Caves, castles, horses, and the sea!

Maria and I treated ourselves to another long daytrip with a small group. Cost justifications took a while but hey we wouldn't have been able to see half of these places on our own and especially in one day. Plus sleeping past 8 is overrated. So overall a long day trip but here are the highlights! 

We traveled south of Ljubljana to the Karst region. First stop: Castle!

The biggest and most impressive cave I've ever seen called Skocjan Cave. We descended about 2 miles deep (mom you would have hated it. All ramps) and then 400 steps later we made it out. According to my good friend rick steves there are two famous caves in slovenia. Ones easier to get around and one is more impressive and more challenging. So good for us. We've done a lot of steps this trip to say the least. 

And enjoyed a lovely wine and meat and cheese tasting. 

Saw some famous horses at the Lipica farm that are the horses of the Hapsburg empire apparantly they're a big deal. So check! The females are all enclosed but live in a huge pasture and are essentially wild. When we got there there was a huge group galloping beside the car. It was like out of a freaking movie. 

And then FINALLY made it to the coast. Piran is the adorable little coastal town of slovenia. Slovenia a tiny country with a tiny coast but since Maria and I thought we'd be chilling on the coast of croatia we were determined to see the sea. And hey, I bought a brand new swim suit for this trip and there was no way I wasn't getting in the damn ocean. The water felt wonderful after sweating up all of those steps today. So mission accomplished! 

And I also ought to mention that the food we stole from the hostels breakfast lasted us most of the day. So extra great. Spent €5 euro on food today. 

Piran kind of juts out too so on your left you see Croatia and on your right you see Italy. Overall a great and exhausting day. 

I don't want to leave you the impression that it's all sunshine and roses over here. We got back to the hostel and it took us 3 exhausting and stressful hours to realize our little plan wasn't possible with the train connections/bus connections and prices available. So we have at least tonight booked and then well figure it out. Our new rule is that we won't try to plan when were exhausted and without a glass of wine/beer in our systems.