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Sleepless in Slovenia

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If you are expecting a typical grim-looking Eastern European city, then the initially unpronounceable Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, comes as a pleasant surprise. It is one of the lesser known capital cities of Europe, but has plenty of visitors. For a start, according to legend, Ljubljana has glamorous origins. It is said that the founder of the city was the Greek prince Jason, together with his companions, the Argonauts. According to this legend, after stealing the Golden fleece they ended up in the area around Ljubljana where they had to fight a terrible monster. This terrible creature was the Ljubljana dragon, which is part of the city\'s coat of arms and can be seen on many historical monuments.

Ljubljana\'s glamour also reflects itself in the city\'s prices. If you are expecting cheap accommodation and bargain meals in restaurants you are in for a shock - at least I was! I regretted not having planned my trip better as I trudged through the streets looking for a cheap hotel, with my only nutrition that evening being a bottle of lemonade I had picked up at a shop on the border with Austria. I comforted myself with the fact that I had at least changed some of my money into the local "Tolars".

The tourist office was conveniently shut and everyone I encountered seemed to speak every language except those that I could communicate in. When I did eventually find someone who spoke English he seemed more interested in practicing his English than helping me find a hotel. He was a mathematics student who was learning English in his spare time and he insisted in boring me for a good ten minutes even though he had nothing of interest to say. Eventually, after giving him the slip by walking very quickly, I decided to settle for a place that looked central and promptly paid by credit card so I could postpone crying about the exorbitant price until later. The room was absolutely luxurious, but I was too tired to appreciate it and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning I got up early and checked out of the hotel. I was on a budget and was determined to find something better suited to my finances. I finished off the last dregs of my lemonade bottle and headed for the tourist office. There I met a fellow English traveller who told me that he had also been having problems finding accommodation. Jim had arrived in Ljubljana from Zagreb, in Croatia, and was now beginning to regret ever having bothered. Zagreb had been much more affordable and far more friendly, he told me.

Fortunately for us, the tourist office found us a reasonably-priced hotel not too far from the centre. Delighted that we had found somewhere reasonable to stay, we decided to have breakfast. Looking at the fabulous buildings and the fashionable people that passed by us, the place reminded us more of an Italian city rather than an Eastern European one. There were adverts everywhere for luxury goods and high tech electronics. Unlike us, these people were obviously far from poor.

As we now realised that we were in an expensive city we were forced to change money in the bank to live accordingly. Armed with "fists full of Tolars" we found a caf?where we stuffed ourselves full of pastries and coffee, in order to serve as lunch as well as breakfast, and then headed for our hotel.

The hotel was not hard to find and there was indeed place for us to stay. On the other hand, the staff looked like zombies and the man at reception seemed more suited to working as a border guard than in a hotel. For a start he insisted on taking our passports from us for "photocopying". His photocopier was broken and he would need them until the evening, he explained. Wandering around a city like this without valid identification did not seem very wise and we were unhappy about this request. When we told him that we needed our passports in order to change money, but would be happy to fill out forms in the usual manner he became annoyed. "No passports, no rooms" was his basic message. We felt that he had presented us with a reasonable argument for handing over our passports and quickly complied. Despite this, our first discussion when we reached our rooms was whether we would ever see our passports again. What did this zombie want to photocopy them for?

Fortunately the rooms were comfortable and now having found a reasonable place to stay we were filled with enthusiasm to explore the city. At reception, Jim decided to chance his luck by asking if his passport was ready for him to pick up. "I told you, my photocopier is broken", was the unfriendly reply. I persuaded Jim that we should come back later when the mysterious "photocopying" procedure had been carried out.

The first place we headed for was Ljubljana castle, which is located strategically on top of a hill. The castle is said to date from Medieval times when it was used as a fortress. The chapel inside the castle is beautifully laid out with the colourful coats of arms of previous rulers. Castles are always fun to explore and you could really feel that this one had real some history to it. One bizarre aspect to it was that the old prison was being converted for cultural reasons to blocks of flats. I could imagine that those blocks of flats would hold some fairly unpleasant memories within their walls!

As we walked down from the castle we talked about our reasons for coming to Slovenia. I told Jim that I had come along for a short break from visiting Austria, but Jim\'s answer surprised me - his trip to Slovenia was part of a round-the-world trip.

When I pointed out to Jim that he had only been carrying a single small bag in the hotel, he shrugged.

"Yeah I know, but I\'ll pick things up as I go along," he replied.

I had always imagined that round-the-world trips required meticulous planning, but Jim was quite relaxed about the whole adventure. He told me that he had travelled all over the world with his "one bag" strategy. At the time I met him, Jim only had three T-shirts and the jeans he was wearing. This was no problem. He carefully explained how easy it was to wash and dry T-shirts and that jeans were fairly easy to buy along the way. I found this difficult to believe as he told me that the last place he had visited had been Mongolia. Where would one buy jeans when travelling in the Mongolian countryside?

Jim told me that he loved the freedom of travelling. He usually travelled for six months of the year and for the rest of that time he worked on odd jobs in England. This mostly involved work as a security guard, something he hated, but it paid for the travelling. According to him, there was nothing more miserable after an exotic holiday than a nightshift at some industrial estate in the middle of the English winter guarding against intruders. I could understand the joy of travelling, but personally I would not be able to put up with the depression of having to work on odd jobs for six months on returning from a great holiday.

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