This morning we woke up early and packed, took the bus to a stop not very near the new hostel and walked for ages until we found it. Our relief was shattered when no-one answered the doorbell and it appeared deserted. Time was rushing by and we were due to meet Alan at 9 o’clock. Keith stayed and I set off for the station, where I saw, from some distance, the familiar and dear form of Alan, sitting on the steps and scanning in the opposite direction for us. Together we retraced my steps to find Keith. Meanwhile the impenetrable door I had left Keith at, although at the address given on the Internet, was not the one we needed. Confusing. In fact the hostel was in a student residence in a different building some distance behind, and it was only because some other backpackers tried their luck behind the building and didn’t return, that Keith, carrying two big packs and two smaller bags, staggered around to find it. There were no clear signs showing where the hostel was.
We hadn’t had breakfast, and Alan had eaten ages before and had been out and about in Ljublijana since 7 a.m. so a café stop was required, with our early start dissipating fast and the heat climbing into the mid thirties. Ljubljana is a charming city, the capital of Slovenia. The population is only 276,000 so it is a comfortable size and has a heart of historic and interesting buildings with the River Ljubljanica curling its way through the centre. Supposedly, Jason and the Argonauts were zipping off with the Golden Fleece and they sailed into the Ljubljanica, where they encountered and slew a terrible beast, now known as the Ljubljana dragon. The dragon is in the ancient coat of arms on top of the castle and also features as four large statues guarding one of the bridges over the river. That bridge also has griffins holding up the lights and snarling at the passers by.
After breakfast we wandered through the oldest part of Ljubljana at the foot of the hill, looking for a way up to the castle. The building facades hug the road, whose path is defined by the curve of the river only one block away. Always a city where migrants from other countries made their homes, there is a touch of Italian and Austrian influence, and a great mix of styles. The streetscapes and roof scapes are very interesting and eye catching.
We passed churches whose onion-shaped domes, usually in green, rose above the terracotta tiles of the surrounding rooves. We didn’t enter any on this day, but admired their facades and the statues in the squares near them. The path to the hilltop was not at all challenging and we were soon at the castle entrance. The hill was occupied from very early days, with fortifications having been built long before the time of the Romans. The Medieval castle was originally built in the 9th century but was restored and changed after the earthquake of 1511 and with restorations in the 17th century. 
Alan asked us if we had been concerned about earthquakes while we were travelling, and Keith said that he had been quite conscious of the fact that we had been in many earthquake-prone areas and a little concerned, and that the histories that we had learnt showed how unstable everywhere was. I had read all about earthquakes but not connected them to the present or to me at all. Also I am in ‘non-worrying mode’ for this year.Originally lived in by provincial rulers, the castle became a garrison headquarters and then a prison, and now, after recent renovations, it houses a wedding suite, a restaurant, exhibition spaces and other commercial and social venues. As such, it was quite different to all the other castles we had visited and, while a great venue, as a castle it seemed to have sold its soul. This impression deepened with our visit to the tower, for which we paid to climb a short spiral staircase in a renovated tower from which we did have a fine view, although not significantly better than the one from the hilltop.
Added to that was the bizarre ‘Virtual Museum’ visit in the tower, paid for of course, where we wore 3D glasses to watch a tourist rave promotion video about Ljubljana. I took my glasses off for a while to see the difference and there was not much other than a slight blur, and not much point wearing them for such a film. Once I had got over the idea that this restored castle was now a commercial business, I was able to appreciate seeing what it used to be like. We visited various exhibitions, none of which were related to the castle’s history and could have been anywhere. The first was a design exhibition in a tower, with the drawings and models being designs which cater for people in a variety of built up environments. It was interesting to see the innovative ideas which, in some cases, utilised more than one level, and I know through our daughter Holly’s experiences in her course, that they represented an enormous amount of research and application. Keith and Alan had been in and out before me, but they both accepted that I would be lagging behind. The walls were painted with monochrome pictures, almost like cartoons and depicting many scenes which I presume told of the history of the area. There was no information about them but they seemed to be of considerable age, since they were damaged, and the subject matter related to Medieval life, with a large section on hangings, burnings and witch hunting.A sad looking teen was on guard for an exhibition about traditional weddings, which showed the clothing and presents that were given. The girl brightened when I asked about the ‘yoke of matrimony’, a joke present given to the groom which appeared to be missing, and it was probably her one moment of human contact in the day to tell me that it was in fact hanging on the wall, nowhere near its label.
