Solo Ride to Istanbul Day 5 - Reaching Slovenia & Unwinding at Lake Bled

Today was really difficult, I woke up at 7am - naturally again. But I found it really hard to get out of my bed and do more miles. I am mentally and physically exhausted from the amount of miles I’ve been doing in the rain. The cleaner started rattling at the door so I used it as my opportunity to jump up and get ready to leave. I put on my waterproofs once more, along with my @Motowaifu T-Shirt i had made for the trip!

I was late down to breakfast today, it ended at 10am and I was ready to leave at 10.05. So I asked them nicely if they could pack me some breakfast to take with me to Lake Bled. To which they did, they also gave me a quick shot of espresso for the journey. 

First of all, petrol - I always need petrol in the mornings. I found the station and two guys pulled in on their bikes, but they weren’t chatty. I left as soon as I filled up and headed towards Slovenia. About 5 minutes after leaving the petrol station, my eyes started to well up. The beauty of my surroundings, the unfamiliar territory and the humongous mountains towering over me got a bit too overwhelming. They were all happy emotions, it was a really strange one, I had really bad anxiety - but only from feelings of overwhelming happiness. 

I was talking to my GoPro, vlogging for my YouTube channel - and I started talking about my partner Dan. I mentioned how supportive he was, and how much he’s helped me during this trip. Then all of a sudden I started crying, not just one tear - no, I’m talking like a waterfall. Like, I could barely get my words out - all whilst listening to a fantasy/adventure playlist that Dan had made for me. It was truly magical, and that’s kind of what made it all the more emotional. My life felt like a movie.

The first part of the journey today was only 2 hours, so I quickly made my way to the Slovenian border, hugging the Austrian border as I went. Towards the end of Italy, I was in a small town - I let someone cross at a zebra crossing. But as I put my front brake on, I heard a very strange crunch like noise. I pressed the brake again and the same noise happened. So I pulled over to see if something had got caught in there. All was well, I tested the brakes a few more times and no noise. So I carried on, for the rest of the day I was cautious of the brakes but I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. 

Slovenia! Yay! I made it! I got off the bike and did a little celebratory dance from Italy into Slovenia. I must have looked *very* strange to anyone watching. O.o

From the Slovenian border it was only an hour or so to get to Lake Bled. Lake Bled is a place I’ve always wanted to go, the photos online are incredible and I’m always cautious about getting my hopes up about these places because most of the photos you see online are edited. Colours appear brighter and more dramatic, you end up going to these places only to be disappointed. 

I plotted my route in and put a random spot in. It took me to the castle! I didn’t want to go to the castle because I had all my luggage! Although it was very beautiful and there were a lot of bikers there. 

I rerouted myself to a point on google maps called “photography point” surely this was were the best spot was. Well, I was not disappointed. Lake Bled is as beautiful in real life as it is in the photos. The lake isn’t as blue as you see in some of the highly edited photos, but the water is crystal clear and has a royal blue tone to it. 

I stood with my bike, eating my breakfast from the hotel this morning. I did that thing, where you ignore all parking signs for bikes and you just kind of park where you want. I was there for about 15 minutes before a park warden came over to me waving his hands. I thought I was getting moved on, but no! He just wanted me to have a photo because he said the bike looked good in front of the water. He took a few good shots but this one is my favourite. 

He was happy with me staying there, so I carried on eating my croissant and took a few photos of my own.

I then went and sat on the pier while my bike was left alone. I sat for about 20 minutes staring out at the lake, enjoying the view - then I realised. I’ve got to stop my journey here and spend the night. So I found the closest hotel and rode up to drop off my bike. 

The hotel was showing as £40 more expensive online. I went to the reception and asked for anything cheaper, to which they said yes but it doesn’t have a window, it was an attic room. I told them it’s fine - if I want to look at the lake I’ll go outside, it was only a 5 minute walk away.

I ran upstairs, threw my things all over the floor and excitedly sprinted down the stairs towards the river in the hopes of going for a swim. I sat on one of the piers again, plucking up the courage to jump in. But my social anxiety started kicking in as there were too many people around me and no one was swimming. I decided to walk a bit further down, where there were less people around and you’ll never guess what I came across! A tree, with planks of wood attached to it so you can climb up it and jump off into the lake! Now, I have a lot of previous climbing experience both indoors and outdoors. I’ve lead climbed across a lot of Europe, but this tree. THIS TREE WAS TERRIFYING. 

So, to put things into perspective - to get to this tree, you had to slide your way down an extremely muddy bank. I’m not taking a bit of dust, I’m talking straight up muddy hobbit feet.

And then from there, you had to climb up the thinnest wooden planks - which were screwed on, but some were very wobbly/spinning. So the scariest part was climbing up the tree. Or so I thought… I’ve never done cliff diving/jumping into water from heights - and I’ve always wanted to have the courage to do it. I always admired my friend Soy, who would climb to the highest heights and just throw herself in, I was always very envious of her bravery. So I said to myself “Laura, you’ve just rode to Slovenia on your own, in 5 days. You can jump off this tree”. So up I went, I got to the top and I thought that would be the easy part. My knees were trembling and I could definitely feel some vertigo kicking in. 

In the Lake already, we’re the people who jumped before me. They were all cheering me to jump, I was struggling a lot, so I asked them to count me down. 3, 2, 1 “aiiiiiiiiiii”. 

It was such an exhilarating yet terrifying moment. I don’t think I would ever do it again, but I’m glad I did it. Another thing ticked off the list, I always did wonder what the feeling of falling was like. Now I know, it’s sickening - but in an adrenaline rush kind of way. 

When I was in the lake I was chatting to the other 3 who had jumped in before me, they were also all solo - all on different adventures and going to different places. One guy had travelled from Egypt to Lake Bled by train and he was actually ending in Istanbul too. The girl was travelling to Budapest, and the young guy from Yorkshire was going to Korea next. Hearing their stories inspired me further and helped kind of normalise my own feelings about my own trip. 

My emotional state calmed down after jumping from that tree, jumping from that tree was scary - but this trip is not. I sat by some cute brown boats while I FaceTimed my mum and got asked to “be more normal”. Something my mum always says to me when I tell her about something “dangerous” I’ve done. Normal is boring but I guess it’s safe! 😂

After that ended I walked back up to the hotel and had dinner.

I really enjoyed today, regardless of my emotional state, and I can’t wait to see what Croatia brings tomorrow. 

Ride safe!

Waifu x