Postojna Caves

After traveling all over the world and checking out places like Australia, South Africa, Russia, Norway, Mexico, Panama and Alasca the time was right to visit a big tourist attraction in my own neighborhood - Postojna Caves are really first-class wonder of the nature and something everybody should check out, I am really glad that friends convinced me to visit that place.

Postojna Caves are known from 13 century (if not earlier) though it was in 1818 that people have discovered that there are much more tunnels beneath than anybody expected. This strange, mysterious and fascinating underworld full of tunnels, paths, roads and even occasional big open space ("concert hall") was build by river Pivka that passed under the earth for thousands of years and still is there,flowing somewhere deep deep under in lower tunnels where tourists are not permitted. What we actually see are upper passages, there is much more not safe or comfortable to visit.

I didn't expect there will be so many people visiting - A LOT OF PEOPLE - but everything was perfectly organized and worked like a swiss clock. Upon entering caves we were seated in a little electric train that took us trough countless tunnels where stones above our heads were carefully cut so nobody can hit the head. The tour takes almost 2 hours - we travel by train, than walk guided by tour guides who answer our questions and than exit again with a train. Lot of strange shaped stalagmites hanging from above and looking very dangerous to me, I really wonder how can anybody be sure they won't fall on our heads from high above - everything lightened very dramatically, looking like another planet. At first I was awed by all these strange shaped objects but gradually got used to it - later I even touched occasional stone and felt only cold loneliness and water dripping somewhere. Surprisingly the air was not dusty as I expected but very clear because of the river still passing deep underneath. 

Long ago there were cave lions, hyenas, wolves and bears in these places - today, the most famous living creature here is so called "human fish" or cave salamander - some of them are on display in aquarium and look like combination between eel and lizard, it has snake-shaped body and hands. I was curious what could they possibly eat here in all this dark & gloom but my tour guide told me there are lot of smaller animals here like shell or insects and "human fish" feeds on them + they can stay without any food for huge amount of time. I suspect they are blind.

Starting in 1818 people discovered there is much more than just upper passages and tourism exploded since than - most of the European aristocracy and royalty have visited this place when they traveled trough Europe, including Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Elisabeth "Sissy", serbian king Milan Obrenović, japanese princ and even Benito Mussolini. Josip Broz Tito have often brought his famous international visitors here to impress them with this true wonder of nature. Perhaps the most impressive part is a enormous "concert hall" situated far bellow the place we have already walked at first - it's easy to lose orientation when one is walking in the dark - deep under "spaghetti hall" (so called because tiny stalagmites are hanging like spaghetti from above) one enters large open space with a high ceilings and this looks like sanctuary of the cave man, breath-taking wide open hall perfect for some concert (and true, concerts are organized here). Than after a short walk we were taken up with our little train and exited in the sunny day above this fairy underworld. Definitely one of the strangest places I have visited!