Slovenia, Ljubljana: looking out

First things first. The capital of Slovenia, contrary to my belief, is not pronounced 'le jube jube', and contrary to popular belief is not pronounced 'le jube liana'. It is, you will be pleased to know I'm sure, pronounced 'loo bee anna'...I think.

Upon arrival to my hostel, I was beat from my overnight bus into Zagreb and time there, and the only thing I was lookig out for was my bed. But there was a guy sitting at a table in the common room, and we both did a bit of a 'lookover, do i know you? noo...' well that's what I did. Adam would actually take a stab at it: 'Do I... look familiar? Were... you... In split? About a week ago?' yes, yes I was. And it goes on from there for us to realize he was checking out of my hostel in Split as I was checking in. We'd exchanged about 2-minutes of conversation, not exchanged names, and left it at, 'well, have a great trip!'

Which looking back and exchanging stories of the past week, we both had. And looking forward to Slovenia we both were. And I've chosen to title this post 'looking out' not for that reason, but for the fact that Adam's favourite thing (mantra?) for new cities is to find their lookout and climb up. So in the 2 days that followed, I did a lot of looking out.

In fact my looking out started just moments after checking in when I met the guy on my lower bunk, a Canadian traveling for the year, looking back on his experience, 'there are days I could do this forever and there are days I want to go home right away'. So I looked back on my memory, thinking 'i've heard that before, exactly, almost too exactly' ... 'hey, did you meet two girls at the train station in Bulgaria at the beginning of May?' Bingo. Two for two. Go figure.

Enough anecdotal stuff. Let's lookout at the shinanigans of Ljubljana.

Go on free walking tour (best one yet!!), explore city, get huge 4 course lunch for 10 euro, begin climb to castle lookout, lookout at halfway point, continue climbing, meet up with 3 girls and 1 guy from our walking tour (oh! You guys are stayin at our hostel too?! Cool), climb stairs of castle tower, lookout over Slovenia, lookout over Austria, lookout to where the other 4 chose to lookout, etc. Climb down. Walk to squats*. Take cool photos in front of crazy graffiti. Back to hostel. Out to watch football match. Lookout over the bridge for a beautiful view. Lookout for locals who get angry when we're accidentally in front of a big screen. Lookout for the water soaking my shirt when I try to drink from the fountain. Lookout over the bridge again. Lookout for all my steps on the way home......

* squats = apartments used durin wartime by army people, abandoned, artsy fartsy people take them over for grafiti/shows/music/etc.

Wake up. Catch hour bus to lake bled. Look up at castle. Look out at island with church. Look further out to beautiful mountainous scenery. Walk allll around lake bled. Lunch! Walk up to castle. Look out at halfway point. Continue climb. Lookout from the top. Admire lake & church & mountains all at once. Meet other couple from our hostel. Ice cream :) Swim in lake! Look out for thunnderr! Bus. Look out for crazy people Mr. busdriver.

Kebab. Mmmmm. Hostel. Walk around huge park. Lookout for underage underbridge drinkers. More park. Lookout for directions we might be lost. Hostel. Bag. Goodbye. Lookout for me in Spain?! 23:50 overnight train to Munich (looking out for connecting train through Munich to Amsterdam)