Ljubljana

Slovenia is a European country that was part of the Empire of Yugoslavia up until 1991 and has a lot of historical significance.

Slovenia is just west of Venice and close to Trieste in Italy, and is well known for its Karst and Stryia wine regions. I decided to visit Slovenia, and to that end, took a flight from Madrid to Munich, rented a car and decided to drive about five hours to reach its Capital, Ljubljana.

The Munich airport car rental clerk talked me into getting a car upgrade and handed me keys to a new Audi, something I looked forward to driving on the autobahn.

The myth about the no speed limits on the autobahn was dispelled shortly thereafter, as I saw the speed limit indicators overhead. The drive was very beautiful with mountains from the neighboring country, Austria, that I could see from a distance.

A few miles drive later, the low tire pressure light and a German language error message came up. I stopped, got out and kicked all tires. They all seemed fine.

Not wanting to damage a brand-new car, I called their support staff but was transferred from one voicemail maze to another; ending up in Philippines call center for support; then back to the German support line. Of course, while all this transferring was going on, they dropped my call four times, so finally, I was happy to be talking to a live support person.

I could not figure out how to change the language on the screen to English. While I was trying to take a picture of the error message that I could text to support, a car drove by me. I noticed that it was a police car.

The police car went ahead of me, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I thought I had just dodged a bullet. Next, I saw the police car ahead had a message ‘follow me’ on its overhead indicator. At a rest area ahead, the police handed me a 128€ fine and demanded immediate payment.

The rental car support had told me that the car was drivable. I continued to the next stop and bought two vignettes, which essentially are permissions to drive a car registered in a foreign country. I had to buy one vignette for Austria and another for Slovenia.

The beautiful, snowclad mountains helped me in forgetting the recent episode with the police and soon I was in Austria.

The Austrians had monetized their highways well, as they were quick to extract a hefty toll from each vehicle.

I enjoyed the tree-lined highway and the beautiful Austrian Alps, and soon was just a half hour away from Ljubljana.

Right at the international border between Slovenia and Austria is a very long tunnel in the mountain, it is almost 5 miles long and seems like it was built at the time of the country's independence.

The beautiful Alps continued into Slovenia as well and barring the police incident, I was quite happy to be driving from Germany to Austria to Slovenia.

Shortly thereafter, I entered the city of Ljubljana, a peaceful, chill town with cute murals.

I passed by their university and was happy to see a big bicycle parking area and greenery all around.

The city had a beautiful architecture and colorful facades to its buildings.

The center of the city had beautiful and wide promenades to walk and shop.

The ballet and opera center is housed in a beautiful Parthenon like monumental building.

The modern art museum next door had beautiful bronze sculptures outside.

Further up was the Tivoli Castle and it had beautiful woodwork on all its floors. This was a venue for artistic and cultural events since 1835 and became a meeting place for the citizens, workers, artists and bohemians of Ljubljana. In 2017, the City of Ljubljana thoroughly renovated the building preserving most of the authentic architectural elements of the former hotel. Today it houses working and residential studios, international residencies, a permanent exhibition on the history of the house, the Stojan Batic Memorial Studio, as well as occasional exhibitions, educational programs and cultural events throughout the year.

The National Gallery of Slovenia was also in the city center area and the building was quite artistic.

Next to it was the Ministery of finance building which did not look boring at all that one would expect it to look.

One popular, iconic landmark nearby is the Triple Bridge which has three bridges spanning the Ljubljanica River. It connects the historical medieval town on the southeastern bank with the central Prešeren Square on the northwestern bank.

Near the Triple Bridge is the Prešeren Square dedicated to beloved national poet France Prešeren, one of Ljubljana’s most famous public spaces.

On this beautiful day, there were hundreds of people walking on this bridge, so it took me a long time to take the picture below, patiently waiting for a split second when it was not that crowded. Behind the area on the hill is the Ljubljana castle.

The Robba Fountain is in front of the Ljubljana town hall, and it was originally made in 1751 by the Italian sculptor Francesco Robba and is Ljubljana's most recognizable symbols.

I was fortunate that a farmer's market was going on in the city center and there were a lot of people making the area look very festive.

Valentin Vodnik's sculpture was in front of the market, he was a renowned poet and journalist.

My next walk was through a narrow passage up to the Ljubljana Castle. It had a steep climb and had a stone facade, built in 11th century. It now houses a Michelin rated restaurant.

The entrance to the restaurant is open to public and you see their fine wine collection and a stylish 4 floor high spiral staircase to go to the actual restaurant, but it is guarded. The ceiling has beautiful murals.

Saint George's chapel is part of the castle and has a stunningly beautiful ceiling, windows and overall construction. The pentagonal tower in the same complex has beautiful sculptures along with the dragon which holds a big place in their mythology.

Walking back I saw the funicular to arrive to this place if you did not want to walk up the hill, and it looked very verdant.

The 13th century church of Saint Nicholas was in the main square and it had the most ornate and grand door if there is any.

It is so lovely to walk through the historical town of Ljubljana and come across so many sculptures everywhere you turn your head.

Further up on the Butcher's Bridge, on the river Ljubljanica, I saw the biggest display of love padlocks, and I heard that each new year they are removed, and lovers fill up the spots during the course of the year.

Enjoying the afternoon, I was hungry and there were many options around. The traditional restaurant with outside seating, Gostlina Sokol, did not disappoint. The gnocchi was delicious, the mushrooms in the soup were local and the bread bowl soup reminded me of San Francisco.

Next, I walked to the Dragon Bridge on the Ljubljanica river built in 1901 in the art nouveau style. There is a dragon on each side of the bridge made from copper.

The main event for the evening was a four-hour dinner in Michelin rated restaurant inside the Ljubljana castle, the Strelec. The views, the seating, the wine and the innumerable small dishes from the tasting menu made for a gastronomically delightful evening.

I took a few breaks during the long dinner to admire the city view from the restaurant terrace just outside.

With the dinner concluded, I walked back to my hotel and the friendly receptionist told me about the traditional Labor Day bonfire that was scheduled in the forest for the night, which is attended by thousands of people.

He said I should just walk beyond the museum and see the start of the forest, then continue walking towards the bonfire. He said I will see many people headed that way.

I followed the receptionist's advice and walked in the pitch-dark forest and not having a headlamp, occasionally used the cellphone light for ensuring I did not step on any critter.

For a long time on the walk, I saw no one on the path, no signposts and no lights. The only lights I could see were from the stars above.

It started to feel creepy to be in a foreign country, in the middle of a dense forest not knowing where I was going, and I had been walking for half an hour already.

I was relieved when I finally saw a small group of people ahead of me. Soon there were more, and I felt pretty reassured.

In about 45 minutes, I was at a place with a building, tents and hundreds of people lining up to order food, hundreds of families sitting at picnic tables and enjoying a very late-night meal.

I walked further up the forest and saw a massive clearing with a humungous bonfire with thousands of people surrounding it.

It was a unique sight, one that I had never seen before. It was quite an awesome end to an already awesome day.

Needless to say, I enjoyed Ljubljana immensely!