Bleddy brilliant - Summer 2011

Arrived in Bled with my brother John already famous because our Israeli friend Asa had had told everyone in the hostel to expect the ginger guy on crutches. Asa and I went canyoning for the afternoon which for obvious reasons John was not able to join us for. It was fun, we jumped off stuff and came back unscathed, I'd recommend it. We'd arranged to meet John at 7pm and were a little worried when he didn't show up for a couple of hours. When he did turn up he was drenched in sweat having done a full circuit of lake Bled - around 6km in 30° heat... on crutches! I was glad he did because this meant I had no problem leaving him and going off on my own. He was clearly capable of entertaining himself.

Did you notice I managed to do a degree sign ° earlier. Alt and 0176 on the number pad. Who knew!

In the evening we played a confusing game of electronic darts cricket in the hostel bar. It would become our new favourite sport once we'd worked out the rules two days later (the instructions were in German). Our night was an absolute pleasure, topped off with a midnight dip in the lake .We met a French girl called Cecile who I would happily have married and an English girl called Sandra who I would happily have beaten unconscious with a bat. Sandra was boring, self obsessed and miserable. Her first conversation with us was about her unrequited love for a Slovenian man who didn't know she exists. The reason he doesn't know she exists is because she has never spoken to him. The girl was mental and I feel bad for the Slovenian man who will more than likely get a stalking from mental Sandra. I made sure John was on the receiving end of her tales of woe for the evening.

When we returned to the hostel room there was a man in John's bed. Deciding it could be the hostel's error we left the man to sleep and John took a duvet on to the floor. The next morning the man was kicked out by the girl from the hostel. He turned to John to offer an explanation 'Sorry, I was drunk.'. Seems fair enough to me, I am of the opinion the  he walked off and the hostel gave us a free night which we asked to be turned in to a bar tab so it was all good.

Day two in Bled: Rather foolishly took John and Asa for a walk to Vintgar gorge. It was three miles away and the midday temperature hit 36° (degrees sign again, check me out), not walking weather and definitely not crutch hobbling weather. We made it though and the gorge was beautiful. We got a taxi back.

Back at the hostel bar Mental Sandra returned and insisted we listened to her. We clearly didn't want to and sunk our heads in to our books but she carried on in depressing fashion anyway. We had all come to the conclusion that Sandra is a leach who had picked us to suck the blood from. When we ignored her enough she wondered off to irritate other people. Although not exactly ugly her miserable attitude means I have no I have no problem pointing out her physical flaws - black straw like witches hair, a bushy monobrow and significant armpit stubble. I think I am reasonably tolerant of most people but this girl did all of our nuts in. Two Welsh girls - Katie and Jenny, and a Dutch guy called Max helped make it better. When we were exchanging jokes Max chipped in with 'What's white and shaped like a cube? ...... A square ping-pong ball.'. It was another fun evening.

We spent a total of four days in Bled, all very special supplying great memories. Particularly a walk up to a view point that I only shared with a circling hawk and rather lost and lonely looking goat. It also transpired that Sandra was genuinely mentally ill. I felt a bit guilty for having treated her so badly. I had no excuse, I am a bit of an arsehole.

Oh and if you haven't been able to tell from the pictures Bled is one of the most stunningly picturesque places on earth.