Ljubljana, Slovenia
Today we drove from Lago di Braies to Trieste, Italy in a steady rain through the mountains until we reached the auto strata for about the last 60 minutes. By this time, it was heavy downpour. By the time we got to Triesta to return the car, it was not raining, but very overcast. We took a train to Ljubljana (pronounced Lou-Bree- au-na) because I did not want to pay extra money to drop the car in a different country.
According to Rick Steeves “Located where the Germanic, Mediterranean, and Slavic worlds come together, Slovenia enjoys a happy hodgepodge of cultures while also presenting plenty of its own unique character. And much like the country as a whole, its capital city of Ljubljana is a delight to explore, yet remains relatively undiscovered.”
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/ljubljana-slovenia-underrated-gem
We met an Austrian guy on the train who told us about Slavoj Žižek, one of the most published philosophers of the early 21st century. Combining classical German philosophy with Lacanian psychoanalysis.
Of course we never heard of him lol.
It was supposed to rain when we arrived to the city. We quickly got off the train and walked to our hotel, we had time to change and head out to enjoy what we could because it was not raining. The receptionist at our hotel gave us a great place to try for dinner that served local food and it did not disappoint. We were able to walk around the small old town and see the squares and beautiful churches.
We enjoyed talking with the sweet receptionist at our hotel. She explained the different languages, Slovenian, Croatian, German, spoken and she learned English starting in school at age 6. She even spent a summer at Cambridge in England. Her parents spoke Yugoslavian since they lived during the time before all of the countries were split up. Quite a history here.
By the time we finished dinner, it was pouring down rain. This was a very quick stop between Italy and Croatia and we are very happy that we got to see this beautiful city. We have an early bus to Zagreb Croatia where we pick up a car and drive to Split.
