This Unimagined Life

Tag: ljubljana

Happy Birthday Acacia! Finally posting our Slovenia road trip!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful friend Acacia! I decided I will finally finish this blog post about her visit to Germany LAST SPRING and what better time to do it than the day after her birthday.

When Acacia first told me she was coming to visit and we picked some dates I started scheming right away. After a bit of back and forth with a few different ideas we decided to spend some time in Munich and then take a road trip through Slovenia. Acacia had heard so much about my trip there that she wanted to see it. I realized that there was still a lot there left for me to see too so it would be a new adventure.

On arrival Acacia was of course a bit jet lagged so I decided after some relaxation at the apartment we could do an easy city tour on the big red double decker tour bus. I’d never done one of these tours before…and I’d never do it again. It was probably the most boring “tour” I’ve ever done. It was about the same as just taking a public bus around the city. The only good part is that it’s a hop-on/hop-off tour so we were able to get out and see a few things. I think Acacia fell asleep a couple times on the bus. The positive was that it definitely didn’t require much energy from us so it was good for someone with jet lag…but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

The second day we did some wedding dress shopping. I knew this was something I wanted to do with her because we probably wouldn’t have any other chance. I booked an appointment at one shop and another friend from Munich also met us there. The shop was lovely and served us some Champagne. The dresses were beautiful but way more than I wanted to spend but it was nice hearing some opinions and I was grateful to have that experience with Acacia.

The big highlight was our planned road trip to Slovenia. We bought tickets for the long haul bus for something like $60 round trip from Munich to Ljubljana. The ride was supposed to be about 5.5 hours but on the way there we were stopped for awhile due to a tunnel having construction. It added about 2 hours to the trip. Overall though you just can’t beat that price.

Once in Ljubljana we walked from the bus station through town to our hostel for the night. This was actually my first time staying in a hostel. We decided to get a private room so that we’d get a good night sleep. The problem ended up being the pigeons outside our window keeping us up rather than fellow travelers. Next time I’ll remember ear plugs. But again it was a good, budget friendly place to stay for the night. After dropping our bags off we headed out to explore town. Ljubljana is one of my favorite cities so it was really fun to be able to share it with Acacia. We wandered around the cute streets in the old part of the city. Ate some gelato, had dinner at my favorite restaurant (Marley & Me) and took a walk up to the castle. I forgot to take photos in Ljubljana for some reason.

The next morning we rented a car and started our road trip. I felt bad because I don’t have a driver’s license anymore so Acacia had to do all the driving. The good thing about Slovenia is that it’s so small it doesn’t take long to get to the next place. I tried to plan our trip so there was just about an hour of driving between each destination. Truth be told I ended up doing some of the driving so that Acacia could enjoy looking at the scenery. Oops!

Our first destination was the Skocjan Caves which are a UNESCO National Heritage site. We decided to stop on the way there to see Predjama Castle. The castle is about 700 years old and is built into the side of a 123 meter cliff. It’s a pretty amazing sight. We decided to just view it from outside the entrance to save from paying the fee. The view was pretty good from there anyway and we didn’t have the time to take a tour of the inside since we’d booked a tour of Skocjan.

The Skocjan Caves were really beautiful and the tour was informative and in English. The caves are formed by the Reka River which disappears underground and then reappers 34km away. The river flows through some caves which total about 6km. There were some points when the water was flowing really powerfully through the caverns which was impressive. There were other areas where you could see the old caving equipment and boardwalks that had been built (no longer in use) and you could really imagine what it might have been like to be an early explorer of the caves. You especially felt this when they turned out all the lights and you experienced total darkness. If you’d been in there with only a lamp and in a few places 100 meters drops into raging water…that would’ve been a bit scary.

We weren’t allowed to take photographs in the caves but we took a few when we exited. There were a few ways back to the car and we decided to take the longer, scenic route which involved a few hundred steps. We got our exercise in for the day!

