Welcome to Ljubljana (lubujana, ljjuanna, lublijana, ljubanna ljsfdhff). To this day, I'm still not 100% sure how to pronounce the name of Slovenia's capital. Forever sounding super cultural whist meeting people, when the first question asked would always be ''so where have you been so far'' - Yeah you know the one, ''Lbjunaniajbfbf".
Anyway, to get you up to speed. My best pal, Holly, and I spent the whole summer trying to decide on a mini Eastern Europe road trip we could fit into 12 days. Just 5 days before we left, we finally decided on Slovenia and Croatia! It looked beautiful and I don't know a lot of people who've visited here before, which made it even more exciting to see with fresh eyes (Such hipster trend setters, I know).
Whist on our trip around Slovenia, you find out pretty quickly that most people visiting are either from neighbouring European countries or on a massive inter-railing trip and this is just a small stop off. But if you think Slovenia isn't worth a proper visit, you're very mistaken - Please feel free to add Slovenia to your wish list over my next few blog posts.
We were so happy when we arrived in the city and our bargin hostel was right in the centre of everything! - We checked in super quickly to explore. I'm very much a feminist, but sometimes, when you've been on a flight since 6am, you just need to flutter your eye lashes a bit until the receptionist offers to carry your 22kg suitcase up 3 very steep flights of stairs so you don't die before your holiday begins.
Strenuous exercise avoided, we headed to one of the first cafe's we saw which happened to be the cutest veggie cafe! It was right by the buzzing weekend market where bands played in the streets - this was also where I had the best vegan cheese burger I've ever eaten in my life.
We spent the afternoon exploring the streets and eyeing up places to eat and drink later on in the night. It turns out Ljubljana one of the smallest capitals I've been too and can be easily walked round in a 1 or 2 days. Cafe's and bars line the river which runs through the city and streets behind are full of various other restaurants - all in all, making it a very tough decision to decide where we want to eat when theres only 3 meals in a day.
Night time views whilst crossing the river. (Dress from First and I -ASOS). We had a perfect night, bar hopping along the river side drinking fancy (strong) cocktails while the sunset. All was great until we entered our room later on that night.
Turns out we actually booked a sauna in our hostel instead of a room to sleep in?! Our room was on the top floor with a skylight and omg, was HOT. We did eventually sleep 3 hours later - butt naked and spread eagle, as close to the fan (which could be mistaken for a hair dryer in many salons) as humanly possible.
I'm pleased to let you know we survived the ordeal. There was no hot water left when we got up, but luckily we were so hot from our night in the fire place, it was actually quite nice. Although, uni sex showers are not the one -Hostel fun.
On our way to breakie we came across the Sunday antique flee market which was sooo cute! We would have bought so much stuff if we had room in our case. Although holly had her eye on an antique light which was almost half the size of me, so that was never going to happen.
We decided to take a trip on the funicular (because we're lazy) up to the top of the castle for a drink above the city. If you've read my blog before, you'll know I bloody love a good view. We also realised there was quite a few areas we still wanted to visit after looking over the edge.
Love lock bridge.
One of our favourite things we did in Ljubljana was renting bikes - once I'd forced Holly on to one of course. They only cost roughly £2 for 2 hours and we got to see the whole city in this time! The whole of Ljubljana is completely flat, so riding a bike is effortless and you get a well needed breeze if you're visiting in summer.
Riding through lanes full of graffiti and street art in the Metelkova district - Not a bare wall in site.
Chilling in the park in the middle of the city to cool down.
Food in Slovenia is mostly meat based stews or Italian dishes being so close to Italy. I can't eat the meat side, so ate mostly ate pasta and Pizzas, which was great as it's my favourite type of food.
For our final evening, we took a boat tour around the city. It was nice to enjoy a glass of wine while we floated along the river, however you don't see much more that you would walking around - I wouldn't put it on my top things to do if you've got little time.
On our final day in the capital, we popped back to our favourite veggie cafe for a good old avo on toast, before buying a bus ticket and heading off on our next adventure - TO BE CONTINUED.
