The Spring Break of a Lifetime: Part 4 (Slovenia, 2023)

A hop, skip, and a jump away from Zagreb lies Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia! Our train from Zagreb only took 2 hours, and Josh and I had our own compartment. Interestingly, they checked our passports before leaving Croatia. Maybe this is a popular smuggling area?

We arrived a bit late, as is expected with Eastern European train travel, but we quickly put our bags away and walked toward Ljubljana Castle. En route, we saw some of the city and walked over the famous Dragon Bridge, which, as the name suggests, has dragon gargoyles at its entrance. Even though it was Friday and the middle of the day, the streets were bustling and the sidewalks were well-populated. Given my experience in other Eastern European cities where the city was more quiet, it was nice to see everyone out and about.

Josh and I arrived at the base of the castle and took the funicular up to meet our friends, Oscar and Maarten. They’d also been going through Eastern Europe, but on a different route than us (similar to Harsh from Budapest!). We decided to take part in Escape Castle, which was a game where we had to solve riddles and collect clues from around the castle grounds to free the famous dragon. It was worth every penny of the 20€ because we got to explore the entire castle, and even went through this multimedia experience of freeing the dragon. It was educational, entertaining, and a lot of fun; I highly, highly recommend it to anyone visiting Ljubljana.

Also, if it wasn’t clear, the city’s symbol is the dragon and they’ve HEAVILY leaned into it. To be fair, it’s such a cool symbol.

To wrap up our visit to the castle, we watched an educational film on the history and developments of the castle, which dates back hundreds and hundreds of years! It seems that every monument in Europe has a recorded history since 500 CE. Freeing the dragon was a lot of hard work, so the 4 of us grabbed lunch at Abi Falafel. Apparently, this place was so famous that Oscar and Maarten tried to go the previous day for dinner, but the line was out the door. And we soon found out why: the food was amazing, with fresh vegetables, lots of meat, and authentic hummus.

I was ready to take a nap, but since we only had a day in this beautiful city and country, we wanted to make the most of it. Josh and I walk past the cathedral; it looked really pretty but we didn’t go inside since it cost a couple Euros and we’d seen dozens of cathedrals during our semester in Europe. As we approached the main square, Josh and I bid goodbye to our Dutch and Swedish friends. This area of the city featured the beautiful, pink Franciscan Church of the Annunciation and the famous triple bridge crossing the Ljubljanica River. I don’t really understand why they built 3 separate bridges converging at the same point, but it looks cool!

As we continued walking around the city, Josh and I couldn’t help but notice the youthfulness of the city. At 2 PM on a Friday, the parks and cafés were jam-packed with teenagers and families with young children. It was really refreshing to see such a clean, energetic city compared to the darker vibes of other Eastern European cities, like Zagreb and Bratislava. We walked around some government buildings, including a judicial one and the National Assembly Building, where the Slovenian Parliament is held. Eventually, we made it out of the main part of the city and into Tivoli Park, which is a gigantic park located a 5-minute walk from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Josh and I strolled around, played at a playground (one of my favorite things to do when traveling to other countries), and made our way to our target: Goran Dragić Memorial Court. My favorite NBA Player, Luka Dončić is from Ljubljana, but his memorial court is located in the suburbs of the city and is where he used to play as a kid. So, we visited another court designed for another NBA All-Star from Slovenia (and a friend of Luka’s), Goran Dragić. The court was in tip-top shape, likely paid for by Dragić as a way of giving back. It had his name and even some rules and tips on the game of basketball. Although it was wet, Josh and I threw up some shots and played some light 1-on-1. I couldn’t help but think how Dragić and likely even Luka Dončić played on this court as a kid. In the same spot where I slipped doing a layup and scraped my knee. Hopefully, some of the court’s magic rubbed off on me.

We could have played for hours, but I realized our original plan to get to Venice required trains to be on time, and we just heard from Oscar and Maarten that their train was delayed. Remembering that we were not in Switzerland anymore, I didn’t want to rely on our train being on time, especially since there were only 2 trains going to Venice on that day. So, since we had seen most of what we wanted to see, I made the executive decision to cut our trip short by a couple hours and run to the train station to catch that delayed train that our friends were waiting on. We barely made it on time, only for the train to be delayed another 45 minutes.

But, before long, our train to Venice arrived and we left the vibrant city of Ljubljana behind.

Takeaways

• Ljubljana and Slovenia as a whole are extremely underrated destinations and they are an absolute must-visit for any European traveler
• If you’re an NBA fan, make sure to check out Goran Dragić’s court and take an Uber out to Luka Dončić’s court
• Make sure to play the interactive game at the castle—honestly, a genius idea that other historical sites need to take note of
• Be wary of the train system! This isn’t Switzerland and 2-hour delays are considered normal here

Rose-Bud-Thorn

Rose (what went well): Exploring Ljubljana Castle was a lot of fun and provided amazing views of the city from above. It also played into the dragon theme of the city, which is so incredibly cool
Bud (what was good but could be improved on): Checking out Dragić’s memorial court was super cool, but I wish we would have splurged on an Uber and taken the trek to Celje to see Dončić’s court. Maybe I’ll be back!
Thorn (what did not go well): Perhaps the greatest compliment possible, my only thorn was that we didn’t spend enough time here. One or two nights in Ljubljana would have allowed us to see the city at night, check out the food scene, and maybe even explore Lake Bled!