Well, folks, I’m about to let you in on a little secret: swans aren’t that adorable.
I know, we were misled to believe that all swans are just little misunderstood ugly ducklings with a heart of gold. But, they grow up into giant turds. When we visited Lake Bled in Slovenia, we were instantly enamored by the beauty of the place. Lake Bled’s notoriety is owed to its placement in the Julian Alps and crystal blue waters. There’s also a tiny church on a tiny island in the middle of the lake that adds to its charm.
Hello Lake Bled. You’re so pretty.It’s very easy to walk around the lake and even easier to find a boat that can take you to the island. We waited for our boat to get ready and we stood and admired the beauty. As we said things like: “oh wow, that’s pretty,” and “ohmygoodness, this place is fabuloussss!” and the less favorite: “watch out for that swan poop,” we heard loud abrupt hisses from behind us. We’re not the kind of people that turn around to acknowledge the hiss, because after all, it could have been a crazy person hissing. But, it didn’t stop and there was the somewhat familiar sounds of flapping wings. We turned around and found a swan –who may have been a little “hiss”-ed off that we were in his spot. The swan stood tall, spread it wings and glared at us.
Cute and cuddly. Until you get all up in their space.Well, turd-ish swans be damned, we moved a little to the left and the swan settled down for the moment. Our boat navigator was ready to take us out to the island in the middle of Lake Bled. Normally, on a nice sunny day, the navigator will row the boat himself. However, we speculated that because it was a drizzly day, he decided to use the motor instead of muscle. Now, I wouldn’t go as far as to say the captain was a good-looking guy, but the four older Spanish ladies who were flirting with him seemed to have thought he was. They taught him to roll his rrrrrrr’s sensuously, while Frank and I laughed and laughed (on the inside, of course, wouldn’t want to ruin the senoritas viejecitas’ game).
our boat.There’s a legend on the island: if you (the husband, or in this case, Frank) carry your newlywed wife (me) up the steps to the church and ring the church bell, you two will live a long happy life together. Unfortunately, I had one of those European Mexican burritos the night before in Ljubljana and it was weighing me down. Frank kindly declined, so as to not break his back. Looks like Frank will not be looking towards a long happy life with his gassy wife.
Aww come on, it’s not that daunting.We did not go in to the church, but we enjoyed the view and the adorableness of the tiny (I mean, REALLY tiny) island. It’s wooded, with small footpaths around the length of the island. It reminds of a place that perhaps Tinkerbell, wil-o-wisps, or Sleeping Beauty’s fairy godmothers might call home.
Lake Bled is known for its cream cake. It’s a vanilla custard desert topped with a puff pastry breading and powdered sugar. Cream cake was invented in Lake Bled and is probably one of things travelers must try when they visit. I love my sweets so we gave it a try. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but that cream cake was a little too sweet, as in American-Sweets-that-give-you-the-beetus sweet. I wouldn’t go out of my way to seek out cream cake if we were in Lake Bled again. But it’s probably worth a try.
Da beetus cream cake.Favorite fairytale? Favorite place that looks like a fairytale? Let us know!
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