Postojna Cave Park

We like to celebrate our anniversaries of relationship, so when we had second anniversary we decided to spend a weekend in Slovenia. Slovenia may be a smaller country but it has so many interesting places and beautiful nature. Since we had only one weekend, we agreed to stay in Ljubljana. Also we visited the Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle.

First we came to Ljubljana in apartment where we stayed. The hosts were very generous and kind, the place was very comfortable and cute. Ana immediately made us a cup of coffee so we can rest a little bit.☕

When we finished with resting we went straight to sightseeing the city Ljubljana, the capitol city of Slovenia. River Ljubljanica flows trough the center of city so by the river there was a lot of restaurants, bars and souvenir shops.

In Ljubljana we saw a lot of dragon statues.

On Saturday we woke up and went to visit Postojna Cave and Predajma Castle. We bought tickets with student discount. 😎
The entrance to the cave is surprisingly big. People were entering the cave in groups which were formed by the country you are from. When our turn came we were very excited.

First we had a nice, cold and magical 3,5 kilometers train trip in cave which lasted for about 15 minutes. This is the only karst cave that have a tourist underground train.

Stalagmites are type of rock which forms from the floor of a cave and stalactites are type that hangs from the ceiling. It takes a lot of time for them to grow in size and connect with each other, but when that happens they are called stalagnate (column). Seeing all those stalagmites and stalactites were so magnificent it seemed like we discovered completely new underground world. We never imagined that something so beautiful exist beneath those hills.

Ana is trying to catch some drops. 😂

The average temperature in a cave is about 10 °C so if you ever find your way there be sure to bring warm cloth. Inside the cave is very dark and humid, there were drops dripping everywhere which is caused by rain falling on the hills which flows trough the soil and ends up there making this mysterious place. We were not allowed to take photos with flash because it is harming for the animals. Like the Olm or Human fish ( Proteus anguinus ) from family Amphibia which is endemic species in this dark area. It does not stand the light because it is not adapted to it. When we passed a certain place they would shut down the lights because this is ecosystem without light.

Brilliant

It is called Brilliant because of its white color. It is about 5 meters tall stalagmite and one of the main attractions here.

End of cave

It ends with beautiful wide space which have good acoustics. They sometimes have concerts in there.

There is a river Pivka that flows deeper under the cave which is yet to be explored. We also had a chance to see two speleologists on their way to deeper parts of cave.

After we came out from the cave we took some photos of landscape.

Then we went in natural science museum.

Predjama Castle

The last stop was Predjama castle also known as Fairytale Castle embraced by Rock which is about 12 kilometers away from the Postojna cave and it closes in 4 pm so we needed to hurry up to make it there on time. When we came we couldn't believe that the castle was so good hidden in the hills and we were amazed by the architecture of the castle. It looks like it is merged with the stones of the hill. It is also the largest cave castle in the world.

Inside the castle was cold, slippery and in some places was scary. It has room for torturing that made us feel like we are in one of those horror movies. 👻

The view from inside the castle.