Slovenia: Ljubljana

Ljubljana, Slovenia: bridge decorated in bright orange
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We spent two nights in Ljubljana (lube-lee-ahna), and it quickly became one of my favorite cities in all Eastern Europe.  It is a beautiful capital city, compact (260,000 people), and soaking in the arts.  There is wonderful art everywhere, from the omnipresent graffiti to little galleries and open air exhibitions.

The hostel we stayed at was an art exhibit by itself.  It was a converted prison, and we stayed in a former cell.  The hostel, Celica, commissioned famous Slovenian artists to come and redecorate each cell (about 30) in the prison in their own unique styles.

Possibly the finest Eastern European capital city

Ljubljana, Slovenia: hostel celica, the former prison
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Ours was a simple, yet beautiful cell with a bunk reachable by a ladder and small abstract art around the cell.  There was an actual art gallery in the lobby with daily performances, such as theatre, music, etc.

Next door to the hostel is an area called Metelkova, which is basically Ljubljana's answer to Copenhagen's Christiania.  Squatters took over an abandoned military barracks and turned it into a stunning complex of bars, clubs, art, and hippie stylings.

The government has not done anything about the complex yet, so currently these young, kind of crazy people live for free and hang out all day, drinking, performing, drinking, performing, etc.  The second night we went out to several of the bars, each of which was bizarre, yet comfortable.

Ljubljana, Slovenia: old town window
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One bar had a crazy guy singing crazy songs in english with a video presentation behind him; the seating area next to the stage consisted of about twenty five car seats, pulled from used cars (very comfortable).  Another club was blasting Rage Against the Machine in a large warehouse type building with upside down umbrellas lined with christmas lights.

Outside in the "quad" each building had strange, but cool video displays, outstanding graffiti, and skeleton dummies.  A unique way to spend the night - and the beer was dirt cheap.

Ljubljana, Slovenia: downtown street
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The main core of the city has some excellent architecture, sort of a mini-Vienna type center.  There are countless outdoor cafes and many amazing desserts.

There was a theatre festival going on, and the jazz festival was just starting (missed Medeski, Martin and Wood / John Scofield / Jack DeJohnette by a day!).  The city is crowned by its castle which, as usual, is slightly underwhelming but provides fantastic views of the city.

Later on I will do a separate entry for Ljubljana's incredible graffiti, as I have tons of pictures of their unique stampings and tags.

Ljubljana, Slovenia: spiral staircase at the castle
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A truly wonderful place, one of the finest capitals I have set foot in.