I always used to get Slovakia and Slovenia mixed up as their names are quite similar and I haven't been to either. It's a bit like many people getting Thailand and Taiwan mixed up because both are in Asia and starts with T. In my defence, the first four letters of Slovakia and Slovenia are the same, so you can't really blame me for getting them mixed up!!
Now that I am actually in Slovenia, I finally know they're different and can add another pinned country in my Worldmappin map. But I have another problem. How do you pronounce Ljubljana? It's totally unfamiliar to me, not a place I hear on the news or in TV programmes. "Lj" is not pronounceable in English, L-jub ... then I give up. I've literally been pulling my hair out since I started to organise my Slovenia trip. After a few months, and watching many YouTube travel videos, I finally got it. Lu-bi-ana. How difficult was that? 😉
I had 36 hours in Ljubljana, that included one full day. I spent all of that time in the old town, mostly walking along the Ljubljanica. That's the river in the city. Ljubljana isn't a big capital city, in fact the country isn't that big, it's population is 2.1m, and is one of the smaller countries in the EU. As a first time tourist, I wandered around the city centre, and the famous bridges such as the Dragon Bridge. The dragon has historical (probably mythical) ties with Ljubljana and even features on the city's coat of arms as seen in the first image above.
The Triple Bridge is another famous bridge, it's actually a group of three bridges, hence the name. The centre bridge is much wider than the other two, and the best thing is that it's all pedestrian only.
Across the river is Mestni trg, and the city's iconic Robbov Fountain. This area is also pedestrian only making it very comfortable to walk around. For a capital city, and such a beautiful cobblestone paved street, it wasn't busy at all, and didn't have many big shops, let alone luxury stores as you would normally find in a capital city's prime area. That's not a bad thing. Over consumerisation can kill a city.
I enjoyed walking around the city, particularly along the river. It's very green everywhere and it feels so calm and refreshing.
In the afternoon I went up to Ljubljana Castle. You can take the funicular up, it only takes 1 minute, or you can walk up. Of course I opted to walk, it's only a short trek up... so she says! That night I woke up in the middle of night with cramps in my calf 😬😅.
After a short but strenuous walk, it was lovely to just sit at the castle grounds, looking back down to the city. It's been a while I've seen so beautiful undulating mountain views. I think, but can't be certain, they may be the Julian Alps.
I didn't go inside the castle because I was a little tired, and didn't want to fork out €23 for the two of us when I knew I didn't have the energy to enjoy my visit.
I walked around the castle grounds, and before I headed back down to town left a #proofofpin from Hive behind.
