Tag: rain

  • 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.
    Lots of great looking fruit. This is one of probably 30 or so fruit vendors.
    Fresh berries!
    Fresh berries!
    Some cured meats. This man was kind enough to pose for the photo. :)
    Some cured meats. This man was kind enough to pose for the photo. 🙂
    Clothing, shoes, and handbags...
    Clothing, shoes, and handbags…
    Squid, Octopus, Fish, Shrimp...YUM
    Squid, Octopus, Fish, Shrimp…YUM
    Scallops
    Scallops
    Fish and prawns
    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!
  • 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
    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

    Just a taste of the street names I have to figure out. I have no idea how to pronounce them.

    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.