Ljubljana

Taking creative liberties with my route and taking full advantage of my continuous train pass, I made another day trip from Zagreb to head into Slovenia to spend some time in Ljubljana. So I entered the EU once again (Greece was the first entry point) and was back on the Euro for a day!

I met up with a local CouchSurfer (he had actually spent a summer working in Pittsburgh!) for the day who had offered to show me around and we explored amidst the off and on rainshowers of the day.

We saw the several famous bridges of the city - I think the most famous being Dragon Bridge which marks the place where Jason and the Argonauts killed the fabled dragon.








I had read that Ljubljana is a "treasure trove of varied architecture" with a large mixof Medieval and Baroque Architecture and some new unique styles by a famous local eclectic architect, Jože Plečnik. To me though, it all looked "European" :)




















Old town


Central Market


Ljubljanica River with its half dozen pedestrian only bridges crossing it


Apparently the closest I've come to good Mexican nachos my whole summer and we didn't even go in since we had already eaten!! Alp didn't know of my fondness for nachos only telling me about the spectacular-ness of Joe Pena's after our pizza and soup lunch. So I'm still searching!

We also made a point to ascend the "mountain" and climb up to the Ljubljana Castle. I must say if I recall correctly, this was the first disappointment of my entire trip, though keep in mind it was raining. This castle makes it on the list of 1000 Places to See Before You Die, yet in my opinion, it has no place there. It was essentially unspectacular walls, a newly renovated chapel, tower, and restaurants. I didnt even know what to take pictures of! There were no castle rooms to see, save the "bunker" and there were so many new concrete patios, wooden deck walkways, and other various pieces of new construction that nothing felt medieval or historic about it! Plus with super few places to seek refuge inside, we were left exposed to the elements. My host later in Prague would tell me the view from the tower of the Ljubljana Castle was one of his favorite parts/memories of the city, but with the drizzle and the only 30 feet extra of altitude we passed on the tower admission price.

















Disappointed, but still smiling at the "castle."

So I was only in Ljubljana for roughly 7 hours, but my takeaways are as follows:

1. The city is really known for its nightlife, but the funny thing is, its best nightlife is apparently on the weeknights! It is still a great place to party all seven nights a week, but I was told that Monday night tends to be the wildest night. The city has a lot of students and they as well as the locals tend to leave town on the weekends - for either the coast in the summer or the ski resorts in the winter. My CS "tour guide" for the day showed me one part of the city, which has got to be one of the most bizarre things I've seen all trip, but Metalkova is apparently THE nightlife hub for the more modest person. The city has any clubs and roof and penthouse lounge bars, but the common man heads to Metalkova for his evening drink. Note: I'm sure my daylight photos don't do it justice.

















Marijuana is very commonplace in the city and is so prevalent that it's almost as though it were legal.


2. In my opinion, Ljubjana is very cheap for being in the EU and on the Euro. My host told me what his rent was and I can't remember it now, but I was floored it was so low for living in the city center. Our lunch of pizza and soup cost just peanuts. I think I spent fewer than five or six euros the entire day. It seems everything is done by payments via cell phone - how you pay for your bus ticket, pay for parking, and how you can even pay your bill at restaurants if you sign up for this special program. I surmise that this keeps overhead costs down and therefore too, the prices. (Europe continues to be earlier adopters than the US as I saw people in Budapest paying for their street parking by cell and I paid for my Zagreb tram rides by text message as well.)


3. Everyone has a lot of National Pride in this area of the continent. It seems to stem from the break up of Yugoslavia where all the former Yugoslavic nations (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia) insist on some sort of separate recognition, independence, and respect from each other. I understand that they pretty much all speak the same language, yet they call their languages different and might tell you that they only speak one language, but in truth they can understand all of the languages. I also noticed that the locals seem to wear their country's colors and I do not exaggerate when I say that those white oval shaped bumper stickers that we have in the US (e.g. OBX for the Outer Banks, NC) are on 75% of the cars in this part of the country. I almost wondered if they were the mandatory registration stickers because they were on so many cars. SRB (Serbia) and HR (Croatia) and SLO (Slovenia) were proudly displaying the driver's nationality. Further, when people introduced themselves to me in Croatia and Slovenia they were always quick to let me know for example that "even though I'm in Slovenia now, I'm from Bosnia." (I guess that's what I say very quickly too about my original New York heritage since I moved to Florida!)