After the caves we were heading toward Dobrovo, which is in the wine region. We decided to take a short detour though when Acacia asked if we were near Italy and if we could pop over to check it out. So we headed there for lunch. I knew nothing about the area so we picked a coastal town on the map. It turned out to be a pretty dirty looking port town. We got some lunch and decided to try a nearby village on the way out that might be more appealing. We weren’t so lucky with that town either but we stopped anyway for some gelato. Acacia tried ordering a coffee and instead got the strongest espresso ever and had to add water to it. So Italy was kind of a bust but at least she can check it off the list. 🙂

In Dobrovo, I’d booked us a room in a house that overlooked the valley with a nice view of the vineyards. After checking in we headed into town and enjoyed some wine and a nice dinner. Our stay was a little bit too short in this area. It would’ve been nice to have an extra day and get out and do some wine tasting. Even so, the scenery is well worth the quick visit. As we headed out the next day there was some sort of festival in town that people were getting setup for. As we drove slowly through we saw something that I’m not sure I’ll ever forget. They had begun roasting an entire cow on a spit. The thing that made this so crazy looking is that all of the skin of the cow had been removed and the eyes were open and just staring. It was really unexpected first thing in the morning!

Our next stop was Tolmin to see the Tolmin Gorges. This area is heading into the mountains but we didn’t have time to get too far into the mountains as that really increases the driving time. I’d never been to this area before either so I was pretty excited. The GPS directed us to start going up the mountain. I had decided to drive this part so Acacia could get a good view. The road quickly turned into a very narrow one way mountain ridge. We kept driving for 20 or 30 minutes and still didn’t see a sign of the gorge. Finally we reached a spot where some people had parked and were starting to hike up to a site. But it definitely wasn’t the gorges so we asked them about it. Luckily they spoke English and they told us where we wanted to go was all the way down the mountain back in town. We’d somehow taken a wrong turn. So back down the mountain we went, hoping that no cars would be trying to come up the mountain as there was no place to really pull over. We decided to have some lunch when we got back down and get some more instructions about where to go. It turned out that getting there was quite easy as long and we’d just made one wrong turn. We’d come to the gorge with our swimsuits hoping for a swim in the turquoise waters and maybe a dip in the hot spring. Sadly there was no swimming allowed. So we hiked along the boardwalks and just looked longingly at the beautiful water. It probably would have been much too cold to enjoy anyway.

After the gorge we hopped back in the car and headed toward Lake Bohinj where we would stay for the night in a farmstay. Alex had been doing a solo motorcycle trip through Slovenia and decided he would meet us there for the night. The hosts were so generous and when I asked if Alex could tent camp on their property they said they would just put us in the bigger apartment for the same price and he could stay with us for free. So nice! The farm was in a tiny village outside of town and had it’s own chickens and cows. The people were really friendly and the apartment was clean and comfortable. We went into town for some dinner and to walk around and check out the lake.

The next morning Alex left us to continue his trip and Acacia and I headed to Lake Bled. This is the “fairytale lake” of Slovenia and I figured we should make a stop for some photos before heading back to Ljubljana to return the car and catch our bus to Munich.

Once back in Munich we just did a little relaxing before Acacia’s flight back. Our neighbor’s had a birthday breakfast so she got to hang out a bit with some Germans and see what a German breakfast is all about.

All in all the trip was a success! I’m so grateful that she made the trip over here and that I was able to share so many amazing things with her. I know life will just be getting busier and busier but I hope this isn’t the last time she’ll make it over to Europe! 🙂

December 28, 2014
Back to Slovenia

One of the perks of freelancing full-time now is that I can be flexible with my schedule and join Alex on some of his work trips and turn them into a little weekend trip. At the end of June last year he had to go to Ljubljana, Slovenia for a work conference and of course I wanted to join him for that. It turned out that it was exactly one year to the day that we first met in Ljubljana that we would be back there. We decided to extend the trip into the weekend and stay in the mountains.

The first few days in Slovenia Alex attended his conference during the day while I went into town and worked from one of my favorite cafés in LJ called Paninoteka. One nice perk is I got to stay in a nice hotel in the city center with a great view. I enjoyed quite a few nice lunches while I worked at the café with free wi-fi. I just found a quiet little corner on the couch, had lunch and worked for hours and the waitstaff were totally fine with it. This is one thing I really enjoy about this city. Almost every restaurant seems to have free wi-fi and not a care if you linger there working. A freelancer’s dream! The only thing better is if my laptop screen didn’t have so much glare so that I could work outside.

