Lubljana -- picture post
On the weekend of May 1st, I was in Ljubljana for a gay wedding. I had been looking forwards to that ever since they invited me because that gay wedding would probably be the coolest thing I have been to for years -- and it was. The whole trip was amazingly fascinating and fun. I had almost forgotten how great it is to travel alone and just look at things and do what I want.-
1. The general touristy stuff
Here in Bavaria, people do remember how to build proper pyres, and still exercise the art form for Mayday. It was, in fact, a good time to flee!
So I said goodbye to my cats, who are happy in each other's company without human interference anyway, and went to Ljubljana as planned.
Here's a view of the city with mountains in the background, from the castle hill. The green-domed church in the (relative) foreground is the cathedral.
Another view from the castle hill, this one towards Congress Square. The hostel where I stayed was right beside the shiny black modern building almost all the way to the right edge of the picture. It is a very small city; you can cycle everywhere, and walk to any place within the old part of town.
There is a river called Ljubljanica, and many nice old houses on both riverbanks. Most of them house restaurants and cafés in their ground floor. You can drink your way all the way up and down the riverfront, and some British rugby blokes we saw on Friday evening when I went out with a gaggle of Finns seem to have done just that.
View across the middle part of the Triple Bridge. Most buildings are very painstakingly restored and shiny. The general atmosphere is half Austrian, half Italian, with just a dash of Balkanese. That changes at night, though -- more about the were-Balkanese later. In the background, the castle hill and the castle.
The main square with a church, and tourists. There were many Italian tourists, for whom Ljubljana is an inexpensive place to go that is not Italy, close by, not too strange in its customs, and where the booze is cheap. My room in the hostel was full of nocturnal Italian blokes the first few nights that came in around five every night. They refrained from being overly rude and noisy, though.-
The main square, with baroque, modern, and art nouveau buildings right next to each other. In the foreground, more random tourists.
Detail of that art nouveau house.
This bare-breasted and green-oxidised bronze lady is a muse, holding a gilded laurel wreath over the poet whose monument is found in the main square.
Luckily, not every corner of the city was restored to the point where you could eat off the floor. A little shabby-chic street, near the castle hill.
The cathedral. Baroque. Slovenia is quite Catholic, but people don't seem aggressive about it. In fact, it seems rather a relaxed place that enjoys life. In any case, there aren't that many churches in Ljubljana, and most of them aren't all that old, either; had I maintained my stance of 'everything this side of 1500 is too new' stance from Italy, I wouldn't have seen much.
There were, however, the quite well-kept and impressive remains of the city walls of the Roma town of Emona.
And this statue of a Roman citizen of Emona, or rather a copy, on Congress Square. I saw the original in the National Museum, too, along with a very fascinating exhibition of finds from the Ljubljanica river. There were masses of migration age axes!!
Entrance to a convent opposite the column with the Roman on top.
A gaggle of colourfully veiled young female Muslim tourists. There were lots more of them on the castle hill; I guess they were most likely from Bosnia, which used to be part of Yugoslavia just as Slovenia was.
Ljubljana is the city of dragons, just as St. Petersburg is the city of sphinxes. There is a dragon bridge across the Ljubljanica, which I did not take a picture of because it was raining and I was in a hurry to take the bike back to the tourist information -- I had borrowed one for a few hours, free with the tourist card thing they offer, to go to the more outlying sights like the Roman walls, and then do some heavier shopping -- pumpkin seed oil, and wonderful dry deep red wine! So I didn't stop to take a picture of those dragons. But the cute little dragons on the recycling bins, I could not pass up.
Waste paper
Tin cans and plastics
Glass -- note the very recognisable wine bottle!
All the rest -- sweepings and such
Ljubljana has lots of modern art too: - this is an art exhibition happening in the shop window of some trendy men's clothing shop.
2. The hostel
The hostel where I stayed was noteworthy in and of itself, in an old palatial house, done up with mostly IKEA furnishings and very colourful fittings, clean as anything you ould possibly imagine (the ladies Antonia and Tanya cleaned for hours each day), with extremely nice and friendly staff, and free WiFi. It deserves a section of its own.
It is in one flat of a very impressive old house right off the main boulevard, and in walking distance from everywhere. The National Museum is just up the street here, the restaurant where the wedding was is one block away.
