backpack, coat and all huffing it down this backwoods trail that breaks off at least 5 or 6 times hoping I end up at the town and the station.

I made it. *whew*...another adventure in public transport in Europe. Of course, you can usually do this stuff with a tour group, but I refuse to pay the XXX euros to have them drag me around on a huge tour bus all day. It's just...no.

I also had my first experience with a stand-up "toilet" today...the ones with no seat but just a hole in the floor. Yeah...lol. I was a little surprised. The "toilet" was at the train station, and a little unexpected for Slovenia. I would expect my first hole toilet to be in...Romania...or somewhere like that. Just ten minutes later, I'm at the cave visitor center playing on the FREE internet kiosk they have setup for the tourist. You would NEVER get that back home...free at least.

Wish me luck tomorrow with the rental car Nazi's. They'll probably want my car back home as collateral.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.