Dic Hostel Ljubljana

... side of the square, yelling. Right then the first group lit up a bunch of flairs and the two gangs starting running at each other, about to start a violent fight. Everyone normal person in the square just went taking off, running away as fast as they could to get out of the way. As this was going on (all within a few seconds) the SWAT guys went rushing into the center and started taking out the hoodlums with their billy clubs (those stick things police officers have ...

... its river (Ljubljanica) and a collection of pretty bridges, low houses, cozy cafés and artisan shops. Although it's the country's capital, the city is quite small, so you never have to take buses, everything is easy reachable with a short walk, and Ljubljana is a city that makes it go to walk or ride a bike.
Oh yeah, one complaint about the city: it's quite expensive! I thought Slovenia was a cheap country but we found that, at least in the capital ...

Thursday 14th May. Off we drove eastwards through sweet little Italian towns towards the border and quickly found ourselves at the border and across into Slovenia where the countryside changed to more rural and we headed to our stop of the capital Ljubljana. Unfortunately this took longer than we planned as we got lost and ended up crossing north to south until we got some directions and found ourselves by a river ...

... to order the first two drinks we were told they didn't have the ingredients. The next two the same thing. The next two and she told us that this is a new menu and they do not know how to make everything on it. Ok then bring us what you can make. Kay had a belini and I had something with ginger and vodka. It must have been the first time they made it because we watched the bartender taste it with a straw and then ...

... it in high season. Even now you almost hear more English than Slavic in the tourist area. My little bit of Serbo-Croatian doesn't help much here with the Slovenian language either, which diverges greatly. My hostel room doesn't help much either, just a bit too institutional for me. At first I feel weird staying in the private room while everybody else is bunking it, but then I realize half of them ...

... your kids are right? We made the best of the rest of the day just enjoying Ljubljana as best we could in the cold weather. In the evening we played cards in the hostel and I caught up with a few blog entries. We didn't really want to go back out in the cold to find a restaurant open, so Cameron Maggie and Jess went out and bought some kebabs which we ate in the area just outside our rooms. They were delicious actually. I enjoyed our low-key finish to the day.

... It was a complete unknown but turned out to be a gorgeous country, packed with things to keep you occupied. Hopefully it won't be long before the next weekend Eurotrip. ----------------- Flights: Ryanair - LDN Stansted - Klagenfurt (Austria) - £10 Easyjet - Ljubljana (Slovenia) - LDN Stansted - £45 Return Flight time - 1hr 50mins (25mins early) 665 Nautical Miles Drive Stansted to Cranleigh - 4hrs 94.8 miles Amount Spent - £160.83 (of which around €50 on accomodation) Total - £215.83

... I eventually forced myself awake around 1:pm, freshened up, and headed out to explore.... the city whose name I can't pronounce! Ljubljana! Apparently, J's are silent. So the correct pronounciation is 'luby-ana'. Who knew?? Anyhow, I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with this country. Aside from the amazing landscape, the people are SO friendly, all speak english, its fairly cheap in comparison to the rest of europe, and its peaceful and quiet ...

... streets. Metelkova is a fabulous area where my hostel was located. A former prison, the hostel has its very own style and feel that no other hostel has. The block it is located on has other buildings on it, but they are all illegal, full of squatters and those buildings are turned into fabulous dodgy bars and nightclubs every night, where the alternative and artistic people of Ljubljana gather on a nightly basis.

... coats of paint. It is Friday and well dressed college students with expensive shoes and backpacks flood the train station just as the less well to do students were flooding the Zagreb station. Everyone is going home for the weekend. As often is the case, our apartment host meets us at the train station to guide us to the apartment and collect his money. We had found this apartment on line a couple of days previously. Another bad bed, but at least the ...