Somehow, though, I doubt that the 'Domina Activa' thing is meant as we would understand it...
The entrance hall is truly palatial, with a posh flower arrangement.
The hostel itself is one flat on the top floor -- still palatial!
It's worth going up all those stairs for.
This is the front desk, where people who don't travel with a little netbook can use the internet. The desk (so Milan, the proprietor of the place, told me) used to belong to the very first dentist in Ljubljana, whose home this used to be.It is huge, heavy, and ancient.
I took all these pictures of the interior on the last evening, when nobody exept me was there; hence the stylish lifelessness.
My bed, and my stuff. Note the lovely old parquet floor! That night, when nobody else was there, Antonia took the time to wax it.
Another bed in the room I was in. I never saw anybody on the work-out beastie, though.
My things by my bed on an earlier day, complete with the EEE on the little stool, and my pretty purple mug I'd bought at a stall by the Ljubljanica.
Comfy corner in the other room. And more lovely old parquet!
The kitchen, and the two-person bedroom beyond it. Note the sugar and coffee containers beside the eletric kettle? From the same stall that my mug came from. Hostel!Milan knows the owner, he said. Ljubljana is small; there is one of everything, but not much more than one.
Kitchen table, with my EEE open on Meebo, and my purple mug. I was half-watching a ballet on the classical musi TV channel they have there. I did covet the nice colourful Gorenje fridge. Gorneje is a town in Slovernia that makes electric appliances; while all the furniture in the place was IKEA, brought from Austria, the applianes were all domestic. I have a Gorenje cooker/oven here at home that is ancient, ugly, and undeadable. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of Yugoslavia, Gorenje seems to have aquired style and design, too.
Ewok plushie that was, for some reason, dangling off the notice board in the kitchen.
3. The wedding
And now, on to the main part of why I was there: the wedding! Toni and Ales were married officially in Finland; this was just the reception for Ales' friends and family in Ljubljana. They had asked me when inviting me to pick whether I wanted to come to Helsinki or Ljubljana, and as I had been in Helsinki often before, and had been impressed by Slovenia as such because of Marko Pogacnik and the Slovenian foreign minister who asked so wonderfully awkward questions of the Bush cronies at conferences...
The wedding party toook place in a restaurant situated in an old vaulted cellar about a stone's throw away from the hostel where I stayed (and just about everything else, because Ljubljana is small). It's called Emonska Klet, Emonese Cellar, but the place is medieval, not Roman, I would say, despite the very flat bricks used in the vaulting -- see picture above.
Ales and Toni making their welcoming speech. Toni is the Finn, Ales the Slovenian; Toni is tall, Ales, not so.
Milan the photographer, a friend of Ales'. He was taking his pictures with a mid-range digital Canon that night; he said he has a Nikon, but wouldn't buy a good digital one, as those become obsolete too soon, and he doesn't do that sort of work enough for one to pay off before he'd need a new one. His day job is digital reproduction of historical records and documents for the Slovenian national library, for which he needs completley different equipment. Erm. Forgive me the momentary geek-out, but I am rather interested in that sort of stuff. I'll use some of his pictures on this post, and of course will say so when I do. Milan seems to be a very common name there: on that one weekend, I met two, Hostel!Milan and Photographer!Milan.-
Ales saying hello to me, at the beginning, when everybody toasted the grooms in champagne before sitting down. (Picture by Milan)
I was sitting with a gay couple from Finland, son and son-in-law of one of Toni's best and oldest friends. (Picture by Milan)
Ales and Toni during the dinner part of the party.
The cake is cut with attendant ceremony and horseplay.
Me: 'Ooooh, cake!' (Picture by Milan)
Toni keeps cutting cake, and Ales distributes it.
Toni and Ales discuss cake. It seems to be something size related...
Me to Ales: 'Very well done!' (Picture by Milan)
And then, the dancing started. While the Slovenians are calm and rational Middle Europeans by day, by night, when they party, they are Balkanese: both the music and the dancing definitely were! When I told that to the Nazgul via IM later that night, she said they probably were were-Balkanese. That, in turn, amused the Lady Antonia at the hostel mightily when I told her the next day. Here, Ales and Toni are dancing with some ladies; one of them, I think, is Ales' sister. (Picture by Milan)
These two ladies were dancing like young goddesses; they were amazing, full of energy, and had tons of fun. I'm not as keen on partying as I used to be, but there, it was just -- joyous. I feel I haven't been in Ljubljana for the last time! (Picture by Milan)
1. The general touristy stuff
Here in Bavaria, people do remember how to build proper pyres, and still exercise the art form for Mayday. It was, in fact, a good time to flee!
