The Chronicles of Adriana: Slovenia

Ljubljana with the Kamnik Alps in the background

I arrived in Slovenia with some apprehension: it was 10 o´clock at night (the train got delayed about an hour at the border crossing), I had no hotel reservation and the tourist information office was closed at the time. I of course can´t speak a word of Slovene and had no clue how much people there spoke English or any other language, I had not really heard much about the country except for the fact that it was part of the former Yugoslavia, and I thought I was going to be the only tourist in the city of Ljubljana. Come on, how many people would pick Ljubljana (you know I love that name) as their weekend destination?

Buildings near the Old Town - Preseren Square

Slovenia is a small country. In total it has close to 2 million inhabitants with Ljubljana, its most populated city, having a population of 267,000. I walked out of the train station for about 5 minutes and I was very close to the area where, according to my guide, there were about 5 hostels. I asked a young couple on the street about how to get to the hostel I was looking for and very nicely and in a very good English they told me how to get there. Since the moment I got there I felt very safe and my apprehension started to fade away. I got to the hostel, they had a room, I went upstairs to leave my belongings and came back down to use their free Internet service. My first surprise: there were about 2 to 3 different groups of people staying at the same hotel/hostel who were from Latin America: I overheard a women from Venezuela with her mother, another couple from Mexico and a small group of friends from Spain. The next morning I walked to the Old part of town first. I felt a very good vibe all over town. Lots of people on the streets, lots of outdoor cafes, lots of small stores, and a big market on one of the main squares. The second surprise: I wasn´t the only tourist in town. The city was filled with groups of tourists who were listening very carefully to all the detailed explanations their tour guide was giving them. And to add to that surprise, many of those tourists were coming from Spain. Even though in the time I´ve spent in Spain I have not seen any specials or offers or promotions to go visit Slovenia and none of the Spanish people I have met have mentioned Ljubljana as one of their favorite vacations spots the place was filled with Spanish people. Something for which I still haven´t formulated any theories but that intrigues me a lot. I wanted to stop for a coffee to go so that I could continue on my tour of the Old town. I stopped at a small coffee shop/bakery along the river, in front of the street market. And that is when I knew that this was a place I was going to like...a lot. How can´t you fall in love with a place where you ask for a cafe latte to go and it not only tastes good and costs just 1 euro but they also give you a small plastic cup with 3 cookies and 2 pieces of home made chocolate balls to take with you?

Ljubljana´s hill castle - View from the castle

Market - Church of the Annunciation

Ljubljana has its own castle on top of a hill located in the middle of the city. I used the newly inaugurated funicular to get to it and be able to have the best views of the city with the Kamnik Alps in the background. I also visited the Church of the Annunciation and the Cathedral of St. Nicholas and walked past the University. Ljubljana reminded me a lot of Germany. Actually it reminded me a lot of the small cities in the state of Bavaria. The buildings, the squares, the churches, the pedestrian zones and the layout in general are very similar. Everything works just the way it is supposed to. Even the plastic bags in the supermarket where you pack your own groceries at the register open easily. An impossible task for me to accomplish in the rest of Europe (France and Spain for example) where I'm always holding up the line because I can't open the bag to pack my things. The streets are clean, the city is organized and the people are very civic-minded. Well, actually the people are not only very civic-minded but they are very friendly, nice and polite; and to add to all of this the men are very good looking. Everyone I met and everyone I encountered was always very polite and very helpful: from the people at the hostel, to the waiters at the coffee shops, from the store clerks to the park attendants, from the bus drivers to the random people I asked for directions on the streets. Another plus is that almost everyone speaks English or Spanish so there was really no need to worry about not knowing the language. Even though learning how to say "Good day" (something that sounds like dubri dan) comes in very handy. It is the same word in Croatian and it can also gain you the instant sympathy of the locals.

Bled Castle

The following day I went to the nearby town of Bled to visit its famous Lake and Castle. I took a 45 minute train to the town of Jesenice and then the 10 minute local bus to the Lake. Of course I ran into another small group of Spanish people in the bus, which by then did not surprise me at all. Lake Bled is stunning. In the middle of the lake you have a very small island with a church. Then on one side of the lake you have a castle which was built on top of a cliff. I hiked all the way up to the castle via some very tiny and steep stairs, something which did not really help the strain I have in my ankle. See, sometime towards the very beginning of the trip I must have twisted my ankle or done some sort of movement which I can´t remember but which caused me to have a strain. So of course all the walking, and going up and down stairs and hills would cause me to have pain and discomfort towards the end of the day. Some of the rooms in the castle are undergoing renovations so I could not go in. However it was worth to climb to the top and once again be able to enjoy the beautiful views of the Slovenian landscape. This time around the Julian Alps. When I got to Bled it was starting to snow. Small snow flakes were falling and as you could imagine it was freezing cold. Bled, as I found out when I got there, caters a lot to people who enjoy outdoor activities and extreme sports; mostly outdoor sports that are practiced in the summer. There are plenty of hiking trails that take you to different towns and different mountains. There are lots of companies offering water rafting trips, paragliding and kayaking activities. So it was a shame to be there around this time of the year when most of these activities, or at least the ones I want to try out, are closed. I got back to Ljubljana in the afternoon and decided to take the rest of the afternoon/night off to give some rest to my ankle and prepare myself for the long day ahead of me.