Downtown Life  “The Center”

After trying to sleep through an eventful night of “dorm life” again, with guys and gals running up and down the halls yelling and singing opera at 2 in the morning in the shower across the hall, we woke up this morning feeling more refreshed. We met with our student representative and got a tour of the complex we are living in. Sounds like laundry might be a little tough to do, but we will survive-we don’t have any clothes yet anyways, ha. Afterwards our representative brought us for morning coffee (kava), I got a ‘white kava’ which is a latte (more milk than coffee=white). It was delicious.

Before we had to meet with our principal downtown, we walked there early to check it out (and make sure we didn’t get lost). The town is so beautiful…cobble stone roads, bridges, three rivers, a market place, and houses that are like a fairytale. There are so many things to look at and take in, it was so nice to get out and walk around in the fresh air and sunshine.

Our principal (Irena) took us out to eat at a traditional Slovenian restaurant called 'Sokol'. Typical foods are soups, breads, goulashes, and veal…I had gnocchi and it was delicious. Gibanica is a traditional Slovene pastry that is either rolled or layered. It has a combination of raisins, cottage cheese, poppy seeds, walnuts, and apples..it tasted like a warm apple pie, but very rich.

After walking downtown we learned more about some of the statues we had seen when walking around earlier. The story of Preseren is one that classic “melancholic and romantic” according to Irena, which is typical Slovene. He was a poor man who worked hard for very little. He fell in love with a woman from much wealth and prestige. He desired her so, but their love could never be. He wrote beautiful and romantic poetry and music to show his love. To deaden the sting of his pain, he drank a lot. They say he died a young man of cirrhosis of the liver, still in love with the woman who was so beautiful, but could never be his. In the center of the square he stands there looking and waiting, and across the square on the wall there is a statue of her in a window...forever unreachable. (He was also responsible for writing the national anthem for Slovenija).

We saw the bridge with locks all over the two sides. We learned that married couples come to the bridge and put a lock on the bridge to show their everlasting bond, in hopes of a long and happy life together. This strengthens their tie of love, and binds them for the rest of this lifetime. This bridge overlooks the Ljubljanica River, which flows through the heart of the city.

The shoes hanging from the buildings are in front of the “artsy” street, where the museums and galleries are. On some of the streets there are little faces to ‘spice it up’. There is also a fountain with three men pouring buckets of water into the fountain...this represents the three rivers that flow through the heart of Ljubljana (very vital to the source of life for the city).

Tonight some of us hit up the night seen at “The Center”. We went to a place called the Skelet bar which was suggested to us, and it was like Halloween themed with skeletons everywhere. Everyone seems to go out really late, so we definitely were not used to that. We met a lot of really nice people who were interested in what we were doing here, and we had some really fun conversations with.

Tomorrow is a new day full of adventure..