Eastern Europe: Venice, Ljubljana

All right, folks, this is the first in what I assume will be a long string of blog entries chronicling my recent adventures in Eastern Europe.

The basic gist of the journey was this: it was a weeklong endeavor, from Friday 17 to Friday 24. The main places that we’d planned on seeing for the trip were Ljubljana, Slovenia; Budapest, Hungary; and Krakow, Poland, though we would also see Venice, Italy and Zagreb, Croatia. I would be traveling in a group of 8, with 4 of each gender. We would fly into Venice, take trains to each of our destinations, then fly out of Krakow on the 24^th.

Our travels began in the wee early morning hours of Friday the seventeenth. At 1:30 AM, we caught a ride from a smelly taxi driver to Shannon Airport. We were flying to Venice, which is the closest cheap airport to Slovenia. Our flight left at around 6 AM on RyanAir, which is an extraordinarily low cost airline that pays for their flights through ad space, selling lotto tickets on the flights, and taking you to small airports 20 miles outside of anywhere.

We flew over the Alps on the way there. In the early morning, the fog was still in, and they were incredible. I love mountains, so seeing the Alps in a blue fog was wonderful.

We landed in Treviso airport, which was a good 40 minute bus ride outside Venice. But the train station was in the heart of Venice, which allowed us to see the city before we took the train.

We had a nasty surprise waiting for us in Venice, though. The train we had been planning on riding had been cancelled. After some frantic rescheduling, we found another route to Slovenia, which took us through Villach, Austria. So we would get to add another country to our list. This meant that we would be in 8 countries in 7 days!

After procuring a ticket, we took a walk around the city. It was pretty surreal, actually, being in a place that’s so often pictured as a sort of fantasy city. And it was a fantasy city; it was so incredibly unique. Where else in the world do you have water-ambulances? We ate some pizza at a café by the waterfront (and were ripped off soundly), then had some gelatos for dessert.

After a few hours in Venice, it was time to get on the train to Ljubljana. This was my first ride on a train, and it was at this point that I learned that I absolutely LOVE TRAIN TRAVEL. It’s so smooth and spacious; there’s no jerky start-stop, no traffic or waiting for construction (Irish bus system, I’m talking about you here). You sit facing other people, so you can actually talk to them comfortably. It was a great way to get around Eastern Europe.

It was about a four hour ride to Ljubljana. Ljubljana (pronounced You-Blee-Ana) is the capital of Slovenia, famous for its iconic Dragon Bridge.

This is one of the four dragons that guard each corner of the Dragon Bridge in Ljubljana.There's an entire dragon theme in Ljubljana. Store names, public art, decorations, even the logo of the local beer (Union) bears a dragon motif.

We lived in Simbol Hostel, which was just down the street from the Dragon Bridge. Upon arrival, we had the first pleasant surprise of the trip: our room was incredible. There were clean, comfortable beds, our own bathroom, works of art on the walls, even a kitchenette. Those few readers who have been to a hostel know what kind of luxury this is; it was better than most hotel rooms I’d visited.

Anyway, there was one final important task we had to fulfill in Ljubljana before we turned in for the night. It was a place I’d read about on the internet, and I’d been looking forward to it for quite some time. It was called Hot-Horse.

Hot-Horse is a fast food restaurant with a twist. All the meat served there is horse. Here’s a shot of their website.

Clearly, this was a place I needed to visit. We each had one of their iconic Horseburgers.  It was tasty, in a rubbery sort of way, but I can definitely see why most people don’t eat horses. In retrospect, the nacho cheese on top probably was a bad choice.

Say what you will about Hot-Horse, but you get a lot of horse for your money.

We went out for a drink at a nearby bar (all the places to drink were mysteriously empty, with nowhere near the normal amount of young people there… we found out why the next day.) and turned in for the night. The next day, we planned to go to the picturesque Lake Bled, and nearby Vintgar Gorge.