May 23 last day in Slovenia

Because I had so much difficulty figuring out bus schedules I had given up the possibility of another trip to the mountains, but Metka sent me the time tables I needed, and I realized I could catch a 7 a.m. bus that would get me to Lake Bohinj, near Lake Bled, so I did that. When I got off the bus, a computer scientist (Vietnamese but currently teaching in Hungary, also in Ljubljana for academic purposes) also got off. Tuan said he was interested in the tram to the canyon rim, and I said I wanted to walk on up to see the famous waterfall; he gamely went along with me. He is a very nice person and interesting to talk with, so we had a pleasant walk, 5 km. to the Savica Waterfall. When we reached the parking lot and paid our admission there were two huge tour groups assembling, which always makes me a bit nervous. Tuan suggested I go on ahead, since he expected to stop quite often to mess around taking photographs, then we could meet back at the coffee shop (I wanted a snack of some sort), so I did - but in the event he reached the top only a few minutes after I did.
The waterfall really is spectacular; I have a couple of pictures on the photoblog. It emerges from behind a rocky promontory a little way up the base of a sheer cliff; unfortunately you cannot get to any location from which you can see the hole in the rock from which he water emerges, but what you can see is quite spectacular. Back at the coffee shop I discovered that they sell no pastries, which rather surprised me, so I had to settle for a granola bar with my coffee, and an ice cream bar to eat as we walked back along the road toward the tram. I also bought 1/3 kg of local cheese from a farmer who was setting up shop in the parking lot - it is swiss style, quite good.
We reached the tram just before it was about to leave, and after learning that the trail (road actually) back down is only 8 km (for a descent of over 1500 meters), decided to buy only a one way ticket and walk back down. The tram ride itself was quite spectacular as we rose up high enough to see the snow-covered peaks above the walls of the canyon. At the top we spent ten minutes or so taking in the view and taking pictures (some of them are on my photoblog). Then we bought beers and I bought a sandwich (I had forgotten the cheese in my backpack) and we settled down for lunch. By the time we had finished lunch, it was threatening rain, and we could see it raining way down the valley toward Bled, so Tuan wasn't sure he wanted to walk down. But after talking it over for a while we decided to go for it anyway.
The way down is a forest-service type road, very steep for about half the way, covered in gravel and rocks as large as soft-balls, that make for very tricky walking. I should mention Tuan was wearing street shoes, not at all optimal for that type of walking. It started raining, lightly, but enough that I put the rain fly on my day pack. We crossed several snow-fields, none deeper than a foot or so and pretty easy walking actually. The view was spectacular, lush green woods with occasional bits of the rock walls opposite showing through. The walking was extremely difficult for the most part but otherwise it was a very pleasant hike, and by the time we got down, Tuan and I were hitting it off quite well. We stopped at the tram station and bought a couple of beers, part of which we drank there on the patio, and part of which we carried down to the bus stop with us. It started raining again about the time we reached the bus stop shelter, but we only had to wait about 5 minutes. Within a half hour the rain had quite again and by the time we were halfway back to Ljubljana the skies were about half clear. It was a great day in the woods - and the lake really is quite lovely; one could enjoyable spend several days there I think.