What a difference a day makes. A day in Ljubljana I mean.
After arriving in the dark and booked into whatever we could find last minute and getting completely baffled by the complex bus system, it seemed like very little could go right during our stay here.
But then I woke up this morning, 24 hours later, in the most beautiful and simple and clean-fresh smelling bed and breakfast. There is this lovely Slovenian woman who pops into the living room every now and then, makes me tea, and asks how my day has been and what Ive seen. She finds it funny that so much time is spent on my laptop, but then, she doesn’t realize that Im a podjournalist and there’s not vacation from such a trade.. it flows through my veins. Not to mention, wifi is so abundant in Ljubljana as compared to any italian city or portuguese city.. this place could teach Europa a thing or two about technology!
This city is fanastic. It is small.. very charming… very quiet.. and even outside the city center.. people seem quite kindhearted.
On the morning we awaited the bus to get the hell out of that racket they called a hostel, I noticed a paint truck had sped by and one big can of white paint had fallen over and broken onto the pavement. The driver didn’t notice, and what followed was a scene that reminded me of Newark for some reason: the first few cars slow down, and attempt to drive around it, causing all kinds of dangerous driving.
Here’s what I notice: an old woman crossing the street, sees the paint container, and without flinching, starts dragging it across the street and out of traffic. She did it with such a style, that to me screamed “this is my community, I saw this and I can do something about it.” For some reason I remembed times in Newark where something like this would happen and people would just drive around it and never would anyone try to solve the problem. Maybe Im being too critical of my city-of-birth.
Five minutes later, across the street at another bus stop, an elderly slovenian man falls down while getting off the bus. Lots of busy people didn’t seem to notice, but every person around him turns and stops to check on him. They were almost competing to help him in some way.. 5, 6 people all gathered around. picking up his stuff, putting an arm around him. I could tell they were strangers.. and yet.. another scene that I found very charming and perhaps telling of Slovenian city life.
Who knows, maybe I see what I want to see… but I love this place. And now I wish to meet a Slovenian girl who sweeps me off my feet.. or vica-versa.. cause let me just say, they are beautiful in such a cool and independent way.