jawnbc | Cvet z juga (or buh-bye Belfast, Dobrodosli Ljubljana

In a word, Slovenia is awesome. As are Slovenians, including the lovely Tomaž (a/k/a

paterson_si) and his handsome ~~studpuppet~~ partner Igor. I have but one complaint about the weekend: too little time. Oh, and you get what you pay for on Easyjet. In my case I paid and extra £12 for a checked bag a mere 2kg over the (20kg) limit. Surly asshole at Belfast charged it rather; no one else (in London or Ljubljana) did. I mean, I didn’t even weigh as much as half the bovines on board.

Flying into Ljubljana from the West we soared over the Italian and Austrian Alps. Ljubljana is on a broad alpine plain, a 100km from the Italian (West) and Austrian (North) borders. Croatia is a bit farther South. The skies were clear and bright as we made our approach and my first thought was “wow, what a lovely setting.” Being called the lovely city in Slovene is wholly accurate. The airport is small (13 gates, with rarely more than 3 in use), compact, and very efficient. We were off the plane and through passport control (yay EU passports!) in minutes; our bags emerged in another 5 or so. Very good first impression. Tomaž and Igor were waiting in arrivals.

Tomaž and I met online though *cough* chat rooms a few years back. Aside from being a sexy fella he’s eloquent and charming. His command of colloquial English (British, American, pretty much most English) impressed me online—in person it’s arguably better. Igor is more reserved, but he too demonstrated a naturalistic way of expressing himself in English. Both are (at least) quadrilingual, speaking Slovene, English, Italian, Croatian and German between them. I felt at ease with them both very quickly.

En route to theirs we stopped for a “snack” of pizza. My “small” pizza was the size of a medium one back home and very tasty. I didn’t encounter anyone who couldn’t conduct the requisite transactions in several languages, including English. Being so close to Italy the coffee was uniformly excellent too. Well sorted food-wise, we adjourned to their home to freshen up, before heading to the city centre for Ljubljana 101.

Objects may be closer than they aqueer

Ljubljana’s core consists of a piazza, two boulevards running along the river, and Ljubljana Castle overlooking it all. There are many cobblestone streets and any number of examples of art deco, art nouveau and more modernist architecture. And the odd “Yugo special” of concrete and cinder blocks: so pragmatically ugly. Here's a bit of each:

I ain't got time to fix the windows, ain't got time to fix the shades

Slovenia was the first constituent republic of the former Yugoslavia to assert its autonomy. Pragmatic as always the sitting government of the day held a referendum in December 1990 (overwhelming support for independence), with a declaration following in July 1991. A war resulted, but the proponents of “greater Serbia” from Belgrade accepted their defeat and withdrew 10 days later. A mere 13 years later Slovenia is the only ex-Yugo republic to have achieved EU membership. And among the 10 new EU members from 2004, only Slovenia has been admitted to the Euro area (though Malta and perhaps Lithuania will join next year). In January Slovenia becomes part of the Schengen zone: borders between Italy and Austria will become unstaffed, while those with Hungary and Croatia are being fortified. Already Slovenia’s GDP is higher than Portugal’s and Malta’s.

But I digress.

We covered a lot of ground in 48 hours and one of the things that impressed me most was how much Slovenia has invested in infrastructure: roads, bridges, tunnels, transit, the airport—Slovenians understand that a robust economy requires these things. Were I looking to position a business at the gateway to Central and Eastern Europe I would look seriously at Ljubljana.

We wandered through the streets and took places at an outdoor café on the river (local Union beer for the lads; Coke Light™ for me) and people watched. There are a lot of beautiful women (stylish, but not gaudily so) and hawt hawt men. One could say that the Adriatic and Slavic worlds meet here and it’s a lovely mélange. *schwing* In the distance there was live music, and while it was all busy, it certainly wasn’t crowded or unmanageable. Lively would perhaps describe it best. And everyone seemed wholly content with their lives. A great vibe to it all.

™

paterson_si
Reka me ne svane

We ambled up the hill to Ljubljana Castle. I can tell you nothing of its history (they explained; I brain farted), but it’s an interesting 16th century fort (much of Ljubljana was destroyed in an earthquake back then, so little architecture pre-dates then) with simply wonderful views of the city and valley. The Alps are less than 2 hours away and fairly tower over the city. Like Vancouver there are a couple of local ski hills, with more world class ones a few hours’ drive North. Rather quickly I could see how one might never tire of living in such a beautiful city with an equally beautiful setting. But I was fading a bit so we adjourned to theirs.

querrelle and I touched base briefly and then… *zzzzzz*