So I said goodbye to my cats, who are happy in each other's company without human interference anyway, and went to Ljubljana as planned.
Here's a view of the city with mountains in the background, from the castle hill. The green-domed church in the (relative) foreground is the cathedral.
Another view from the castle hill, this one towards Congress Square. The hostel where I stayed was right beside the shiny black modern building almost all the way to the right edge of the picture. It is a very small city; you can cycle everywhere, and walk to any place within the old part of town.
There is a river called Ljubljanica, and many nice old houses on both riverbanks. Most of them house restaurants and cafés in their ground floor. You can drink your way all the way up and down the riverfront, and some British rugby blokes we saw on Friday evening when I went out with a gaggle of Finns seem to have done just that.
View across the middle part of the Triple Bridge. Most buildings are very painstakingly restored and shiny. The general atmosphere is half Austrian, half Italian, with just a dash of Balkanese. That changes at night, though -- more about the were-Balkanese later. In the background, the castle hill and the castle.
The main square with a church, and tourists. There were many Italian tourists, for whom Ljubljana is an inexpensive place to go that is not Italy, close by, not too strange in its customs, and where the booze is cheap. My room in the hostel was full of nocturnal Italian blokes the first few nights that came in around five every night. They refrained from being overly rude and noisy, though.-
The main square, with baroque, modern, and art nouveau buildings right next to each other. In the foreground, more random tourists.
Detail of that art nouveau house.
This bare-breasted and green-oxidised bronze lady is a muse, holding a gilded laurel wreath over the poet whose monument is found in the main square.
Luckily, not every corner of the city was restored to the point where you could eat off the floor. A little shabby-chic street, near the castle hill.
The cathedral. Baroque. Slovenia is quite Catholic, but people don't seem aggressive about it. In fact, it seems rather a relaxed place that enjoys life. In any case, there aren't that many churches in Ljubljana, and most of them aren't all that old, either; had I maintained my stance of 'everything this side of 1500 is too new' stance from Italy, I wouldn't have seen much.
There were, however, the quite well-kept and impressive remains of the city walls of the Roma town of Emona.
And this statue of a Roman citizen of Emona, or rather a copy, on Congress Square. I saw the original in the National Museum, too, along with a very fascinating exhibition of finds from the Ljubljanica river. There were masses of migration age axes!!
Entrance to a convent opposite the column with the Roman on top.
A gaggle of colourfully veiled young female Muslim tourists. There were lots more of them on the castle hill; I guess they were most likely from Bosnia, which used to be part of Yugoslavia just as Slovenia was.
Ljubljana is the city of dragons, just as St. Petersburg is the city of sphinxes. There is a dragon bridge across the Ljubljanica, which I did not take a picture of because it was raining and I was in a hurry to take the bike back to the tourist information -- I had borrowed one for a few hours, free with the tourist card thing they offer, to go to the more outlying sights like the Roman walls, and then do some heavier shopping -- pumpkin seed oil, and wonderful dry deep red wine! So I didn't stop to take a picture of those dragons. But the cute little dragons on the recycling bins, I could not pass up.
Waste paper
Tin cans and plastics
Glass -- note the very recognisable wine bottle!
All the rest -- sweepings and such
Ljubljana has lots of modern art too: - this is an art exhibition happening in the shop window of some trendy men's clothing shop.
2. The hostel
The hostel where I stayed was noteworthy in and of itself, in an old palatial house, done up with mostly IKEA furnishings and very colourful fittings, clean as anything you ould possibly imagine (the ladies Antonia and Tanya cleaned for hours each day), with extremely nice and friendly staff, and free WiFi. It deserves a section of its own.
It is in one flat of a very impressive old house right off the main boulevard, and in walking distance from everywhere. The National Museum is just up the street here, the restaurant where the wedding was is one block away.
Somehow, though, I doubt that the 'Domina Activa' thing is meant as we would understand it...
The entrance hall is truly palatial, with a posh flower arrangement.
The hostel itself is one flat on the top floor -- still palatial!
