Day One - 2.15.2009
After spending a few great days in Boston, I b
oarded my plane for Frankfurt. I didn’t sleep a wink on the flight (but did manage to eat half a box of marzipan candies). I landed at 630 am and took trains to Freiburg, a small city in the south of Germany where Andrew studies. We spent the day hanging out in Freiburg, and climbed Schlossberg, a smallish mountain in Freiburg with a panoramic view of the city and the Schwarzwald. I met some of Andrew’s friends at dinner, including one of his teachers. We went out that night to a bar, with his teac
her (who was a really nice and interesting guy). We finally headed back home around 4 and went to bed at 5. The next day we took a series of trains to Ljubljana and a
rrived there the following morning.
We got off the train at around 615 am, and I immediately regretted not bringing my down jacket – the rest of the trip I wore about 5 thin layers that still left me feeling
pretty cold. We arrived at our hostel, close to the train station and the downtown, which was a converted prison but made into a very nice and comfortable hostel. In a courtyard by the hostel is a huuuge art compound, with a bunch of graffiti (the artistic kind), as well as sculptures and other random stuff. (see photograph, cause its too hard to explain). The rest of the city is also full of weird public art and graffiti art (there was something going on called Stylz Wars II, an unofficial graffiti art contest of sorts). An example of the public art is in a park, where there is a fake plastic trash bag by a real trash can.
The downtown is pretty small, but charming. We spent the day walking around. Along the river through the center of town there was a flea market set up. People were selling everything, but there definitely seemed to be a weird Nazi theme going on, which I wrote about in my first journal entry, but kept noticing throughout the city and country. Two stands were selling Nazi pins and stamps and had portraits of Hitler displayed, not for sale. We went to a pub for lunch and ordered sandwiches and beer and were playing some cards. The waiter told us that playing cards in restaurants was illegal in Slovenia, but we thought he was joking….we continued to play throughout our hour long lunch and he didn’t mention it again. Throughout the rest of the trip, we were told multiple times that playing cards/chess was not allowed in restaurants. Apparently the waiter wasn’t joking and we had blatantly ig
nored him and conducted our illegal game for more than an hour in front of him.
We climbed up the hill to the Ljubljanski Gard, the city’s castle and then returned to the hostel and made dinner, etc. etc. and went to bed.
Other observations about Ljubljana:
· Compared to other places in Eastern Europe I have been, the Slovenians we interacted with all spoke English pretty well.
· Definitely a weird Nazi streak going on with the graffiti and items for sale
Day One - 2.15.2009
After spending a few great days in Boston, I b
oarded my plane for Frankfurt. I didn’t sleep a wink on the flight (but did manage to eat half a box of marzipan candies). I landed at 630 am and took trains to Freiburg, a small city in the south of Germany where Andrew studies. We spent the day hanging out in Freiburg, and climbed Schlossberg, a smallish mountain in Freiburg with a panoramic view of the city and the Schwarzwald. I met some of Andrew’s friends at dinner, including one of his teachers. We went out that night to a bar, with his teac
her (who was a really nice and interesting guy). We finally headed back home around 4 and went to bed at 5. The next day we took a series of trains to Ljubljana and a
rrived there the following morning.
We got off the train at around 615 am, and I immediately regretted not bringing my down jacket – the rest of the trip I wore about 5 thin layers that still left me feeling 
pretty cold. We arrived at our hostel, close to the train station and the downtown, which was a converted prison but made into a very nice and comfortable hostel. In a courtyard by the hostel is a huuuge art compound, with a bunch of graffiti (the artistic kind), as well as sculptures and other random stuff. (see photograph, cause its too hard to explain). The rest of the city is also full of weird public art and graffiti art (there was something going on called Stylz Wars II, an unofficial graffiti art contest of sorts). An example of the public art is in a park, where there is a fake plastic trash bag by a real trash can.
The downtown is pretty small, but charming. We spent the day walking around. Along the river through the center of town there was a flea market set up. People were selling everything, but there definitely seemed to be a weird Nazi theme going on, which I wrote about in my first journal entry, but kept noticing throughout the city and country. Two stands were selling Nazi pins and stamps and had portraits of Hitler displayed, not for sale. We went to a pub for lunch and ordered sandwiches and beer and were playing some cards. The waiter told us that playing cards in restaurants was illegal in Slovenia, but we thought he was joking….we continued to play throughout our hour long lunch and he didn’t mention it again. Throughout the rest of the trip, we were told multiple times that playing cards/chess was not allowed in restaurants. Apparently the waiter wasn’t joking and we had blatantly ig
nored him and conducted our illegal game for more than an hour in front of him.
We climbed up the hill to the Ljubljanski Gard, the city’s castle and then returned to the hostel and made dinner, etc. etc. and went to bed.
Other observations about Ljubljana:
· Compared to other places in Eastern Europe I have been, the Slovenians we interacted with all spoke English pretty well.
· Definitely a weird Nazi streak going on with the graffiti and items for sale
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