Summer in Slovenistan
Beach day
When you've got a friend in town and it's your one day for the beach, rain or shine. Or in our case, deluge and thunderstorm....
Happy weekend!
One benefit of swimming in a summer thunderstorm - other than the amazing colours - is that you're almost guaranteed to have the entire beach to yourself.
Although on this particular day, there were also half a dozen Nepali factory workers thoroughly enjoying their day off despite the weather - thrashing about in the water, pounding pivos and repeatedly yelling "HAPPY WEEKEND!!" to us.
Not sure how you'd best translate 'joie de vivre' in Nepali (or Slovene for that matter), but it's a fitting description....
Salty pivo
Laško's relatively new, cold filtration, session (ie lower alcohol) beer, includes some salt from the traditional salt pans in nearby Piran. In other words, the perfect pivo for a day at the beach....
Fritolin dreamin’
Spending a day at the coast without having lunch or dinner at one of the local 'fritolin' restaurants should be illegal. Thankfully most of them still seem to have reasonable prices, including this local institution in the town of Koper.
Total price for heaping plates of fried calamari, whitebait and fries, along with a beer and a Schweppes: only €24 (cash only).
Holiday gridlock
When the 100km, 1hr drive from Koper to Ljubljana ends up taking more than 3 hours thanks to the holiday traffic....
It sucks for drivers, but it's a gold mine for the company that runs Slovenia's motorways, as the vast majority of these cars are from abroad - and most of them are just passing through the country on their way to/from Croatia - which means they've got to pay the monthly toll of €39.10 for the privilege.
Eastern sunset?
When it takes you 3hrs to get home - instead of the usual 1hr - but you still make it in time to enjoy sunset from your balcony.
No idea why this sunset looks way more like a sunrise though (this is facing due east). That's something for a meteorologist or physicist to explain....
Ljubljana is pretty: Exhibit #250815
Missed opportunity
When you've been meaning to get a new litter box (larger and with a lid), and the universe was apparently listening. But you're about to meet friends for dinner, so there's no way you're going to bring this along and then carry it home across town after....
UPDATE: I actually returned the following evening to see if it was still there, but it was not. And to be honest, I was a bit relieved, because I still didn't feel like carrying it home across the city centre:
Ascent of the Wasp
Chacha thought she spotted the Virgin Mary reenacting her historical ascent to Heaven* in the skies over Ljubljana this morning, but it turned out just to be a wasp. Easy mistake to make when you've got no depth perception....
*This was originally posted on 15 August, ie the day the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven (allegedly), which is a public holiday in much of Europe.
American-sized portions of meat and potatoes
Forgot about the American sized portions at my go to traditional Slovene restaurant in Ljubljana.
This is a breaded pork chop, covered with ham and slathered in cream sauce, accompanied by roasted potatoes with various herbs, spices and pork cracklings ('ocvirki'). The gratis bread basket also came with some fresh wild garlic butter.
Mmmm mmmm! Although vegetarians beware. Which is a bit of foreshadowing for a future post from the same place....
Timeless Yugoslav architecture
Some timeless Yugoslav architecture, looking its very best at the golden hour....
How Proust Can Change Your Life
Some sunny summer weekend (re)reading. Never too late to go searching for lost time!
I've never watched this, but it was the most interesting thing that came up on YouTube related to this book:
Slaščičarna
One of the few remaining buildings in the entire old town of Ljubljana that has resisted the call to kill all of its character with a fresh coat of paint - and therefore one of the old town's most aesthetically pleasing facades....
Stay strong, guys! Stay strong! You're perfect just the way you are, regardless of what the mayor's office or anyone else might say!
NB: Slaščičarna is also a very enjoyable Slovene word to say - even if Squarespace isn't advanced enough to handle those Slovene letters Š or Č (or Ž).
Still funny after all these years
In one of my former lives - as the editor of the local English language city guide - I included a photo of one these signs in an early issue, with a caption joking about how tourists should be vigilant for mutant (in the X-Men superpower kind of way) children who've escaped from yellow pyramids.
I thought it was absurd and hilarious, and also the most logical interpretation of the sign. The mayor's office, however, strongly disagreed, assuming I was somehow making fun of the city (or, god forbid, the mayor himself), and made it clear that further such disrespect (real or imagined) would not be tolerated.
This warning was obviously ignored, but I did sincerely try to tread lightly with such things after that - successfully avoiding the mayor's wrath on all but one or two other occasions over the years. Ah, memories....
Odprta Kuhna
Ljubljana's more popular than ever Odprta kuhna (Open kitchen) Friday food festival, running from March to October each year in a quaint little square in the old town centre.
These shots were taken a bit after 9pm last night, when it was still an appetite suppressing 27°C out....
What are you looking at?
Just another lazy summer Saturday in Ljubljana....
NB: I was going to say 'Caturday', but just couldn't bring myself to do it.
Tell us how you really feel
Two messages for the price of one along Ljubljana's renovated riverside promenade. Guessing the actual conversion rate is quite small though, perhaps even zero....
Dinner with a view
The food was a middling 6/10 (this was leftovers, except the salad), while the view was its usual outstanding 11/10 - the perfect combo of Alps with some nice clouds.
You don't hate Mondays, you hate capitalism
In the words of Slovene philosopher and big shaggy dog with permanent sniffles, Slavoj Žižek: "You don't hate Mondays, you hate capitalism."
It is Monday, isn't it? During the summer in Europe, it's honestly hard to tell sometimes....
Fall of the Roman Empire
When the only thing standing between you and shopping at a budget German supermarket located in the basement of an unseemly new residential complex is a 2000 year old Roman wall....
NB: So this wall remained intact for a solid two millennia, but finally met its match in the waning days of late capitalism. Presumably the developers and municipality received all of the necessary permits, permissions, etc, and the wall was obviously 'restored' at some point in the modern era, but purely in terms of symbolism, this looks absolutely ghastly.
Vegging out
Traditional Slovenian food doesn't have a ton of options for vegetarians, but this 'loparnica' (a flakey vegetable pie I'd never heard of before) got high marks from my friend - albeit with the caveat that a bit of sauce wouldn't have hurt.
NB: This was at the same restaurant as the heaping plate of American-sized meat and potatoes posted above.
When it rains, it pours
When it rains, it pours - especially in Ljubljana in the summertime.…