It's worth going up all those stairs for.
This is the front desk, where people who don't travel with a little netbook can use the internet. The desk (so Milan, the proprietor of the place, told me) used to belong to the very first dentist in Ljubljana, whose home this used to be.It is huge, heavy, and ancient.
I took all these pictures of the interior on the last evening, when nobody exept me was there; hence the stylish lifelessness.
My bed, and my stuff. Note the lovely old parquet floor! That night, when nobody else was there, Antonia took the time to wax it.
Another bed in the room I was in. I never saw anybody on the work-out beastie, though.
My things by my bed on an earlier day, complete with the EEE on the little stool, and my pretty purple mug I'd bought at a stall by the Ljubljanica.
Comfy corner in the other room. And more lovely old parquet!
The kitchen, and the two-person bedroom beyond it. Note the sugar and coffee containers beside the eletric kettle? From the same stall that my mug came from. Hostel!Milan knows the owner, he said. Ljubljana is small; there is one of everything, but not much more than one.
Kitchen table, with my EEE open on Meebo, and my purple mug. I was half-watching a ballet on the classical musi TV channel they have there. I did covet the nice colourful Gorenje fridge. Gorneje is a town in Slovernia that makes electric appliances; while all the furniture in the place was IKEA, brought from Austria, the applianes were all domestic. I have a Gorenje cooker/oven here at home that is ancient, ugly, and undeadable. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of Yugoslavia, Gorenje seems to have aquired style and design, too.
Ewok plushie that was, for some reason, dangling off the notice board in the kitchen.
3. The wedding
And now, on to the main part of why I was there: the wedding! Toni and Ales were married officially in Finland; this was just the reception for Ales' friends and family in Ljubljana. They had asked me when inviting me to pick whether I wanted to come to Helsinki or Ljubljana, and as I had been in Helsinki often before, and had been impressed by Slovenia as such because of Marko Pogacnik and the Slovenian foreign minister who asked so wonderfully awkward questions of the Bush cronies at conferences...
The wedding party toook place in a restaurant situated in an old vaulted cellar about a stone's throw away from the hostel where I stayed (and just about everything else, because Ljubljana is small). It's called Emonska Klet, Emonese Cellar, but the place is medieval, not Roman, I would say, despite the very flat bricks used in the vaulting -- see picture above.
Ales and Toni making their welcoming speech. Toni is the Finn, Ales the Slovenian; Toni is tall, Ales, not so.
Milan the photographer, a friend of Ales'. He was taking his pictures with a mid-range digital Canon that night; he said he has a Nikon, but wouldn't buy a good digital one, as those become obsolete too soon, and he doesn't do that sort of work enough for one to pay off before he'd need a new one. His day job is digital reproduction of historical records and documents for the Slovenian national library, for which he needs completley different equipment. Erm. Forgive me the momentary geek-out, but I am rather interested in that sort of stuff. I'll use some of his pictures on this post, and of course will say so when I do. Milan seems to be a very common name there: on that one weekend, I met two, Hostel!Milan and Photographer!Milan.-
Ales saying hello to me, at the beginning, when everybody toasted the grooms in champagne before sitting down. (Picture by Milan)
I was sitting with a gay couple from Finland, son and son-in-law of one of Toni's best and oldest friends. (Picture by Milan)
Ales and Toni during the dinner part of the party.
The cake is cut with attendant ceremony and horseplay.
Me: 'Ooooh, cake!' (Picture by Milan)
Toni keeps cutting cake, and Ales distributes it.
Toni and Ales discuss cake. It seems to be something size related...
Me to Ales: 'Very well done!' (Picture by Milan)
And then, the dancing started. While the Slovenians are calm and rational Middle Europeans by day, by night, when they party, they are Balkanese: both the music and the dancing definitely were! When I told that to the Nazgul via IM later that night, she said they probably were were-Balkanese. That, in turn, amused the Lady Antonia at the hostel mightily when I told her the next day. Here, Ales and Toni are dancing with some ladies; one of them, I think, is Ales' sister. (Picture by Milan)
These two ladies were dancing like young goddesses; they were amazing, full of energy, and had tons of fun. I'm not as keen on partying as I used to be, but there, it was just -- joyous. I feel I haven't been in Ljubljana for the last time! (Picture by Milan)