By IBIP Student Emily

We started the day bright and early with breakfast at the hotel before embarking on the 2-hour drive to Slovenia. Our faculty advisor, Ms. Karplus, and our tour guide, Iva, kept us entertained with trivia and Croatian music. Due to the early morning and long drive, many chose to catch some extra sleep. After crossing into Slovenia, we made our way to the Predjama Castle.

Using the self-guided audio tour, we wondered through the castle, getting a glimpse of how its inhabitants once lived. I learned that the castle was built into the cliff itself. While walking through the halls, you couldn’t tell where the cliff ended, and the building began. At the highest walkable point of the castle, you can see stairs ascending into the cliff side as well as a breathtaking view of the valley below.

After visiting Predjama Castle, we made our way back to the bus and took a quick drive to the Postojna Cave. When we arrived, we scanned our tickets and took the train 4 km into the cave system. Despite the sunny , warm weather outside the cave was dark, cold, and damp. The water flowing through the cave helped for the millions of stalagmites and stalactites we saw and are continuing to form them at about 1 cm per 100 years.

Once our tour concluded, we walked over to Hotel Jama where we met with representatives of Batagel & Co. Postojna.

Batagel & Co currently manages cave tours and events for Postojna Cave as well as other Slovenian cultural sites. Afterwards, we traveled to a local restaurant where we had a delicious lunch of Salad, Chicken schnitzel and french fries.