Recovery Day
The first half of our day in Ljubljana was spent just taking it in - literally. We were lucky to be there on a Friday, when all the best restaurants in the area set up stalls in the marketplace and sell samples of their best items for decent prices. I had some Egyptian shawerma, a traditional Slovenian dessert, another super-traditional and unbelievably tasty twice-cooked pancake-batter-type dessert, and some tastes of other things that I can't remember. All those delicious eating experiences were spaced out throughout the day, and somewhere in between, we sat and listened to a free concert by a street band playing traditional Balkan tunes, and we took a free walking tour of the historic center. Our guide was terrific. She made it fun and interesting and I learned lots about a famous Slovenian architect -
Jože Plečnik, who I didn't know about before but who was responsible for practically half of Ljubljana's buildings and lots of other major buildings around Europe. Basically, he had a love affair with columns, lots of unnecessary but cool-looking columns that don't even hold anything up.
 |
Dragon Bridge |
 |
Our tour guide explaining the cathedral door honoring Pope John Paul II and commemorating Slovenian history |
 |
Market with delicious food stands |
 |
View from the castle |
 |
Inside the cathedral |
Sadly, our time in Ljubljana was short. If we had known they were
having a wine festival the next day, where 15 Euros buys you all the
wine you can drink, we might have booked another night, but we had
already booked a hostel in Bled. Then again, Bled is so spectacular, it
made saying goodbye to Ljubljana fairly easy. Bled is a little
Slovenian town on a small lake of the same name. The lake is nestled
among the edge of the Alps and has a small island in the center with a
beautiful church. After stepping off the bus, we walked down to the
lake's shore and were greeted by a scene that was surrreal (and I don't
often use that word). The rays of the sun squeezed between the
mountaintops and the massive rain clouds (that had thankfully already
dumped most of their contents during our bus ride), directing their golden light
right onto the church on the island in the middle of the lake, just as an
illuminated halo of white fog rolled directly over it. To make the
scene even more interesting, a mother duck and her little ducklings swam
right by our feet as the sounding bell of a rowing competition went off
and the competitors began their swift glide across the lake on its
clear-and-still-as-glass surface. Also, there's a medieval castle on a
cliff towering over the lake. We also saw a unicorn. Just kidding
about that last part. So yeah, Bled's pretty great. Not a bad place to
spend a few days, which is exactly what we're doing.
 |
|



No comments:
Post a Comment