As fate would have it I would be moving to Tirana to work with Pioneer Media on a movie. I have previously said that getting there was quite the journey, but after a mere two nights trying to “acclimatize” we had a business trip to Ljubljana, capital city of Slovenia, and as fate would have it one of the few European countries I have not been to. Country 142.
Getting to Ljubljana meant leaving for Mother Teresa Airport at 3 am and thus sleep would not be the option. Vodka would be the option.
I’ll not go into great details about the journey there, but it involved us getting on the plane last, sitting in business class, and arriving in Ljubljana somewhat jovial. We also arrived 8 hours before our AirBnB were ready to let us in. We carried on the jovial theme in the bars alongside the beautiful river that flows through this extremely beautiful city.
Food wise, whilst I like Asian street food, I do miss European fare. Slovenian food is very Slavic in nature, although with nice Italian influences, meaning lots of meat, cheese, starch, and great drinks.
Ljubljana is a small compact city, with EVERYTHING being in walking distance, even castles! We sampled a hell of a lot of cool bars, and restaurants, but I have to give special mention to two places.
The first super cool one, and right down our alley was the Union brewery, where they offer a tour, lots of beer to try, and heartly Slovenian food which consisted of lots of meat, and pickled vegetables.
The second place to check out in Ljubljana is a bit more weird beard was the former gay area of the city called Metelkova. This former military barracks now homes a prison themed hostel and has become an anarchist commune full of very off the wall bars, and a very pseudo-punk scene.
It’s pretty cheap too, and rakia always tastes good. I got the impression that should one have wanted, nightly friends could have been made quite easily, but after taking our livers to the limit we settled with a few beers at the English Pub.
How else would an Englishman finish a trip to Ljubljana?