 | LjubljanaCliffs Notes Version:After a quick stopover in Zagreb, we made it to Ljubljana and went straight to the Rutar store. After that, we walked along the river and grabbed dinner. The next morning we hit up the street market and got clean underwear and milk ... from different vendors. |
Day 1The next morning we had another early train to get to Ljubljana from Budapest with a stopover in Zagreb. However, the leg from Budapest to Zagreb was fairly long so we figured we could get some sleep along the way. We got on the train, fell asleep, and were awakened a short time later by a man shouting at us 'autobus.' We eventually figured out that there was a problem with the tracks so we needed to get off the train and get on a bus to travel to a spot later on the tracks where we could get on another train. We rode the bus for about an hour and then grabbed another train which was freakishly similar to the train we had just left down to the coach numbers and paper signs on the windows with the start and destination stations.After a little bit on the new train, we stopped at the first station within Croatia where we went through passport control and customs since Croatia isn't in the EU. We got some more stamps in our passport, so it was all good. We had about a 45 minute layover when we finally got to Zagreb. We were originally going to explore the city for a bit but it was pouring rain and our plan to get some sleep on the train ride was foiled by the train-bus-train-Customs sequence of events so we were a bit tired. We went through passport check again on the way out of Zagreb and then a few hours later we were in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The original thing that attracted us to Ljubljana was the fact that it had a 'Rutar' store. At this point, I'm sure almost everyone reading this (all 2 of you) have googled yourself and if you have a fairly uncommon last name like mine you also check to see who has the domain name for your surname. Rutar.com, is taken by a chain of IKEA like stores in Eastern Europe, mainly in Slovenia and Austria. We were tossing the idea around of going to Slovenia, but when we found out there was a Rutar store in Ljubljana the decision was solidified. When we arrived at the hostel, we tried asking for directions to the store. It was on the outskirts of town so we were hoping a bus went there. The amusing thing is that every time I asked where the 'Rutar' store was the girl at the front desk gave me a weird look. I finally pulled out my passport and showed her my last name and she corrected my pronunciation which was weird, since you'd think I could pronounce my last name correctly. Anyway, to pronounce it Slovenian style you get a running start and say 'Rrrruhooootar.' She didn't know of any buses, but at least now I knew how to say my name. We tried the tourist info center next. Again, I said my name wrongly, but after trying out the new and improved pronunciation the woman at the TI center knew exactly what I was talking about and gave us the info for which bus to use. We caught the bus and were on our way. As a back story, we had brought along this bulky tripod for the entire trip and hadn't used it yet. However, we were all excited to take a bunch of pictures outside the Rutar store together using the tripod. Once we unloaded the tripod we realized the base was busted. It was almost completely unusable. So ... we stood in the Rutar store parking lot with a giant camera attached to the top for twenty minutes trying to rig it to be good enough to get some self timer shots. Needless to say, the locals were giving us some dirty looks. It's about the equivalent of someone in the U.S. watching a couple very determined people trying to get that perfect shot outside of a random Wal-mart. We finally got a couple pictures and made our way into the gloriousness that is the Rutar store. It's essentially a cross between IKEA and a high end furniture store. It was very trippy to see all the employees in Rutar hats and Rutar aprons, and there was free Rutar tape measures just like IKEA. We took a giant roll of them, I didn't feel too guilty because they were free and even if they weren't I'm sure my random distant cousin would have wanted me to have them. Finally, we got some Rutar merchandise as gifts. I can't go into detail as my family hasn't received them yet, but a couple of the souvenirs were pretty epic.
The Rutar store was about the only thing that was a must see for us and by this time it was almost dark, so Colleen and I spent the rest of the time walking around Old Town, which was focused around the river. A couple of the more famous sites in Ljubljana are a couple bridges on the river. The 'Dragon Bridge' gets its name from ... the dragons that bookend it on either side. It was actually only a half block from our hostel. The other bridge that was kind of cool was the 'Triple Bridge' which kind of looks like a letter 'Y.' We ended up getting some pizza along the river. We ordered a cheese plate to start and I was feeling pretty hungry so I ordered the large pizza for myself. The waiter was like, 'You mean the medium, it is very large.' And I was like 'Nah, I want the large.' Well, the cheese plate was intense and I was almost full after it so I felt pretty stupid about my false confidence in my eating ability. I was 30 now and needed to realize my days of eating contests with my high school friend Cheetoh at Valentino's were not the norm. As a side note, do you know how hard it is to beat a guy named Cheetoh at an eating contest' Luckily, the waiter overruled me without me knowing and brought out the medium which was, as he had warned, very large in itself and I barely even finished that. Colleen actually didn't even finish hers. To make matters worse, Europe looks down on doggie bags so Colleen snuck the rest of her pizza out in her purse. Yeah, we're high class.
Day 2 (Morning before train)The next morning we actually had a change of pace with a later morning train which was definitely nice to not have to get up to try to catch one at 6 a.m. We had a couple hours so we went to the market that they have on weekend mornings in outside stands in Old Town. It actually worked out, because at that point I was out of clean underwear so I picked some up from a vendor there. While I was getting some Eastern European boxer briefs, Colleen was checking out all the fresh fruits and vegetables. We both were drawn in by the automated milk machine they had over to the side. Essentially, you buy a plastic bottle from a vending machine and then you can have milk automatically dispense into your plastic bottle while a catchy little tune plays. This one guy was explaining it to me in Slovenian and because I'm so tech savvy I figured out how it worked pretty quickly and nodded at all the appropriate moments. I think with my nodding and the local boxer briefs in my hand he thought I was Slovenian. Although I didn't say anything back to him, I think we had a connection. Anyway, with milk, fresh fruit, and clean underwear in hand we went to the train station to head to Salzburg.
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