(written by Andrew, picture selection and video by Kate)Pronunciation note: Ljubljana is a Slavic name. For those unfamiliar with the mysteries of the Slavic languages, let me inform you that it is properly pronounced “el-joob-el-jana”. OK, back to the post.
Traveling to Slovenia was a last-minute decision. We had stumbled upon information that Slovenia had instituted an indoor smoking ban in 2009 while investigating routes from Venice to Vienna. A few days before leaving Salzburg we found that one of the direct destinations available via train was Ljubljana. And that was that, a hotel was booked, train tickets were bought and we were off to Slovenia.
History sidebar: Slovenia engaged in a 10 day war with the Yugoslav army when it seceded. Slovenia was the first of the Balkan states to break off from Yugoslavia and it was the first state from behind the iron curtain to join the EU. More interesting facts about recent Slovenian history can currently be found in the Ljubljana castle.
Funicular sidebar: you can walk to and from the castle, or you can take an automated conveyance to the top for a small fee. The question is: is it still a funicular if there is only one car, one straight section of track with no bypass, and the counterweight is stack of concrete weights?
When I mentioned to some friends on the interwebs that we were headed to Ljubljana, Anne, my online scrabble buddy (Kate calls her my Scrabble mistress) and Cisco colleague, recommended going to Lake Bled. We started doing a little research, the first hotel that came up is in a building that used to be one of Tito’s palaces. It would be a splurge, but it was within an acceptable deviation of our budget goal. We splurged and booked 2 nights with half-board, at Vila Bled, a sumptuous hotel on the shore of Lake Bled. We even got a lake view from our room. This was a nice step up from the floor-nest in which Kate slept in Salzburg.
We may be the first guests to arrive at this hotel via the bus. We got off the bus, rolled our bags up the snow covered sidewalk and pulled into the long driveway leading to the hotel. All I want to say is that BMWs, Audis and Mercedes can’t hold a candle to a nice warm bus being driven by someone else.
I’d like to be able to say that I’ve now slept in the same bed as Tito, but I imagine that the guests who book the “Tito Suite” can more reasonably (if still falsely) make that claim.
Bed sidebar: for those that don’t know, two-ish years before Kate and I went to Stanford, Tiger Woods went there for a year. And guess who slept in Tiger’s bed every night for a year? That’s right, my freshman room-mate, Mike Lai. I have the much envied distinction of having slept next to Tiger’s bed for a year.
What did we do in Lake Bled? We slept, we walked around the lake, we took the boat to the island in the middle of the lake with the pretty church, we hiked up to the castle along a footpath that was closed due to weather and construction but missing important signage noting this fact at ground level, we ate wonderful meals at Vila Bled and made use of their sauna and steam room. We also miraculously tuned the TV on one night to a replay of the second half of the Orange Bowl with a commentator commentating away in Slovenian. It was pretty awesome.
Traveling to Slovenia was a last-minute decision. We had stumbled upon information that Slovenia had instituted an indoor smoking ban in 2009 while investigating routes from Venice to Vienna. A few days before leaving Salzburg we found that one of the direct destinations available via train was Ljubljana. And that was that, a hotel was booked, train tickets were bought and we were off to Slovenia.
We were staying a tad outside of the city center as most of the hotels were booked by new years revelers. According to a cab driver our first night, 50,000 people had been partying in the center of Ljubljana the night before. Note: Ljubljana is a city of 230,000 people. The old city center was full of lights, food and drink stalls, and multiple stages for live music. Both nights we were there (1 Jan and 2 Jan) bands played all evening long. Given our state of exhaustion we passed up partying in order to stretch out in the splendor that was our foamy-goodness of a bed.
We wandered the streets of Ljubljana, went to the castle, saw an amazing exhibit on Slovenian history (especially fascinating after WWII) and ate non-Austrian food.
We wandered the streets of Ljubljana, went to the castle, saw an amazing exhibit on Slovenian history (especially fascinating after WWII) and ate non-Austrian food.
History sidebar: Slovenia engaged in a 10 day war with the Yugoslav army when it seceded. Slovenia was the first of the Balkan states to break off from Yugoslavia and it was the first state from behind the iron curtain to join the EU. More interesting facts about recent Slovenian history can currently be found in the Ljubljana castle.
Funicular sidebar: you can walk to and from the castle, or you can take an automated conveyance to the top for a small fee. The question is: is it still a funicular if there is only one car, one straight section of track with no bypass, and the counterweight is stack of concrete weights?
Ljubljana lights at night from Kate Bedford on Vimeo.
Ljubljana is a beautiful city. It is unexpectedly majestic, it is full of wonderful bike paths, the buses are comprehensive, if sometimes confusing when they switch into night mode, and the taxis enticingly cheap. Kate and I noticed all of this, and looked at each other and agreed that we were done with cities for a while. We may notice all of this magnificence but we weren’t able to fully appreciate it. We’ll come back to Ljubljana and see it proper-like.
Wearing our "Rufus" costumes
When I mentioned to some friends on the interwebs that we were headed to Ljubljana, Anne, my online scrabble buddy (Kate calls her my Scrabble mistress) and Cisco colleague, recommended going to Lake Bled. We started doing a little research, the first hotel that came up is in a building that used to be one of Tito’s palaces. It would be a splurge, but it was within an acceptable deviation of our budget goal. We splurged and booked 2 nights with half-board, at Vila Bled, a sumptuous hotel on the shore of Lake Bled. We even got a lake view from our room. This was a nice step up from the floor-nest in which Kate slept in Salzburg.
The view from our window
Roll-y Bag into Tito's Palace from Kate Bedford on Vimeo.
I’d like to be able to say that I’ve now slept in the same bed as Tito, but I imagine that the guests who book the “Tito Suite” can more reasonably (if still falsely) make that claim.
Church on the island in Lake Bled
Bed sidebar: for those that don’t know, two-ish years before Kate and I went to Stanford, Tiger Woods went there for a year. And guess who slept in Tiger’s bed every night for a year? That’s right, my freshman room-mate, Mike Lai. I have the much envied distinction of having slept next to Tiger’s bed for a year.
What did we do in Lake Bled? We slept, we walked around the lake, we took the boat to the island in the middle of the lake with the pretty church, we hiked up to the castle along a footpath that was closed due to weather and construction but missing important signage noting this fact at ground level, we ate wonderful meals at Vila Bled and made use of their sauna and steam room. We also miraculously tuned the TV on one night to a replay of the second half of the Orange Bowl with a commentator commentating away in Slovenian. It was pretty awesome.
Orange Bowl in Slovenian TV from Kate Bedford on Vimeo.
Sauna/steam room sidebar: We are not in America anymore. Kate doesn’t have to wear any clothes in the sauna to appease other people’s sense of modesty, neither did I, neither does anyone else who’s used saunas and steam rooms with us in Slovenia (Interestingly, they are all Austrian). Sweating in a sauna naked is a much more pleasant way to sweat in a sauna than sweating through layers of towels and or swim trunks. Warning: expect far more Naked Andrew the next time you see me. Click here for the video.
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