This was a big travel day for us, so we got up super early. I’m used to getting up at 4 am for work, so it wasn’t so bad to do it this time, too. We got packed and left our apartment, went downstairs and waited outside for our pickup that we arranged to go to the airport. We had set a time for 5:00 am, but we were there at 5:00 am and there was no driver in sight. It’s important not to panic in those situations, but we were already thinking about contingency plans if the driver didn’t show. Who could we contact at 5 am? Is it even possible to find a taxi in this sleepy town at this hour? Would we miss our flight at 6:30 am?
Luckily the driver pulled up just a few minutes late and we could breathe a sigh of relief. It was a pretty quick trip to the airport, and we were able to check in soon. Somehow we were assigned business class, and it was my first time to use business class in my life. Unfortunately it was hard to get excited about it since the flight time was only 40 minutes on a propeller driven aircraft. During check in we noticed behind us a weird guy breathing heavily from his mouth, smelling extremely ripe, and slightly deranged. Good news – he didn’t sit near us. Our business class seats meant cherry juice, croissants and fig jam and butter during the flight, which was nice.
I enjoyed looking out the window during the flight, too. From the air you could see the unique islands, mountains and terrain of Croatia. I was surprised to see so much variation in terrain in one country – they really have it good for agriculture and tourism. It is no wonder the wines have been doing well lately.
Back in Zagreb airport we did pretty much the exact same thing that we did when we first arrived in Croatia a few days ago – caught a bus into town. Same route, same bus, different driver. From the bus station we walked to the train station (which we had scouted out previously in Zagreb) and bought two train tickets to Ljubljana (only 9 euros per ticket – cheap!). Our train didn’t leave until 12:30, so we had three hours to kill in town. We put our suitcase into a luggage locker and went into town to walk around and maybe see about lunch. Since we had covered Zagreb pretty well previously it was easy to find some places to shop, and we ended up buying supplies for a picnic in the park that we had seen previously with the gazebo in the middle. Our lunch was red salami, some sharp cheese, some fish cake shrimp in oil, several cold beers and some sweet chilli TUC crackers (which were a big discovery for us – yum!). We spent most of our time lounging and watching people walk by in the beautiful weather on park benches shaded by tall trees.
We caught the train right on time, and then we were on our way out of the country. At first we accidentally sat in first class, and so we had to move but to be honest I couldn’t tell the difference between first and second class. Once we set up in our own compartment there was nothing to do but lean back and enjoy the two hour ride. Our first stop was Dobova, in Slovenia. Here they did a rather strict immigration check. We handed over our passports, the officers looked under the seats for any stowaways, and they asked us a few questions. It felt like the cold war movies traveling between eastern bloc countries. We were happy for more stamps in our passports, so we didn’t mind at all.
From there we traveled alongside a river most of the rest of the way to Ljubljana, and the scenery got better and better. With our window open and the breeze flowing through the car it was nice to kick off our shoes and enjoy the view. Hills became mountains and soon I was leaning out the window to stare up at the cliffs high above. In the next car a group of young college students who were backpacking around Europe kept talking about goofy things and had both of us eye-rolling most of the way.
Soon enough we arrived, pretty well rested, and we lugged the suitcase off the train and started walking towards the center of town where our hotel was. It seemed like a nice town, a little smaller than Zagreb but maybe a little bigger than Zadar, and my first impression was that they had a lot of bicyclists. The town had integrated bike lanes everywhere, and I was cursed by a passing cyclist because my suitcase was overlapping the bike lane as I walked. I don’t know what he said but it wasn’t “Welcome to Slovenia!”
The hotel was called Cacao Rooms, which meant that it was a group of rooms attached to a cafe called Cacao. Later we saw that Cacao had other cafes in other cities, but they specialized in desserts and the hotel thing was just a side business. The location was great, on a terrace overlooking the moat with Ljubljana castle looming overhead. The castle dominated the entire town, so being in a central location was very nice. We were able to check in immediately, and we liked the room – stylish and comfortable (although partially underground).
Since our time was limited in this town we went out for some sightseeing immediately (and this turned out to be a great decision as you’ll see later). We saw the dragon bridge (dragons were a big part of the town’s history and culture) and then rode a funicular up the hill into the castle itself. The interior of the castle had been reworked into a modern style, and it was a pretty interesting way to present history in a new way. Apparently it was a popular spot for weddings – we saw lots of offices and salons catering to couples getting married. There were several cafes in the castle courtyard as well. There was a little trick where they let you climb about 75% up the castle’s tallest tower, but just before you get to the top terrace they have a desk and they sell tickets to continue. Probably a lot of people pay up, but we felt it was a little underhanded so we didn’t continue out of spite. Instead we went back down and found some barricades that were quite high up and afforded a pleasant view of the city.
Besides the castle there were other things to see, including an interesting triple bridge near our hotel that was quite a feat of engineering. There were tourists in town but it wasn’t overrun and it was easy to make our way around and snap photos and take everything in. The moat and terrace was an absolute perfect place to put a bunch of outdoor tables and chairs, and cafes were taking advantage of the ambiance to sell drinks. We took them up on it and tried two Slovenian beers. Of the two we tried I lived “Union” beer the best – the logo featured the aforementioned dragon and the taste was quite nice.
For dinner we went to a place in town called Spajza. It was recommended on one website or another and it looked like it would be a good experience. The restaurant building was well designed and felt a bit historic, and true to our creed we were once again able to eat outside on a garden terrace behind the restaurant.
Our waiter was really active and at first his helpfulness and recommendations were much appreciated. He helped by recommending some Slovenian wines by the glass. I wasn’t too impressed with the whites we had, but the red (a merlot and cab franc blend) was really quite impressive. We selected some dishes from the menu – Kuniko had fried rabbit with stuffed mushrooms and a green pea puree that was really delicious and unusual, and I had deer medallions with a spiced blueberry sauce and tarragon dumplings. Great dinner – just the right amount of unusual for us.
The waiter went from assertive to pushy and then straight on to asshole when it came to paying our bill. Since we were using our credit card he said that he would have to meet us at the front of the restaurant because that was where the machine was. It was odd because everywhere else in Europe they have these little portable credit card terminals that they bring to your table. Once there the guy put a little pressure on Kuniko to enter the tip, and also hurried through the rest of the process choosing local currency (even though we wanted to select Japanese currency). It was kind of a dick move, and it was a good example of a waiter’s behavior interfering with an otherwise great meal.
We didn’t want to end the evening on that note, so we went to another place for a little cheese and wine to wrap up the evening. The cafe was called “Lockal” and was right near the “Lock Bridge” that was covered with little love locks from visitors. The waitress was much more friendly and we were served a big plate of cheese and some wine as well. The only strange thing was the entire cheese plate was drizzled with honey. I like honey on some cheese (for example, blue) but it was strange that they put honey on everything. Maybe it was the Slovenian style of eating cheese, I don’t know.
We finally decided to turn in – I was really, really tired. Once again a busy day with lots of travel, and we had more travel ahead of us the next day.
