Ljubljana

We left Ljubljana today for Venice, and we’re sitting on a bus in the pouring rain right now. Ljubljana was a great city, very beautiful and very European. We had our first experience couch surfing here, and it went so well! We arrived on Friday on a train from Zagreb and our host picked us up from the train station. They gave us breakfast and helped us learn about the city and how to get around it. So far we’ve lucked out with accommodations. We have the nicest hosts and always a comfortable place to sleep. We’re camping in Venice though, and it looks like we’ll be camping in the rain, so we’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, Ljubljana was a great city, except that today we got stuck in a down pour on our way to the train station. We got soaked but we made it. The best part about this city was free washrooms and water! Well, that may not have been the best part, but so far it was the only place where we’ve been served water for free at a restaurant. There are also public fountains everywhere. That was definitely a bonus. The first night there we went to the Ljubljana castle. It’s a great attraction, only 3 euro for students and it’s very well kept. There’s a great museum there and a virtual tour of the castle. We spent the whole night there and then caught a bus back to our host’s house, which went very smoothly. Learning how to use all the different public transit systems has been a fun part of this adventure.

We had one full day in Ljubljana, so we got to see quite a bit of the city. They had a great market on Saturday morning, and after that we went to the Ljubljana city museum. That was definitely my favourite museum so far, they had really great exhibits and a free audio guide to carry along with you through the museum. We also checked out the national and university library, where there happened to be an exhibit on Slovenians in Canada. It looked really interesting but was all in Slovene. After that we went to the parliament building, the Slovenian philharmonic academy, and the University of Ljubljana, but none were open so we kept wandering around town. Eventually we found our way back.

This morning it was raining, but only lightly, so we went to a flea market that our hosts suggested we see. It was really interesting. He said this flea market is only for vintage items and other interesting pieces, and there’s a separate one for anything “imported or plastic”. There was tons of really cool stuff, and a lot of old Yugoslav paraphernalia; money, coins, stamps, army knives. After that we got caught in the rain on our way to the train station and got soaked. There’s no easy connection to Venice from Ljubljana, which I thought there would be, so we had to catch a train to Villach in Austria, wait for an hour and a half, and then catch a bus to Venice. Now we’re sitting on that bus and it’s still pouring, but we’re looking forward to tomorrow.

Here are some pictures.