4 Days in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Say it with me. Loo-blee-yah-na. I've actually heard it pronounced a few other ways when I was there (Looblana, Lewblana, Lewbleeyahna, you get the gist... just DON'T pronounce it with a hard J ie. Luh-joo-bl-jana - DON'T!

I strive to preserve my so-called 'journalistic integrity' as my responsibility to you, my dear readers. So, I'm going to be very honest with you.

When planning my 14-day trip around the Balkans, Ljubljana was one of the cities I was most excited about, so I budgeted almost 3 full days from our already-tight itinerary. Once we got there, I felt like we had over-budgeted a little. Don't get me wrong! Ljubljana is beautiful. The proof is in the pictures. But I felt that perhaps it could have been done in under 2 days. However, we put our time to good use and traveled a little ways away from the city!

Day one
We arrived early in the morning so had a full day to explore. We stayed in a private apartment just opposite the National and University Library of Slovenia (NUK), which was a great base for exploring the city.

We usually like to go on a walking tour on the first day there so we can get our bearings straight. On the tour, we visited the main sights within the city. Perhaps I'd been spoilt by other European cities like Vienna, Prague and Krakow (some of my favs!) that I felt there wasn't anything especially awe-inspring that struck me as very memorable, perhaps except the pink church at Preseren Square and the Three Bridges.

We had lunch at TaBar, which might I say was one of our favorite lunches of the trip. Probably nothing pleases me more than good charcuterie, a cheese platter and wine! The patatas bravas was so good. The lunch cost us €53 which was pretty decent for 3 of us + wine and beer! I was pretty surprised by the wine prices – €1,50 per glass!

We had some time to linger around the Christmas markets, and found that the city actually transformed into a whole different kind of magical at night.

I loved the comets and stars!

Day two
I guess they say no trip to Ljubljana (or Slovenia for that matter) is ever complete without visiting Lake Bled. We took a tour with Slovenia Explorer, and were picked up at 8.30am. Our first stop was at the famous Postojna Cave (Poss-toe-eh-na), one of the most famous caves in the world, where you are taken into the cave by train!

Christmas tree in the cave! So grand!

Here we got to meet the super adorable 'human fish' or olm. So ADORBS I wanted to bring one home! (I did. A stuffed version though)

Next stop was Predjama Castle (Pre-deya-ma). It's a castle built into a cave. Pretty neat stuff! It's also one of the top 10 castles to see in the world. There's a legend here about a noble knight's who died on the toilet. Neat.

Chasing daylight, we rushed off to Lake Bled, where we stopped for lunch before exploring the island and castle! Don't forget to try the infamous Lake Bled Cream Cake! You can find it all over the Balkans but apparently, these are the real deal.

It was a really great day, and a must-do when in Slovenia. Though, coming in winter meant that we had less daylight, so by the time we reached the Bled Castle, it was already dark and couldn't see the island church, thus the lack of photos. Of course, you can't miss being rowed to the island by a single rower on a pletna boat – don't miss this! He rowed about 12 of us, using only the palms of his hands! His hands were huge.

When we got back to Ljubljana, we ate at Gujzina as I read good reviews of this restaurant online.

Goulash is a must-try in Slovenia!

Day three
We didn't really know what to do with this day, but on our Lake Bled tour the day before, we met a family that told us they went to a quaint little town called Škofja Loka (Skof-ya Loka) - so that is what we did!

In the morning, we had breakfast at Le Petit Cafe just around the corner from our apartment. Very highly rated too on Tripadvisor! Then before we got to the bus station to get to Škofja Loka, we stopped by Metelkova which was near the station. So if you Google Metelkova, you'll probably find an array of images of graffiti and odd-shaped buildings, which is excellent for a photo-op. On day one, our tour guide told us if you were looking for drugs and alcohol, Metelkova would be the place to go. With two old folks in tow, I figured it was best to visit when it was bright and early and the druggies were still in hiding, hungover from the previous night.

We had a lot of fun taking pictures of the graffiti all around, and there was barely a soul in sight; until a bearded, homeless-looking man with very dilated pupils who could barely walk without swaying left and right approached my 50-something-year-old-chingchong-as-they-come Chinese father and asked if he'd LIKE SOME WEED. That was enough to freak the folks out so we scurried our way out of there and on to the bus station! (Don't ask me what they were so scared of; after all, there were three of us and only one of him, very stoned, thus slow, might I add)

I told my mum to walk past the wall, and yes, this is how she walks on a daily basis.

So, we went to the bus station to purchase our tickets to Škofja Loka. We waited in line for about 15 mins, and then realised that you could actually buy them on the bus -.-

It takes less than an hour to get there, and costs only €3,10 per person!

It's a sleepy little town where we could actually count the number of fellow humans we saw. It was a really nice walk around town, without having to shove shoulders with fellow tourists. It was actually one of our favourite towns on our trip! If you have the time, I would definitely recommend you take a trip out here and just take time to breathe. Plus, it's a super easy journey from Ljubljana. 

We spent about 2 hours walking around, and then took the bus back to Ljubljana, where we took the funicular up to Ljubljana Castle. 

You get a really nice view of the city - minus the fog(!!!), but I think the fog added an air of mystery to it.

Happy parents :-)

DOLLAR SAVING TIP: You don't have to buy the tickets up to the musem or viewing points, cause there's also a viewing point you can reach for free that offers pretty much the same views!

We had lunch at Gostilna Na Grada on the castle premises, which was also highly recommended! I didn't like it all that much, but that's just me being picky. The food is definitely of standard, so have a try yourself!

Day four

Doesn't count as much of a day because we left really early in the morning for Zagreb. Stay tuned for my post on Zagreb to find out what we got up to there!

All of our accommodation was booked on Airbnb. It's a much cheaper alternative than hotels, and you get to experience living like a local! If you don't have an account yet, click here and get $35 off your first booking!

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