More Surprises from Slovenia

I didn't think Slovenia had more surprises for me, but when we left Bled (which by the way, looking back on our photos, had a very "Sound of Music" like feel) and took a bus to the country's capital, lo and behold, we found ourselves in the most charming, compact and just coolest little European city that I had never heard about! Where have I been? Why was Rick Steve's the first person to let me in on the secret and why are people not talking about this place? Ok, this could be due to the fact that it's called Ljubljana and this alone may cause some to panic, but once you know it's pronounced Loob-lee-AHnah (said quickly) then you can just let out a sigh of relief and get to experiencing the loveliness already.

I REALLY loved this place.

Preseren Square. This is the heart of the city that has a triple bridge spanning the river designed by Ljubljana's famous architect Joze Plecnik. He's like Barcelona's Gaudi and he built many a beautiful building, statue or bridge in town.

The city is very bike-friendly so we rented bikes on our second day and made our way around every nook and cranny. Here we're trying to take a picture of ourselves on our wheels but it seems as though we were mistaken for some famous couple as this man and his kid couldn't stop gawking. I don't know....maybe it's the hats, glasses and his n' hers REI rain slickers??

One church had huge metal doors complete with life-sized pope heads. Sticking out. A little creepy but I dug it.

There were two spectacular churches from our whole trip and this was the first. This Serbian Orthodox Church was striking. It was painted inside from head to toe in bright blues and golds with a black and white checkered floor. There were no pews inside as worshippers stand during the service. We stayed for quite a while and noticed people lighting candles as prayers. Unlike a Catholic church that uses little tealights, these were long spindly candles that you propped up in water filled tubs with sand on the bottom. The effect was really beautiful.

Some fun graffiti and some not so light-hearted. The first one says "Pray, bombs are falling".

Preseren Square and the Triple Bridge at night.

This is us waiting, waiting, waiting for a 2 am train to Budapest. At the time we thought it was a great idea, giving us a very long and full day in Ljubljana but after we returned our bikes in the early evening and lots of things closed down in town (including the actual train station) we were left to either wait outside or in the walkways underneath the tracks. Here we are in the bowels of the station where I'm changing my mind.