Transit to Portoroz (August 17 2012)

Ralph again.  After breakfast, we caught the 11:50am train from Lesce back to Ljubljana.  Nearly all rail transit from one region of Slovenia to another requires a stop in the centrally-located capital; this is at worst a minor inconvenience due to the country’s small size.  We had purchased second-class tickets in the Lesce train station, and thought we were sitting in a second-class compartment on the train.  Indeed, the conductor stamped our ticket and continued on with no issue.  Later in the same 45-minute train ride, a second conductor came by, looked at our ticket, and angrily began shouting at us in Slovenian.  Clearly he thought we were not supposed to be sitting there, even though we were alone in the compartment.  Turns out, we were in first class, and this was unforgivable; we needed to move to the identical, yet second-class, end of the same railway car.  The original conductor (who spoke a little English) chanced upon us and spoke to the second conductor.  When the second conductor moved on, the original conductor gave a “sorry it didn’t work out” shrug.  We picked up our bags and moved about fifty feet down the railcar to the equally-deserted plebian [yet identical] second-class compartments.

When I researched our transportation options I found that Portoroz, our destination on the Slovenian coast, does not have direct rail service; the closest rail station is about 9 miles away and would necessitate a local bus to our final destination.  As such, I decided we would take a tour bus from Ljubljana straight to Portoroz to avoid another transit changeover.  The bus station in Ljubljana is conveniently located across the street from the train station, and thirty minutes after arriving in Ljubljana we were on a tour bus to the coast.

Slovenia’s Adriatic coast is minimal, only about fifteen miles long, and is heavily influenced by Italian culture both because of its proximity (Trieste, Italy is only a half-hour drive away) and also because it was once part of the kingdom of Venice.  No legends of mountain goats here; just a lot of pizza and casinos designed to lure Italians across the border (apparently, casinos are illegal in Italy.  There sure were a lot of Italian-plated cars all over Portoroz, maybe more than Slovenian-plated cars.)

When researching hotels on the Slovenian coast, there was only hotel that was reasonably priced and did not appear to be located within a shipyard.  The hotel website promised ocean views which, we soon discovered, is only possible one of two ways: 1) being located on the ocean or 2) being located well above the ocean level.  Our hotel was about a half-mile inland, so case #2 applied.  The land rises sharply from the coast, and we walked UP UP UP some impossibly steep hills, luggage in tow, attempting to interpret the Google Maps on the iPad. [The hills were so steep that the road we later primarily used to get back to the hotel had steps alongside it.  They were regulation height and maybe 3-4 inches deeper than typical home stairs.]

After a half hour, we came to the location where Google Maps placed our hotel – but nothing.  With both Lynnae and I drenched in sweat from the broiling Adriatic sun, we set down our luggage and I went on a personal expedition to find our hotel.  Indeed, Google Maps was wrong; but only by a little.  We walked a few minutes down a (mostly flat) road and checked into our hotel.

And it didn’t lie about the ocean views!  The room had a wraparound balcony, with grapevines growing along the railing.  While the hotel did not offer breakfast, its grapevines did supplement our daily fruit requirements.

View from our balcony

Upon arriving at the hotel we decided to spend a little time recovering from the haul uphill.  After researching our dinner options we ate at what Tripadvisor called “the best Mexican restaurant in Portoroz, Slovenia,” which, we must say, was better than a whole lot of Mexican restaurants in the US.  After buying a few breakfast food staples at a convenience store (sadly, it was late and the Mercator was closed) we took an unencumbered walk back uphill and called it a night.

Ljubljana Day 1 (August 13, 2012)

Ralph again.  This day was my 28^th birthday.  Breakfast at our hotel in Ljubljana was quite filling, and because we had slept in a bit we caught it at the very end of their open hours.  We knew the hotel staff meant business when they started taking away the food from the buffet at 10am precisely, and I resolved to get to breakfast earlier the next day.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the Slovenian capital is quite small.  It took us less than five hours to see the entirety of the city’s attractions, which consist primarily of bridges over their creek-width river, and the castle in the cliffs above the city.

some Slovenian government office

unlike in Germany, where water fountains were impossible to find and all restrooms required a fee, the good Slovenians offered their tap water and restrooms [when you could find them] for free

First off, the bridges:

Dragon Bridge.  The dragon is the symbol of Ljubljana and is on the logo of Union beer, one of the two Slovenian beers we saw offered everywhere in the country

the river through the middle of the city

On Tripadvisor, this is referred to as the “Love Bridge.”  Note the same padlock theme that we saw in Cologne, Germany.  However, the local name is the Butcher’s Bridge, as suggested by the next photo

The three bridges that comprise the “Triple Bridge.”  Originally just the middle bridge existed, then they added two bridges on its flank for pedestrian traffic.  This is the biggest attraction in Ljubljana, and it is pretty much what you’d expect.

streets of Ljubljana

For lunch we ate an outdoor café, which turned out to be a mistake.  I had a bowl of “traditional Slovenian” chicken stew, which promptly delivered my immune system its birthday gift of food poisoning with a side of nausea.  Unaware of the bio-bomb brewing in my gut, we began the long, steep trek uphill to Ljubljana Castle.  Before long I was weak and feverish, and I was having a very difficult time with the walk uphill.  Eventually Lynnae convinced me that I wasn’t just physically deconditioned but perhaps was suffering ill effects from the chicken stew.

