Interrail 2016: LJUBLJANA

From the picturesque mountains of Bled, we got the coach to Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital city. I'll be honest- none of us knew that much about the place at all. Ljubljana is a place that I only learnt about from Interrail planning; little is heard about it from the city where I come from.

Ljubljana prides itself on being '2016's Greenest City' and you can immediately determine why: recycling bins are everywhere. Probably not the reason you'd set out to visit a city but significant to Slovenia all the same.

As we got our coach to the city at mid-afternoon, we first checked out the kitchen to start planning for dinner. Well, I can safely say that the kitchen at the hostel was almost unusable. It was so, so small. Always check to ensure that the kitchen is actually a kitchen when booking hostels.

As cooking was no longer an option, it was time for yet another picnic meal. Courtesy of Spar Supermarket, I had a slice of pizza and a Milka bar. Nutritious.

We wandered around the main river of Ljubljana, looking in at the independents that are located close by, and also watched a floating orchestra on the river Ljubjanica which was very sophisticated. With the sun shining, the city looked splendid and reminded slightly of Amsterdam and Prague.

The next day, we began with a trip to Ljubljana Castle. The city centre is situated around a large hill which the castle is on top of. To get up the steep incline, you can walk but we decided to take the Funicular Railway, which took less than a minute, as we only really had a day in the city. Unlike the other castles we have been to, we bought a ticket to go inside the castle. Entry was 3€ on top of the 4€ Funicular and got us access to a viewing tower, a cinematic experience of the castle's history and a museum. The viewing tower did indeed provide impressive views over the city, with the surrounding mountains looking stunning, and the cinematic experience was insightful. However, the museum was not exactly the best I have been to. Whilst they had made an effort to make the exhibitions more interactive, many of the artefacts were replicas and the multi-media usage was repetitive. That said, it did have a considerable amount of information on Slovenia's past. For the smallest extra entry cost, getting entry into the castle is probably worthwhile, but just don't make it the focus of your weekend. A visit up to the castle is certainly something to do when visiting though as it is the city's main focus.

Following the castle (and rain), we went to, what was my highlight of the visit, a cat cafe. Oh, yes. The cafe is home to eight cats to stroke, snuggle and take lots and lots of pictures of. There are cat toys everywhere and multiple scratching/sleeping towers. My favourite cat Marko came and chilled in the bed next to my seat, letting me stroke him to sleep. We all ordered the Cat Caffe speciality of Cat's Cocoa and none of us knew what to expect. Fortunately, we had absolutely made the right choice. The Cat's Cocoa turned out to be a large hot chocolate with cream and chocolate sauce, topped by a Slovenian biscuit. It was simply scrumptious. 

After spooning out every ounce of hot chocolate left, the waitress gave us each a couple of treats to feed the cats with. This turns out to be extremely comical. Some cats (including Marko) went insane with excitement, and were very persistent at getting the treats, whereas others would simply stare and make you go to them rather than move themselves. I held up my hand to a cat walking across the walkway at the ceiling and he pawed me for the treats. 

What a cutie. 

For dinner, we had a Burrito by the river for a change and finished this with an ice cream. When I arrived in Ljubljana, I noticed that a substantial amount of people had bought ice creams and the taste of that ice cream would explain why- it was so good.

Whilst Ljubljana seemed fairly stereotypical for a city- a river flowing through the centre, restaurants everywhere, markets and a castle- there was one area that offered a slightly alternative source of culture. Metelkova is a autonomous social centre, which, when we visited, was very popular with young people. Buildings were covered in wall art, shoes hung from electricity wires, metal rock music filled the air and young adults hung about in a play frame. Metelkova was an extraordinary place situated about fifteen minutes from the Ljubljanica river and is definitely worth having a look around, even if it is during the day and not when the area has a booming nightlife (or, so we were told)

For our final night in Slovenia, we decided to try out the nightclubs. We had in fact tried to get into a nightclub on the first night but the nightclub was completely shut. Tomorrow, then. The next evening, we set out for the same nightclub and... Again, it was shut. Our research had suggested that this was 'the club' to go to, yet it wasn't even open on a Friday night. Whether it had closed down or moved, we will never know. Instead, we walked past Top nightclub, which, quelle surprise, was at the top of a building. Six floors high. There was a long queue, which is always promising, and the people in the lift with us were very friendly. Sadly, we were disappointed. Whilst there were young people our age in the club, there were also an uncomfortable amount of older, grindy men. The music was dancey pop remixes with the odd classic but a proportion of the people at the club affected our experience so we ended up leaving at 2:30am. 

Although the nightlife didn't quite live up to being 'the new Berlin' as an article said (yep, they actually said that), our time in Ljubljana was otherwise a delight and Cat Caffe is undoubtedly a must-do for all travellers missing their pets like I am. It was our least touristy destination to date so if that appeals then Ljubljana might just about be your place.

We are now travelling towards our final country of Interrail, Croatia. 

Next stop: Zagreb!