Lunches at Paninoteka and the view from our Hotel

I also was really happy that I got to meet up with a lot of friends. I had coffee with my coworkers one after noon, introduced Alex to my friend Anne over dinner, and even made it to a couchsurfing meeting to see some of my old friends I met through there. On another evening when Alex and I were done working we had a nice dinner and then took a bottle of wine up to the castle. We had a beautiful sunset and toasted to our one-year anniversary since meeting each other. We finished off the evening with some dessert at another favorite spot Cacao. The last evening of Alex’s conference I was invited to join the closing event which was a traditional Slovenian meal at Restavracija Skriti Kot. The waitstaff were dressed in traditional clothes and even did a dance performance involving our party. It made for a very entertaining evening.

Once the weekend arrived and the conference was over we rented a car and headed to Kobarid, a small town in the mountains of Slovenia. We had booked a room at a turistična kmetija (tourist farm) I found online. We followed the GPS which seemed to take us to somebodies house. A woman walking on the street luckily spoke some German and explained to Alex that this was the owner’s residence but our rental was at another address. So we entered that into our GPS and shortly arrived at a VERY remote village. We drove down extremely narrow roads through the town until arriving at our location. The place looked really neat and peaceful but there didn’t seem to be anyone around. We had no instructions for a key and the owner wasn’t answering his phone. We tried all the doors and nothing opened. At this point we were starving and it was starting to get late. I was getting hangry and suggested we should find another place to stay. If we waited around too long other places might close and we’d be sleeping in the car. We booked another place about 30 minutes away. At that point the owner finally had emailed me back and told us the door was open. We went and gave it another try and after a more forceful turn we got the door open and entered into a very drafty, damp room with a pullout couch. The bathroom floor was soaking wet, the bedsheets felt damp, and there wasn’t even toilet paper. The owner called back and we told him we wouldn’t be staying. He apologized that the room wasn’t in order and offered to meet us and buy us a drink to make up for it. Slovenians are so nice! It was late so we declined and set out for our new location. We stopped on the way at a local restaurant and were treated to some great food, good hospitality, and some live music. It seemed like it was the hot spot that night in the village.

Our unexpected adventure…this is the place we ended up not staying and Alex looking very tired and ready to eat and finally find a place to sleep.

Finally we made it to our new place which was MUCH more welcoming. The owners of Turisticna Kmetija Kranjc stayed up past their bedtime waiting for us to arrive and quickly got us settled in. The room was clean, warm and DRY and we fell asleep quickly after a long day.

Our new and much improved accommodations.

The next morning we enjoyed a simple homemade breakfast made with fresh ingredients and then asked the owner for some advice about mountain biking in the area. They rented us out two bikes and helmets for next two nothing and even had water bottles for us. We weren’t sure if we should drive the bikes down the mountain a bit to start because from our drive up the night before we knew it was a really steep climb back up. The owner assured Alex that it would be challenging but it’s doable. I tried to explain to Alex that when a Slovene says something is easy then it’s actually hard. So if they say it’s challenging it’s probably next to impossible. He shrugged me off and we set out for our first mountain bike ride together.

Going down I had to get comfortable again. Last time I rode was in CA and I had a few bad falls that turned me into a nervous rider. Alex is at home on a bike and this seemed to be a piece of cake for him. Either he was being very patient with me or I was doing an OK time keeping up with him. I had to dismount a few times where there were big areas of rock slides to cross. I was a little frustrated and intimidated but we eventually made it down the mountain and into town. We stopped for lunch in town and refueled and then continued our ride through the valley. This are was flat but we rode for quite a few hours. There was a destination in mind along the river where we would be able to jump in but we eventually decided not to ride all the way there. It was hot and we still had a long ride back ahead of us. For me, the only way to enter cold water is by plunging in. I really can’t wade into cold water because it feels like torture. But we decided to stop anyway and see if we could go for a little swim. As expected it was just way too freezing. Alex managed to capture my reaction to the cold on camera. Needless to say I did not go in longer than half a second.

Freezing water!

Hiked out to a waterfall

Photoshoot on the bridge before heading back up the mountain. All smiles still at this point.

