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Divača, Slovenia
45° 41' N 13° 58' E
Aug 26, 2006 18:22
Distance 68km

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skocjan caves

Text written in: English

i am admittedly a bit of a cave junky and arrived in the small town of divaca for that very reason. there is really nothing else there. the caves near divaca (called the skocjan jame, or skocjan caves) are some of the most dramatic in all of europe. i arrived on the train from bohinj at about three p.m., walked out of the station, and found the cubicle-sized tourist office just adjacent. there i met a sociable and garrulous man named tomas who bubbled over with excitement. it was his job to do all things tourist-related in the miniscule town of divaca. tomas had spent six years in the united states working for a cruise ship based out of florida. because he had spent so much time there, and because he is naturally chatty, his english was near perfect. he had a slight slavic accent, so it was hilarious to hear him say things like, "right on man" and "where's my friggin' pen?"--slang that only comes as someone nears total fluency in a language. tomas personally drove me out to the caves, dropped me off, and picked me up two hours later after the tour.

the caves were dramatic and, well, cavernous. there were giagantic stalactites (the hangy-down ones), stalacmites (the standy-up ones), chandeliers, and rock formations that looked like snoopy and charles de gaulle. the tour guide was multi-lingual and did the tour in both english and german. it was a nice tour and, as promised, tomas was waiting for me just at the end of the tunnel so to speak.

we drove the fifteen minutes back to town, tomas and i, and he arranged a private room for the equivalent of less than twenty dollars. the proprietor of the bar / cafe / inn was a rude witchy woman from whom i instantly got a very bad vibe. nevertheless, i took the room. it was the only option in town. i have to say, though, walking into that bar / cafe / inn gave me the creeps big time. it was if i had accidentally stumbled into a secret haven for the undead in the western part of slovenia. i was convinced that everyone in that place was a zombie. my room was nice enough, but it was cold and impersonal and i didn't sleep well that night at all. i was up all night tossing and turning and finally awoke at six a.m. i made a mad dash for the bus station and got the first bus out of that eerie little town.