We had the standard free breakfast (white toast and cereal) which the hostel provided and then headed to the city center to catch the free tour. We received a nice introduction to the city from a local guide. We enjoyed his character as well as the information he shared. We learned about the different bridges (with love padlocks), architecture, sculptures (there were some very interesting ones by Jakov Brdar on the Butchers bridge), and monuments. Almost every piece of noteworthy architecture in the city was designed by Jože Plečnik. We visited St. Nicholas’ Cathedral, the central market, and the university campus. For a large city, we really felt it had more of a small town feel. After the tour we tried a unique vending machine in the square. You insert an empty container and the machine dispenses fresh (from the same day!) local raw (unpasteurized) milk. It was richer and tastier than normal milk, but not by an incredible amount.
We also bought some nice high quality local cheese out of another vending machine. For lunch, we bought cheap and very tasty pizza by the slice. Slovenia has some of the best pizza in the world, comparable to Italy (at least according to wikitravel…) and the mozzarella and tomato pizza we had absolutely confirmed that assertion – one of the best pizzas we’ve ever had. We then took a funicular up to the Ljubljana castle where we had an awesome view of the city.
We had to try the bureks for dinner – a dish we though was Slovenian but was actually stolen from Turkey. It was a cheese stuffed thing made with phyllo dough. In the evening we met some cool travelers in our hostel (a guy from New York, another Australian (they are everywhere!), and a girl from Canada) and we went out to some Slovenian bars with them.
We danced the night away to an eclectic mix of tunes. Perhaps we had too much fun…