HaveBeen: Citytrip - Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Last week I went to Slovenia with two friends to visit another friend. Personally, I would never have chosen this country as a vacation destination. And neither would the people around me, judging from the questions about why I would choose Slovenia. But boy, how I was wrong! I had the most wonderful time in this beautiful country full of friendly people (and a large amount of very hot men!). We managed to squeeze a week of touristic activities in just three days and I absolutely had the best time. Let me start by showing you the capital; Ljubljana (pronouncing that was quite a toung twister to me, but it turns out to sound like; Lubjana).

As true tourists, we took a city tour. For just 10 euros you can buy a ticket at the tourist office for a 2 hour tour that includes a taste of some local food and depending on the time of day a boattrip (we had that one), a train ride or a funicular ride to the castle. The tour guide spoke English perfectly and gave us two hours full of historic facts mixed with legends and funny stories. Definitely a must do!

Our tour guide told us that men like to park their boat under this see-through bridge. T enjoy the view I guess..

 

 

 

Lost your shoe? This one made me think of the bar in Breda (the Netherlands) I once went, where they asked you for your left shoe when you ordered a drink in a nice glass so you would not steal the glass. That bar has a nice shoe collection by now.



The restaurant where we tries the original Slovenian sausage and steudel.




Ljubljana has many outdoor performances and concerts during the summer. I wish i could have stayed longer to see some.

This fountain was inspired by the one in Rome. The marmer of the statues was actually shipped form Italy.

 

 

 

This clever architect got the assignment to broaden the bridge. Insted of rebuilding it, he added an extra bridge on each side to solve the problem; original and cost-effective.

 

 

Here you can buy fresh milk 24 hours a day.

 

 

There is a law that states that all historic items found in this canal automatically belong to the city because new treasures are found constantly.

 

 

One of the wonderful facades.

 

 

 

I am in love with the pink building in the background.

 

 

 

Of course, we could not miss out on the funicular ride and the castle, so for just 5 euros we bought ourselves a return ticket, including entry to the castle and the animation movie about its history. If you like walking, you can also walk up there, but we were aiming to make the best use of out short time, so we chose to take the shortcut. The movie that is being shown in the castle shows the history of Ljubljana caste told from the viewpoint of the dragon from the legends of the city; a smart way to keep it interesting. The view from the top of the tower is great since you can see the whole city with the mountains on the background.

The view from the tower.

 

 

 
Our ride up.



 
Another view and thus mountains from another country.



For lunch, we choose to have an icecream and cappuchino at one of the coffee places next to the canal, which came in tasty flavors and good costumer service. The waiter even told us we gave him "too much" when we left him some tip.


This is what they see as "one scoop".


In the evening, we went out for an outdoor dinner at one of the cosy restaurants in the city center. We were given more seafood fajitas and wine than we could finish for under 20 euros per person.




Ehhh, YUM!


We continued on to have drinks next to the canal and discovered Radler grapefruit, the national beer that exists for 50% of fruitjuice. Next to that, we discovered the typical balkan friendliness and quickly gathered a large group of people at our table. My friends boyfriend seemed to know half of the citizens of the city and they were all very nice and fun people.

we moved on to a club that was at the top floor of a high building and found out that clubbing is not Slovenia's strongest suit. You can better keep stroling around the pitoresque streets and take some drinks on one of the terraces while meeting some locals.


 
Ljubljana by night.



The conclusion? I love sLOVEnija!