feeling the sLOVEnia

I write to you from Ljubl- actually, no, I'm already in Vienna.  We arrived tonight and will start exploring the city tomorrow - but in the meantime, I'd like to tell you all about Ljubljana, Slovenia.

We had chosen Ljubljana as a destination on our trip for its reputation, in some places, of being the most beautiful city in Europe.  Other sources describe it as the European city that looks most like a Disney set.  I kind of agree.  Coming from Belgrade, where it felt like we had one foot in the first world and one in the third, where our hostel almost certainly had bedbugs, where I found out that I had had my identity stolen (everything is ok)... I was ready for a city that was pretty, and hopefully clean and relaxing too.

I got all of these things.  This is Ljubljana's main square and famous pink church, which (true to reports) kind of looks like something out of EPCOT.

Another thing I got that I had not been expecting was a city that is ragingly livable and easy to get around.  They have a bike-sharing program which is 1 Euro for a week-long subscription (3 Euros for a year), and then it's free for the first hour.  Because Ljubljana is a very small city, the first hour will get you anywhere you want to go in the city.  It was both mine and Tim's first real experience with bike sharing, and it was such a great break from tired walking feet.  In general, this city effing loves their bikes - at one point on our way home, we were in a group of ~10 bikers waiting to cross the street.  Again, helps that the city is small enough so that nobody's commute is too long to bike - but still, pretty cool.

The first real day we had, we went to go see Ljubljana Castle (every town around here seems to have a castle on a hill... more on that later).  We had beautiful views of Ljubljana, and I discovered a panorama function on my camera... fancy that!

That night, we met up with our CouchSurfing host at his home, grabbed some picnic ingredients and went to the nearby Tivoli park.  It was the perfect temperature, and we sat down to picnic with delicious bakery bread, red pepper dip, salami, and salad with apple and feta.  Beautiful and relaxing?  Check.

From there, we biked into the center to join in on a CouchSurfing meet-up that apparently happens weekly.  It was pretty interesting - lots of people from all over the world, speaking English.  When we got there, they were talking about the riots in Turkey.  They were eager to hear our stories from the events, especially one of the guys, who was Turkish.  He was really a character... he said that his theory is that America has orchestrated all of the events in Turkey (when I laughed out loud, he made sure to tell me that he's pro-American).  Why, you probably ask?  Well, clearly, Turkey is strategically placed near Iran and Russia, the US's two biggest enemies, and if the revolution in Turkey succeeds, well, naturally there will follow pro-America revolutions in Iran and Russia, thereby eliminating America's enemies.  It was... entertaining.

Anyway, back to the beautiful country of Slovenia!  Our second day there we planned a day trip to the Slovenian town of Bled, which our guide book says was "designed by the god of tourism."  We would tend to agree.  Bled is the home of a ridiculously blue glacial lake, with a castle-topped cliffside and - yes, there's more - a tiny island in the middle of it with a church on it.

It's ridiculous.  They even have swans, followed around adorably by their cygnets (yesss got to use the word 'cygnets')...

The lake is small enough that you can walk around the whole thing, which is exactly what we did, making stops along the way to, ya know, check out the 1000-year old castle and stuff.  Also see note at "every town around here seems to have a castle on a hill."  By the time we got up to the castle, we could see why they build them at the top of hills - we couldn't have laid siege on that thing had we wanted to.  Anyway, cheesy tourist destinations aside, the castle was amazing.  Behind us is the tiny island-with-a-church.

After spending some quality time with the castle, we hiked back down (there was a very impressive collection of hiking trails!) and continued on our walk around the island.  At one point, we rented a swan-shaped rowboat (mind=blown) to row out to the church.  Here you can see the church, and then in the background is another view of the castle.

Designed by the god of tourism indeed.

The following day, unfortunately our last day in the beautiful Ljubljana, we prioritized seeing an exhibit our CouchSurfing host had told us about called "Imagining the Balkans."  Eric, if you're reading this, we highly recommend the exhibit, though it won't be in Skopje til about a year from now.  The exhibit basically examines the common cultural heritage between the Balkan countries, with the understanding that despite some pretty hard-line nationalism (which we've described previously), these countries share a lot of history, language, and culture.  Perhaps the most exciting thing for me was that we had actually seen quite a few of the things that this exhibit reproduced, which I think means that we must've been doing something right on our Balkan tour.  Also, we saw the Steel Crown of Romania, made from a Turkish cannon. Putting your enemies' dismembered weapons on your king's head seems appropriate, right?

So yes!  Ljubljana definitely won me over, and I'm glad that we had it on our list of places to visit, and a bit sad that we had to leave so soon.

Goodnight from Vienna, and we hope to have some more lovely experiences to share soon!