Sunday - Zabreb to Ljubljana

 

Today we took our first train, from Zagreb to Ljubljana in Slovenia. The train was forty minutes late, but while we were waiting, we had a nice conversation with a couple from Indiana who were getting ready to take the Rick Steves' Best of the Adriatic Tour. Once on board, we shared a compartment with a young lady name Lučkta from Ljubljana, who was returning from a weekend visiting a friend in Zagreb. Her name means "little light", sort of like Lucia in Italian.

Lučkta has a double Masters in Italian and Spanish literature, and works for a formerly state-owned publishing house who creates textbooks for elementary school students. It was really a delight talking to her for almost three hours. For a year, she worked at the Slovenian embassy in Madrid as a translator. She told us about her parents (both architects) and we talked about her life in Slovenia. We told her a little about our lives and how we became Christians, showing her some photos of our time in Shiloh, our wedding pictures, and pictures of our grandkids. (BTW, Google Photos is great, because I always have those pictures right on my phone.) Meeting new people like this is more interesting to me than seeing another sight.

Our train didn't actually leave until 12:50 pm, so we had time to walk around Zagreb one last time after breakfast. We stayed at Annie's B&B, just about a block from the train station. It was inexpensive, but very nice. One thing we especially enjoyed was this antique elevator.

Walking through the upper town, which we had skipped yesterday, I couldn't help notice the various ethnic foods that we just can't get in Southern California. Have you ever had French Tacos? I haven't; I've never even heard of them.

Here's the main dining street leading up from the main square, named Tkalciceva street. Rick Steves describes it as "Zagreb's main cafe street and urban promenade rolled into one." Kathy's doing her best to promenade, but it's just not that lively at 9:00 am.

We finally got to Ljubljana around 4:30. Before we left the train station, we wanted to purchase train tickets to our next destination (Trieste in Italy). We found, though, that the train to Trieste only ran once a day, in the early evening. So, I went on the FlixBus app and booked one more bus trip for Tuesday, so we'll get into Trieste before 4:00 pm. That finished, we walked the few blocks to the City Hotel, and checked in a little before  6:00 pm. We were both starved, so we quickly unpacked and prepared to go out for dinner. 

Our room has a really nice balcony, and the view from the balcony is across the rooftops to Ljubljana Castle. 

While we were on the train, Lučkta had written down several places where we might like to eat. When we got to our hotel, I Googled them. One was vegan (nope); one cost 50E+ per person (nope); for one, I couldn't read her writing (of course I can't read my handwriting either). Her last entry, though, Slvenska hisa or the Slovenian House, was a few blocks from our hotel, and was just right.

I started with the Bograč goulash (in the black pot in the picture), made with venison, pork, and beef, along with onions roasted in lard, and then Ljubljan’c na obroke, a crispy fried pork tenderloin served with creamy “Bovški”sheep cheese sauce and “Prleška tünka” ham on top. To be fair, I had intended to split the goulash with Kathy, but she didn't care for it. 

Kathy had “Štruklji” with wild garlic sauce. These are cottage cheese filled ravioli roasted in butter topped with creamy wild garlic sauce. She also had a side of sautéed vegetables. 

After dinner, we were too tired to go looking for gelato, so we went back to our hotel and turned in by 8:00 pm. Tomorrow we're going to take the bus to Lake Bled.