12.2.12 Ljubljana, Slovenia and Zagreb, Croatia

We were woken up by a bunch of loud Spanish people talking like they weren’t in a room with 10 other people. Breakfast was very good, fancy coffee, bread, cereal, yogurt, it was one of the better hostel breakfasts out there.

We first wandered around the outside of our hostel in the graffiti park. Basically Bob would be the happiest person in the world there. It was interesting, with a bunch of art pieces and some pretty cool graffiti.

We went out to try to find the market the guy last night told us about but we couldn’t find it. We saw a bunch of empty stalls where we figured a market would go except there were very few people out there with all the snow and cold.

So we ended up walking over to the Parliament building. It looks like an office building, by far the worst Parliament I’ve ever seen.

From there we were going to go over to the castle so we went over the Triple Bridge and up a bunch of steep stairs until it dead ended. We could see the castle but couldn’t actually figure out how to get to it. So we went back down and into a café called Clementine advertising for muffins and cookies in English. Clearly they know what Americans are interested in. So we went in a grabbed a seat in one of the fancy French seats in the back while they had framed pictures of tropical scenes and also played Cartoon Network. I got a cookie and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was very similar to those in Spain, thick like pudding. It was great, we both loved it.

We decided to head down to the Roman wall which looked about 20 years old. There were rocks embedded in the wall which I figure signified where the original and the new building of the wall on top of it was. It was pretty much a scam we figured. I hate when they make fake history.

So we went back over by the café and up the stairs again. There looked like a road that if we took it left it would have taken us to the castle, but somehow we must have missed it while worrying about falling down and dying as we climbed the steps. There was a sign saying it was the way to the castle. We felt dumb.

After a lengthy hike up a steep stone path, we got to a pretty scary looking bridge. We are both convinced one of us is going to fall on this trip so this didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

The castle was alright, I didn’t love it as much as the Bled Castle. It opened up into a big courtyard and around it was a bunch of smaller buildings, including what looked like a nice restaurant. We went down in the basement where they had a bunch of exhibits and a room full of random lit up sea urchin looking things. The one room that looked historically interesting had no information.

We went upstairs and watched the video on the castle’s history, which was surprisingly good. Then we climbed up to the top of the tower up a circular set of rather terrifying stairs. But the view form the top was great. It looked very pretty with all the snow on the roofs.

From there we went into the small chapel. It had some old Gothic paintings in it, but it was another one of those bright churches. At least it felt old.

Finally we went through the history of the city exhibit and the gift shop where I got a Ljubljana ornament.

The walk up the hill was bad, but going down was way worse. There were two occasions when I thought I was going to fall and probably take Luke out with me. But we made it. Things have had a way of working out for us on this trip.

We went back to the hostel and looked up how to get to Zagreb, putting it in both my phone and the computer so our chances of messing up would hopefully be lessened, but that was probably a stretch.

I really liked Ljubljana. It’s a gorgeous town with the river and the old town right around it. If it wasn’t so cold and snowy it would have been a lot of fun to hang out in one of the outdoor cafes by the water. It wasn’t a particularly huge place and there wasn’t a whole lot more we wanted to do, but it was enjoyable enough. Luke wants to come back when it is warmer.

Luke asked me if I wanted to drive. It seemed pretty easy, so I said sure. Now I can always say I drove in Europe. And from Slovenia to Croatia, which is pretty ridiculous.

We were doing fine until we got out on the highway. I’m not really sure if salt has made it out here yet. The roads were terrible, and it was the sort of snow that was basically just packed down so it was very slick. We hardly went fast at all.

At two points I thought there was a pretty solid chance we’d crash. The first came when the car skidded and I was sliding between both lanes going down a hill. Luke repeated told me to use the brakes. It didn’t help. But I managed to straighten out.

If that wasn’t enough, I began fishtailing pretty badly and it looked like I was going to go straight into the snow bank. But being a tremendous driver, I got control back of the car like nothing happened.

The rest of the drive was super intense but uneventful other than going across the border from Slovenia to Croatia. For the past couple days all Luke has talked about was how excited he was to get a stamp on his passport. Which we did. They didn’t ask us any questions or anything, just took our passports and gave them back.

When we got in the city we ended up getting lost and couldn’t find a place to make a left turn. I ended up making an illegal U-turn and we went into the McDonald’s parking lot where I could steal wifi. We were very close by. When we got on the right street we couldn’t actually find the hostel since there wasn’t a sign or even a visible address. So I parked and Luke went and found the place as well as a parking garage for us to go to. We could have parked on the street for free until 7 a.m. but with the way the snow was coming down we might have really struggled to dig the snow out.

The drive would have been super nice if it wasn’t for having just about the worst driving conditions ever. The scenery was nice, lots of trees and some mountains. But we couldn’t really see most of that.

The hostel is nice again. I picked a relatively new one but one that was highly rated. We were put in a 12 bed room and we are the only two people in it. It’s clean and since we are the only people here it couldn’t have been better.

We asked where we should go for dinner and ended up in a place at the end of a courtyard. There were some other people actually in it so that was a good sign. I had pasta with really good tomato sauce and we both got pancakes with chocolate and crushed almonds on it for dessert. My carbonated water was actually carbonated tonight. The meal was super cheap since they aren’t on the Euro. I’m not sure if we’re going to get the currency or just use cards, but it’s exciting to feel like I’m actually getting a deal on things.

After dinner we walked down to the main square. They have really nice trams that run in the street, even in the snow apparently. There were even people out walking around. Ljubljana was a nice town, but it was really small. This is a big city like a Budapest and seems like there’s much more going on.

In the square there was a chocolate festival going on so we walked through the tent it was in. We’re going to come back tomorrow and get something. From there we walked into the northern part of the city and up by the main cathedral then through the old medieval streets. More than in Bologna or Slovenia they’re doing a great job of actually cleaning off the sidewalks and streets. People were out with shovels and big snow plows were working on the squares. Hopefully tomorrow with it being a work day people most of the city will be cleaned up.

We were both really exhausted, probably in part due to nearly dying in a car in Slovenia. We’re not looking forward to driving back tomorrow, but I’m excited to see the city. I booked my Naples hostel tonight, the one Kim stayed at when she went. So I’m starting to look forward to that a little, although I’ve really loved traveling with Luke and I’m not as excited about going on my own.

Zegrab is known for a couple different pastries. I’ll probably be partaking tomorrow.