the starrs: Skiing in the Julian Alps!

Days two and three in Slovenia we finally got to hit the slopes! I'd been waiting two years for the chance to ski in the Alps and I was beyond excited. Thomas has only snowboarded in the past, and had never been skiing, so I gently nudged him to ski while we were there because I felt I could teach him to ski better than trying to teach him to snowboard! We spend the first half of Day 1 on the bunny slope while Thomas learned the basics, and I brushed up on my skiing. After lunch we tried out a blue slope and although it was a little rough on Thomas, he was an amazing sport, and just kept trying! He hurt his knee a little bit towards the end of the day, so I got in a couple of runs before we had to catch the shuttle back to Bled. Day Two was even more fun - everything seemed to click for Thomas and by the end of the day he was beating me down the mountain! I had so much fun, and I loved to watch all the little kids fly down the mountain - I'd say about 80% of them were better skiers than I am...plus the little guys are so adorable in their snow suits. :)

Bled has a great system set up for tourists wanting to go ski while staying in their town. If you purchase your lift tickets (minimum two days) from the Tourist Information Center on the lake, it includes your ride on the Ski Bus. The Ski Bus departs Bled in the morning, picking up at several spots around town (including right outside our hotel!), and picks up at the slopes in the afternoon to bring everyone back. It was so nice to not have to worry about renting a car to get to the mountain, and we rented skis on the mountain so we didn't have to lug those around with us either. Once you get to the base of the ski resort, you take a cable car up to "snow level" and can rent skis, hang out in the lodge, or go up on the lifts from there. The Ski Bus would take you to one of the two ski resorts in the area, Vogel or Krvavec, and your lift passes from the Tourist Office were good for either resort - you could even mix and match. We chose to go to Vogel both days since that was where we rented our equipment from, but we heard great things about Krvavec as well. We really enjoyed Vogel, it suited our beginner skiing needs just fine. When we went (end of December) it was still near the beginning of the ski season and I would say only about 50% of the slopes were open, but we heard that in two to three weeks it would be in full swing. All in all, we were so happy with our ski destination, and would happily go back there, especially a little bit later into the ski season!