"Hot Horse" and Other Things in Ljubljana

This weekend we went to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.  We stayed at a lovely apartment, but at first, we weren't sure what we had gotten ourselves into because we saw a dirty, grey building.  But once we got inside, we found a nice place with a loft and bunk beds.  Here's a picture of Caroline and me throwing a ball to each other on bunk beds.  We called it "bunk catch."

Dad told us to prepare for very hot weather, but I thought, "How hot could it get?" Well, I'll admit that I was absolutely wrong, and I'll admit that I was absolutely sweating.  It was 80 degrees and sunny this weekend in not only Ljubljana but Rijeka too.

After an hour or two of settling into our apartment, we set off toward downtown Ljubljana.  On the way, we went through Tivoli Park.  It's a nice, big park with a lot of green open space and some pretty interesting food stands, such as "Hot Horse," which serves horse meat.

To a vegetarian, that is very, very, very disgusting (that was three very's).

Eventually, we kept walking, and we found this area that seemed like the Korzo in downtown Rijeka.  In this area, just like in the Korzo, no cars are allowed, so you can walk where you want.  We saw a cool outdoor market with fruit, vegetables, honey, jewelry, toys, clothing, and more.  We also walked around bridges and buildings, which were kind of boring to me but apparently interesting to my parents.

The castle is up on the hill.

The next morning we woke up ready for the day, but we had no idea what it had in store.  We kept exploring downtown Ljubljana.  Our family eventually walked up to a special thing called a funicular, a kind of train that took us up to Ljubljana Castle.  This castle was built in medieval times, which doesn't fascinate me as much as it does other people.  But I still liked this castle, especially for its stunning views.

View from the castle; Julian Alps in background

Ceiling of the Chapel of St. George, part of the castle

Ljubljana has a bunch of interesting statues.  Here's one:

Something else that might be interesting to Caroline's friends has to do with a pony balloon.  I stepped on hers last week, as I've mentioned before, and she had wanted one ever since we arrived in Ljubljana.  We eventually got her one today.  Here's Caroline, the pony balloon, and a bunch of old shoes that people hung up on wires as a prank.

Our train ride took a little under three hours and went straight from Ljubljana to Rijeka.  I can definitely say that I'm pretty happy to be home.  Or should I say, "home home."  Yes, look below for my code:

Home: A vacation place.
Home Home: Our Rijeka apartment.
Home Home Home: My hometown home.

Alison