So the next part is where we made a huge mistake. We had a few snacks with us but we hadn’t eaten a meal since lunch in town. After riding for all that time we really should have eaten before starting the climb back up the mountain. I definitely get cranky when I’ve not been fed. Normally I’m a bigger fan of the climb than the downhill when biking but on this day it was not the case. After quite a few switchbacks I was already out of energy and my mood turned very pessimistic. I got caught in a downward spiral of negative thoughts and watching Alex pump along without a complaint was making it worse I think. I hate feeling defeated and I was not handling it well at all. It wasn’t long before I started to cry to myself and then started to complain out loud. I even at one point told Alex I hated him. And while of course I was just being a brat I really was a little mad that he thought I was going to be able to do this. I even got off my bike at one point but it was so steep that my legs were burning even more and it felt like it would take days for me to make it up that mountain. Getting off the bike was a mistake because it was hard to get back on at such an incline. I’m definitely no pro biker! I started contemplating if Alex should ride back and come get me with the car but I had no idea how far off we were from finishing and I didn’t want to be out there for hours waiting by myself. He even suggested it at one point which made me more angry. I was really just mad at myself for letting my attitude become so defeatist. Once you tell yourself you can’t do it, you’re lost. But somehow I managed to pull it off and once we got up the most nasty part of the mountain we had a nice view and a more flat road and I could start to see an end in sight. I got a new burst of energy and I somehow survived that ride. I swore I would never ride with Alex again…and actually I haven’t since. However, I think that if we picked something a bit more tame, or I’d eaten something, or I get more practice on a bike then we can try again at some point. I don’t know how Alex put up with me that day but I love him for the amount of patience he has! This is a map of a route very similar to ours in terms of difficulty. The beginning of our ride was a different route as I think we came down the mountain more quickly and then rode along the river. But either way it shows the way back up so you can see what I’m talking about. http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=714356

You can see in my facial expression here that I’m still in good humor but I’m also starting to pout about the ride. Aside from my poor attitude the ride up was gorgeous!

One last photo of beautiful Slovenia on our way home.

June 25, 2013
Castle WOD

I’ve not made many CrossFit posts since I’ve been here. I was doing pretty well in May and June and probably went once or twice a week. Maybe I even hit 3 workouts sometimes. I felt like that was pretty good considering I was keeping myself really busy and traveling most weekends. Plus with all the walking and bike riding I was doing I think I was staying on track. July however has not been quite as good. The workouts at CrossFit Plamen weren’t fitting in my schedule so well and I was lacking the motivation to WOD on my own. I’m really looking forward to getting back into a routine when I’m home. The CrossFit here is good but it’s just not the same community and workouts that I’m used to.

This morning I woke up to do a nice uphill run to the castle and a made up WOD at the top. Then a run back down and breakfast at a nice cafe before going home to get ready for work. I realized that while I really dislike running I don’t mind trail runs so much. And I found a nice spot at the top with a perfect tree branch for pullups, a bench for dips and pushups, and a stone wall for step ups (no wall jumps this time after busting my shins on it last time). I was rather surprised I could still do so many pullups after a few weeks off and while my time on the WOD wasn’t great and I could really feel that I had drank too much last weekend I was happy to complete it.

Run 2.5k uphill
rest and stretch

As many rounds as possible of 3 rep sets of deadhang pullups: total 5 rounds

WOD:
4 rounds of 40 air squats, 20 step-ups (25-30″wall), 10 pushups, 5 bench dips
time: 15:22

Run 1.5k downhill, eat breakfast, walk 1k home.

Note to self: Give yourself at least an hour between workout and eating or you will come close to losing your breakfast. Also, Grouplove is great running music.

Trail Run to Ljubljanski Castle

Run through part of the castle walls

A nice view of the city

Perfect pullup bar 🙂

A good spot for a workout. Wall for step-ups, bench for pushups and dips.

A beautiful Ljubljana morning!

July 23, 2012
Hike to Sveti Katarina

The day after Venice I had agreed to go on an “easy” hike with Anne and some members of the International Group of Slovenia. What I didn’t know is what the definition of an easy hike is here. After walking around all day in Venice, getting lost on the way home, and only getting 4 hours of sleep I figured I could just power through. The plan was to hike Sveti Katarina which is in the hills outside Ljubljana. At the top we would eat at a traditional restaurant before hiking back down.

