I love Skofja Loka, but sometimes I get a case of small town fever. So I’ve been riding my bike weekly and sometimes twice weekly to Ljubljana, round trip about 52 km. The new spring leaves were on most of the trees, then it snowed 10 centimeters on April 27th. Well the heavy snow broke tree branches on nearly every tree I saw.
When I meet the young local people in Ljubljana, they say it’s too small a city but it’s enough for me. I discovered a new coffee shop called Ziferblat. It’s based on a Russian business model that’s being tried here. You basically pay 5 cents a minute to be inside & all the coffee/tea you can drink. You can learn to make your own cappuccino’s or work on an Art project. I’ve meet some interesting locals, travelers and expats from all around the world. Your group can rent a private space, for a meeting or even a wedding celebration.
An artist was sculpting a head with clay, I was going to come back and get a photo, he wrapped it up before I could. Be sure to visit Ziferblat for a true Ljubljana experience.
I always try to learn something new about Ljubljana during my many visits. I started staying at the Vrba Hostel , so I can do some evening events. A friendly & clean hostel in a quiet neighborhood with good food and bars, a few steps away. I was out all day and when I came back to my room I opened the door to 2 women (girls). I went back out and checked my key and the door number, yep right room. They were from Paris, I told the I went to Disneyland Paris 21 years ago, they said they weren’t born yet. I went to the front desk, Merci Beaucoup, we laughed.
I took the food tour of Ljubljana, probably one of the worst tours I’ve ever done and I’ve done a few. I ate enough sausage & meat to last me a lifetime. There’s so much more interesting food here, like the deer goulash, buckwheat polenta, turkey (Ljubljana style!), ham & cheese stuffed calamari, Turkey medallions with pumpkin seed cream sauce. There’s always a huge vegetarian page on every menu. The tour guide talked about olive oil, which is found in every country around us. The real Slovenian treat is Pumpkin Oil which is a flavorful oil that can be added to salads. I make pesto using pumpkin oil and pumpkin seed. I’ve also used it to make delicious popcorn too, the tour guide never even mentioned it. We walked right past Ziferblat, I asked him why he didn’t talk about it? He said they are not suppose to talk about business’s. The tourism industry is so broken here. We walked by the City Museum, I started telling everyone about Sebastiao Salgado’s photo exhibit called Genesis. They replanted 17,000 acres in Brazil and remade the jungle, it’s a great story about how all the wildlife & streams returned. The tour guide finally offered me a job to be a guide, I gracefully declined.
Every time I visit Ljubljana something is going on, like the Hemp Festival, Vegan Festival and of course I try to stop by the botanical garden to see what’s newly bloomed. I wanted to talk to the women who was making the fiber, I went back 3 times the guy in the red shirt wouldn’t shut-up and leave, I finally gave up.
Yep I got a bike story, surprised? As you know I bought several bikes for some Afghan refugee women. I took a picture of by favorite bike when I first delivered the bikes. Well no one wanted the bike, I was WTF? So they had another event at Metelkova, I had to go to see if my bike went for a ride. When I was showing someone my photos from the first event, they asked why I didn’t take video? Well this time I took some video.
HERE’S THE COUPLE OF VIDEO’S I TOOK
I thought I could tell all with one post, no way. I have a lot of photos, stories and adventures from Skofja Loka that I didn’t include, I’m going to work on that next.
Enjoy the post and be sure to ride your bike-it’s summer, there’s no excuse.
Jeff
If you go to America you must visit Portland Oregon. Home of the worlds largest Naked Bike Ride.
Hi! Glad to hear things are going so good there. Can’t wait to visit you. Just three more months. I do want to go over some travel details. Looking forward to seeing Ljubljana with you. Sounds like an interesting city.
Mary
Jeff, I love that coffee shop model! Seems fair all the way around. And the pictures of the Afghan woman learning to ride the bike. They brought back a long forgotten memory of the awesome feeling (at age 6) when my bike’s momentum broke free from my dad’s grasp and I moved forward with my own balance. After that I was on that bike every chance I could get, pretending I was in the circus, holding on to the handlebars while one foot was on the seat and the other leg stretched straight up as far as I could get it…my first “Downward Facing Dog” with a leg lift…”Downward Peeing Dog”?
Steve and I are at the coast camping. We rented a VW campervan and are really enjoying it. Lots of room and a place for everything. We didn’t bring the bikes on this trip. Wish we had. We’ve been doing trips around Portland and made our first trip to do grocery shopping after getting some paniers. The ebikes are so easy to use and I have been using less and less power as I get stronger. Nice to have the choice.
Love to you and Natasha!
My edible yard is coming along, still lots of babies out there. I’m thinking in a couple of years it will be filled out nicely. Keeping an eye on the crows, squirrels and rabbits who are very interested in it. There are so many worms in the beds the robins are having a feast.