We met up with our friends Mark and Lehar in Vienna to travel through Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. We spent a few days seeing the sights in Vienna, then rented a car to drive through the Lake District, visit small towns, and work our way south.
Our favorite food in Vienna was käsekrainer. They’re basically the most delicious cheesy-filled sausages you’ll ever eat. Make sure you try one five when you visit! When we weren’t eating käsekrainers, we were strolling through town and visiting beer gardens. It was a great way to catch up with friends.
After Vienna, we headed west to Austria’s Lake District outside of Salzburg. We visited the towns of Gmunden, Bad Ischl, and Hallstatt. We were originally planning to spend a few nights in one of these towns, but prices were outrageous so we went farther south into the Alps and found the cutest Airbnb! Our hosts were a Croatian couple who made us an awesome dinner of local meats, cheeses, fruits, veggies from their garden, and - of course - schnapps! They didn’t speak any English, but we got by with our very poor German and a lot of help from Google Translate. It was a great way to get to know more about the area, plus they gave us lots of tips for Croatia!
Along the way to Croatia we were able to spend a day in Slovenia. Lake Bled was a cute but crowded little tourist town, so we walked away from the city along the lake to enjoy a cool swim off the beaten path. Next we visited the scenic Lake Bohinj located in the Triglav National Park, home to the beautiful Julian Alps that make up Slovenia’s border with Italy. We were hoping to visit the capital city of Ljubljana, but the President of Russia was in town that day causing massive road closures and protesting that Putin a stop to our visit. Instead, we headed south to the island of Krk in Croatia to kickoff two weeks of fun in the sun.
