I made it! I completed my first 30 day challenge of blogging every day! I’m proud of myself. I have my next 2 30 day challenges planned as well: next up I’ll be working out every day and in May I’ll be learning French! I bought Rosetta Stone levels 1-3 on Groupon and I’m really excited! I took French for 3 years in high school and used to be good at it, so I think it’s plausible for me to learn it again. But before I get ahead of myself, I still have one more blog to attend to.
I absolutely loved Ljubljana (pronounced lee-oo-blee-ahnah). 
I stored my bag in a locker and once again followed Rick Steves’ tour of the city. This was the walk to the main square.
When I first got to the main square I initially wasn’t blown away. I had seen a ton of squares. It was nice, but not stunning. Then I read my ever-wonderful guide book’s description and the details about everything made it so interesting. I completely wouldn’t have given it a second thought without the book. At the beginning of my trip I thought I needed tours of cities in order to fully appreciate them. Wrong! I just needed a good guide book.
When I was done with the square I crossed the very cool Triple Bridge to where 5 musicians were playing and singing gorgeous harmonies in front of the street market.
Approaching the street market.
I thought this market would be like every other kitschy tourist trap, but it wasn’t. Every stand was all hand-made souvenirs. I was very over the typical shit so this was so nice.
I loved that. Words to live by on a coaster.
I walked the whole market before going back to the designed glass I saw first. I got a pretty tea light holder that said Slovenia on it and it’s still on my desk now. And it was only 2 euros! Maybe I also liked it there because it was back to euros.
The second half of the market was fresh fruit which looked great except for all of the bees. Now I know why they sell so much honey here. Gross.
Then I found my favorite thing ever. Thank you again to Rick Steves for pointing this out. It is a milk vending machine!! It is connected directly to a farm that provides fresh, raw cow milk! And it’s only 1 euro per liter! It was the best milk I had ever tasted and it was so cold and refreshing. I was so happy. 
After I got mine, it became wildly popular. I’m such a trend-setter.
Cheese from a vending machine, however? No, thank you.
Then there was a pretty flower market.
Dragon Bridge
Old Town Square. I was enjoying it here more and more.
This is a bank.
Cobbler’s Bridge.
I think one of my favorite things about the day was that I wasn’t in a rush and had no real expectations. I had 8 hours here and figured if I missed something I’d never know any better. But according to my book I don’t think I missed anything big. After walking around a bit more I came back to this spot to journal.
As I was walking, I saw a restaurant giving away free samples. It was that yellow stand on the right.
They were giving samples of a traditional Slovenian food called Idrija zlikrofi. It was basically tortellini with potato filling and it was so good. Between the liter of milk and the pasta, I was pretty full for very little money.
Next I hiked up the big hill to the castle. I could have taken the funicular but we all know I’m too cheap for that. This was half way up.
I relented and paid the 3 euros to watch a silly movie about the history of the castle and go up to the top viewing platform. 
It was pretty up there with the Alps in the background.
I was about to leave when I decided I’d just pop in to look at the chapel (I was pretty much over churches). In the chapel was a calligrapher who was in love with me. After asking where I was from he said the super slick pick-up line, “Oh, I thought you were from Heaven.” Wow. He made these little bookmarks for donations. I thought they actually looked really neat, so I asked for one. After finishing it, he decided to just make me another with the same font as the Book of Kells. That’s very nice of you, dude, but I only have 2 euros left so that’s all you’re getting. Then he asked me if I had a sister who would want one. I already told him I didn’t have money left and he said, “For you – free.” Alright, fine. So I got my mom and Maddie one. Pretty cool souvenirs for only 2 euros.
Once I was done with the castle, I strolled around, sat and wrote in my journal, and enjoyed the afternoon.
The gays are alive and well in Ljubljana.
That’s a corn stand on the left! Is it a coincidence that my favorite cities all have corn stands in them? I think not.
A walk back through the first square. I also picked up some groceries here before I headed to my train for Zurich. Everything I had ever heard about Switzerland said it was very expensive, so my goal was to buy as little food there as possible.
I saw this on a train pulling into the station. “All good things are wild and free.” Who knew graffiti on a train would be so inspiring? I looked it up later and saw that it was a Henry David Thoreau quote.
What a wonderful day in a country I had known nothing about before visiting. It was a perfect day getaway. And don’t you fret, Monsieur Marius, I’ll keep blogging even though my 30 day challenge is over. I have a lot of beautiful Switzerland and skydiving pictures to post. I am excited to have these challenges now. Sure enough just like the video said, those 30 days passed either way, but now I have 30 blogs to show for it.
ktotokyo 