Ljubljana

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Saturday July 20 – Days of the week have lost all meaning for me. I actually had to look on my computer to know what day it is today. The train to Ljubljana today was such a different experience than yesterday’s nightmare. I did not need a seat reservation. It was nearly empty. Apparently Slovenia is not as popular as Croatia. But I must admit I am getting excited to head to the mountains in a few days with Tina. When I last looked, the high is 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Hallelujah! I got up around 8:30 today and played around on the internet until check out at 10am. I also got a nice note from the couple I met last night with their email, saying that we might see each other in Basel, as his brother lives there. I went to the grocery store and bought some food for breakfast and made some sandwiches for lunch to take with me on the train. The owner of the hostel also owns the apartment Tina and I will be staying in when we come back to Zagreb next week. He drove me to the train station, which was really nice. The train left about 10-15 minutes late, but it was a nicer ride. Even immigration was better, and faster. I was reminded to show my permit to live in Switzerland when the guy asked me where my entrance stamp was for my flight to Europe. On the train I ate a sandwich and offered the other one to the only guy in my compartment. He didn’t want it so I saved it for later.

When I got to the train station I grabbed a map and some info about future trains, of course. Then I walked to the hostel, about 10 minutes away. It’s actually a college residence hall. I have a single room and it has two beds. Quite spacious, unless I think about the fact that college kids live here all year long. Seriously, how did I do that? But I only shared a room my freshman year. Luckily I had a great roommate. Once I settled in, I put my sandwich in the fridge and went for a walk. It was already 5pm by then, but it turned out to be a nice time to go for a walk. It wasn’t too hot, and the lighting was nice for pictures. Ljubljana is a nice small capital city. It’s easy to walk around and the old town is quite cool, with a small river that runs through it. I walked around the old town, visiting churches, taking pictures, reading my map and trying not to get lost. Around 6pm I decided to walk up to the castle. Like the best – or all of them? – it sits on a hill looking over the town. It took about 15 minutes to reach the castle, which is open to visit. It has some exhibits that are free, and some that are not. In the chapel this little girl asked me if I spoke English and what my name was. When I told her, she wrote it down and asked about the spelling. Then she wrote it very nicely in calligraphy and gave me the paper. It was pretty cute and I gave a small donation. On my way out, a guy saw it and said he would do a better one. So he wrote my name even prettier on another sheet. Pretty funny. I guess I’ll take them back to work and pin them up when I get home. I left the castle around 7pm and realized I was starting to get hungry. Normally I would already have eaten by then. I went back to the hostel and asked where they would recommend eating. They suggest a place and I decided to eat there. When I got there, it was already 8pm and the outside seats were all taken. But this really didn’t bother me because Europe has a smoking problem and you can smoke at outdoor seating, so I opted for the inside seats anyway. I ordered grilled squid with garlic sauce. It was delicious. Actually, it’s 24 hours later and I can still taste the garlic. Yum. I finished up with an ice cream from the street. One scoop of chocolate and one of banana. So good. Would have been even better if I hadn’t spilled some on my shirt. I have hand washed it but it is still not great. Will I get home with any clean clothes? Actually, those clothes were so sweaty that I was going wash them anyway. I am just going to be gross for the rest of this trip. Here’s to hoping for a washing machine at some point.

Sunday July 21 – I’m still not sleeping great, but even less so because some boys came home last night and were loud around 3:30 and 4am. I am not a fan of young drunk travelers. Or drunk anyone. But I got up at 7am and then had breakfast at 8am. It’s nice that they offer breakfast, but there wasn’t much there that could be considered healthy. I ended up with a tasteless apple, tea, and two bowls of museli, one with milk and one with yogurt. I went out at 10am and stopped in to grab my leftover sandwich to bring with me for lunch. I was happy it was still there, but then I opened up the bag, and half of my sandwich was gone! I was so pissed. It was neatly cut in half, and the other half was probably sitting in the belly of one of the kids who woke me up last night. Damn, that sucked. Less than 24 hours and someone already ate my food.

With a look of determination mixed with rage, I headed to a nearby park to walk around. It is connected to the forest, and I would have liked to have walked around more, but I also wanted to meet the free walking tour at 11am. So I did walk in the park a little bit, and then stopped by a new church on my way back. There was a service so I just stood in the back, just outside the doors, and watched for a few minutes. I wasn’t sure what kind of church it was, but I realized that everyone was standing and women were on one side and men on the other. It was quite a small church inside, and the priest was behind a screen of some sort most of the time. There was another historical building near there that caught my eye, and when I went to have a look, I noticed a lot of security around it. Then I saw that it was the American Embassy. Always the scariest and most unfriendly buildings I’ve seen in any country sadly. They just want you nowhere around.

From there I went to meet the walking tour in the main square, on the steps of another church. There were two guides and quite a lot of people. It ended up with maybe 35 people in each group. The tour lasted 2.5 hours and took us around the old town, the university and then to a couple of other places. The guide was quite good. He has a PhD in art history, but there was not enough work at the university so he is doing this now. After the tour I walked to the national museum and the museum of natural history, both in the same building. There some interesting things to see, but the exhibits weren’t that exciting in the end. What blows me away how many things they still have from the second century AD, and even from a few thousand years BC. I am always amazed that people could do some much way back then. There was even a flute from 55,000 years ago!! I mean, what??? Amazing.

After the museum I walked back to the first church of the morning, to see if it was open. It was, so I went in to have a look. It was really colorful inside, and pretty. A guy came over to talk to me and gave me a bit of history of the religion here. It was a Serbian Orthodox church. He was explaining to me that they have a small community here, but a bigger one in Chicago. When communism came to this place, religion had to go, so for many years no one was allowed to be religious and no one was raised with religious beliefs. He said the government just told kids there was no god, and brain washed them. I happen to believe teaching kids about God is probably another form of brain washing, but this communist way sounds worse. I think what gets me is the taking away of a large part of the culture of the people who lived there. He said that there are so many people who have come back to the faith now, and that there are many young monks, especially in Romania. He was very interesting to talk to. My last stop was the train station, where I bought tickets for my day trip to the Skocjan caves tomorrow. When I get back, I will be meeting Tina when her train comes in. I’m looking forward to seeing her and doing some traveling together.



After the train station I stopped at a small grocery store that was open on a Sunday and bought some more water and some snacks for tomorrow, as well as a yogurt for right then. I was starving. I wonder why that would be? Oh yeah. Some douche stole my sandwich. Anyway, I went out once more. I got some more cash, as mine is disappearing at an alarming rate. I also got a gyro for dinner and then ice cream for dessert. Chocolate raspberry and a scoop of blueberry. I ate it while sitting by the river and this time nothing got on my clothes. Speaking of clothes, I have been doing a lot of people watching lately, and I am wondering when it became ok to dress like people dress now. I mean, I have seen so many bottoms hanging out of the bottom of short shorts, pockets that are longer than the shorts, bras that show through when the arm holes go down to the navel, bras that show perfectly through sheer tops, dresses and pants…It never ends. I also saw a heck of a lot of cleavage early on in my trip, but luckily that hasn’t come south with me. What is going on with style today? Tonight I will repack – I need cold weather clothes accessible for the mountains and the cave tomorrow – while watching the Colbert Report. Life is sweet indeed.

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Photos

Church door
Looks old, but has Pope John Paul on the top!

Comments

[aleksander]

In communism time-in former Yugoslavia-religion was free, anybody could go to church, we celebrate Christmas etc. Only in public Schools religion of any kind was not thought.