As a country today, Slovenia is only 13 or so years old and it had the easiest time of the former Yogoslavia nations with entering the EU years back because it was the richest of them all. I understand a lot of old royalty and wealthy families resided in the hills and castles of the area and made the country a greater center of international commerce. It was strongly recommended to me if I had time to go into the hills, caves, and castles in the countryside to see the beauty and (former?) richness of the country.

4. I think Ljubljana was my first exposure to the European bicycle culture, because it was rather lacking in Athens (hence the need for the Critical Mass rides there). The city is crawling with bikes. They have a bike rental program on their streets for only 3 euro a year! And they are serious about the wide and protected bike lanes on the sidewalks. Stay out of their way! It was even pointed out to me that even the stock market workers bike to the Borska exchange each day. But it's also a very public transit oriented city, as I would see in all future EU cities too except for a few, where even the bus arrival times are announced for the city bus stops. I know that Ithaca is a bit ahead of the curve too with this, but they only provide that at their main bus stop I believe. So anyways though, with such priority and support given to bikers and bus riders I was SHOCKED to learn that the lowly pedestrian will be ticketed on the spot for crossing at a crosswalk when the light is red. It coud be 4am and not a soul or car in sight, and pedestrians will still be waiting patiently for their green light to cross the empty road. The fear and threat and reality of a ticket is very real here! My host told me it's a heavy fine!





5. Lastly, this day trip was a lesson in never giving in to pessimism. With the rain in the forecast I puposefully left my sunglasses in Zagreb and what do you know, but the sun eventually came out in the afternoon catching me unprepared! :) I now carry them with me every single day!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Plitvice Lakes National Park

So again, I first heard about Plitvička Lakes (or Plitvice in English) National Park almost two years ago from a Couch Surfer of mine from Switzerland. He showed me a photo from there and I was immediately sold. I think it went on my bucket list for this Euro trip even before seeing the Colosseum in Rome or sleeping under the stars in Portugal.


The websites told me it was closest to Zagreb, but not reachable by train so I settled on visiting it as a day trip from Zagreb by bus. I was watching the forecast religiously and it wasn't looking good. There was a high probability of rain for both Monday and Tuesday, but Tuesday looked like there was at least a small chance of some sun so I delayed the trip until my last full day in Croatia and it worked out beautifully.

It actually did pretty nearly pour for almost the first two hours I was there, but since I had the entire day and was told the entire track around all 16 lakes took only 4-5 hours, I wasn't in a rush, so I went into a cafe to have a cup of tea and read. I actually feel I have grown already with just that simple decision and perspective because the "younger" me would have been pretty put out and miserable, but I immediately eyed the cafe and I knew right where I could go to wait out the rain. It was definitely the right choice too, because the sun came out in not too long and I got to enjoy a spectacular day.

















It is a special and delicate bacteria that exists in the water of these 16 interconnected lakes and makes it the stunning teal green color - swimming in the water is strictly forbidden so as to protect this ecosystem that makes it on the UNESCO list.

















I ended up approaching another young girl who I had seen board the bus with me back in Zagreb who also appeared to be traveling alone. Hyeseong was from South Korea and had finished up a three month English language program in Ireland and was touring around Europe at an even faster pace than me for 30 days. We ended up doing our route around the lakes together and it was nice to have a companion for the day!








Upon completion of the trails, Hyeseong had to wait just about 30 minutes for her bus to Split. However, the first of the only three buses that could take me back to Zagreb was not to come for another 2.5 hours. And then each of the next buses were spaced 30 minutes apart. However, with my research into accessing this National Park, I found mention on several blogs/travel forum boards that often these buses running from Split to Zagreb were full (I could believe it!) and when that was the case, the buses would not stop for new passengers. This did not warm my heart and so I had asked Marko ahead of time about my other options and his reply had only been 'hitchhiking.' Oh boy!

