“You’ll love it — it’s so beautiful in winter.” A friend who had been to Bled before said this while excitedly showing me his photos that look like postcards. From there, I started to have this big expectations.
I had four days in Ljubljana and planned my visit to the lake carefully, eye-ing the weather forecast and specifically choosing a day with high chance of snow fall. My original plan was to go on Day 2, but then I moved it to Day 3 since I was hoping to come to a perfect winter fairytale scenery of Bled – like what I saw in my friend’s photo.
I left my Airbnb in the old town of Ljublana early, heading to the bus stop just outside Ljubljana’s main train station. The bus was easy to find as it loudly announcing “BLED” on the platform and according to my research, the bus runs conveniently in every two hours. I hopped on, paid 12 euros, and off we went.
Bus ride on winter days are the great combo to put me to sleep so easily. I slept like a baby for almost the whole trip and woke up to colder feel on my skin. I looked through the window greeted by grey skies and rain. I searched for my phone in my bag, went to Accuweather only to find that high chance of snow I was hoping for has changed to ‘Pouring Rain’. Oh nooo.
The bus stopped in a tiny shelter in the middle of the town that looked dead asleep. We walked toward the edge of the lake that located only 5 mins away. No sign of life were seen, only group of ducks happily doing laps in the water. The lake itself was covered by the dramatic fog, I could barely see that iconic tiny island in the middle. Yet still beautiful to watch.
We wanted to give it a chance, it’s still 10 AM anyway, maybe the weather would changed their mind in the middle and eventually gave us the snow. So we wandered around the lake, looking for a cozy place to wait for the rain to stop, but most places were closed. I checked Google Maps and found a cafe and bakery that was open — not by the lake, but walking distance.
The cafe located in the center of the town, a simple and quiet corner with dim lighting inside. They have this bread shop with tons of options, perfect for small breakfast. I also ordered a chocolate smoothie for drink since I don’t drink coffee in the morning.
An hour passed but the rain didn’t stop, me and my friend was kinda did not know what to do again. lol. Ok, so I had planned to hike up to one of the viewpoints that they said the best way to enjoy the lake, but looking at the constant drizzle, seems like I should have started to give up the plan. Well, sometimes the universe simply refuses to cooperate, and that’s okay. Although I had particularly bought a new hiking shoes to prepare for this hike. Kinda sad.
Since it was already close to lunchtime, we decided to look for a lakeside restaurant and have an early lunch while waiting out the rain. If it didn’t stop, at least we could enjoy the lake view with a hot meal, right? That’s how we ended up at Oštarija Peglez’n — and to be honest that became the highlight of my visit in Bled.
The restaurant was apparently a family-owned. The kind of place that hug you with comfort soon as you get in. It’s granny-chic interior and christmas-sy decorations escalated the overall vibes like we were really invited to a grandma house. The staff were incredibly friendly and thoughtful – something that we rarely experience in Europe. One example, since the portions were huge, we decided to share one dish. And without us even asking, they split it into two plates. That kind of small gesture really made us in awe!
By the time we finished eating, it was almost 2 p.m. Unfortunately, the rain was pouring still, me and my friend looked at each other and said, “Okay… let’s head back to Ljubljana.”
It just wasn’t the day. I had checked the forecast, planned carefully, even bought trekking shoes for the hike I never took. I had imagined Bled as the highlight of my trip, paired with a visit to Vintgar Gorge — even though I knew it would be closed in winter.
Still, it was a winter day in Bled. The lake didn’t look the way I had hoped, but surprisingly in the fog and solemn, it still looked mystically pretty.
