Exciting train to beautiful Bled, Slovenia

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“A series of surprises” is the best description of this odd day. Some were good and some bad as Masayo and I traveled by train from Ptuj, Slovenia up to the lakeside resort mountain town of Bled. We saved but then overspent money; bus and train schedules surprised us for the worse and then the better, and we crossed paths with one Paul McCartney. Funny how these little surprises ganged up on us all at the same time. It certainly made for a lively day, although the fact that one of the bad elements of the day was all-terrible blood sugar readings meant I was a little grumpy.

My recent BG luck, which was less stellar yesterday, ended well and truly before today even began: at breakfast time I was 298. Hey, better than 300, I tried to cheer myself up.

Like yesterday, the staff at Bed And Breakfast Žiga brought us a large and varied breakfast on a big tray, but thanks to my big blood sugar I wasn’t really in the mood for eating too much. Masayo and I sat and ate in our room. I took a big Humalog shot and tried to eat a lot. We made sandwiches for lunch from the leftovers like we did yesterday.

A good surprise came next: when we checked out, the lady at the counter said she had given us a €20 “Christmas discount”. That would cover the extra price we agreed on for the breakfasts plus some extra. How nice! I love saving money, especially when it’s a surprise. Ho ho ho.

Our train bound for Bled wasn’t leaving for an hour and a half so we strode over to the Ptuj town square where it was warm enough to sit at an outdoor cafe called Caffe Florijan for some coffee. I ordered something called “white coffee”, which we’d been seeing on menus but we didn’t know what it was. At this cafe, anyway, it turned out to be a cappuccino.

We sat and sipped, our big bags propped up beside us, until it was time to trudge over to the Ptuj train station. We bought tickets for Bled, only €13 each. Not bad for a trip all the way across the country – Ptuj is in the eastern part near Hungary while Bled is up in the mountains of northwestern Slovenia.

The trains to Bled

Our train arrived on the platform, and it was on time but covered in graffiti. Inside it was dark and blandly functional, plus there was a strong smell of gasoline on board. I have been reading how Slovenia is more modern and expensive than some of the other places we’ve seen, but judging by their trains it didn’t seem like it.

The journey to Bled actually involved three trains – we’d have to change in Pragersko and then again in the capital of Ljubljana. After changing in Pragersko we got an unwelcome surprise – a lady came around and wanted €6 more each. After a testy, broken-English conversation, we came to understand that this wasn’t a local train and thus we had to pay a premium. If we’d chosen our Ljubljana-bound ride better we might have saved the €12. Live and learn.

Unexpected expenses annoy me greatly, even when they’re small. The stress probably isn’t good for BG though. Anyway what could we do? We paid her, and she printed out little receipts for us.

Around 1:00 pm I got another bad diabetes surprise: my breakfast Humalog hadn’t worked well at all. I was now 310. Yuck. I took a big shot through my Bluff Works pants in the train seat, and we both ate the sandwiches from breakfast.

In Ljubljana we had no time for anything at all – just hopping onto another train, this time bound for the station of Lesce-Bled in the town of Lesce. (From there we’d take a bus to Bled proper.) This was another graffiti-covered old local train – ramshackle but requiring no extra fee! I perused my World War II book from Kraków, Poland, and Masayo, disturbed by the shuddering choppiness of the train, tried her best to sleep. She missed some really nice scenery as the day got slowly darker in the mid-afternoon and the hills grew higher and higher outside our train window.

Once in Lesce we located an Alpetour bus going the few kilometers up the road to Bled. The buses turned out to be cheaper than Wikitravel had said, and more frequent than Alpetour’s own website had said. Two nice surprises in one.

Arrival in Bled

Even better, when we first arrived in Bled we saw that the first stop was in fact right outside of our guesthouse, the Pension Union, which we’d found on booking.com. We wouldn’t have to walk 1 kilometer there like we’d expected after all.

We checked into Pension Union and I loved our room right away. The pension is just up the street from world-famous Lake Bled, and the room itself it very large and spacious, with nice bright lights, new furniture, and even our own refrigerator. I put my insulin in it, and tried to make out details about early dusk Bled through the many windows.

Masayo was feeling weak and worn out but we needed dinner. I offered to go find us crackers and milk from a market (one of my default simple “meals”) but she wanted real food so we set off down the quiet road in the clear, cold Slovenian night.

Bled is rather touristy – tasteful, but overpriced. However we passed a restaurant called Okarina and decided to try it. There were no other customers, and we got a nice table in the warmly-lit room. My blood sugar as we sat down was 208. And that was the best reading of the day so far (and would in fact end up being the lowest – surely you’ve had that kind of day).

The lady at Okarina was effusively friendly and spoke excellent English. Masayo and I both ordered fruit tea and different types of fish – salmon for me, which came with rice and vegetables. I took my shot, again through my pants at the table, and hoped that this dose of insulin, finally, would be the one that would bring me down.

Paul was here

The warm, quality meal perked us up, and after polishing off everything we rose to pay and leave. On the wall on the way out I noticed a framed handwritten note – it was from Paul McCartney, who’d eaten at Okarina and was apparently asked to sign a guestbook. (I noticed nobody asked us to sign anything…)

Paul had written, “Thank you for the WONDERFUL FOOD and the fine vibrations! Warmest regards, Paul McCartney” and drawn a little cartoon face beside his signature. I have to agree – Okarina does indeed have swell vibes.

As a huge Beatles fan I loved seeing this. And the restaurant was quite proud of it too – outside on the sidewalk I noticed something I hadn’t seen on the way in. Paul’s handwritten note was also incorporated into the lighted sign outside, presumably at considerable expense.

This experience went with the John Lennon Wall we saw in Prague. Two Beatles down on this trip. Will we find George and Ringo?

Walking through the dark streets of Bled we searched for a kiosk or market so we could find water and maybe a small dessert. But nothing was open – the only supermarket we saw, Mercator, had closed at 7:00 pm. What do Bled residents do when they need groceries in the evening??

The day of many surprises ended back in the room at Pension Union. Masayo and I split one of my low blood sugar snacks – a Kit-Kat – for dessert. By midnight I thought my diabetes must be finally behaving pretty well; it felt like it anyway. But my final surprise was not a good one: I was 273. I took two angry units of Humalog.

This, I thought, should finally make my blood sugar good tomorrow morning. Every day is the chance of a fresh start. And whatever my blood sugar is in the morning, tomorrow we get to go look at one of Europe’s most beautiful natural settings for a town. The future must always be promising for a diabetic, no matter the present circumstances.

Unfortunately, I would not be happy with my blood sugar upon awaking tomorrow morning.

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