So far my experience with people here is that pretty much everyone is extremely friendly and helpful. This includes Slovenians and other foreigners from all different countries. At the couchsurfing meeting i went to this week I met Anne. Originally from France, Anne has lived in Ljubljana for the past 6 months by way of Brussels. She moved here to work and so will be staying for a few years if not permanently. We met for coffee one morning and had a great conversation that led into politics at some point. Not usually my favorite topic but it was very interesting to hear the point of view of a non-American. Anne was kind enough to invite me for coffee at her place Saturday morning and a ride along to the coastal towns of Strunjan and Piran.
I rode a bike over to her place in the morning and it was fun to see an actual residence since my apartment is more of a temporary living space and decorated pretty sparsely. Her apartment (or should I say flat?) was really comfortable and stylish. Lots of bright pops of color everywhere and nice furnishings. She had a sunny patio where we had some tea and coffee while we waited for her friend Majca to join us. Majca is Slovene and so we had a great tour guide for the trip. She also proved to be just as friendly as everyone else I’ve encountered. I have been completely amazed at the fluency in which both Anne and Majca speak English and it makes me really regretful that I never mastered another language. I really wish it was something that was stressed in education in the US.
Anyway, let’s get to the point… the beach! By car the coast is about 90 minutes although it seemed much faster to me. We arrived and parked in a village called Strunjan and first walked over to the Salt Flats. They don’t produce much salt here anymore because its not the most efficient way. But it was interesting to look at and I’m told they still produce some although its expensive to purchase.
From there we walked/hiked along the hilly coastline toward Piran.I saw quite a few houses that I wouldn't mind living in!Majca knew about a shortcut which was a much nicer walk than along the road.It took us down a sunny dirt path lined by a stone wall that must have been there for hundreds of years.I can't believe how green it is here!Every once in awhile the path would wind toward the ocean and we'd get a glimpse of the emerald-turquoise waters of the Adriatic Sea.Eventually we came to a road overlooking Piran and the Adriatic Sea.Slovenia is full of bright bursts of color around every corner.
Majca and Anne stop for a photo as we find our way through the cobblestone streets to the town center.Some of the alleyways were so narrow that you felt like you were indoors until you looked up and saw the sky.We made it through the maze of streets and walkways, down the hill to the town center.After surveying the menus of the numerous waterfront seafood restaurants we chose one and quickly ordered this local grapefruit beer. Very refreshing and not too sweet.I was so hungry and excited to eat that I forgot to take a photo beforehand. We had mussels in a delicous butter-wine sauce, pomme frites for dipping and a seafood salad with squid and shrimp. Everything was fresh and very tasty!I think I look like I'm enjoying myself in this photo. 😉
My feet are tired! Although the city is small I feel like I could walk through it numerous times and still find new things to see. There’s a lot to take in! After spending close to 10 hours walking over two days I decided to get a bike for my trip across town to CrossFit Plamen.
Ljubljana has a great bicycle program. All around the city are stations offering bikes for rent. I signed up for a 7 day pass to try it out. The first hour is free which is more than enough to get anywhere in the city. Then you just park it and you can come back later and take it out again. I think you only have to wait 5 minutes. If you use it longer than an hour the price is still just a Euro or two.
I was a little nervous at first. There are a lot of bikers in this city and the bike lanes are actually on the sidewalk with pedestrians. Some areas of town can be a bit crowded but I figured after having rode a bike down the crowded boardwalk in Pacific Beach, I should be able to navigate a crowd without hitting anyone. If all else fails the bike does come equipped with a little bell so you can get people to move out of the way. 🙂
Here are some sites from my first bike ride through the city:
I decided to ride over to Tivoli Park, a large park with wooded trails on the edge of the city. Somehow I got incredibly lost and rode for about an hour trying to find my way back. Along the way I saw some more interesting things.
Finally made it to Tivoli Park! Map of the park. Here you can see the park in the light green area with the expanse of forest behind it filled with trails. This is a popular place for locals to hike, run and bike as well as sit in the grass and just relax. I was starving when I arrived after getting lost for so long and so when I came upon this cafe across the pond I made a mad dash for it. Ate my first sandwich with bread in at least a year. Ciabatta with olive spread, prosciutto, mozzarella and arugula. It was well worth it! A mansion sits in the middle of the park with a cafe and an art gallery View from the mansion steps I was so tired after all the bike riding that I decided to head home. This black cat and his pigeon friends greeted me in the alley for the second day in a row. I think it's peculiar that the cat just naps there with the pigeons right next to it. Good thing I'm not superstitious since it seems I'll be walking past this cat regularly!
One of the first things I did when I found out I was coming to Slovenia was to check and see if there’s a CrossFit near me. Am I crazy?! Probably. I was excited to find that there was one pretty close to where I’m living. I decided to go check it out yesterday.
