James Went To Ljubljana

After Trieste, it was time to head to the lovely jubbly Ljubljana.

Though pronounced like:

Originally I planned to get the train from Trieste to Ljubljana, because I like trains and dislike buses.

However, there are only 3 a day. Only one of these I could buy a ticket for in advance, others I had to buy on the train which I felt sceptical about. Then you have to change at Villa Opicina, apparently.

Because the train cannot go over the nearby mountain, it actually has to go back up the coast, before turning around and going around the mountain – this course meant it took twice as long as a bus.

I decided to brave Flix Bus. Actually it was alright, except for the pick-up (kind of important) where the bus stopped outside of the grotty station in Trieste, instead of on platform 2, as advertised. I even made a bus queue friend, from Guatemala. Don’t get excited, Latino woman aha, but 30+ years old than me.

Enter Lajubylajana

I was in Ljubljana for 3 nights, though with a trip to Lake Bled planned, I was therefore in town for effectively 1.5 days.

Me being me, I decided to save a few quid and stay away from the city centre – hotels in Ljubljana are expensive, it is a surprisingly popular and busy city. Thankfully my apartment (OH Apartments) weren’t too far away, about a 25 minute walk, and came to around £65.00 a night – the cheapest hotel in the centre was £100.00 and pretty basic.

First impressions of Ljubljana was that it was like a cross between Copenhagen, with well-planned cycling routes and spacious roads, with Sarajevo – as it still had that communist vibe.

Until I got into the centre:

At which point it had Strasbourg vibes.

Ridiculously pretty along the river, with well-kept and well-designed old buildings along the river, and plenty of bars and restaurants.

Let’s have one more look at the dreamy river view. Oh my. Yes, I was in love with Ljubljana.

What To Do In Ljubljana

One of my favourite things to do in any city, is get high. High up, that is.

You can go to Nebotičnik, which is a skyscraper with a rooftop bar/restaurant. The cocktail was crap, but the view was gorgeous:

Had I had my cocktail advisor with me instead of solo-travelling, I may have ended up with something that didn’t take like undiluted orange squash.

The other viewpoint was from the castle itself, which is nestled right in the centre of Ljubljana, up a hill. If you know me, you know I like climbing a steep hill on holiday, especially when it is hot and sweaty.

I didn’t go inside as I’m not interested enough in pre-20th century history (maybe it will come one day) to pay money for it. However it’s a tidy castle with a decent view, and a very enjoyable walk up…if you like a steep (ish) hill.

Plus I think there is a funicular too.

Choo Choo

I also went to the Museum of Modern Art, which wasn’t very impressive at all.

Most of the pieces had little written about them – the room that looked the most interesting had minimal English explanation so it was difficult to grasp what it was about.

Maybe I’m being a selfish tourist expecting something in my language, but also if you want people to know about the Slovenian Partisans from WWII, please do help us a little.

Boobs, though.

Speaking of things that excite me:

Choo choo! There’s a railway museum (Železniški muzej) just to the north of the city centre, which has some pretty impressive trains – I cannot quite believe how massive some of them were, like almost 3x my height.

And they had a sneaky Thomas:

Outside was actually even better, more of a rustic vibe with various engines, carriages and wagons, not always in the best of states, and some dilapated buildings too.

But for me, that just gives more of an authentic vibe, and a great place for a photo!

Plus I didn’t quite know where the museum yard ended and where the actual real-life railway started, as there were definitely people working there, and some modern engineering trains too.

I’ve left enough of Ljubljana not-done, so I can hopefully one day go back and take someone with me, to show them this wonderful city.

Beer In Ljubljana

I was very impressed with the beer scene in Ljubljana, they seem to have multiple local breweries – I didn’t have a bad beer until I got to the airport departure lounge, despite my guided tour host telling me that the best beers were Laško and Union (is it rude to correct a tour guide?!).

Every single bar and restaurant I went to had some choice of pale ale or IPA.

My favourite place was Sir William’s Pub, run by a seemingly English “chap” – if you know what a “chap” really is. Welcoming service and a really excellent beer choice – every NEIPA I had was absolutely on point.

Plus a nice little people-watching area out the front.

Yet even the Irish pub in the centre had IPA.

Pop’s Place had a good selection, if reluctant service on the river-side, and Pub Lajbah also had an excellent craft beer selection, if perhaps a little out from the main area.

Eating In Ljubljana

I don’t recall having a bad meal in Ljubljana, which is a relief considering the amount of effort I tend to put into my decision.

I do wonder if maybe I should instead try just wandering around and randomly picking somewhere, instead of reading 1,256 reviews before deciding where to eat.

Anyway, top of my list for lunch was Le Petit Café, though the menu was so interesting I wished I had picked it for dinner too.

In a vague attempt to have healthy lunches, I went for a chicken Caesar salad, but basically ended up with cheese, chicken, bread, bacon, mayonnaise and a whole head of lettuce.

It was massive. I don’t think you can call it healthy.

My other lunch, and my other attempt to eat healthily was a shakshuka at Wonderland – a “hello girlies come and have brunch” place if ever I saw one, I think the year’s supply of plastic pink flowers has been exhausted in decorating this place.

But also the food was excellent.

Oh and maybe I accidentally came home via this place in the evening for dessert:

There were about 10 gorgeous-looking desserts on display, and I asked the waitress for some explanation, but as soon as the waitress said “white chocolate and strawberry cheesecake”, she needed to say no more.

Well…I was on holiday.

Dinner in Ljubljana

The only restaurant I went to that I wouldn’t recommend was Tiflis, a Georgian restaurant again slightly out of the centre, but when you’ve done 20,000 steps, what’s a few thousand more?

The owner/manager seemed more interested in chatting with his mates, the menu was confusing so I had no idea if one dish was large enough or I needed two dishes, and the venue was a bit meh.

I ended up with a chicken in garlic sauce dish, Chkhmeruli, which was chewy but the sauce was nice. And it came with some gorgeous bread.

Food pricing was a bit high for central Europe, but also he massively over-poured my wine, pretty much half a bottle into a glass, and that was really cheap. So I guess life balanced out alright.

I had some more traditional food also, at Slovenska Hiša – Figovec.

I cannot remember what the goulash I had was, but it was apparently traditional, plus I ordered some potatoes with crackling as a side.

Not sure I saw the best of the traditional food there. The goulash was very flavoursome, but almost more of a soup. I might have enjoyed the beef brisket or the fried chicken more – yes fried chicken is a traditional dish in Ljubljana, and I don’t exactly need another reason to go back, but I’m definitely up for re-visiting a place where fried chicken is actually a traditional dish.

For my final meal, I sat outside at Julija.

I feel like I’ve moved away from having a steak as my last meal on holiday, like I used to many years ago, to having pork knuckle as my last meal of a holiday.

And damn, this was a sexy bit of pork knuckle – plus the gravy was banging too. Central Europeans really can do fine gravy. Why do I have so many such issues in London?

So Long, Ljubljana

So, Slovenia and Ljubljana were proper dreamy.

Out of the 40+ cities I’ve been to (mostly in Europe), it’s easily one of my favourites.

Very walkable, plenty of greenery, no cars in the centre – plus plenty to do, both in terms of touristy-things, historic stuff like castles, gorgeous countryside that is fairly easy to get to. It really is a wow destination.

Not to mention great beer and mostly great food. As much as I enjoyed Trieste, the first stop on my tour, every single thing about Ljubljana was better. Yes, even the food…especially the food.

If Ljubljana isn’t on your radar, it really should be.