The next exhibition was highly entertaining and was a photographic diary of the television program in which couples competed to be the top couple of their nation and to be married publicly with great celebrations. I missed the basic premise of this contest, which is whether the couples were already married or were planning to marry, but every region and some other nations had entered to see if their couples would win the public vote for their efforts in contests involving the traditional skills of married people. (Not quite all the important skills of married people were put to public test, as the following list will reveal). They toured the country raking hay, putting cradles together, singing, dressing baby dolls and completing tasks set to pay for the bride, and all the while amassing telephone votes (or not) until the winning couple were chosen. The actual weddings in Ljubljana involved the whole population in days of festivities and free food as they celebrated with the lucky couple.
Alan had exhausted the capacity of the souvenir shop for entertainment while he waited, and now lazed in the shade. The temperature continued to rise, but we decided to go on a walk to a hillside on the other side of town. The forest on it had looked so inviting and so uncommercial from the top of the tower. It was a pleasure crossing town and gaining a sense of the winding streets, the promenades along the river, which were designed to provide relaxed and beautiful surroundings for the inhabitants by the architect, Jose Plecnik, and the spectacular buildings and sculptures. We crossed the three bridges, which is a pretty complex of an original wider bridge with two narrower ones at the sides. All of them have decorative stone fences and are nearly side by side. In front of us lay a square named for the greatest Slovene poet, France Preseren. A statue of him with his muse, a beautiful woman in drapery leaning over him, was dwarfed by the magnificent cathedral and the other buildings nearby. If I hadn’t previously known about this statue, I might have thought that the muse was about to assault this most august poet.
We didn’t stop to examine everything; we would return another time. For the moment sorting out supplies for lunch, finding the place where Alan had been told he could get the walking map we would need for the next day’s excursion, locating the Modern History Museum and walking in the forest were our priorities. The supermarket really was a ‘super’ market, not the small shop with the big name that we had become accustomed to. It is amazing how having more things in front of you prompts more purchases, so we had a better picnic than usual. The park where we ate was one we had passed the day before and it was interesting to see the progress that had been made with the new sculpture, a community of tall, thin, upright stones, each with a design like doodling etched onto it. The clan had increased and the workmen, like us, were lazing under the trees enjoying a break. The service station did not have the map we needed for Bled, but they would be available there so we weren’t concerned. As we turned away from the city, Alan pointed out the road signs, which gave the left and right options as Austria and Italy, with only the straight arrow keeping you in Slovenia. It brought home the size and position of this country, which is considerably smaller than Victoria, and was something that could never be seen in the one-nation continent of Australia.
Slogging along the pavement in the heat, we at last came to the Modern History Museum. We braved its gun out the front and discovered that it was closed because it was a national public holiday for Statehood Day. Normally this would have been bad news for me, but along with the others, my brain had been frying for some time and the lure of a shady forest was strong. And it was just what we needed – natural but with a defined path, cooler and shady and very beautiful. 
At one stage we followed an arrow leading to a specific place but the fact that we never get there didn’t bother any of us. Alan was able to tell us the names of all the trees and plants and we enjoyed both walking and relaxing on a bench.
All the time we had been chatting about our various travels, with Alan having attended a conference in Italy and being on his way to visit our nephew, Gregor, in Berlin. Earlier in the year Alan had travelled to Cuba, so there was a lot to catch up on, quite apart from the family news. Alan is such good company and we really enjoyed the day. It ended with a glance into the European version of a $2 shop called a ‘Euro Cent’ shop, a slightly cooler walk back and drinks on the terrace of Alan’s hotel.Crossing over the river, paying our respects to the dragons and hissing at the griffins, we arrived at our hostel at a reasonable hour. The flat we had hoped to rent for four weeks in France had fallen through and we now started a search for alternative accommodation, using an Internet link from Joel, which was to be fairly fruitless and I gave up after 11 o’clock. Only one place appealed and maybe was available, and I wasn’t sure if it would be OK. It was a horrible, hot and sticky night, so I doubt if going to bed early would have been useful anyway.
Ljubljana has a sophisticated network of cycle paths which, wherever possible, separate the cyclists from the motor vehicles. Major intersections have separate signals for cyclists.
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