Because I love CrossFit and love to talk about it (probably to the point of being annoying), I figured I might as well post about it since I’m keeping a blog now. Maybe this will be a better outlet so that my non-crossfit friends don’t have to hear about it anymore. 🙂
To get to the box I decided to take a bike. It’s a bit across town and I knew post-WOD I wouldn’t feel like walking all the way back. So, it’s just a short walk to the bike station and then about 1.5 mile ride and then maybe a 5 minute walk from that bike station. I got a little bit lost finding the exact place as it’s in a sort of shed/barn type building down a gravel road among other houses.
The box itself is pretty small. Maybe about the size of the old CrossFit San Elijo location but more square than rectangular. They didn’t have nearly as much equipment but the nice thing about CrossFit is you don’t really need much. The coach, Katarina was really friendly and spoke English very well. I’m not sure if anyone else spoke much English which would explain why people weren’t very talkative to to me.
We warmed up with 3 rounds of 10 good mornings with PVC, 10 goblet squats, and 10 press with PVC followed by a 400m run. Did that twice. The WOD was a partner workout. While your partner runs 450m with a med ball (14#) you do AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of the following. 9 deadlifts, 6 front squats, 3 push press. I think we did about 55#. When your partner returns from the run you switch. Then there is a 3 minute rest, then repeat two more times.
All in all it was a great workout and I decided to sign up for a twice a week membership for the month. At least this will help me burn off all the calories I will be eating in delicious food! 🙂
I spent about four hours walking the streets of Ljubljana today. There is a little marketing slogan the country has which is “I FEEL sLOVEnia”. It is very fitting since it took all of about 30 minutes for me to decide that I love it here. The weather has been hot and sunny with scattered showers. It’s rather nice getting caught in the rain in Europe. It’s actually funny how things that could be unpleasant are the opposite when you’re in Europe…just proves its only a matter of perspective.
I took the D90 out today to try it out. I’m just learning to use it and refresh myself on photography so don’t judge too harshly. Not much is in focus.
The city center is a short walk from my apartment. Here is where I would start listing names of places and describing them but to be honest it’s really hard to remember names of places when you can’t pronounce them. I’ll get there eventually. There’s a big circle in the center of town that serves as a meeting place for people. The streets that intersect it are filled with cafes, boutiques, and restaurants. On one side there are the “Three Bridges” that cross over the Ljubljanica River which runs through town. When you cross the bridge there are more old buildings filled with restaurants and shops. I kind of just wandered aimlessly through the streets intentionally getting lost. A few times when it started to rain I had to duck into a doorway and wait it out. This is much more fun than ducking in a doorway in the states because it’s a really old doorway with big heavy wooden doors. And it’s in Europe. This also gave me a chance to pull out my guidebook and look up a place for lunch. I was getting hungry at this point.
Ljubljana, Slovenia – My perch from a doorway while I waited out the rain. The city smells old and musty when it gets wet.
It’s really hard to make decisions with so many choices. I decided to just eat at the first restaurant I stumbled upon which happened to be a French bistro. The food was delish and the atmosphere was nice but my hunch is that I’ll have to visit France if I really want something authentic.
Eventually my feet got tired so I decided to head in the general direction of my apartment but take a different route. I ended up in some old industrial part of town first with some great graffiti. Then I came upon a few museums that look like they’ll be worth checking out later. Finally, I made it back home and took a nice long nap.
Ljubljana, Slovenia – GraffitiLjubljana, Slovenia – GraffitiLjubljana, Slovenia – GraffitiLjubljana, Slovenia – GraffitiLjubljana, Slovenia – Graffiti for Harry Potter lovers
Ljubljana, Slovenia – City CentreLjubljana, Slovenia – GraffitiLjubljana, Slovenia – A museumLjubljana, Slovenia – Another Musuem
Afterward I logged into my old couchsurfers.org account to see if there was any sort of activity in this area. I was thinking about trying to find people to travel to the coast with later this week. Lo and behold there was a weekly couchsurfers meeting happening at a local bar in ten minutes! As hard as it is to force myself to go out alone in a foreign country and make conversation with strangers I figured there’s no point in putting it off. I arrived at a little outdoor bar called Green Space. There were about 6 or 7 others enjoying some beers. Eventually the group grew to about 10 or so which apparently was abnormally small because of the holiday. A few people were just traveling through, some were natives, and others are living here like me but from another country. French, Argentinian, Swedish, Slovenian, etc. but everyone speaks English which makes things much easier for me! I got some inside tips and a few contacts for possible travel companions later this week. Possibly the coast for the day? Or a trip to France? So many choices…
Ljubljana, Slovenia – Some interesting signageLjubljana, Slovenia – Signage made from old skate decksLjubljana, Slovenia – Storefront art made from old skatedecksLjubljana, Slovenia – Storefront art made from old skatedecksLjubljana, Slovenia – Dragon BridgeLjubljana, Slovenia – People place padlocks on the bride cables here to signify loveLjubljana, Slovenia – People place padlocks on the bride cables here to signify loveLjubljana, Slovenia – fish headsLjubljana, SloveniaLjubljana, Slovenia – City CentreLjubljana, Slovenia – City Centre and Castle on the HillLjubljana, Slovenia – Old books and a typewriterLjubljana, Slovenia – City CentreLjubljana, SloveniaLjubljana, Slovenia – Ljubljanica RiverLjubljana, Slovenia – A little side street I wandered downLjubljana, Slovenia
If you know me you’re probably wondering why I haven’t made a food post yet. Sadly things in the food department have been uneventful so far. Day 1 and 2 there weren’t many restaurants open because of the holiday. I tried to grocery shop but it’s honestly been the biggest challenge I’ve encountered so far. Between feeling a little crummy from jetlag without much appetite and being on the go constantly since my arrival I either forgot to eat or ate something fast at my apartment…like eggs.
