Icelandic Horses...in Slovenia

Yesterday we decided to stay another day in Bled because our friends Matt and Amy had planned to go horseback riding, and being horse people, we invited ourselves along. Our driver, Gregor, coolest guy ever, took us to this ranch within a national park, so you know its got to be beautiful there, and we rode Icelandic horses, which are smallllll. My head was at least a foot higher than the horses shoulder, and thats freaky when you are used to horses that are so tall you can barely hoist yourself up onto their backs. Pretty sure my legs dangled down below the horses belly. Oh well, it was loads of fun, rode around Lake Bohinj (Boh-heen) and through an old traditional village that looked like a mix of German alpine houses with some Slavic touches. Could live here forever. Amy had a horse that just didnt want to cooperate and kept stopping to have a snack. Craziest part was when the horses themselves decided that we were going to stop for a drink in the river, and proceeded to take us all down the bank of it to the water and then splash as if they were children. Coooollllld water. Happy to report that I was not sore at all from our two hour ride, must have been that training mom and I did in Santa Fe. ;) Gregor took us for a great local lunch, I had sausage and cabbage, mmmm. Best sausage ever. And of course afterward he took us to see this waterfall, the source of Lake Bohinj, which involved 553 steps. Took loads of breaks to catch our break and stop our lunches from revisiting us. It was definitel worth it though, the view was magical, you could see the whole valley, like a giant hand had just carved it out of the rock. Next stop, a gondola ride to the top of a neighboring mountain to get a real mountain top view. Then, down to the lake for "swimming", which ended up being Matt and Gregor jumping in the ridiculously cold water and us girls just standing in the shallows. No way in hell I was gonna get in the water, it came straight from snow and glacier melt! On the way bakc we took a higher route than before and got stuck in a traffic jam as a herd of cows wandered across the road. Then, since we had extended our stay by a night, and the hostel we had been staying at was full, they found us accomodations nearby, which turned out to be an apartment for the four of us, total luxury! A great jacuzzi shower, a kitchen, and a TV! No internet though, have to come up here to the bar to do the emailing and blogging. Even got porter service for our bags. So, another night down at Best Bar, at which we are really becoming locals. I played some foosball with this Irish kid who lives here with his dad, it was awesome. The plan is to leave tomorrow and go our separate ways.