sLOVEnia

Seven years ago, when I arrived at Wake Forest, my across-the-hall neighbor was a fabulous tennis player named Ana. She wasn't your ordinary Wake Forest student - she was, in fact, the only student at Wake from Slovenia. Though at the time Patrick and I knew very little about her home country, we were lucky enough this weekend to get a personal, private tour of the fabulous country of Slovenia!

Patrick and Ana in front of Slovenia's most famous poet, France Prešeren  

Just a week before the USA celebrated our 236th July 4th, Slovenia celebrated its 21st year of independence. Before becoming its own 2MM+ person country, Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia along with Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Kosovo. Thankfully, the Slovenian Independence War lasted only 10 days, which is a big reason why this country is still so beautiful. It is really sobering to hear people our age talking about bomb drills in elementary school, but that was their reality as Slovenia separated from the socialist Yugoslavia into their own democratic country. They speak their own language, Slovene, and are predominately Catholic as evidenced by some beautiful huts on the side of the road with Catholic statues inside. We even spotted one in Ana's back yard with the Virgin Mary inside! Aside from the modern history, there is some true human history running through the land - while building a parking garage, they discovered a whole ancient city that was buried beneath what is now the capital of Slovenia!

Pink church in downtown Ljubljana

There are many cities in Europe that people say "I wouldn't go back, but you should at least see it once." Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana (pronounced Loob-lee-ah-nah), is a place people should see way more than once. The main city is pedestrian only, clean, and packed with gorgeous historical buildings with unique architecture and bright colors (see picture below of the fabulous pink church in the center of downtown!). The buildings are very well maintained, and there is an equally well groomed canal running through the city center. Ljubljana was like a cleaner Venice without the canal smell, but with hundreds of mouth-watering restaurants all spread outside like Parisian cafes (we tried Bosnian food, but they had ALL types of variety on the main strip!). Add in some truly great drink specials and Italian gelato stands everywhere and you can imagine how packed it was on a Friday night. Apparently it is quite the hot-spot for British bachelor parties, but we also saw a great deal of Germans and Austrians enjoying the city with the locals. We stood and watched an American sidewalk musician sing "Honky Tonk Woman," grabbed some gelato (they even have a stand that has gluten-free!), and soaked it all up.

More to come on the rest of our fabulous trip, but right now I am trying to see when we can spend some serious time in Ljubljana over the next three years. For those of you planning a Mediterranean trip in the summer, I would highly recommend adding Slovenia to your itinerary - you will thank me later for getting a fabulous European experience while maintaining your personal space, unlike most of the comparable places across Europe!