Slovenia: Work and Wonders in a Lush Land

I have friends that swear by Slovenia and now I know why. Sandwiched between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia this 8k sq ft country with only 2.1 million people is absolutely stunning with over 90% forest, mountains or other green space.  

We spent 2 days in the capital city of Ljublijana (see our blog post here) and then a couple of days touring the countryside visiting incredible places like Bled Lake before heading to our first WWOOFing (WorldWide Opportunities in Organic Farming) volunteer work/stay.  

Lake Bled was absoluely stunning.  Some people complain about it being crowded and overtouristed, but it wasn't too bad when we went.  But I can see why it attracts a crowd. 

We arrived at Narava, which promotes itself as a "Social Intercultural Community Farm" on Friday and were treated to a pizza and karaoke party.  We were the guests of honor as no other volunteer groups were there at that time and the head of the program, Jack Simic, invited several of the neighbors from the village of Dolenja Trebusa. 

Narava (which means "Nature" in Slovenian) is run by Jack Simic, a single father of 5 kids (all under 12) who established a foundation that would allow young people and families from other countries to participate in a culture program for no money, in exchange for doing work on the farm.  The week before we arrived Jack had just hosted a large group of scouts, but during our stay we were the only visitors.  Jack really incorporated us into his family and curated many cultural experiences for us, both sightseeing (including a trip to Croatia) and gatherings with other locals. 

The work exchange was something we wanted to do to get our kids out of their comfort zones and to not only understand another culure better, but to understand the value of a hard day's work. Note: Jack and the Foundation do not permit young children to work, but they can do low risk tasks like weeding when supervised by a parent.  Of course, we didn't tell the kids that it was not compulsory!  Francesca and I tackled some bigger tasks like flattening a hillside for a future bike repair shop that Jack will build and demolishing an old coffee house. 

Some other day trips inlcude swimming in Kanal and a visit to a mall in Nova Gorica for Austen's 10th bithday (click here for a post on her birthday drama).

After we left the farm, we spent a couple days in Bovec doing the kids' first white water rafting trip with a company called Frest and a stop by Lake Bohinj on our way to Trieste Italy where we would take the train to Venice for our flight out to Spain. 

Here is a little video we put together from our "white water rafting" trip. 

A little pit stop in Lake Bohinj on our way back from Bovec.