1 May 2024
Ljubljana, Slovenia, you ask? How did I get here? Interesting question. Like any good travel decision, there’s a story behind it.
After visiting Poland in 2019 and loving it, I decided then to make a point to start visiting smaller, less high profile countries. Then the pandemic happened and all my good intentions went out the window.
To keep running during the pandemic once bad weather kicked in, I bought a treadmill and with it came iFit, a video program built into the treadmill screen that allows you to “run with trainers” all over the world. Essentially the trainer is running on location and the camera operator following behind him is meant to be you. I ran and walked everywhere: Turkey, Tanzania, Paris, Mexico, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica, and one series combining Slovenia and Croatia. It looked interesting, I’d always been interested in Croatia, but had no idea Slovenia was also so pretty.
And then Slovenia was a destination on the Amazing Race last fall, and it was almost as if the travel gods were summoning me. I really had to get here.
Originally I’d planned for this to be a two week tour of the Dalmatian Coast on a Rick Steves tour, and I’d even put a deposit down. But somehow, I couldn’t find a way home from Dubrovnik that didn’t take two days, and I was already over my work-sanctioned 10 day FTO limit. So that was scuppered.
And then….Elbow, a band I’ve loved for years but have just never managed to make the connection when they’ve been in the US on tour, announced a UK tour starting this week. I got a ticket for their first show in Brighton, England and worked backwards from there. So my 5 nights in Ljubljana will be followed by 2 nights in Brighton, since I’m “in the neighborhood” and will just stop there on my way home. Ha! In any event, I feel like the stars aligned for me to both explore a new to me country and see Elbow. Score on both counts.
For whatever reason, once I had airfare and hotel, I didn’t do much planning until a couple weeks before I left. I booked a couple of day tours and that was it. I was literally reading the guide book for the first time a couple days before I left. It’s not that I wasn’t interested, just that I had trouble focusing. Fortunately, my travel OCD kicked in and I checked all my reservations and realized the hotel I’d booked back in December was for 2025, not 2024. Thankfully they still had one room left for me when I realized my mistake. And just before leaving I realized I’d packed my contact lenses only for my left eye, not both. That was a good catch. But I feel like maybe I’ve lost my travel mojo a bit. I need to get it back.
Five days before the flight, an email from Delta arrived. I’d purchased Premium Economy, planning on being economical on this trip (since I still had a safari I wanted to book). I could not resist an upgrade to Business Class for $400. It is worth it for the ability to spread out flat, not be piled on top of other people for 7 hours and get a really good meal.
It was a quick flight and I’m not sure how much sleep I got. Dinner was wonderful: celery truffle cream soup, tuna ceviche, 3 cheese ravioli, salad, and an ice cream sundae. I may or may not have had a couple of gin and tonics to celebrate being on vacation.
I didn’t feel like I slept much, but I started watching New Amsterdam and woke up four episodes in, so apparently I got a few hours. The galley behind me was quite loud, despite being 3 rows back. I may change my seats for safari based on this experience.
Transiting at Charles de Gaulle in Paris was crazy. Plane to bus to walk to security to immigration to walk to bus to terminal 2G. An hour start to finish. This terminal is small. The planes are only Embraer jets so I’ll likely have to gate check my bag.
And then there was the four hour wait until my flight to Ljubljana. Interesting trivia: Ljubljana airport only has 21 arrivals a day. And it only has 7 gates!
Starbucks in Paris has apparently done away with plastic cups. I ordered a cold brew and she pulled up the paper cup and started to mark it with my name. I confirmed my order, and she said she knew. There were no plastic cups to be seen. Or straws. That’s really something.
The flight to Ljubljana was uneventful. I dozed for most of it. Randomly, a Slovenian woman sat next to me and it turns out she now lives in Newton (near Boston) and works at a law firm working on a Patent project, just like I’m doing at work. Crazy! We chatted for a bit and then both slept.
The drive in from the airport took about 20 minutes. The car the hotel sent was 42 euro. It was worth it not to worry about logistics or shady taxis and be dropped at my door.
The receptionist here was very nice. She asked why I came to Slovenia and when I told her my treadmill story and showed her the iFit app with the Lake Bled run, she was amazed. And she’s also a runner and has run 10k in the same time I have (and collected a bunch of running injuries!). Small world!
I checked into my room which is good sized and has a sofa as well as a king sized bed. The shower is small but all is immaculate and very quiet so far. This is the hotel Rick Steves tours use at the start of their trips so I’ll be curious to see if any tours are here this weekend.
I took a quick shower and threw on clean clothes and headed out for a walk. The map is deceiving because I thought it’d be a long walk to the center, but it was maybe 10 minutes. And then I climbed from Three Bridges to the castle at the top of castle hill. That was probably the steepest climb I’ve ever done but it took less than 10 minutes and felt good after sitting so long.
While it was sunny when I landed, the overcast rolled in quickly and there were a few very quick sprinkles as I walked around. I decided not to go in the castle today since I’m probably jet lagged so I just walked along the river deciding on where to have dinner. Since Slovenia is nestled between Italy, Austria and Hungary, there’s a lot of pizza/pasta/gelato, schnitzel and stews. Not many “traditional” Slovenian places that aren’t sausage. I settled on a margherita pizza with a Last Word cocktail. Followed by gelato (Snickers and 80% chocolate) and then I found a gin and tonic bar! I had a G&T with Bloom gin and Fever Tree Mediterranean tonic. It was delicious. I’ve not had Bloom at home. It was very citrus and floral, very light. I enjoyed that.
I stayed out long enough to head back to the room around 7:45. Tomorrow I’ll buckle down and do some proper sightseeing and a day trip.
Coincidentally, today is the 5 year anniversary of the last new-to-me trip I took, to Krakow in 2019!
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