Turns out an easy hike is actually 18km! But I soon forgot how tired I was because of how beautiful it was. The first part of the hike was a steep incline for about 20 minutes. But at the top of the incline was a small cottage offering coffee and snacks. My type of hike! After we enjoyed some coffee and water and shared a fried dough (my favorite!) we all continued to the top. The geography and weather reminded me a lot of hiking in New York in the late spring/early summer. Even the smell was the same. Since I haven’t been back to New York in three years this was really nostalgic for me.

The view from the top was really beautiful and our traditional lunch tasted like we were guests at someone’s house. Real home cooking! My first hike in Slovenia was a success and now I just can’t wait to go on more.

Really beautiful view. Experimenting with the camera, trying to be artistic. 🙂

Hiking friends. Almost at the top.

Getting close to the restaurant.

Glad I was with a group. Looks like its easy to get lost here.

8 ton barbells ahead!

A traditional Slovene dessert called Potica, and a latté

June 2, 2012
A perfect Saturday in Ljubljana

Getting a little backed up on blog updates. Which is a good sign I guess…

Last Saturday my plan was to get up early and go to the open air market. I ended up sleeping in (11 hours of sleep!!) and woke up around noon. I got ready quickly as the market is only open until 2pm and headed down. It was really hot Saturday afternoon (82 F) and quite humid. I wanted to take my time at the market but I ended up hurrying because I needed to get the food I bought home and in the fridge quickly. The market is open all week long but on Saturdays there are a lot more vendors and its a popular morning outing. The amount and variety of food is incredible! I am in absolute heaven and am so excited to get back to cooking meals instead of eating out so often.

There are fruit and produce vendors filling the entire square and all the prices are pretty reasonable. Then there are some specialty vendors selling things like local honey, cured meats, mushrooms, nuts, etc. There was even a whole section of clothing, shoes, and handbags. Once you get through the produce there are two buildings to go through. One is filled with fresh meat, eggs, dairy, pastas, and baked goods. The other building has more of that and in the downstairs a fish market, which was probably my favorite part. Deciding on what to buy was difficult with so many choices. I ended up with some lettuce, tomatoes, some kind of leafy green, white carrots? (smaller than a parsnip), broccoli, ground meat, fresh eggs, a meat that looked closest to bacon, and fresh salmon. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. I will say that I’ve since eaten the salmon and it ranks at the top as the best I’ve ever had.

After going home and making a giant salad and a burger I spent the rest of the day relaxing before meeting up with some friends for a concert. I met Anne and some of her friends at Le Petite Cafe for a glass of wine before heading to the venue. The night was still warm and it was pretty humid out. Anne’s friends were great and in the fashion of everyone I’ve met so far it wasn’t long before I had offers to travel with one of them to Prague or Budapest when she goes. If that works out it will be great! The concert was a French singer called Zaz who I had never heard of before. There are a few French artists I like so I wasn’t worried about not being able to understand the lyrics. The show was highly enjoyable. The energy on the stage was incredible and the songs and her voice were pretty amazing! You could hear some French influence to the music but it also often had a jazzy feel to it. She really had quite a range and I’ve since found myself listening to her on youtube a bit.

Lots of great looking fruit. This is one of probably 30 or so fruit vendors.

Fresh berries!

Some cured meats. This man was kind enough to pose for the photo. 🙂

Clothing, shoes, and handbags…

Squid, Octopus, Fish, Shrimp…YUM

Scallops

Fish and prawns

Greeted by Kitty again today. He's getting friendlier each time I see him. Lucky day for him…he scored some salmon fresh from the market. 🙂

My delicious salad and burger that I made IMMEDIATELY when I got home

Zaz concert!

It dropped about 30 degrees during the concert and began to downpour. I started to run home but halfway there was drenched and decided it was pointless. Still loving this city in the rain!

