Andreja and I started off the morning with Predjamski Grad, a castle that was built into a cave in the hills of Slovenia about an hour south of Maribor.Some duke built it for defense in the 15th century and in the past 20 years it has been restored. It was crazy to see how the building and cave interact and support each other. There were all sorts of hidden caves in the castle itself then there was the cave part of the castle where the castle ended and there were just stairs and furniture in the cave. We walked around the castle and also to see the caves in the rock face below it and the stream that ran through it. The whole place was pretty amazing. Its just at the end of a tiny road going through these quaint villages, no big signs or billboards or parking lots or even 2 lane roads. Just an amazing castle in the middle of Slovenia.
The next place we went was the Skocjan Caves, a UNESCO world heritage site which is a series of caves up to 170 meters underground. I didnt really know what to expect, and you're not allowed to take pictures inside (I found these pictures on the internet), but this was definately one of the most amazing places I've ever been in my entire life.You cant even begin to imagine how huge these caves are and the incredible stalactities and stalagmites and the columns and spaces they have created in the 2 million years that these caves have been around. There were a few different caverns, each with its own style of 
what looked like dripping rock. The caverns were huge, some were over 100 meters tall (this is what Im told, I cant judge in meters yet) and there were stalactites bigger than cars. I wish I had words to describe this place. There were 2 caverns where when I first turned the corner to enter them, Iwas just awestruck by the beauty and size of the space. Think of the biggest, coolest looking drip castle you ever made at the beach as a kid, then think of what it would be like if those sand castles were actually the size of real castles. One really fascinating part of the place was how people have created the paths and stairs and bridges that gothrough the place. There's an old staircase that was just carved into the side of the rock and a bridge that is 45m above the river that runs through the cave. We walked 3 km through and I think we got as deep as 120 m underground. It was absolutely amazing.
After the caves, we went to see Slovenia's famous Lipica (pronounced Lipizza) horses. The breed is very famous, I think they're used as show horses a lot. The horses were beautiful and one thing thats pretty interesting about the horses is that as foals they are black and they turn perfectly white when they are adults. 
Then, since we were pretty close to the coast, we went to a castle on top of a hill to get a view of the Slovene coast. Since the country's coastline is so tiny, you could see the entire thing.We were only 8km from Italy, so we could see part of the Italian coast too.
Then we went down to the coast to go swimming at a beach that was reccomended, but Slovenia doesnt really have beaches. Its just rocks and concrete on the water's edge, so thats where we swam. I cant complain about being on the ocean, even if the beach isnt a beach. There were still people laying out (on concrete) and there was a beach volleyball court set up.
We walked along a stone path on the water's edge down to the town of Piran that juts out like a mini Florida on the coast. It is such a nice little village. It feels like a Tuscan hill town but its on the ocean and has lots of fishing and sailing.Yeah, I would live there. So thats where we had dinner, sitting outside, 20 feet from the ocean's edge. The seafood was incredible of course and a great end to the day. The table next to us got a Croatian lobster and it was so funny looking. Instead of having 2 big claws and 8 little legs like
Maine lobster, It had 8 big legs, 2 of which were a little bit bigger and had claws. Next time Im at the coast here with an extra 65 euros to spend, maybe I'll try the lobster.
All of my pictures are at: http://picasaweb.google.com/acadiak/1BusyWeekend
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