Slovenia

I don’t make any claims of art expertise.

When wandering aimlessly around the little city of Ljubljana, I came across this display just outside the pedestrianised centre of the Slovenian capital. Now I’m guessing that the faces are supposed to represent famous Hollywood actors, but really I’ve got no idea.

It was quirky and kinda cool, but for all I know, it could be members of the city council … or the local Rotary club.

Either way, I liked it.

It was no great surprise that I loved my time in Ljubljana, one of the coolest little cities in Europe. We had five days there in total – both far more than the average tourist requires, and far less than we might have liked. It’s the kind of city that we could easily live in for a month or two, eating great food, drinking beside the river and enjoying the laid back coolness of the Slovenian capital.

After three days in a decent hostel, we decided to splash out for Lauren‘s birthday and stay a couple of nights in an apartment located a few hundred metres away in the same part of town. I’m always a fan of apartment rentals when I can get them – you get a lot more space than most hotels or hostels, with a few more amenities and often a similar rate if you can split the cost between enough people.

Walking back from a leisurely riverside dinner in Ljubljana one night, the warm glow of the Centromerkur department store in the main square stopped me in my tracks. A golden light spilled out onto the footpath, silhouetting the passers-by as they glanced in the windows.

Just another magical moment in what is almost certainly now my favourite European city.

I had high expectations of Ljubljana before I turned up, despite knowing little about the city except the difficulty of spelling or pronouncing it (hint: the j’s are silent and always end up in the wrong place when you’re typing).

Anybody I knew who had been there raved about the capital of Slovenia – the baroque architecture, the compact old town, the views from the castle. Formerly part of Yugoslavia but avoiding most of the horrific civil war that tore it apart, I really didn’t know what to expect in terms of language, food or anything else. And so I went.

Lake Bled is undoubtedly one of the jewels of the Slovenian landscape, in a country where natural beauty isn’t exactly in short supply. Centuries-old buildings sit clustered on the shores of a crystal clear lake, the tranquil blue waters reflecting the clouds above.

The perimeter of the lake is around 4km, an easy hour walk beside dense forest and serene pebbled beaches – unless you stop for a coffee in the cafe half way round, or stop to take a thousand photos of the [history] church in the middle of it. Or, say, you just generally just dawdle along enjoying the views and the sunshine, in no hurry to do much of anything.

If that was the case, it could easily take two hours to get round.

Or so I’ve heard…

Our time in Bled happened to roughly coincide with Lauren’s birthday, however, so merely walking around the lake was never going to suffice no matter how beautiful it was. We had to do something more.

We had to fly.