Ljubljana
Slovenians pronounce ‘j’s like ‘y’s so Ljubljana is pronounced ‘Lyew-blee-yana.’
Our host in ‘Lyew-blee-yana’ was veteran Servas member, Boris. Boris is a middle aged Slovenian with a wide array of interests. He’s a pianist whose passion for Baroque is demonstrated by the mountain of Bach music atop his piano. He also enjoys cross-country skiing, traveling around the world following solar eclipses, making harpsichords, and listening to classical tunes out of the 12″ subwoofer in his car. Most importantly, he is the only Servas host who has been to Austin! Austin was Boris’s second favorite American city behind San Francisco.
The first night in Ljubljana Boris scored us tickets to a concert by Ivo Pogorelić. Despite being horrifically underdressed, Lauren and I sat up close and personal with the social elite and Slovenian heads of state. Slovenia is such a small country that apparently its not uncommon to bump into the president at the local market every once and a while. After hearing this we were hoping to pull a ‘Stew,’ but Janez Drnovšek was nowhere to be found.
Ljubljana is another pretty Eastern European town with a hilltop castle and lots of churches. The whole cityscape has been sculpted by early 20th century architect Jože Plečnik (pronounced Plech-neek.) His classical forms marry well with the simple beauty of Slovenia’s capital. For a peak at one of Plečnik’s interiors we had to plech-sneak into the University Library because it’s closed to the public.
One morning after breakfast Boris told us “I am deep throat.” Lauren and I were a little confused. He explained that he was secretly meeting up with a journalist later that day to give her information concerning a dubious Slovenian corporation that shall remain nameless out of respect for Boris’s safety. The whole thing was a pretty cool story.
We left Slovenia on a miserable overnight train towards the last stop on our 4 month adventure through Europe.
Tags: Travel
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