So far I’ve eaten out twice. I had lunch one day at a little French bistro called Le Petite Cafe (Gnocchi with rosemary, mushrooms, and bacon) and dinner at a sushi restaurant called Sushimama (Miso soup with crab and and a small sashimi plate. I have not tried Slovenian food yet but I plan to in the next day or so. After the sushi I did finally indulge in some chocolate and coconut gelato by the river, which I’ve been eyeing since I arrived.
What's in my miso soup? That's a giant hunk of real crab!Chocolate and Coconut Gelato!
-Gazirana voda is club soda, not flat water. This should’ve been obvious…I’ll blame the jet lag and the millions of bottles of water looking products with different names on them.
-At the grocery store you weigh your own produce and put the price sticker on the bag for the cashier. Nothing says you’re American like making the whole checkout line wait for someone to bring all your produce back up weighed for you.
-If you stand on the sidewalk holding a map someone here will come help you.
-Some things are harder to figure out than they would seem. Don’t give up! It took quite a few attempts and lots of staring at my door blinds to figure out how to open them.
-Thunder and lightening storms are cooler in Europe.
My flight to Europe was pretty uneventful. Each connection was almost immediate from San Diego, to Chicago, to Munich, to Slovenia. I was lucky enough to have two empty seats next to me from Chicago to Munich and so I uncomfortably laid across them and got in a few hours of sleep. Upon arrival I was picked up by a taxi and was greeted at my apartment by my soon-to-be co-worker, Monika. The apartment is called Mam (pronounced “Mom”) and my landlady’s name is Nana. Not sure how else they could make me feel more at ease. After going over apartment things and having the keys handed over to me Monika took me on a quick tour of town. I was extremely grateful for that especially since it is was a holiday here and she probably had more interesting things she could be doing. Ljubljana is kind of a ghost town on holidays with everyone leaving for the coast or mountains. This means almost everything was closed. After Monika took me through city centre and showed me the office, some local markets, and some restaurants I headed back to settle in. Later, I went back out to get my first Slovenian meal. A Doner Kebob, which is like a fast food gyro in the states. Not exactly what I had hoped my first meal would be but there was literally nothing else open aside from McDonald’s and Chinese food. I also stopped by the grocery store called Mercator to pick up a few things which was not an easy task when you can’t read labels. All in all my first half day in Ljubljana was pretty good. I finished the night off watching a lightening storm from my windows and then got some much needed sleep.
On the way to my terminal in O'Hare.
Flying over the Alps, entering Slovenia.
About the only things I could identify at the grocery store…eggs, yogurt, sausage
The outside of my apartment building, right in the middle of Ljubljana.
I somewhat irresponsibly allowed myself to be talked into having a going away/early 30th birthday celebration the day before my departure to Ljubljana. Turns out it couldn’t have been a better decision. What better way to spend my last day in San Diego for the next three months than among good friends, Hawaiian leis, bottomless mimosas & a killer breakfast buffet, ice cream cake, too many cuke mules and the Encinitas street fair? The only thing missing was the San Diego sunshine but a few drinks in and I stopped complaining about that. It was the perfect way to take my mind off things and calm my nerves.
It’s pretty sad that as an artist/designer I’ve never really owned a nice camera. I’m pretty frugal (re:cheap) so I’ve just never splurged on one. After consulting with my photographer brother-in-law, Jeff of Jeff Massey Photo I decided on the Nikon D90. There are so many options on this thing I don’t even know where to start! Luckily I have a very lengthy plane ride ahead of me and lots of manuals and books to read. This will be how I’ll document my trip to Slovenia and where ever else I end up this summer so let’s hope I figure it out! Otherwise it’s gonna be camera+ on my iphone (which is what these photos were taken with
