Month: June 2006

To get into town, you need to take the bus or a taxi. The bus ride takes about 30 to 40 minutes and it is not a shuttle; it makes all the stops along the way. I don’t know if the bus route simply takes the back roads or if these roads are “the” roads, but the route meanders through villages and neighborhoods as it makes its way into the city. That gave me a chance to sit back and really observe this place for the first time. The first impression one has is that people enjoy themselves very much here. For an early Friday afternoon everyone was pleasant and most people on the street appeared casual and relaxed.

We finally arrived in town and I took a taxi from the main train/bus station to my temporary home, the Pri Mraku hotel near the old town. The town is old, a little dirty and a little run down, but that is not to say that it is not pretty. The cracks in the plaster and exposed bricks give the town a charm similar to that of Rome. But by no means would you mistake Ljubljana with Rome. Ljubljana definitely has an Alpine or perhaps “Austro-Hungarian” feel to it.

After settling in my (somewhat Spartan) room, being still a bit wired from the trip, I took a walk on the town and headed towards Prešeren Trg, the main square for social activity and central location to meet people. I took a coffee at the café in the local square and met Allan from Sweden. He is married to a Slovene and comes here often. We spoke about our homes. He was impressed that I knew a bit of Norwegian and stunned when I told him that my family on the other side was from somewhere in Dalsland as this is where he is from. It was a happy coincidence and he gave me his email incase I ever found myself in Sweden. How crazy is that?

After that chance encounter, I felt much more relaxed. I now knew that this was going to be a great trip.

I had been awake for over 24 hours but I was so excited to be here that I couldn’t sleep. So I decided to walk along the Ljubljanica (the river which runs through the middle of town) and explore. All along the river there are outdoor cafes and pubs filled with people. At many of them there were large screen TV’s set up for patrons to watch the world cup outside in the pleasantly warm evening. I cheered on Nemčija (Germany) to defeat Argentinja along with the local at Caffe P____ and chatted with a few patrons. From the get go, these have been some of the nicest people I have ever met. By the end of the match I felt like I part of the group I was sitting with! I am really looking forward to the next six weeks.

What a beautiful day for traveling, it is sunny, clear.and very little traffic getting to the airport. The plan was to use my frequent flyer miles to upgrade to business class for the trip. United Airlines sent me an upgrade voucher and in the back of my head it just seemed like things weren’t quite right. I called United twice to confirm that the voucher was for the whole trip both ways (because it sure looked like it was for just one flight.) Twice I was reassured that everything was in order; the voucher would be good for the whole trip.

Sure enough when I got to the airport, not only was there no record of my request for an upgrade, the voucher would only be honored for one flight. Why am I not surprised. And of course at the airport, where the airlines actually do their business, there isn’t anybody you can talk to. No, one must call to the phone center. In the end it worked out for now. I was upgraded to business. For the return I’ll need to work something out (or possibly just forget about it.) One thing is for sure, there is going to be an angry letter in United Airline’s waste bin when I get home.

But that was really not the end of the world; certainly not something to get too upset about. I flew on Lufthansa to Frankfurt. The flight was very nice and the Lufthansa cabin crew were very friendly. It was an uneventful flight. I wasn’t able to sleep on the plane but there were enough things to amuse myself, including Dumbo on the in-flight entertainment.

Frankfurt is a huge airport, filled with people coming and going. You see airlines from all over the world at Frankfurt. Perhaps the most interesting was an Uzbekistan Airlines airplane. It is remarkable to think that not only do we have the ability to go from any point in the world to another in a matter of about 24-36 hours, but also we live in a time where there are enough people who need to get to far off destinations on a daily basis.

I had about a three hour layover in Frankfurt. Most of that time was spent watching some men repair and escalator. As goofy as it sounds it was interesting to watch them work.

Finally the time for my flight came; Frankfurt to Ljubljana on Adria airlines, Slovenia’s national carrier. When I think of national carriers I usually think if larger airlines like British Airways or Air France, airlines that make flights in huge planes all over the world. But Slovenia is a small country and thus have a small fleet of small planes. Our plane was too small to even park at a terminal so we took a bus out to the tarmac out to the plane. If the plane held even 100 people I would be surprised. (I think it was a Canadair 320 regional jet.) From what I could tell the passengers consisted of mainly American and Canadian tourists and Slovenes head home.

Ljubljana’s airport in Brnik International. It serves almost all flights coming into and leaving the country. It is perhaps the smallest airport I have ever been to. It’s not much more than a landing strip and a small building.