Once we got to the castle, it was fairly underwhelming.  It had a good view of the city, though:

And their castle tower, with the Ljubljana city flag, is both highly meta and reminiscent of Super Mario Bros:

castle complex

While at the castle, Lynnae started to get sick with the same symptoms I had exhibited.  Thankfully she only had about 5% of the soup, while I had gobbled the vast majority, so she was not sick for very long, though her symptoms were just as severe.  When we both felt well enough to walk back downhill, we left the castle to visit one of Ljulbljana’s museums.  Unfortunately, a lot of museums in Europe (and apparently all in Slovenia) are closed on Mondays, so no dice.  We went back to our hotel, happy that we had decided to only stay in Ljubljana for one full day anyways.

[It’s possible that our symptoms colored our opinions of Ljubljana.  Also, we did not pay the entry fee for the castle’s one exhibit.  It may have been interesting but we weren’t interested at the time.  We did enjoy walking around in Old Town and there was a chocolatier that was giving out scrumptious samples.  Also, there was a large market just across the triple bridge – and the Butcher’s bridge (the bridges are all pretty close together) that was pretty interesting.  It had everything from produce and flowers to trinkets and clothing.]

Transit to Ljubljana (August 12, 2012)

Ralph here.  I woke up fairly early and ran from our hotel back to the Metronome.  In addition to serving as an ironic commentary on five-year plans, the Metronome is surrounded by a large park which is likely the only large, flat area in Prague.  I added a few miles in the paths of this tree-shaded park, along with a few Czech runners.  Upon my return, we ate breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and walked (downhill!) to the train station for our first European rail journey to Ljulbljana, the capital of Slovenia.

When we purchased the tickets a couple days earlier at the train station [from the angriest czech we met], we learned the difference between purchasing a ‘ticket’ and a ‘reservation.’  The former just allows you onto the train, the latter “reserves” (makes sense!) a seat.  If you do not purchase a reservation, then you just need to hope that not all the reservations are purchased, so you can then sit down in an actual chair rather than hanging out in the train passageway like a particularly committed panhandler.

We boarded the train and sat down at what we thought were our reserved seats.  We learned otherwise when the actual reservation-holders showed up.  Another traveler showed us on our ticket how we could find our reserved seats (they were in the next railcar) and we headed out of the compartment.

After jostling our way down the moving train passageway with our baggage, tripping over numerous non-reservation-holding Eurokids spending their summer backpacking across the Continent, we made it to our seats.  Unfortunately, they were in adjacent compartments.  Oh well, at least we had seats, unlike the free spirits in the hall.

Our first train was from Prague to Vienna, where we had a 45 minute layover and bought a pizza from a crowded train station restaurant.  We then boarded our second train, which was much less crowded, had more comfortable seats, and even had a power outlet in the compartment.  [Best train of the day – the seats reclined without taking up additional space and there were jump seats in the hallway in addition to things Ralph mentioned.]  Also, Lynnae and I were in the same compartment.  Lynnae was exhausted, and slept through some picture-perfect scenery as we wound through the Austrian mountains.  Unfortunately, I did not take any photos so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

We got off our second train at Maribor, Slovenia.  We had been concerned about the 7-minute layover before our last train departed Maribor, but no need to worry – our last train was already sitting just across the platform.

The last train took off for the approximately hour long trip to the Slovenian capital.  This train was by far the best of them all.  There were no compartments, but two sets of two seats faced each other with a table in between.  The train was nearly empty except for a large party of Indian people playing cards right behind us.

When the conductor came by to check our tickets, he asked for our reservation.  We did not have a reservation for this leg of the trip, and didn’t think it was an issue as the train was about 10% full.  The conductor’s English was very limited, and my Slovenian ability consists of me speaking English loudly and slowly, so it was not easy communication.  Still, we could understand that he was asking for money for two reservations.  We didn’t have enough cash for two reservations, so he just took what few euros we had and issued us one reservation.  In sum: we got shook down by a Slovenian Railways conductor.

We arrived in Ljubljana (pronounced lube-yana) around 9:40pm.  Thankfully the rail station information office closed at 10, so we headed there to get brochures and a city map.  Slovenia is a small country both physically and in population, with only 2 million people total.  As Slovenia’s largest city, Ljubljana only has a population of 272,000, about equivalent to Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a similarly-sized downtown.  As such, all we had to do was tell the clerk our hotel name and he was immediately able to point it out on the map.  We wandered the darkened streets for a bit and eventually stumbled our way onto the hotel.  [This also means that all hotels have their own directional signs]

[And some photos of beautiful Prague that we didn’t have reason to include earlier.]