Deep Down in the Caves of Slovenia | #AdriaticHorizons

For our next stop on the #AdriaticHorizons tour, we made our first international border crossing from Italy into Slovenia. This was generally uneventful, as both Italy and Slovenia are part of the EU and the Schengen Area and don’t require passport checks for border crossings by land. I’m pretty sure I slept through the whole ordeal. That’s life on the road, baby. *finger guns*

Our first stop in Slovenia was the Postojna Cave Park, a system of caves just a few miles between the Italian border and the capital city of Ljubljana. I had visited caves in the states before on school trips (my fellow PA kids are probably also well-acquainted with Crystal Caves in Kutztown), so I had an idea of what I was getting into. We’d see some stalactites and stalagmites, get a little too cold, and come back to the daylight to buy some overpriced amethyst to bring home. I may be a little bit jaded.

As it turns out, Postojna is kind of like the Disneyland of cave systems. It’s over 79,000 ft long and 377 ft deep, with intricate limestone formations at every turn. We loaded into a little (Disney-esque) tramcar to ride down to the main path, a trip that took a full 15 minutes. Once there, it felt like we had entered an entirely different planet.

You can’t really help but let your imagination run wild in a place like Postojna. Yes, I know the science around caves and rock formations and whatnot - my education did include a little bit of geology. But it’s so much more fun to believe that the caves housed a secret fairy population until humans started exploring them and turned their home into a tourist attraction. You can’t see a giant stalactite castle and not let your brain go there. Also Disney, please hire me to write this movie.   

Fairy narratives aside, about an hour into our trek I was starting to feel like I’d never see the sun again. I’m not particularly claustrophobic (and the caves were spacious enough to afford a fair amount of breathing room), but the thought of being that far down in the mountains got to be a bit much for my anxious brain. I was very relieved when we finally got to the end of the trail and found the loading dock for the tram car back to the surface (right next to an underground gift shop, natch). I was very happy to see the sun, however blinding it may have been at that moment.

And yes, I bought some crystals. It’s like you people don’t even know me.