May 16, 2012
Ljubljanski Grad (Castle)

In the city centre atop a hill there is a castle. It took me all week before I found time to take the 10 minute walk up the hill and explore. My guidebook said basically all roads pointed toward the castle will eventually lead there so I found one and followed it uphill. Of course I picked a rainy day and didn’t pack an umbrella. Halfway up it started to really come down. Luckily I found a little alcove in the wall to take cover for a good 20 minutes before it died back down. It just so happened it was the only shelter on the whole hike so somehow I lucked out finding it at the right time.

The castle was much more impressive than I had imagined. It was pretty enormous and I spent close to 3 hours exploring I think. There are events and exhibitions all the time at the castle and many of them are free of charge. I entered a few free ones and then paid 10 euro to see the Steve McCurry exhibition. It was 10 euro well spent! I’ve seen some of McCurry’s work before, and we’re all familiar with his most famous piece from the cover of National Geographic, but I had never really seen much more than that. I was completely awestruck and insprired…especially after playing with my new camera all week. This guy captures incredible moments that are so striking you almost can’t believe that it wasn’t staged. The colors, composition, emotion, and technical skill are all perfection. Needless to say it just fueled my desire to master the D90 and improve my photography.

For another 6 euro I was able to go up into the tower. Quite a little climb up a spiral staircase and I found myself looking out over all of Ljubljana. I can’t imagine what this view would be like on a clear day because even with the grey skies it was pretty spectacular. I wanted to try and get a 360 degree panorama so I moved to the center of the tower. Unfortunately I was too short and the tower walls were obstructing my shot. So I climbed up onto this platform in the middle of the tower. To me it almost seemed like the purpose of it was so that you can get a good photo. And let me be clear that the tower walls were a good 5-6 ft away from what I climbed up onto so there was absolutely no chance of me falling off unless a hurricane came through. Even so, I think I managed to make a few people nervous as they were staring at me as I climbed up. I decided to spare them and not stand on top of the platform but just kneeled instead. After I situated myself I heard one of the onlookers rattle something off in Slovenian. The only word I caught in her thick accent was “A-mer-eee-can”. I don’t know how she pegged me but it was somewhat amusing.

After I took about 100 photos I headed back down and took a different route down the hill and through town. Even after spending all that time there I still didn’t even see the Slovenian history museum they had in the castle. Looks like I will need to make a return trip at some point.

All roads lead to the castle…

The view from my rain shelter on the path up to the castle

Seems like there should be fairies living in these woods

This snail and I may be the only ones enjoying the rain

Getting closer to the top, quite a view from here

Can you imagine all the people that have walked through that door throughout the centuries?

An art installation inside the castle

A gallery of old wall paintings

Art installation – Giant ants holding a broken Euro

Steve McCurry Photography Exhibition

The castle's chapel

Heading up the tower – lots of steps

View from the top. Empty streets on a rainy day

Heading back downhill into town.

More interesting graffiti

I've found a few spots like this. Anyone know what it means?

Love the peeling paint

More great architecture

Even this boarded up doorway is nice to look at.

This feels very European

More nice signage

More buildings in town

Art in the alleys

Greeted by the black cat and pigeons again when I return home

Kitty decided to get friendly and I have to admit he freaked me out a little bit at first. Can't decide if he's evil or nice.

May 13, 2012
Ljubljana by Bicycle

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!

May 6, 2012
Ljubljana by foot

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 – Graffiti

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Graffiti

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Graffiti

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Graffiti

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Graffiti for Harry Potter lovers

Ljubljana, Slovenia – City Centre

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Graffiti

Ljubljana, Slovenia – A museum

Ljubljana, 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 signage

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Signage made from old skate decks

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Storefront art made from old skatedecks

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Storefront art made from old skatedecks

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Dragon Bridge

Ljubljana, Slovenia – People place padlocks on the bride cables here to signify love

Ljubljana, Slovenia – People place padlocks on the bride cables here to signify love

Ljubljana, Slovenia – fish heads

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ljubljana, Slovenia – City Centre

Ljubljana, Slovenia – City Centre and Castle on the Hill

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Old books and a typewriter

Ljubljana, Slovenia – City Centre

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Ljubljanica River

Ljubljana, Slovenia – A little side street I wandered down

Ljubljana, Slovenia

May 4, 2012
Finally, some gelato!

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!

May 3, 2012
Departure and Arrival

Important things I’ve learned:

-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.

May 3, 2012