Distance: 87km
Elevation: 471m
It turned out the Spanish guy in my dorm was a hell of a snorer, too. But he left very early in the morning, probably to catch a flight. That gave me the chance to get in some hours of sleep.
Why don’t I use earplugs? Well, up to 2021, when I was cycling to the North Cape, I did. Because I was sleeping next to a road, I put in the plugs very deeply. The end result was that I did not get them back out by myself and panicked. I needed to bother a lady at 3am to help me.
That’s why I don’t use earplugs. Anyways.
The other guests in the hostel, mostly young girls, were practically always in their group rooms – so I had the kitchen for myself for dinner and breakfast.
The day started with rain and 10 degrees. I put on all layers of cycling gear, packed up, pumped up Rosinante and went to the best bicycle repair shop in town (according to ChatGPT).
On my way out, I met Sergej, the owner of the hostel. A friendly guy my age.
Tine, the owner of LOOSE CYCLES, had opened this shop back in 2020. Great timing. It had been a challenging time for entrepreneurs, also in Slovenia. After 6 months of forced closure he could finally reopen his new place.
The store looked like he lived here at least 50% of his life. Next to the actual workshop, there was a bar, a sofa, beer and whiskey. He was focused on backpacking bikes like mine and had all the right brands in store.
He clearly had no time … but at the same time refused to let me do the work myself. So, Rosinante got a brand new rear tire and a new tube this time. He was very profound in his work. The AI recommendation had been justified.
I was very grateful and back on the road by 10:30am.
On the outskirts of Llubjana, I was suddenly craving some fast food and stopped for some Cevapcici at a food truck. It was very good, but the amount of food was impressive – even for me.
Filled up with energy, I left Slovenias capital and followed a mountain valley uphill which had a gentle incline. my route followed bicycle paths and small back roads. Despite rain and cold, the scenery was beautiful.
Also, I was impressed over and over again with Slovenian car and truck drivers. Very considerate and forward-looking. A stark contrast to Italy.
I always had to remind myself that the mountains did not just look like the Alps, this was the Alps. They are called Julian Alps here, apparently named after Julius Caesar.
The more I climbed the colder it got. After having reached the top, I was freezing heavily on the decent because I was all wet.
Despite this I had a call scheduled with Berke from Istanbul. He was a colleague of Patrick, one of our Cosmikk Foundation Ambassadors, and had agreed to store Rosinante for one year at their offices after my arrival.
I asked him about the earthquakes. He mentioned that there were on average 24 earthquakes every year in Istanbul and way more all over Turkey because it was close to a major fault line. So, everything normal .. and yet the scientists were expecting a big one to come any day. But what can you do?
The temperature was in the twenties which I found very appealing.
After continuing my decent, I stopped at a restaurant by the side. People were super friendly and I had a tuna salad and later some tea to warm me up.
The final push to Celje was beautiful following a little river. It finally had stopped to rain. This was a region were they were growing hop. You could see the hop trellises everywhere.
Celje itself was nothing special. I stopped at a gas station to buy some dinner and managed to enter my apartment which I had rented for two nights to get some work done.
Once more, the checkin was fully digital. I did not meet anybody at all.
Right away, I started to hang up my tent to dry and indulged myself into washing and cleaning of my clothes and gear. Quickly, my apartment smelled like a lions cage.
I had a noodle soup, watched some Netflix and fell asleep around 9:30pm.
All in all, a great day. I was looking forward to finally reaching the Iron Curtain Trail and turning South towards warmer weather.