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