24 hours in LJUBLJANA
Leaving Venezia around 9pm, the city so dark and not enough light or streets lights, and still a bit rainy.
Hop on the Euro train and looking hard for a nice cabin room, because it’s going to be a long train ride, around 6 hours from Venezia to Ljubljana. The train destination is Zagreb-Croatia but it will stop at Ljubljana first.
I share the 6-person capacity cabin number 428 with a girl from Zagreb. She’s studying digital art in Venezia. Her name is Suzana Hizak. Chatted for a while, then decided to sleep before midnight. She had this great idea about locking the cabin door so that we could have the whole 3 seat per row and straighten our body and sleep well. Well, not until the officer knock real hard and let a man with a wheelchair to come into our cabin. Suzana already fell asleep so I let him sit in my row. Its 2:45am, but I think it’s good for me, so i could stay awake before I missed Ljubljana, or else I’ll be stranded in Croatia.
Arrived in Ljubljana around 3:20am, the train station is a like a graveyard, no one there, and I felt quite insecure to be in the eastern side of Europe with those kind of criminal story of it.
My blackberry’s battery drains out, and I couldn’t check the picture of the clock near McDonald Branka sent to be our meeting point. She’s unbelievably generous to even send a picture of the meeting point by email and even more, she’s willing to pick me up in the train station, in this TOO EARLY before morning. 3:30am, Branka fetch me under the wrong clock (that) I thought was right.
She let me sleep at her daughter’s room. A warm room with a lot of picture of branka and her baby, a lot of toys, and a giant unicorn doll. The little angel is staying at her dad’s place at the moment.
Wake up so early in the morning. Branka walk me down to the center, even paying for the bus, show me around, leave me for a while because she have to go to see a doctor, and meet me again in the center and then walk with me again around Ljubljana.
Ljubljana is beautifuuuuul and warmer. The city is so small, we walk for almost 2 hours and I see almost all the city corner. She even treats me a strawberry juice, because I don’t drink coffee, and order 2 cups of coffee to herself. We talk so much, and she told me about her plan to Dublin with Yanni, her boyfriend for her birthday holiday on January.
Branka is an editor at Slovenian local Film magazine, Kino. She even took me to her office and introduces me to her boss and her colleagues. Her job is so fun she don’t have to be at office all the time, she can work everywhere, as long as there is Internet connection and send all of her writings by emails.
She’s really beautiful inside and out, she’s vibrant, and so friendly. It’s beyond my expectation because her profile picture on couch-surfing happens so fierce with super short hair with tattoo and black metal band picture on the other folder. I even checked her myspace account and find her a rock metal band girl in my mind.Branka also introduce me to her boyfriend Yanni, he work at Toro bar, and a vocalist to a rock metal band called Spoonfly. You can google them on Youtube and can watch yanni perform on stage.
I’m quite surprised and impressed when Branka show me the video of yanni, performing with his rock metal on youtube. Because on the daily basis, Yanni appear as a normal
good guy with glasses, and never in my mind he could ghroll-ing like that. I just drop my jaw and cant stop saying COOOL! J I also share a video of my friend’s band, Seringai to her, and she happens to get excited and wants to be friends with the band on MySpace. Well, it’s a good feeling when suddenly we can connect some international network instantly.She share me some of her liquors stock, my favorite was Teranov Likercek. And let me try a dried ham, it was soooo yumAt night, before I leave Ljubljana, Branka took me out to the center again. Its beautiful all the lights of the Christmas market and all. She took me to her favorite bar, Café de Moro, a bar with skulls and graveyard decoration, to try “hot wine” called Zgane Pijace. Ljubljana is relatively humble to my pocket. Well, compare to Milano. Afterward, we went to Yanni’s working place, the Toro bar, stay at the smoking area, the drink was on Yanni.
They’re a very humble and sweet couple, I wish you both a happily ever after (months after when I got back home to Indonesia, I see on facebook, they’re married! Congratulation you both! May you both love each other to death )
Around 1am, she drops me at the train station, because I have to continuing my journey to Budapest.
It was a very memorable intense 24 hours in Ljubljana with a wonderful beautiful host Branka reznik & Yanni. And forget to mention, their cats, tiga and lili.
Thank you so much.
