Slovenia - Ljubljana & the Julian Alps

After a 7 hour wait on the steps of Venice station, which was actually a lot more fun than it sounds, the strike finally lifted and we were able to get an overnight train to Ljubljana. There was a party atmosphere on the train, with everyone onboard in the same situation. Despite it being packed and with many standing in the corridor (all night long!), there were bottles of wine and whiskey being passed about and even a few sing-alongs complete with guitar accompaniment.

On top of the world

I arrived in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, at about three in the morning and grabbed one of the few cabs still running to my hostel and collapsed into bed. In the morning, after a brief walk through the rather pleasant but tiny old town, I caught a bus into the countryside, stopping off next to a lake. On the bus I met five English people travelling together, all from very close to where I study in London, which was quite a coincidence. Together we decided against waiting for the boat and instead walked around the lake to the cable car at the other end.

Hiking in the Julian Alps

We took the cable car up to the summit, which was quite a dramatic journey, climbing over 1km vertically. At the top we hiked around for a while and climbed up to another peak, before being forced to return for the last cable car in the evening.

A novel method of recycling

Later, back in Ljubljana, we met up again and went on a bit of bar crawl, more to find anywhere still open than for variation. With the students away for the summer, the city seemed to be quite dead at night, but we still managed to find a couple of places, although disappointingly (or not) the Horse Burger takeaway was closed, which would have made quite a novel post-pub snack.

A typical wall decoration in Metelkova

At the end of the night we went to one of the most interesting places I've seen - Metelkova. A former military prison, it has since been converted into a hybrid hippy squat and hostel. In fact, it was rated the best hostel in the world last year by Lonely Planet. The entire area is decorated by modern, somewhat anti-establishment artists in quite an unconventional manner and there are even the remains of military vehicles and what looks like part of a helicopter lying around. The disco was quite an experience - seemingly everyone was on LSD and kept dancing even when the music stopped. Shame I didn't get to stay in the hostel!