dungeons & dragons

After sitting around the Munich airport, twiddling my thumbs and drinking cup after cup of complimentary coffee, my flight finally arrived, and I headed out to the tarmac to greet it. Take-off was a bit nerve-wracking, maybe the pilot was fighting a serious headwind, or maybe he wasn't very experienced, or maybe he just thought it would be fun to rock back and forth for a little bit, but once we were above 20,000 it was smooth sailing.

I landed in Ljubljana, and I had my breath taken away from the moment I exited the airplane. Climbing down onto the tarmac, the tiny airport was surrounded by an Ardennes-esque pine forest, behind which loomed the massive, sharply-peaking mountains of the Julian Alps. It was wicked warm, and as soon as I got my bags I sat down at an airport restraint for a panini and beer. I then mused over how best to get into Ljubljana, finally deciding to get a service taxi, which dropped me off right outside my hostel.

There are fruit and flower gardens are all over the place.

The hostel is great, it's rather new and the big fluffy pillows and comfortable lounge room help make this one of the best places I've stayed. It's a little bit outside of the city, though I decided to try the suggested one hour walk through the city forest into the center. It was a very nice walk, but I left my map behind and I ended up giving up halfway through on account of my sandals digging into the tops of my feet. Aside from raw and nearly-bleeding feet, the walk was quite nice, and upon returning I grabbed dinner at a local cafe (a panini & beer) and stayed up chatting with some girls from the Midwest and an Australian guy.

So while there are a lot of things you're not allowed to do in the park, propositioning birds is fine.

The sun going down over the pond by the hostel.

The next morning I went with the aforementioned "gang" to grab breakfast before making my second attempt to cross the city forest into Ljubljana. Foolishly leaving my map behind yet again, I was nevertheless successful at making it through the forest and into civilization. I was almost immediately greeted by a welcoming sight:

Unable to resist, I stopped in for a glass, served in the good old full Delirium glasses

Afterwards, it took me a little while to make it to the city center. I didn't exactly know where I was, and without a map I found myself making turns and selecting roads based on that sort of instinctual ability that all guys have for determining the proper direction of travel. Needless to say, I made it to the city center with no problem.

Once there, I was greeted with a very picturesque town square. Being a crossroad of Europe, Ljubljana was often victim to the destruction wrought by invading armies from the East. However, there has not been a destructive war in Ljubljana in over a century, and successive city councils have been keen on maintaining the beauty of the center.

The white puffy clouds would later turn darker, but only with the result of a light sprinkling.

One of the dragons of the aptly-named "Dragon Bridge", the dragon is the symbol of Ljubljana.

After looking around for a bit, I decided to climb up to the castle. It was a reasonably easy walk with several excellent vistas looking out over the city. When I reached the top, I passed by an on-going wedding ceremony, and made my way into the castle. There I settled down to have a nice lunch (a panini & a local Slovenian white wine) and I watched as the wedding party, complete with trombones, guitar, a selection of local instruments, and a chorus of drunken uncles processed by. The waitress recommended a traditional ice cream with hot cherries an amaretto sauce for a dessert, and after taking her up on it.

Unjustifying my distrust of cherries, this was quite good.

Happily paying for my meal (which, even with wine & dessert cost less than the coffee and croissant in Copenhagen) I was shown the way to a downstairs bathroom. When I exited from the bathroom, and despite my best efforts to avoid it for propriety's sake, I found myself scooped up into the wedding train. I was reasonably well dressed that day, and so I fit in rather well with the semi-formally dressed guests, and the next thing I knew, I was being handed some rice which moments later I daintily threw at the happy couple.

Having had my share of wedding crashing, and with a tour to catch, I scurried back up to the main entrance, bought my ticket, and joined the English-speaking tour both as the only American and the only guy. There were two separate groups, one of 2 and one of 5, of girls from New Zealand, and having rounded out the group with just a dash of Uncle Sam, we began our tour. I took the opportunity to learn about what I should expect when I make it to New Zealand, and in between stops (where I learned that the dungeons of the Hapsburgs are to be avoided at all costs), the girls happily regaled me with more information about customs, stereotypes, and weather patterns then I could ever hope to apply.

Ljubljana Castle was built on the site of a previous fortification by one of the Hapsburgs

The top tower is by far the highest point in Ljubljana, and offers some excellent views.

C'est moi, courtesy of one of the Kiwis.

With the conclusion of the tour, I thanked the New Zealander's for all their information, and headed back down the winding path down. Alternatively, I could have taken the inclined rail, and this turns out to have been the decision of the Kiwi girls, because as I was coming to the end of the path, they were getting off the rail. They waved hello, and after a brief exchange, we all decided to meet up later for dinner and drinks.

So I continued on my merry way, setting off to see the remains of a Roman Wall that once surrounded what is today the Old Town of Ljubljana. The wall is, well, a wall, but I'll walk an hour out of my way for nearly anything Roman-related so as to justify my otherwise unused Latin education.

One of the fortifications in the wall.

I made it back to the center of the city at the prearranged diner time, and the five, later seven Kiwi girls and I all headed into the restaurant. The food was quite good, again I tried to embrace the local cuisine, though most of time was spent supplementing what I considered my already thorough understanding of all things New Zealand.

After diner, we went to one of the local bars, where the eight of us quintupled the clientele, and we were thus given all kinds of special treatment, including a flaming table presentation and some rather exotic drinks.

Having put out the flame, we were instructed to drink the liquid from the orange half, then squeeze the remaining liquid and orange into the shot glass. It was rather good.

We all had a rather good time, discussing, amongst other things, the pros and cons of the American vs. Kiwi health system, and the wonders of Vegemite.

It was pretty fun evening, though I ran into a spot of trouble in trying to get back to my hostel. The buses stop running after midnight, and one cannot hail a taxi, but instead you must call for one. The Kiwi girls were very helpful in this regard however, flagging down a passing biker who happened to be a Brit living in Slovenia. He kindly called for a taxi, and I managed to make it home safe and sound.

Today, I've been reading, relaxing, and generally enjoying the beautiful weather. I'm also trying my best to figure out how to download movies to my computer, that I might have something to do during my future over-long stays in airport terminals. If anyone can provide insight, it would be greatly appreciated. For now, I'm going to pack up my things and get to bed. Tomorrow, I head up to Lake Bled, which promise some of the most storybook pictures of my trip.