Ljubljana

Hello to my word of blog viewers... aka relatives. Let me update you a bit on my life. Not too long ago I took a trip that lasted three weeks. I started in Italy where I recuperated some of my Italian, which has been taken over by Spanish. My mind is like a battle field between the two languages, they refuse to co-exist, and every so often one sabotages the other. No pictures of Italy, because well I have posted Italy on my blog before, lets just jump straight into Slovenia, the next country on the trip! I traveled with my friend Sam again, who has proven to be a good travel buddy. We couch-surfed and hitch-hiked basically the whole trip, allowing me to afford it without spending all of my savings, as usual. It was my first trip hitch-hiking, and it was great, I loved it! I know I know "isn't that dangerous?" Well it sure can be, but it is another one of those things I think gets a bad rap. I not once felt unsafe, in fact the opposite, we had such wonderful kind drivers, people gave us good local tips, bought us figs, entertained us, gave us mints, bought us figs, went out of their way to drop us off somewhere convenient, bought us figs, and even entrusted us alone with their car keys! Many of the people that drove us were delighted to pick up hitch-hikers and converse, even if they didn't speak English or Italian or Spanish, we still managed to communicate somehow. Frankly sometimes those were the funnest conversations, of course it could be because I basically made up what they were saying to be, and let's be real, I have a pretty entertaining imagination. All in all I do not deny there are risks involved, but I without a doubt, I will travel via thumb again.

Anyway below are some Pictures of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Slovenia was great, I would recommend it. I thought the people there were all so nice and friendly, although the Slovenians themselves seemed to be surprised by this comment. Sam and I did a fun outdoor wine-tasting by the river, in a rain storm. During this time we were given free food, extra wine, and offered a free boat ride (which we missed, our bad). Although we had a wonderful time exploring the quaint yet lively city with it's beautifully peaceful river, and iconic castle on a hill with a view, all of my pictures are of Metelkova Mesto. Metelkova as I described it to our couchsurfer, "is like porn to me". Perhaps you had the same reaction she did when reading that, which including a face reflecting suprise, judgement, and a hint of disgust. Maybe it was a strong word, but I didn't mean it in a sexual way. It was a place where every crook and cranny was oozing with art; reclaimed, un-organized, colorful art! It just makes me excited looking at it and I can't turn my eyes away. So here you go, I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Sam and I posing for our 1994 album cover

This is a shot of the ceiling

This is my favorite kind of art! I love reclaimed art so much

 The most colorful of the facades 

jungle-gym tree-house? Don't mind if I do

We met some people setting up for a week-long poetry even and they were going to project these cool sea-life skeletons on the stage. This mermaid skeleton was everyone's favorite.  

Without a doubt this was my favorite part. 

If you stood in front of this door there was a type of motion censored door-bell which was actually a drum suspended from the ceiling above you that started to play itself when you stood under it. It took me a while to figure out where the drumming was spontaneously coming from. 

A bike rack, made of old bike parts

Ok here is some of Ljubljana outside of Meteklova.

Stairway in the Castle

and a dead bird on a nice cobble-stone street