Trav'lin' Light: The Slovenian Appendix

In the middle of my time in England, I went to Slovenia's capital city, Ljubljana, to present my research at the European Association of Social Anthropologists biennial conference. The theme for the conference was "Experiencing Diversity and Mutuality", fitting considering my Masters is in Diversity Studies. At any rate, it was a great four days. I met many amazing scholars and developed a further interest in anthropological enterprise. There was even someone who showed up at my presentation because they specifically wanted to hear about my research. Turns out she is also doing work on bone marrow transplantation! Her angle is more about pain experienced by donors and recipients. But how cool is that to make such a fortuitous connection! Glorious to know I'm not the only person looking at those issues from a social science perspective.

Thankfully, I made sure I had time to check out Ljubljana. The sunshine was out in full force and perfect for late afternoon strolls and warm riverbank dinners. There were winding cobbled streets, gorgeous architecture, buildings stained by graffiti, and bike lanes on the sidewalk that were certainly put to good use.

Slovenia, as my native Balkan (Bosnian) friend Slaven points out, is the Balkan country that wants to think it's not Balkan. It fancies itself more Central European. Given its borders with Austria and Italy, this does make sense. Indeed, the food certainly reflected the nature of this continental crossroads, as did the demeanor of its citizens, fluent in Slovenian, English, and usually German and/or Italian. Gregarious folk, too. I remember that on the flight from London to Ljubljana, the passengers were gabbing merrily the whole way there, and applauded loudly when the plane landed.

Oh my god. Slovenia honey is the bomb. I bought a jar of coconut creamed honey and it was magnificent. Apparently Slovenia is known for its beekeeping. The place where I procured this elixir was a shop downtown, and the salesgirl said that the owner keeps his bees and produces the honey some distance away and comes in regularly to the shop to re-stock its shelves. I brought the honey back to London, and within three weeks I used up the whole damn jar. I really should've bought back more. If anyone plans on going there, please bring me back a caseload.

Anyway, here's a set of piccies from my walks around Ljubljana. Sadly, my digital camera was busted so these are from a disposable camera. Forgive the quality and lighting issues.


This is the castle perched atop the hill in the city. They have art exhibits and a cafe there too. The hill has some pretty views, but the light was going when I hiked up there, and the duskiness didn't allow for any shots worth posting.

This is the old athletic building near my hostel: if you enlarge it you'll see cool building detail

The backside of one of the dragons flanking the town bridge: if you look closely in the background you'll see they do have Chinese restaurants everywhere!



Yes I am a nerd and I went to the train museum. Vintage transport is mesmerizing to me. Don't hate. Look how neato toledo this old engine is!


The city center

A city church

If you'd like to catch up with the other parts of the journey, here ya go:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

To close out the Trav'lin Light series here's its namesake tune once again: