One of the things I have enjoyed most about studying abroad in Milan is how easy it is to travel for a weekend and experience somewhere completely different. This weekend, I traveled to Slovenia, spending most of my time around Ljubljana and Lake Bled. I did not really know what to expect from Slovenia before going, which ended up being one of the best parts of the trip.
I arrived in Ljubljana extremely early in the morning after traveling overnight from Milan. It was around 5 a.m., dark and cold, and I could not even check into my hostel yet. I dropped my luggage off and started figuring out what to do with the day. Instead of waiting around, I decided to head toward Lake Bled.
Lake Bled was absolutely incredible. The lake itself is surrounded by mountains, with a small island sitting in the middle and Bled Castle overlooking everything from above. Walking around the lake gave me a much better appreciation for how much Slovenia’s landscape shapes the country. Slovenia is a relatively small country, but it has an incredible amount of mountains, forests, lakes, and other natural areas packed into a small space.
What I found most interesting was how accessible the outdoors were. Lake Bled is obviously a major tourist destination, but it did not feel like the natural landscape was completely separated from everyday life. You could walk around the entire lake, take a boat out to the island, hike up to viewpoints, or simply sit along the water. It made me think about how tourism and nature can coexist when a place is designed around experiencing the landscape instead of just building attractions around it.
The trip also gave me a better understanding of where Slovenia fits geographically and culturally. Before this semester, I honestly did not know much about Slovenia beyond knowing that it was somewhere in Europe near Italy. Being there made it clear that it sits at an interesting crossroads between Central Europe, the Alps, and the Balkans. It is also part of the European Union and uses the euro, which made traveling there from Italy feel relatively seamless.
Overall, Slovenia was a good reminder of one of the biggest benefits of studying abroad: sometimes the most interesting things you learn come from places you knew almost nothing about before visiting. I went to Slovenia mainly because it was an easy weekend trip from Milan, but I left with a much better understanding of the country’s geography, transportation, culture, and relationship with its natural environment. It was also a reminder that one of the best parts of being in Europe is having the ability to wake up in one country and spend the day exploring another.
