I can spell Ljubljana

After a fun Halloween spent at a crowded ex-pat party in Budapest, Mike and I went to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, during another four-day weekend. Initially, we were going to go to Italy too, because Ljubljana is only a couple hours away from the border, but we didn't want to spend the entire weekend on the train. So, while I still haven't gotten to Italy, this city was part of it before WWII, so I think it should count!
We left on Nov. 1 which is All Saints or All Souls Day in Budapest. Most Hungarians head to the cemetery to pay tribute to their relatives, clean their graves and leave candles. I admire the Hungarian devotion to their families. But, I also am amused that in the US we celebrate Halloween and avoid cemeteries while most of the world is flocking to their family's resting places at the same time. In fact, some Hungarians are irritated that Halloween is beginning to be celebrated here, because it interferes with their holy holiday.
The whole weekend trip was great, aside from travel woes. Since we decided to skip town on a holiday, of course the train station was packed. In true Hungarian fashion, they only had two ticket lines open for all international train tickets, and all of their tickets are written by hand. My largest annoyance with train travel is that there is no consistency. Prices are not posted anywhere and nothing is electronic, so it's anyones guess exactly what I'll pay. The line was huge, and we didn't think we'd get on the train in time. Finally, we waited 45 minutes and had five minutes to spare to find our train. So, we raced (literally) around the station, trying to find it. We rushed to the information office one minute before the train was schedule to depart, only to find out that it was leaving from a different station across the city -- I think this would have been really important information for the ticket agent to tell us?? Oh how I miss customer service . . Instead of leaving at noon, we had to leave at 5:30, so we didn't get to Slovenia until 2 a.m. instead of 9 p.m. Then, on our return trip back to Budapest, we got on a train going a different route than how we got to Slovenia. To get there, we cut through Croatia and into Slovenia. To get home we went straight through Slovenia, which costs 15 Euros extra a ticket. Of course, we were not informed of this until the ticket agent was checking our ticket outside of Ljubljana on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. We had blown most our Euros and only had 20 left. I am so thankful that the ticket agent gave us a break and just had us buy one ticket and let us go. I have no idea what we would have done if he dumped us in the middle of the Slovenian mountains! Luckily, no other agents checked our tickets until Hungary, and we were fine there.

In Ljubljana, we stayed at the best hostel I've ever been to, called Hostel Celica. It was renovated from an old military prison in 1991 by the student association in town. Twenty of the cells are still there, and individual artists redecorated each cell with a unique theme. We didn't stay in the cell block, because it was booked, but we got to see a few of them. I loved this hostel, because it was such a beautiful showcase of transformation. What was once a prison associated with war and suffering is now a peaceful, artistic meeting place of people from all over the world. One feature that was indicative of this change was an art gallery and a prayer room, which represented all the major world religions.
The city itself is a vibrant college town, with a castle perched on a hill and a river splicing it into two sections. Everyone there was happy and smiling, so it was a much needed break from Budapest. Plus, I loved being in a place where I could walk everywhere, there were less than 300,000 people and was filled with fun bars and art galleries galore. We toured the castle (this picture is of us on the top of the castle - you can see the Alps in the background), walked around the city and of course we found a micro-brewery for Mike. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we had to get back because Mike was supposed to go on a business trip to Macedonia, but it was canceled on his way to the airport! So, I'm happy he's been home all week.