So I suppose I had 24 hours to warm up to the idea and possibility that hitchhiking could become necessary, but when the time came to wait for my odds at catching a bus, I decided to be proactive. Why wait 2.5 or more hours to only then learn that I would need to resort to hitchhiking? So I told Hyeseong my plan (she was really worried for me!!) and walked up the road a bit to what I thought would be a good and safe place off to the side of the road to catch a ride. Admittedly I was quite nervous. I stood far back from the road and watched several cars pass as I looked in the other direction pretending I had a purpose other than hitching a ride. But after a little self talk, I approached the road and looked for my ride. The first vehicle coming was a larger truck and I wasn't so interested in riding in one of those with an older gentleman for 2+ hours so I didn't put out my arm. I decided to let the truck and the black sedan that was tailgating it pass. But I did start to extend it right after the truck passed and I couldn't believe it but the black BMW that had been tailgating had already begun to slow and we had a chance to make brief eye contact. He reversed the car back towards me and I took a deep breath with both nerves and excitement at getting picked up so quickly and I walked up to the passenger window. I had prepared two questions to ask ahead of time and well after my first question, the second one was kind of unnecessary (I.e. do you speak English?) But my first question after hello was "where are you going?" and when he said Zagreb I had to grin. I got into the car and after we exchanged names and I spoke a bit about where I was coming from, I learned that he wasn't just going to Zagreb - but in fact to the same neighborhood that Marko lived in... Only about 7-8 blocks away! (Although I have learned that NO ONE talks about distances in terms of blocks in Europe. It is always, always in meters!) Ekrem, who owns a stone quarry in Bosnia, was on his way to have dinner with a friend who lives in Zagreb. We enjoyed a very nice drive talking about his family, my travels, music, etc. There were certainly periods of quiet which were nice and not awkward and he speedily drove getting home in far less than the bus ride that morning took... I think he about halved the 2.5 hour (with stops) bus ride. When we were near and he had already called his friend who wasn't yet ready to meet and then offered to go for a drink, I didn't think I could or should say no. It wasn't even 4pm yet and I hadn't thought I would be home before 8pm!

And it was great - I ended up being introduced to what was my favorite (there have now been many other since favorite) drink! They mix beer and sparkling lemonade in Europe! It's 2.5% in alcohol and tastes much better than most wine coolers! A great end to a great day!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bon Iver

"We are going to try to play as hard as possible." And boy did they. I want to give Bon Iver his/their own and immediate post because hands down that was the Best. Live. Show. I. Have. Ever. Been. To. Period.

After just the first song (Perth) I declared, "well that just paid for my entire ticket" but then they kept going and going and going!! Just like you want a concert to be: an experience you can't get by listening to the album at home. Every song sounded better than their album versions. More creative. A fuller sound. Brilliant, earth-shattering, goose-bump-giving, moving songs. And there's something so cool about watching each instrument on stage. I think all of his band members are percussionists somehow. Even the saxophonist, trumpeter, trombonist, keyboardist, all of them! There were three drum sets!


Most sets are just exactly one hour at Roskilde, but in the 11pm time slot, with nothing at that specific stage till 1:30am, they gave Bon Iver a full 90 minutes and even with a full bladder (thanks to my new favorite all natural (tea leaves) energy drink fueling me for the 1:30am act) I was soooo thankful! I had a great spot for his show which only in hindsight I realized I had waited four and a half hours for! I came back from a short nap in time to catch the end of some crap metal band (Refused?) to get a great spot at the front of the main viewing area for the next act, M83, only to have to sit tight for another two hours after them forBon Iver. I had planned to leave to go see Bruce for an hour, but it became clear that no one around me was moving after M83 ended. Like no one budged. It fact, people started moving in closer around me at the front railing. So I stayed put and it was totally worth it. And I'm very glad I didn't queue for the "pit" (the area closest to the stage) because I watched more than five dozen people pulled out of the back of the pit in front of me as they allowed that viewing area to become way, way too crowded.


So I guess I really don't know how to make you all feel how I felt watching the show. Maybe just take my word for it, but it was such an unbelievably amazing performance that I would love all of you, even you dad, to be able to see him. I think he appeals to everyone and his live music is so powerful and moving. Plus dad, you know your daughters have excellent taste in music :)

And with such amazing talent, Bon Iver was so modest, polite, humble. He had the entire area to the exit gate of the festival site packed full of people wanting to listen and he kept giving the praise to everyone but himself.

So I can check "seeing a favorite band in a foreign country" off my bucket list! And still I vow to see him again and again whenever I humanly can!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad